D&D General What Does Your Cosmology Look Like?

So to start with, I'm good with dimensions being "parallel but offset" and not being flat "planes" but blobby n-dimensional shapes that connect to whatever they need to . So lots of "this plane has a hole that the other plane passes through." Which means the model is very representational rather than being a map.

The "inner" planes are primal and elemental. Fire, air, earth, water. Mortals often perceive them as one big dimension but rather than having "dimensional boundaries", they are physical ones. All the air is the Plane of Air. All the rock is Plane of Earth. All the water is Plane of Water. All the Fire is Plane of Fire. You make a fire somewhere in the primal realm? Congratulations, that's a gate to the rest of the plane of Fire. Walls of Fire are portals. Same for Wall of Stone. The cold regions are far from the plane of Fire. The dry regions are far from the plane of Water. Steam is where Water is near Fire. Dust is Air and Earth. Etc, etc.

The most active parts of the primal planes is a kind of headwater to a "river" of sorts, but its more of a point source for creation, a white hole. Fire, water, gale force winds, rock all blasting forth from this place. At the far end of the omniverse is the opposite, the black hole, where everything turns to ice, ash, and dust and is consumed into nothing.

The outer realms are places of ideas: good, evil, hate, love, order, chaos. Also one big realm, in a way, but with very specific gates, tunnels, paths, caves, etc connecting them. Good and evil are far apart, as are order and chaos.

The mortal realms are a midgard, the place between, having elements of primal inner and conceptual outer. Not all get equal shares in all things.

There is also the Shining Lands and the Gloaming Lands, the feywilde and shadowfell, which are "upstream" and "downstream" of the mortal realms. The Feywild reflects all the mortal realms, but with the intensity turned up to 250%, while the Shadowfell is a rotting, decrepit version of all the mortal realms , foretelling their eventual demise. These are my Positive and Negative Material Planes. The Feywild is not all lightness and smiles; the winters are colder, the deserts are more brutal, the seas have higher waves, the storms are more terrifying. It's "more" not "better." And the Shadowfell isn't devoid of kindness but its a tired, exhausted kindness. Undead are drawn to it not because it nourishes them, but that the gnawing hunger becomes a dull ache.

The mortal realms almost never touch directly, but almost all of them touch both the feywild and the shadowfell, the primal realms and the conceptual realms, though usually at small gates that often ebb and flow with seasons, stars, and holy days.

The void between the primal and mortal planes is the ethereal, the void surrounding the outer and separating it from the mortal realms is the astral.

Perhaps the stars are the other mortal planes or perhaps the stars are other cosmologies that could be reached through the astral.

“the world we preceive is comprised of multiple essences, each reified and fixed in a material substance just as the heart of fire is held in the strata of stone, stone is cooled by the water layer and water is held in the vapor which once more ignites as quintessential flame. The alchemist seeks to extract this quintessence from their essential ingredients and must thus work to remove the gross substance, cleansing and refining until we release the true radiant quintessence within.
This quintessence is the closest our mundane senses may get to the Astral Radiance which lies beyond the ethereal veil of our concious perception and constructed reality..."
- From Speculations on the Nature of Quintessence, an Essay by Orbril the Gnome, Professor of Applied Alchemy, Imperial Research Academy.

I made a generic version of the multiverse for use in non-D&D/DMs Guild material, though I generally just use a mix of Great Wheel and World Axis when actually DMing.

Unspecified in detail because I want it to be a) not a focal point b) be mythological and unexplained. Having a specified cosmology and telling it the players would make it explained and "scientific".

I don't have other planes of existence, and the gods aren't popping in to make personal appearances.

That said, the gods are heavily believed in, although each culture has their own religion. And there are Realms. These ethereal balls float around in the solar system and seem drawn to the world. And when they cross, there are devastating consequences. The Cursed Realm, Dead Realm, Elemental Realm, Realm of Giants, Shadow Realm, and Supernatural Realm are all very real. They gave the world magic, yet the only one the peoples of the world have been able to control was the Elemental Realm. They shaped the rise and fall of kingdoms. They have shaped parts of the geographical landscape. They have isolated areas. One of the religions is based on the Realms. They are a feared, yet integral part of culture, living, and as rumor has it, creation of adventurers. Here was my short write up on the Realms:


Realm Overview

The Realms impact all aspects of life on Alm and in Allor. They affect the people in ways unsuspecting. Families have been destroyed when one of their members is cursed with lycanthropy. Towns have been destroyed when plagues of the dead arise. And whole kingdoms have gone to war when the evil influence of the Shadow Realm takes hold.
The Realms also bridge into the religious and historical thinking for the people in Allor. They ponder the Realms’ mysteries and wonder why the Realms influence the way they do. They note the stories from the past and hope to find better ways to deal with the Realm’s transgressions. And they question their own part in the Realms’ effects.
These mysteries also inspire curiosity. People from all walks of life, from beggar to noble, from man to woman, from halfling to furlay have all at one time or another wondered what it means to control the Realms. To harness their magic. They study its influence, not as a bane, but as a boon. At present, only one realm, the Elemental Realm, has been bent to help people. The others have simply sewn chaos in those that tampered with its mana.
And of course, there are the creatures that the Realms have brought to Allor. Vengeful harpies, fiery efreets, evil jakkhos, deadwoods, shivs, and banshees. These creatures plague the people, land, and thoughts of entire areas worse than any natural beast could do.

I had rough notes for using the 4e World Axis in 3e games . . .

D&D features two cosmologies: the Great Wheel and the World Axis. Two different Manual of the Planes are referenced here; the one for 3e and its counterpart for 4e. All planar traits mentioned below are as described on pages 7-14 of the 3e MotP.

