Where did the Great Wheel come from?

[Echohawk]

(Un)Reason's Dragon Magazine thread mentions an article from the July 1977 issue (Dragon #8) as containing "the first proper map of the planar cosmology." He doesn't mention who wrote it or go into too much detail about the contents.

That article is by Gary Gygax, and seems to be him thinking out loud about how planes should work in D&D. There is an early version of the great rectangle diagram from the PH, but it also has all the inner planes squished inside it like a flattened donut (and no sign of the Outlands). The bulk of the article deals with how magical weapons might function across the planes. There's nothing much there about how Gary decided on which planes, or how many there should be. All the planes are listed in the key to the diagram, and there is a note there about how it is possible to walk between adjacent planes.

 

[Lidgar]

(Un)Reason's Dragon Magazine thread mentions an article from the July 1977 issue (Dragon #8) as containing "the first proper map of the planar cosmology."

I think this is the first place it was properly introduced. You can find that article in "The Best of Dragon I". Gary wrote it, and included a nifty colored pencil diagram ("a 2-dimensional diagram of a 4-dimensional concept."). As to "buffer planes" - not sure what you are referring to there. The inner planes?

Doh - ninja'ed by Echohawk.

 

[howandwhy99]

The plane of Concordant Opposition was introduced by Jeff Grubb in the 1E Manual of the Planes. Before that the Prime Material plane was the only neutrally-aligned plane. Neutral gods and specialty priests to those gods were only found on that plane. Think Obad-Hai and Beory. Nature gods.

EDIT:
The prime material plane, the universe for us, was a concordant plane perfectly balanced between order and entropic chaos. When either one became too dominant, the True Neutral faiths would act to restore the balance. That's where the TN alignment behavior came about for druids, as far as I know.

 

[JohnRTroy]

The plane of Concordant Opposition was introduced by Jeff Grubb in the 1E Manual of the Planes. Before that the Prime Material plane was the only neutrally-aligned plane. Neutral gods and specialty priests to those gods were only found on that plane. Think Obad-Hai and Beory. Nature gods.

Wrong, it was introduced in Deities and Demigods and was created by Gygax. (See above).

 

[doctorhook]

This thread is pretty interesting. Until now, I'd always assumed that the answer was merely, "...out of Gary's butt, one day in the 1970s."

 

[Stoat]

"Buffer planes" is a term Corathon used above to refer to the outer planes located between the outer planes that correspond to the 8 alignments. In other words, The Seven Heavens are LG. Elysium is NG. In between are the Twin Paradises/Bytopia, which are LNG.

Why do that? Did Gygax, or anyone else ever speak to the issue?

 

[Ariosto]

There is another early article that discusses alignment, in the seven-point scheme that was current in Gygax's thought.

As I recall, that article includes a graph of the positions of various creatures. There are Law-Chaos and Good-Evil axis for X,Y coordinates, with Neutrality in the center (0,0).

The Dungeon Masters Guide, in "Alignment With Respect To The Planes" on page 24, mentions the planes in question:

The remainder of the outer plane areas are "gray" areas where alignments shade into each other. Inhabitants of these planes will generally have the same world-view as their fellows on the Prime Material Plane.

Immediately following those words, there begins a discussion of "Graphing Alignment".

It is of importance to keep track of player character behavior with respect to their professed alignment. Actions do speak far more eloquently than professions ... (see PLAYERS HANDBOOK, APPENDIX III, CHARACTER ALIGNMENT GRAPH). Such drift should be noted by you, and when it takes the individual into a new alignment area, you should then inform the player that his or her character has changed alignment (see CHANGING ALIGNMENT).

Comparison of the Graph on PHB p. 119 with the second figure (the Outer Planes) on p. 121 may be instructive.

 

[Corathon]

The Concordant Opposition was the neutral alignment plane, by my recollection. Several appropriate deities reside there.

Umbran, I realize that Concordant opposition was the true neutral alignment plane - my point was that it wasn't there in the original PHB diagram.

As to why the buffer planes, I can only speculate. If the DM graphed a PC's alignment and it ended up roughly halfway between two alignments, then presumably that character's afterlife would be in a buffer plane (e.g. Frank's cleric that just died is really lawful, but not as good as he might have been - its Arcadia for him).

Plus, more planes means more variety of places to adventure, and more elbow room for various pantheons of gods as well as such things as daemons, demons, devils, etc.

 

[Orius]

Some of those buffer planes feel a tad extraneous though. That's how I feel about Twin Paradises/Bytopia, Arcadia, and Acheron. I've been mulling about just cutting them from my cosmology because it wouldn't matter (note that Bytopia is home to the gnome pantheon, how typical). Same thing with Tartarus/Carceri, although it has some cool sites which I'd probably just stick into the Abyss to save time. I thought I had made a post about this recently, but I can't find it anywhere.

Some of these planes were interesting in Planescape. Particularly the Beastlands. You don't want to call it the Happy Hunting Grounds in that setting, because only a clueless berk would want to go hunting there. Especially on the dinosaur plateau. Pandemonium also had some great stuff, but it's another plane that can easily get stuffed into the Abyss (since most of its layers are pretty similar anyway).

 

[Echohawk]

As to why the buffer planes, I can only speculate.

Some of those buffer planes feel a tad extraneous though.

My idle speculation is that Gary's development process was something like this:
1. Jot down a list of outer planes from mythology and legend that would be fun to include in the D&D cosmology.
2. Realize that there are more planes on the list than there are alignments.
3. Notice that by adding in one extra plane between each of the alignments, there is now space for everything on the list, with a few gaps left over.
4. Spend some time on wikipedia reading reference books to fill in the gaps in the planar wheel.

I reckon the planes added in step 4 are the ones that feel extraneous