Incorporating the Anomalous Planes into the World Axis Cosmology

As a thought experiment, I tried to figure out how to add the Plane of Dreams and the Far Realm as core, built-in planes (I know the Far Realm is, but I wanted to work it in more than "IT'S BEYOND THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING!"); to make those planes mesh with some established patterns in the World Axis cosmology, or to at least make some patterns of my own. This is the result of that process. It's very simple, really.

[sblock](See the diagram below)
Fundamental Planes

Physical realms
The Astral Sea - embodiment of creative force
The Elemental Chaos - embodiment of destructive force

Mental realms
Dreams - subconcious stability
Far Realm - subconcious instability

Parallel Planes
combine the traits of all four fundamental planes

Fewywild - positive lifeforce - verdant
Shadowfell - negative lifeforce - deathly

The Natural Plane
combines the traits of all four Fundamental planes with both Parallel planes

The World

The plane of dreams "surrounds" the Astral Sea, existing at its very edge while still connected to the world, the mental representation of the creative force inherent in the Astral Sea. Similarly, the Far Realm is at the edge of the Elemental Chaos, the mental discord to the Elemental Chaos' physical discord.[/sblock]

Possible mechanical effects of this set-up;

[sblock]Nearly all of the power sources would end up drawing on a plane, and each would be covered;

Arcane draws power from the Feywild
Divine draws power from the Astral Sea
Shadow draws power from the Shadowfell
Primal draws power from the Natural Plane
Psionic draws power from one of the Fundamental Mental planes - take your pick, based on your psion's background.
Elemental draws power from the Elemental Chaos

That would that only two known power sources - Martial and Ki - wouldn't connect to a plane. And, honestly, training and souls, respectively, are pretty universal, I'd think

I wouldn't hedge my bets on this, of course; who needs needless symmetry? But it's certenly neat to consider. There are kinks in the theory, too. Infernalocks and starlocks, especially. But those aren't problems - they just need to be explained; for example, a starlock really is manipulating Feywild energies - but he learned to wield them from some otherwordly horror, producing insanity-inspired effects by manipulating the natural energy of the Feywild.

A new Origin
Oneiric, to describe creatures from the plane of dreams. One would need to design a ton of them, though. Quori, from Eberron, would be a good candidate for marking as Oneiric (They'd probably be oneiric magical beasts)[/sblock]

Thoughts?

Well I very much don't like the power source-plane analogy. Especially arcane seems to draw from all over the multiverse. But as for the anomalous planes being mental planes, well this is pretty much how it is in Eberron and it works for that cosmology well. For the standard cosmology though, I like at least the Far Realm to remain Outside. It fits aberrations better.

Nymrohd said:

Well I very much don't like the power source-plane analogy. Especially arcane seems to draw from all over the multiverse.

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As I said, there are kinks in the theory. Fun to think about, though. All the leylines talked about in MotP are really what gave me the idea. Fonts of magical power, running throughout the entire Feywild? It just struck my fancy.

Nymrohd said:

But as for the anomalous planes being mental planes, well this is pretty much how it is in Eberron and it works for that cosmology well. For the standard cosmology though, I like at least the Far Realm to remain Outside. It fits aberrations better.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I drew my inspiration for these plane's places from Eberron. It is my favorite setting, after all.

As for Aberrations remaining outside; Well, they sorta are, still (emphasis on sorta). The very EDGE of the Elemental Chaos and all. I just couldn't think of a way to have it be outside and still touching everything, except as the Edge of the Fundamental Planes.

Hmm... Your Plane of Dream isn't far off from one of the official possibilities for where it is located:

"The exact nature of the plane is a matter of some debate. Some claim that it’s a demiplane, standing outside the fabric of the cosmos and yet somehow connected to it all. Others argue that it’s an astral dominion, long abandoned by whatever ancient deity created it—and it seems true that most travelers who stumble into Dream reach it through the Astral Sea."

Hrm... Well, that's good. I was really just using the two as the mental mirrors of the physical dichotomy between the Astral and the Elemental. Nice to see my train of thought is relatively fluff-supported.

Siberys said:

Hrm... Well, that's good. I was really just using the two as the mental mirrors of the physical dichotomy between the Astral and the Elemental. Nice to see my train of thought is relatively fluff-supported.

Click to expand...

*Nods* Will be handy if/when they bring out mechanics for it, will take less effort to use in your version of the cosmology.

I've always found my biggest problem with the Far Realm was not trying to place it on the cosmic map, but simple redundancy. D&D already has a plane of insanity and malevolence and mind-twisting badness. It's called the Abyss. Why do we need a Far Realm too? Honestly, it feels to me like the designers just wanted a place for aberrations to come from, so they cribbed a plane from H.P. Lovecraft and crammed it into the cosmology. (It's especially jarring given that 4E generally tried to do away with "pointless planes" where there was nowhere much to go and nothing much to do. How are you supposed to go adventuring in the Far Realm?)

The Plane of Dreams, now... that's got a lot of potential. I would be inclined to situate it surrounding the material plane and its two parallels; dreamers drift through the space between. Sometimes they draw near to the Feywild, and their dreams are bright and pleasant. Other times they sink toward the Shadowfell, and their dreams are dark and horrible. On rare occasions they might actually cross over to one of those planes while dreaming.

There is plenty of differentiation between the abyss and the far realm - one is actively evil while the other is simply maddeningly incomprehensible. Though the Obryiths in late 3.5 did muddy the waters... There was a reason I connected the Far Realm to the Elemental Chaos, though, and you pretty much wrapped it up.

Part of the reason I wanted the plane of dreams to connect to everything was for the good dream / nightmare possibility from the feywild / shadowfell. Great idea, in other words, Dausuul.

Also note the Fomorians in the Feydark and the "nameless horrors" or whatever in the Shadowdark. Insanity in both of those planes. For the same reason as I wanted Dream to touch everything, I wanted to have the Far Realm have its tentacles everywhere.