Questions from my Lands of Harqual thread...
the Jester said:
Originally posted on the World of Kulan Yahoo Group
Hey, I took a look at your rough diagram of your cosmology and had a question or two...
First of all, is the plane of twilight the same (or roughly the same) as the plane of shadows?
Does it also replace the astral plane?
The Plane of Twilight (now called the
Shadowstar Sea) is like combining the Plane of Shadows and the Astral Plane. I haven't worked out all the logistics yet but basically you have to cross into the Shadowstar Sea before being able to cross into the Upper or Lower Planes.
It is my main Transitive Plane connecting to the Ethereal, the Elemental Planes, and the Upper and Lower Planes, but not directly to the Prime Material Plane. In order to get to the Shadowstar Sea you have to pass first through the Ethereal to the Deep Ethereal or to one of the Elemental Planes. Then you make the journey to the Shadowstar Sea. (No silver cords when traveling through the Shadowstar Sea.)
Anyway, The Shadowstar Sea is halfway between Astral and Shadow in look and feel - not horribly dark and gloomy yet not highly radiant either. Of course, the closer you are to the Upper Planes the brighter and more wide open it is and the closer to the lower planes the gloomer and closed off it is.
Spells that would require the Astral Plane or Plane of Shadow work through the Shadowstar Sea. However, these spells, in reality, pass through the ethereal. Thus,
shadow walk doesn't take you all the way to the Shadowstar Sea but basically functions the same way. Astral and Shadow spells only ever take you as far as the Deep Ethereal unless your goal is to travel to that plane (i.e.
astral projection) and beyond.
Hmm... some of these spells might need to go up a level in my campaign. Either that or I might need to create Greater version of certain spells (i.e.
shadow walk, greater). I have things to think about... hmm.
In my cosmology, the
Githyanki are native to the Shadowstar Sea as are all astral and shadow-based creatures (i.e. astral dreadnaught, shadow mastiff, etc.)
the Jester said:
Originally posted on the World of Kulan Yahoo Group
Do you use the energy planes?
Nope. Postive and Negative power and creatures comes from the Shadowstar Sea as well. Positive towards the Upper Planes and Negative towards the Lower Planes. This fact makes it hard to travel to the Outer Planes by almost any means. You have to be well prepared to survive either way.
Once on the Outer Planes it functions as a slight modified Great Wheel, as per the Planescape cosmology. Permanent gates and portals to the Outer Planes from Kulan are very rare and very well and heavily guarded. Gates and portals to the Elemental Planes are more common.
Note that while the Elemental Planes are not touching in the diagram, I am planning on updating it to include the Quasi and Para-Elemental Planes in my cosmology.
Also, my cosmology uses the following alternate planes and demiplanes from
D&D Manual of the Planes: Region of Dreams, The Plane of Mirrors (expanded), Spirit World, Temporal Energy Plane (called the Temperal Prime, IMC), Plane of Faerie, Far Realm, The Obseratorium, Common Ground, plus a new demiplane I call the
Plane of Serenity (a fey plane that broke off from Faerie).
Also, see the link below for how I'm working Spelljammer into my cosmology.
lost.spelljammer.org