Otherworlds, Limbo, and spaces between spaces

[Yora]

A very wide topic and I happen to not have any simple specific question that could be directly adressed. But I am always very much intrigued by the idea of having parts of stories take place in locations that symbolically or literally exist outside of reality ot normality. Like the Barrow Down and the Dead Marshes in The Lord of the Rings, or Yoda's home in Star Wars, or the entire setting of the Silent Hill games. I see the concept mentioned on occassion, but rarely looked into deeper. Perhaps because it's inherently rather abstract.

But looking at the examples I was able to come up with at the top of my head, I already spot one common marker to identify the disconnect from the regular world. They are all noticably foggy with few distinguishing features or landmarks. Fog not only limits vision to short range, it also dims light and removes shadows, removing typical markers by which we track the passage of time. Morning, noon, and evening all literally blurs into the same.
I guess what makes a place feel disconnected from the regular world is that it obscures the sense of direction and time. There is only "here" and "now". There might not even be a "there" when it's not seen and it's equally uncertain if there is much of a past and future either. Do things change at all when the character is not present?

But I'd like to take a step back and ask what the general narrative functions of otherworldly places are? The idea is absolutely ancient, going back to the earliest known stories of heroes going into the wilderness or descending into the underworld. Aside from the fact that more interesting stories are going to happen in places that aren't the everyday life of characters and audiences, why is it common to make these places alien and otherworldly? It's cool, but I suspect there is a very significant narrative function there as well.

 

[Orc Knight]

I think a lot of it simply comes from the place being the Unknown. From the Black Forest to the ever seemingly evil swamps. Coming from personal experience with a lot of it, the place of grandeur can be just as frightening. Get lost in the woods and just stop and take a moment to collect as the sun is going down and the early mist is rising is just one of those things that hits a person. Hell, don't have to actually be lost for it to happen. It might help due to adding the fear to it.

As for the swamps and marshland, having also grown up around them, I think a big part of that mystique is not just the way it looks in low visibility and light but the simple fact they are extremely deceptive. Having put myself to walking across a such a swamp where I couldn't go back and one wrong move could've sent me into a sucking morass surrounded by plants that could barely hold my weight. It can look very nice but there is always something in them that can screw you up or just disappear you outright in them. Hence a lot of the Evil™ being added to a lot of them. Get into places like the bayou or the glades and you have a lot of animals that can kill you outright just to add to natures never ending low kicks. Then further to the jungle swamps for more and the same, but bigger.

Again, I think a lot of it has to do with fear of the unknown and certain places just put the unknown rather directly in your face. Though I imagine you get that.