4 ms·

The historic planes beyond the basic multilingual plane are usually referred to as the "astral planes" which includes things like gothic, runes, alchemy, egypti

The historic planes beyond the basic multilingual plane are usually referred to as the "astral planes" which includes things like gothic, runes, alchemy, egyptian, and emoji https://justine.storage.googleapis.com/astralplanes.txt https://justine.storage.googleapis.com/astralplanes.txt

derefr 6y ago
And the etymology of this being that Dungeons and Dragons has a "Prime Material Plane" and an "Astral Plane", where the Astral Plane connects the PMP to various "Outer Planes" made of ridiculous not-oft-encountered stuff. But whoever came up with this cute analogy got the analogy wrong — the higher Unicode planes are analogous to the "outer planes" themselves; while the "astral plane" would be some sort of glue allowing you to access these outer planes from within the BMP. Like... surrogate-pair characters! One could nickname the reserved surrogate-pair range in the BMP, the "astral projection" range ;)
- Sniffnoy 6y ago
  The term "astral plane" is older than D&D, and I would assume they took it from the more general usage, not the specific usage in D&D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane
  - GauntletWizard 6y ago
    I’ve met several of the Unicode standard committee - They’re nerds. The kind of nerds for whom “Astral Plane” is a multilayered joke. It’s not not about the general usage, but nor is it not about the D&D term.
- kens 6y ago
  "Astral plane" predates Dungeons and Dragons by centuries. Looking at old discussions, I couldn't find any evidence that Unicode's usage is connected with D&D. Early discussion of "astral character" or "astral plane" for the Unicode supplementary planes at: https://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML024/0232.html https://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML024... Even earlier 1998 use: https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1998/98354.pdf https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1998/98354.pdf

derefr 6y ago

And the etymology of this being that Dungeons and Dragons has a "Prime Material Plane" and an "Astral Plane", where the Astral Plane connects the PMP to various "Outer Planes" made of ridiculous not-oft-encountered stuff. But whoever came up with this cute analogy got the analogy wrong — the higher Unicode planes are analogous to the "outer planes" themselves; while the "astral plane" would be some sort of glue allowing you to access these outer planes from within the BMP. Like... surrogate-pair characters! One could nickname the reserved surrogate-pair range in the BMP, the "astral projection" range ;)

Sniffnoy 6y ago
The term "astral plane" is older than D&D, and I would assume they took it from the more general usage, not the specific usage in D&D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane
- GauntletWizard 6y ago
  I’ve met several of the Unicode standard committee - They’re nerds. The kind of nerds for whom “Astral Plane” is a multilayered joke. It’s not not about the general usage, but nor is it not about the D&D term.
kens 6y ago
"Astral plane" predates Dungeons and Dragons by centuries. Looking at old discussions, I couldn't find any evidence that Unicode's usage is connected with D&D. Early discussion of "astral character" or "astral plane" for the Unicode supplementary planes at: https://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML024/0232.html https://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML024... Even earlier 1998 use: https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1998/98354.pdf https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1998/98354.pdf