D&D (2024) DMG Chapter Preview: James Wyatt Talks Cosmology

[Yaarel]

Thinking about the Nine Realms and the Elements. Something like.

Niflheimr Water and Cold
Muspelheimr Fire and Radiant
Alfaheimr Positive
Dvergaheimr Negative (Svartalfaheimr)
Asaheimr Thunder-Lightning (sky)
Hel Necrotic
Jotnaheimr Earth
Vanaheimr Air (winds)
Tree All


There is a sense that ice from Nifl and ash-smoke-soot from Muspell combine to form Earth.

 

[beta-ray]

Traditionally Magma-Ooze-Ice-Smoke. Now Ash has replaced Smoke.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

2e Planescape had a bunch of spells to make surviving the planes easier like Avoid Planar Effects, the Breathe ___ spells and Airy Earth (5e hasn't had the core spell Airy Water yet). Avoid Planar Effects was a 1st level and would be a reaction spell in 5e, it was meant to be the "I went through the portal, but it's too dangerous here so lets go back through the portal" spell.

There also were adventures for low level characters that took place in the Abyss in Planescape, mostly low level adventurers went around the Plain of Infinite Portals (the 1st layer of the Abyss) where the environmental effects aren't immediately dangerous and more powerful Demons wouldn't really pay attention to them.

I'd still have the Quasi-elemental planes even with the 5e changes and the Elemental Chaos existing, they'd just be border regions between the elements and energy planes. I'd still have things like the Radioactive Glowing Dunes, that was where Magma met Radiance.

 

[Oofta]

What planes in D&D did you use to represent the remaining 5 worlds in your campaign setting?

Since we don't really know what the Norse thought the nine worlds were in detail, I took some creative license. Okay, quite a bit of creative license.

But I have
Asgard: a celestial realm and home of the Aesir (gods of humans). Includes Valhalla.
Alfheim: the Feywild and land of the Sidhe
Dwarfheim: a celestial realm and home of the dwarven gods. Okay, this one I just made up and sort of replaced Muspleheim.
Vanaheim: a celstial realm and home of the elven (and gnomish) gods. The elven gods are also called the Vaenir.
Midgard: prime material
Svartalheim: Land of Rock and Stone, the underdark and home of the drow and Lollth.
Nifleheim: Shadowfell, land of spirit and dreams
Jotunheim: Land of Giants (Jotun) and fiends. In folklore not all Jotun were giants, some were just misshapen so I figured fiends fit.
Helheim: land of the dead.

Spoiler: Image for Yggdrasil

Then, because I've actually had adventures there I detailed out Jotunheim a bit more. There isn't really a place for Avernus and the Abyss so they just became part of Jotunheim.

Spoiler: Image for Jotunheim

Anyway so that was my take. If I were to redo it I might do things a bit differently, but at this point it works for me.

 

[Charlaquin]

In my campaign there are weak spots, particularly between the prime material (Midgard) and the Feywild (Alfheim) and the Shadowfell (Niflheim) where people can sometimes slip between realms. Not a good idea to fall asleep in that fairy circle! Deep underground there are week spots where you can cross into the underdark (Svartleheim). Then again, I also limit planeshift to opening a path on Yggdrasil that leads to the desired plane of existence, if you can get there. You can't get to Asgard without getting past Heimdall for example.

Does it work that way because people believe it works that way or is it an accurate depiction?

Yeah, that all checks out with my own view of the planes, but I like to think of it as sympathetic proximity rather than spatial proximity. It’s not that a fairy circle is physically closer to the feywild, it’s that something about it is aligned with the feywild, and by sleeping in it you bring yourself closer in alignment with the feywild in turn, and could result in you shifting there completely. That’s just me though.

 

[Charlaquin]

In my headcanon, there is only one "plane", the Elemental Chaos, and the other Elemental Planes are regions where an element prevails with some stability, and these regions move and drift and can overlap each other.

I was leaning and now decided, the elemental plane is "inside" the Material Plane, and reflects what is going on in the Material Plane.

Amazingly, the 2024 description has a kind of Border elemental and Deep elemental, where the Border does cohere with the material plane while the Deep is an immersion within the element.

Yeah, I favor a very similar model.

 

[Oofta]

Yeah, that all checks out with my own view of the planes, but I like to think of it as sympathetic proximity rather than spatial proximity. It’s not that a fairy circle is physically closer to the feywild, it’s that something about it is aligned with the feywild, and by sleeping in it you bring yourself closer in alignment with the feywild in turn, and could result in you shifting there completely. That’s just me though.

The old wizened old wizard sits back an puts his pipe in his mouth for a moment. "Well, young pupil, it is true that the Feywild and Shadowfell loosely mimic the physical world that we know and they are the easiest to slip into." Pulling the pipe out and pointing for emphasis, gently bobbing the device up and down for emphasis "The concept of physical closeness, alignment or any other measure is merely conjecture." With a stern look and a harumph the pipe goes back in his mouth for but a moment before he continues. "Where there is no material plane there is no physical space. Therefore words like 'adjacent' simply indicate how easy it is to cross over and any 'spatial proximity' are simply constructs of our minds to explain things in ways easier to conceptualize."

With that, the wizard leans back and gently blows bubbles out of his pipe.

 

[TwoSix]

In my headcanon, there is only one "plane", the Elemental Chaos, and the other Elemental Planes are regions where an element prevails with some stability, and these regions move and drift and can overlap each other.

I was leaning and now decided, the elemental plane is "inside" the Material Plane, and reflects what is going on in the Material Plane.

Amazingly, the 2024 description has a kind of Border elemental and Deep elemental, where the Border does cohere with the material plane while the Deep is an immersion within the element.

Yea, very similar to my headcanon, although in mine the Elemental Chaos is simultaneously Limbo.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Thinking about the Nine Realms and the Elements. Something like.

Niflheimr Water and Cold
Muspelheimr Fire and Radiant
Alfaheimr Positive
Dvergaheimr Negative (Svartalfaheimr)
Asaheimr Thunder-Lightning (sky)
Hel Necrotic
Jotnaheimr Earth
Vanaheimr Air (winds)
Tree All


There is a sense that ice from Nifl and ash-smoke-soot from Muspell combine to form Earth.

Most of the 9 realms are the names of layers or relams on various planes in the Great Ring, where it was probably Jeff Grubb as mentioned in that video who fit them all on various planes.

D&D's depiction has been strongly based off of Snorri's interpretation. Many of them are on Ysgard like Asgard and Vanaheim being on the first layer Ysgard, Svartalheim being in Ysgard's 3rd layer Nidavellir (because the Dark Elves are non-Lolth aligned Drow) where it's close to the realm of the Drow Goddess Elistraee, Niflheim being a layer in The Gray Waste/Hades and so on. But remember that D&D also tried to fit in the Greek, Celtic, Sumerian and other pantheons all around the planes, and lot of them don't necessarily make sense completely.

 

[Zeromaru X]

skibidi toilets

The skibidi toilets are real. They came from the Far Realm!