Just noticed that Masser and Secunda can be seen from inside the Soul Cairn. Anyone else find this odd since the Cairn is supposed to be another plane of existence, a realm of Oblivion and not another planet separate from Tamriel?

Does this mean that what are referred to as planes are actually other planets?

IIRC Sheogorath's plane (planet?) had a totally different star system, which also led me to think that his realm was just another planet.

Or the creators (What were they called? The perfect masters?) of Soul Cairn just saw it fitting to copy the moons of Tamriel into their hellish death scape of doom.

I think you just blew my mind...

From what I understand, you CAN see Oblivion from the night's sky. However, those are really just dimensional distortions, or something. Masser and Secunda shouldn't show up, however. They're a part of Mundus. Those pretty much ARE planets.

maybe the soul cairn is the spirit world parallel plane of tamriel/nirn? or maybe those aren't the same 2 moons

Or maybe the devs copy-pasted the sky.

It randomly started raining once for me in Soul Cairn and the sky turned cloudy and gray.

Weird stuff man, weird stuff.

This.

"Ideal Masters" and from what I've read, they think they made a heaven.. To them, they are rewarding the souls by putting them in a place where they don't have to worry about needs, wants, duties, etc... But the truth is, no one likes it.

I'm sure there was so lazy effort to some degree, especially when it comes to odd effects like the rain coming down in the Soul Cairn. I don't mind the moons being there but it wouldn't surprise me if it was just a sloppy copy and paste to get it over with. So much for every little detail.

I jsut looked and never seen any moons.. Just say clouds and that vortex thing... And lightning that is killing the Undead.

Remember though lore wise in Oblivion when the amulet was destroyed, and in daggerfall I believe when the tower was destroyed, those were two artifacts/structures the prevented oblivion, mundus, and aetherius from be melded into one and combining. So when these artifacts were destroyed, the boundaries that separated these things were also, allowing to some extent a overlay of them. But in reality I think there were to lazy to do anything about it.

haha true, i'm trying to lore story tell to avoid the obvious design problems

I am unsure if knowledge of extra-dimensional physics and potential phenomena is developed enough lore-wise to cast aspersions on the devs being "lazy" or whatever.

I see these "dimensions" as always present, overlapping with our own all the time... the places where this overlap is most... "merged" are where you see things like high amounts of daedric shenanigans, major daedric shrines etc.

The flaw is thinking that all these realms are separate, no... they are all part of the same universe, they all exist in the same space (if not time)... it is our ability to perceive them that is manipulated via gates and portals... just think, you may be walking down a sunlight path in the Rift and that same space is occupied by countless screaming souls and daedra just beyond the edge of your perception.

Imagine it's all a question of vibrational frequency... passing through a gate is actually passing through a tuner of sorts which raises or lowers your frequency to match the "destination" dimension allowing you to perceive it (and consequently no longer perceive your "normal" dimension), making it seem as if you have traveled to another space, when in fact you are just seeing another aspect of the same space.

Any mundane phenomena you witness (such as rain) is happening due to the same "thin spots" in the overlap that causes daedric shizzle in our world... or something?

The idea that these other realms are in fact other planets is also interesting (sort of like the whole Vishnu shtick) and makes me want to research Elder Scrolls cosmology... what does the planetary system Nirn is part of look like? Has the lore gone that far?

Heck, if the night sky is consistent, it's totally possible to chart it etc... establish a primitive observatory... I'm thinking High Hrothgar might be serviceable.
See? There is almost no oversight on the part of developers that creative players can't explain away via rp lol.

Good post. I like the "brane" theory best so far