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

[pukunui]

Just a bunch of 16 year olds talking about "skibidi toilets" and "sigma."

My 16 yo doesn’t talk like that thankfully. It’s my Gen Alpha preteen who does.

 

[Yaarel]

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.

For the Norse Nine Realms, the D&D alignments dont really make sense as an organizing principle. But the elements kinda do. Snorri describes the cosmos coming into existence via Water (Niflheimr) and Fire (Muspelheimr), with the emptiness (Ginnungagap) in between them where they can interact with each other. Quite elemental.

Niflheimr the realm of arctic mists, is at the Arctic Ocean (Hvergelmir).

Meanwhile, the æsir live in the sky (literally), among the clouds.

Alignment is less helpful here. The æsir and jǫtnar resemble the Fey in the sense, not Evil but not exactly Good either. But most importantly, they are here in the Material Plane. The thunderstorm is itself Þórr. The ocean is itself Ægir.

 

[Corinnguard]

Jotunheim: Land of Giants (Jotun) and fiends. In folklore not all Jotun were giants, some were just misshapen so I figured fiends fit.

I can see Jotunheim being home to the 5.5e Goliath, the Firbolg and the Fomori. The Fomori are the misshapen ones who look a bit fiendish.

Fomorians - Wikipedia

Yeah, I know they are Irish giants, but I included them here anyway. In Level Up, the Goliaths, Firbolg and Fomori are cultures belonging to the Giant-kin Heritage in MoAR: Complete by Purple Martin Games.

 

[Minigiant]

My own personal setting is based on WOTC's Multiverse idea that each setting is their own universe and has their own cosmology and gods.

In mine, The World Axis, World Tree, Great Mountain and Great Wheel crash into each other (ZEUS and ODIN) and some of the planes merged. Explaining how dragonborn, goliaths, and some gods got there.

	Axis	Mountain	Tree	Wheel
Material Plane
Echo Plane 1	Feywild		Jotunhiem	Eyrie
Echo Plane 2	Shadowfell		Svartalfaheim	Shadow and Faerie Archeron
Upper Outer Plane	Arborea	Mount Olympus	Asgard	Celestia
Lower Outer Plane	The Abyss	Underworld	Hel	The Nine Hells

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I wonder if among the other Planar connections like Styx, Oceanus, etc..., Mount Olympus gets mentioned, it connects several planes and spans both Arborea and Hades, and also connects to countless material plane worlds. It even gives it name both to Arborea's full name and one version of the first layers name.

 

[Oofta]

I can see Jotunheim being home to the 5.5e Goliath, the Firbolg and the Fomori. The Fomori are the misshapen ones who look a bit fiendish.

Fomorians - Wikipedia

Yeah, I know they are Irish giants, but I included them here anyway. In Level Up, the Goliaths, Firbolg and Fomori are cultures belonging to the Giant-kin Heritage in MoAR: Complete by Purple Martin Games.

In my campaign "true" giants are from Jotunheim. Ogres, firbolg and fomorian are not true giants, they originate in the Feywild because the latter two are associated with Irish lore. While we don't really know the origin of ogres in mythology to me they always felt too close to hill giants.

 

[Parmandur]

I wonder if among the other Planar connections like Styx, Oceanus, etc..., Mount Olympus gets mentioned, it connects several planes and spans both Arborea and Hades, and also connects to countless material plane worlds. It even gives it name both to Arborea's full name and one version of the first layers name.

Nope. No mention of Mt. Olympus in the Traveling the Luter Planes sectionafter describing Portals and Spells, there are four transplants features that each get a few paragraphs:

• The Infinite Staircase
• The River Oceanus
• The River Styx
• Yggdrasil, the World Tree

Nor is there any mention of Olympia in Arborea, the three layers are:

• Arvandor: Towering trees, colorful wildflowers, abundant grain, and delicious fruit create a lush environment
• Aquallor: An eternal ocean by the River Oceanus is home to teeming sea life and mighty storms
• Mithardir: A desert of white sand abandoned by whatever powers once lived there.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Mount Olympus is mentioned as one of the planar passages in Planescape, I'm guessing it's not mentioned in the DMG because there's already 2 other planar pathways that are associated with Greek Mythology.

 

[Parmandur]

Mount Olympus is mentioned as one of the planar passages in Planescape, I'm guessing it's not mentioned in the DMG because there's already 2 other planar pathways that are associated with Greek Mythology.

Yeah, that's probably the case: 4 methods is already quite a bit to process, too.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Here's an overview of my cosmology, also inspired by the Nine Worlds. (Interestingly, a couple of minor refinements since then.)

I also recently wrote on how I'm using para-elements. I don't have elemental planes per se, but they are minor forces to tap into.

Clay [Stone/Wave] - Mutable earth, life supporting, source of flesh, yielding solidity.
Dust [Wind/Stone] - Ruined matter, final ends, last sigh, the base of the next cycle.
Frost [Dark/Wind] - Sign of Winter, herald of sleep, restful stasis, quietude of stillness.
Metal [Flame/Stone] - Refined earth, mortal tools, control of surroundings, expression of invention.
Mist [Wave/Wind] - Ephemeral, misdirection, chill solitude, mysteries in motion.
Salt [Flame/Wave] - Resistance to change, bane of rot, sign of hospitality, fragile endurance.
Shadow [Flame/Dark] - Distraction, subversion, illusion, surprise.
Radiance [Wind/Flame] - Vision, perception, awareness, wisdom.
Wood [Balanced] - Growth, life's spreading influence, regeneration, overcoming stasis and change through adaption.