aethersea:

There’s something really beautiful about the way Griffin set up the planar system – about where he put us. Bear with me here as I try to articulate it, because—

See, the story takes place on the Prime Material Plane. This plane has magic, because there’s a Plane of Magic that influences the Prime Material Plane. This plane has divine power coursing through it, because there’s a Plane of Gods that influences the Prime Material Plane. It’s got elemental powers in nature and stuff, because there’s an Elemental Plane sending out its energy into the void between planes, influencing the Prime Material Plane. You get the gist.

The Prime Material Plane is at the center, it’s the focus, and so in a way the point of the Plane of Magic is to provide magic, to be magical, to send its magical energy down to the Prime Material. The point of the Elemental Plane is to provide… strength to the elemental forces on the Prime Material, or whatever it is DnD has to say about elemental stuff. The Plane of Gods has actual people living there who are cognizant of the whole system, and from what we’re given to understand, their point is also to influence, by divine intervention, the Prime Material Plane.

I’m sure the gods have their own lives going on in their plane, just as I’m sure the elemental spirits have their own stuff happening and the beings of pure magic or whatever there is on the Plane of Magic have lives of their own. It’s even quite plausible that, other than the gods, they’re generally unaware of the Prime Material Plane – that these elemental beings live their rich and complex lives without ever once being aware that their existence, that the bonds of elemental energy that they create just by being, is what’s powering the elemental forces on the Prime Material Plane.

And that brings us to our plane. Because Griffin put us in there, our world with its elevators and internet, with its complete lack of magic missiles or gods that grant you blossoming wooden arms. Our plane is the Plane of Reason, which is the plane of rational thought and creativity. Our influence, our contribution, is the power of the mind: logic and imagination. 

It’s implied (or stated? I don’t remember for sure) that most of the impressive technological advancements we see in the show are from the Millers, who got their ideas from watching our world. It’s implied, too, that just as the existence and influence of the Plane of Magic is what makes it possible to do magic on the Prime Material, the influence of the Plane of Reason is what makes it possible for people on the Prime Material to use logic and imagination.

So what that boils down to is this: The purpose of our world, the whole point of our world, is creation. Our ability to make technological marvels and incredible works of art, our ability to constantly be thinking up new things – that’s what makes us special, that’s our distinguishing feature, that’s what we contribute. We imagine, we invent, we bring ever more new wonders into the world. Every single thing we make, from rocket ships to symphonies to the jokes we come up with to tell our friends – that’s what we’re here to do. That’s the gift we bear, and it’s on a level with magic and nature and the gods themselves. We’re here to create.