So I told Ultima privately how the Astral Plane being the highest plane in Earth-616 seems to be contradicted by it belonging to the Inner Planes of the Universe, and he agreed that "it does seem like a contradiction in his lights."
Upon brief further analysis, the highest plane of existence is Earth-616 is potentially this place called the
Well Beyond the Worlds instead of the Astral Plane. My previous explanation was a little convoluted at points trying to explain how the Splinter Realms fit in, so to simplify it better:
- Inner Planes: Varies, up to Low 1-A (the Astral Plane is confirmed to be one of the Inner Planes, and depicted as the highest one on cosmology maps).
- Outer Planes/Consecution of Colors: At least Low 1-A for lying beyond the Inner Planes, which include the Astral Plane. These include the Dark Dimension, Raggadorr, the Crimson Cosmos, the Purple Dimension, the Sixth Dimension, and Ikonn.
- Splinter Realms/Archipelago of Anguish and Redemption/Dark Dimensions: Varies, from High 1-B to Low 1-A: The Splinter Realms aren't really tied to the Inner Planes or Outer Planes. They're just universes that fragmented away from the original Dark Dimension. Some like Limbo are High 1-B, others like the Dream Dimension are Low 1-A.
- Far Realms/Celestial Concordance: At least Low 1-A for lying beyond the Outer Planes. These include Munnopor, Cinnibus, and as I mentioned before, the Well Beyond the Worlds.
Anyways, since Part 3 concerns the mystic dimensions, I'll definitely bring this up there. The problem is, most of this stuff concerning the Inner Planes, Outer Planes, and Celestial Concordance is
brand-new. I mean, this stuff has been mentioned in handbooks from the mid-2000's, but it's only been explored in recent years.
The Well Beyond Worlds I've been claiming could be the highest dimension in Earth-616, for instance, was mentioned in
handbooks from 2007 and 2010, but that realm made its first
comic appearance in
2024.
Virtually all important lore concerning the
Outer Planes (Consecution of Colors) came in the
Death of Doctor Strange from
2021.
Regardless, I wouldn't recommend making scaling/cosmology changes based on the Inner Planes/Outer Planes/Celestial Concordance just yet (whether it's upgrading the Dark Dimension's size to Low 1-A, or anything else). Some characters I have interest in making profiles for like Tiboro or the Peregrine Child who scale to the Outer Planes will get these in their Low 1-A justifications of course, but I want to make sure the mystic dimension stuff is discussed and accepted before I propose them. If worse comes to worse, I'll just say screw it and make a brief cosmology sandbox gathering everything we've been told about the mystic dimensions.
I recommend this article (taken straight from a handbook) for further elaboration on what I said above.