I was about to mention Eberron as a good example of cosmology that matters. @Aldarc mentioned Dollurh's effect on various religions, but you also have manifest zones where planar influence creates regions that are basically a form of natural resource – for example, Sharn's towers rely on the planar influence of Syrania, and Karrnath makes use of Mabaran manifest zones to enable them to create their special undead types. Of course, you could just say that these are "leyline confluences" or whatever, but linking them to planes gives them some more depth.Learning the cosmology for a given setting is an interesting thing to read about.My favorite D&D cosmology would have to be Eberron's because of the way those planes affect Eberron whenever they wax or wane and when they create manifestation zones on its' surface.
Do You Care About Cosmology?
- Thread starter doctorbadwolf
- Start date
the Jester
Legend
Yes... with caveats.
I want to know what my character would know. So it depends/somewhere in between.
Yes.
Corinnguard
Hero
If a person was born within a manifest zone, would that same planar influence result in the birth of a planetouched individual?
I mean, it's as good an explanation as any, but I think it's more likely to result in a sorcerer. And of course it is by far no guarantee – most major cities are built in/near some kind of exploitable manifest zone after all, in the same manner that most major cities (at least in history) were built on or near rivers or the sea.
Yes, and more than I should. Things like,
Things like, - Cast spells produce waste! This material will be wasted away and collect in low laying place and form a solid magic substance.
- That "magic" surrounds the campaign world like space surrounds a planet.
- The conflicts of the different users:
- Those that have vs those that do not.
- Religious MU vs Non-Religious MU
- Wizard schools vs Hedge
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I am very interested in y’all’s thoughts, so thanks for sharing!
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
exactly ditto. As a player and GM
Corinnguard
Hero
Okay, that would also work for me as there are a number of Sorcerer subclasses that could be tied to a particular plane in Eberron's Cosmology. A person born within a manifest zone to Kythri could become a Wild Magic Sorcerer, while a person born within a manifest zone to Mabar could become a Shadow Magic Sorcerer.
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Eberronian manifest zones also exhibit different traits even for the same plane. So the manifest zone to Syrania where Sharn is allows for architectural marvels and easier flying, but another one might manifest as smoothing the way for commerce leading to a grand bazaar being built there, and another might make contemplation of violence difficult so they build a prison on it that actually tries to rehabilitate criminals.
R_J_K75
Legend
We played quite a bit of Planescape in 2E and used the Manual of the Planes in 3E but to me some of the planes were ridiculous and made little sense. The DM or the players would have to jump through hoops to get spells or other magic items to make sure they would survive because they were so inhospitable. Then the effect on spells, alignments, etc. just made it a lot of trouble to prep and run adventures on multiple planes. Even then a lot of it was lost on the players; it wasn't a setting for the casual player.
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