the new D&D cosmology: common knowledge to inhabitants?

[theRogueRooster]

I was curious if the new cosmology (the Feywild, Shadowfell, Far Realms, etc.) is common knowledge for the average joe in a campaign setting using default D&D assumptions. Is this something taught in "Sunday School" in every temple and shrine or is this information known only to a few learned sages?

-tRR

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Good question! I know in my campaign I'll be playing it that it is known only to scholars; I can't imagine many people really want to know all that much about where the souls go (shadowfell) before their final destination (oblivion?). It also permits me as DM the luxury of presenting these new environs as fresh frontiers rather than exotic places. Maybe the Eladrin have a clue about the feywild, I guess.

Huh. I'm curious to see what others have to say: could lead to new ideas!

 

[pukunui]

Great question!

I think that your average person in the setting would know the basic layout of the cosmology (the gods live up in the heavens, the Elemental Chaos forms the foundations of the world, while the Feywild and the Shadowfell are bright and dark mirrors of it). I don't think they would know many of the nitty-gritty details, and what they do know would most likely take the form of superstition.

They might believe that the Shadowfell draws close to the world on nights when the moon is new and thus the darkness is thicker and deeper. To go out on such a night is to risk encountering dead things come back to haunt the living or, worse yet, to risk stumbling into the land of the dead ...

They might also believe that you should never stray from the woodcutter's trail through the woods because if you do, the woods will shift and you'll get lost, find yourself in the Feywild and become a prisoner of the fickle fairies ...


I plan on really playing up the Points of Light concept a lot more than WotC seems willing to do. I'm going to scrap the whole "all the PC races get along like one big happy family" baloney and fill my world with superstition and fear of the unknown. Tieflings are not going to be universally accepted as "just another race". They look like the devil incarnate, after all! Most rural people will not have ever seen one before, so they'll naturally be scared of them ...

Also, as a DM, having a lot of stuff fall in the realm of superstition means that I can throw out red herrings and contradictory facts (that good knowledge checks can sort out) and I can have the PCs find out the truth the hard way. Lots of fun!!

 

[Celebrim]

The Sunday school analogy is probably pretty apt. How much formal theology do you think that the average religious person knows? You're average Christian can't explain the trinity, your average Moslem cannot tell you which Hadiths are considered an acceptable basis for a legal opinion, and so on and so forth. Alot of things can be common knowledge without actually being understood. Almost everyone has heard of quantum mechanics, but almost noone actually knows what it means.

I would imagine that most people have heard the terms and have some populist tradition about the cosmology, but that for the most part they do not understand what they've been taught, hold various misperceptions, and that the populist tradition is often flat out wrong in many important ways. Your average person's usage of the terms of the cosmology might be as accurate as the usage of scientific terms on ST:TNG or your average Hollywood comic book/sci-fi movie.

Thus, everyone has some folk knowledge, but only the scholarly really know the truth and can use the terms accurately.

Of course, there is always the possibility that conversely on some obscure matter or another, it is the scholars who hold the false conception and some obscure bit of folk lore actually held the secret to the truth. It's best to spring that sort of thing only after you've firmly established most of the folk mythology as being utterly bogus though.

 

[pukunui]

The Sunday school analogy is probably pretty apt. How much formal theology do you think that the average religious person knows? You're average Christian can't explain the trinity, your average Moslem cannot tell you which Hadiths are considered an acceptable basis for a legal opinion, and so on and so forth. Alot of things can be common knowledge without actually being understood. Almost everyone has heard of quantum mechanics, but almost noone actually knows what it means.

I would imagine that most people have heard the terms and have some populist tradition about the cosmology, but that for the most part they do not understand what they've been taught, hold various misperceptions, and that the populist tradition is often flat out wrong in many important ways. Your average person's usage of the terms of the cosmology might be as accurate as the usage of scientific terms on ST:TNG or your average Hollywood comic book/sci-fi movie.

Thus, everyone has some folk knowledge, but only the scholarly really know the truth and can use the terms accurately.

Of course, there is always the possibility that conversely on some obscure matter or another, it is the scholars who hold the false conception and some obscure bit of folk lore actually held the secret to the truth. It's best to spring that sort of thing only after you've firmly established most of the folk mythology as being utterly bogus though.

Well put. That's pretty much what I've been trying to say, but you've said it much better. Cheers!

I especially like the last bit.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am not sure where I read it in the books, but apparently, the Far Realms are just a speculation, there seems to be no hard evidence or consensus on its existence.
(But there are rumours on entries to the Far Realms).

I think Shadowfell and Feywild will be known, at least to Elves and Eladrin.

 

[Asmor]

I've always just taken it for granted that the cosmology was only known to the true cognoscenti, highest-level scholars and wizards who may actually have even "traveled abroad."

Most people have some idea that this is not the only world... if nothing else, they believe in their god's domain, though they may not understand the true nature of it.

The feywild and shadowfell are more well known than the astral sea and elemental chaos. It's more likely to meet someone who's actually lived in one of those planes, though many people might just dismiss them as stories.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well one thing is for certain for me, at least some people, high up will have that globe in the DMG. I like that globe a lot.

For my settings, generally people don't know about the other planes in most places on the World.

Most know of the Feywild because of how strongly it has impacted the world, and areas of extreme death or carnage, ie: battlefields, usually have a strong connection to the Shadowfell so people in those areas know of it.

Most people know of some gods, not by name or even exactly who they, simply that there are churches who worship them and Clerics and Paladins who follow a god.

Now, there are other places on the world where the planes are known quite well and the gods. These are usually heavily urbanized, somewhat Sigil-esque cities that exist in the world. These are the places where crews of Astral-Ships talk about meeting and playing chess with the gods, to a bunch of Modron.

These areas are usually the ones where it is easiest to reach the Astral Sea or other planes.

 

[Family]

My wizard has thought about the Shadowfell rumors.
My cleric thinks about the realm of the gods.
The warlock knows the shifting chaos of the Feywild.
The rest know of places 3 and even 4 towns away along traderoutes.

But they don't wonder about the birds eye view, what is over the horizon, or think of places in terms of distance rather than time. They don't think about how it all fits together.

Until they met in a tavern one night. They got to talking and one thing led to another, next thing they knew they had started "The Cranewing Cartographic Society".

They soon got a job mapping an old keep out on the edge of the Shadowfell.