The Prime Material Plane (also called the Material Plane, the Prime Material, or just the Prime) is the central plane of existence in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The Prime Material Plane is the primary location of most Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, with the exceptions of Ravenloft and Planescape.
The inhabitants of each Material Plane always refer to their own plane as the Prime Material Plane.
In the cosmology shared by the Planescape and Spelljammer settings, there is only one Prime Material Plane, which contains many different worlds. In other cosmologies, such as that used by the Manual of the Planes, there are numerous different Material Planes. (The Third Edition Manual of the Planes refers exclusively to the "Material Plane" rather than the "Prime Material Plane".)
In the Planescape campaign setting, those persons coming to the extraplanar city of Sigil from the Prime are referred to as "primes" themselves. "Primes" are often treated as clueless inferiors by the planar elitists who dwell in Sigil and other planes.
In 4th Edition, the terms "Prime Material Plane" and "Material Plane" are no longer in use, the plane of existence on which adventures normally take place is known as the natural world.
Famous quotes containing the words prime, material and/or plane:
“Being prime minister is a lonely job.... you cannot lead from the crowd.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“A material resurrection seems strange and even absurd except for purposes of punishment, and all punishment which is to revenge rather than correct must be morally wrong, and when the World is at an end, what moral or warning purpose can eternal tortures answer?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“At the moment when a man openly makes known his difference of opinion from a well-known party leader, the whole world thinks that he must be angry with the latter. Sometimes, however, he is just on the point of ceasing to be angry with him. He ventures to put himself on the same plane as his opponent, and is free from the tortures of suppressed envy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)