The Astral Sea is much like its counterpart in the Great Wheel. Spells that access the astral plane now access the Astral Sea instead. Unlike its counterpart however, the Astral Sea is not omnipresent (see ‘Planar Interactions’ below); that is, it doesn’t link with virtually every other plane. You can therefore ignore the information for astral links presented on page 48 of the 3e MotP. Likewise, ignore any mention of traveling to other planes via the spell astral projection. Instead, use the information for veils of color given on page 87 of the 4e MotP.

The Astral Sea has the following traits: No Gravity, Normal Time, Infinite Size, Alterable Morphic Trait, No Elemental or Energy Traits, Mildly Neutral-Aligned, Enhanced Magic. These traits are as written for the astral plane (see page 47 and 48 of the 3e MotP).

The Elemental Chaos is an amalgam of the 3e elemental planes and limbo. It has the following traits: Subjective Directional Gravity, Normal Time, Infinite Size, No Energy-Dominant Traits, Highly Morphic, Sporadic Dominant-Element, Strongly Chaos-Aligned, Wild Magic (as written for Limbo on page 93 of the 3e MotP). The Elemental Chaos can be controlled as described for Limbo on pages 93 and 94.

The Feywild has the following traits: Normal Gravity, Normal Time, Finite Size, Alterable Morphic, No Elemental or Energy Traits, Mildly Neutral-Aligned, Enhanced Magic (as written for the plane of faerie on page 210 of the 3e MotP).

The Shadowfell is essentially the plane of shadow from 3e (as mentioned on page 15 of the 4e MotP, in the sidebar discussing the Great Wheel). It has the following traits: Normal Gravity, Normal Time, Finite Size, No Elemental or Energy Traits, Mildly Neutral-Aligned, Enhanced Magic, Impeded Magic (both as written for the plane of shadow on page 60 of the 3e MotP). The information on shadow links (page 60) applies to the Shadowfell.

Planar Interactions: Planar interaction is described on page 15 of the 3e MotP. Examine the World Axis diagram (above), notice that the Astral Sea is the ‘upper’ part and the Elemental Chaos is the ‘lower’ part of the cosmology. The Material World serves as the ‘axis’ with the Feywild and the Shadowfell as parallel planes.

The Astral Sea is separate from the Material Plane; it is not a transitive plane (unlike its counterpart in the Great Wheel). The Elemental Chaos is likewise a separate plane.

The Feywild and the Shadowfell are both coexistent and conterminous with the Material Plane. In the World Axis cosmology, they are termed parallel planes (as mentioned on page 8 of the 4e MotP).

There is no ethereal plane in the World Axis cosmology. This affects a number of spells and magic items that duplicate those spells (ported from the sidebar ‘Without the Ethereal’ on page 55 of the 3e MotP):

• The following spells either do not function or do not exist: ethereal jaunt, etherealness, and secret chest.

• The following spells have elements that do not function without an ethereal plane: dimensional anchor, invisibility purge, see invisibility, true seeing, and spells with the force descriptor, such as magic missile and wall of force. When using these spells, ignore any reference to the ethereal plane, other elements function as normal.

• The blink spell works by accessing the Shadowfell.

I'm kinda curious to hear if anybody else did something similar.

I want the world to matter. Having a huge cosmology where the world is one tiny corner sort of takes this away.

So my cosmology is very "flat" and tightly tied to the "mortal" world, named the "middle kingdom" by in-world cosmologists.

1. The world is a sphere. The game is set in an age of exploration, and sailing the world is a thing.

2. Physics are not our physics. Earth pulls stuff towards it, but it isn't Newtonian gravity. The range is limited depending on the substance being pulled, and water offsets the pull and reduces its range past the offset. Being 100 feet up, gravity is pretty much gone; you float, not fall.

3. Spirits are everywhere. They are often hostile if not pacified. The hard part of flight is dealing with the air spirits.

4. Areas with exotic geography exist. Like rivers of lava etc. Monster of huge scale are everywhere, often tough enough that a large civilization's army might lose. Safety comes from the use of wards for one category of civilization (people of road and wall), and by making deals with powerful spirits in the other (people of stone and sky).

5. Going sideways from the world is a thing. The fey and shadow exist sideways from our world, and portals to cross over are not that rare; many portals are one way. The ethereal is sideways from the middle and shadow, and the astral is sideways from the fey and middle. Both the astral and ethereal have near and far parts; the far parts are not hospitable. The far astral drives everything insane as thought is solid and thinking about that spirals you into fragments, while you just fade out into the background in the far ethereal as is and is-not becomes a fuzzy distinction.

6. Another semi-common kind of "sideways" spaces are dungeons. These are pocket "dimensions", mostly built by ancient civilizations. Modern civilizations have learnt how to modify them with effort; the great dungeon railroad being the most impressive case, forged from multiple dungeons with the undesired parts walled off and a track laid for trade and travel.

7. There is one sun, two moons, and the stars peeking in from the far astral and ethereal in the void of the night sky.

8. Great god type beings walked the world. They don't live in alternative planes; the middle kingdom and its sideways parts is where it is at. A god could build a palace sideways in the fey on top of a mountain, and getting there involves walking up the mountain.

9. Said gods fought the dawn war against an ancient force of destruction. They ended in a stalemate. The gods are all dead now, either in the war or as a result of their wounds. Mortal churches do not believe this. The gods relics provide the divine energy to work divine magic. The angelic servants of the gods are mostly insane, cut off from their divine source, but continue to provide divine services (like divination etc) as they are bound by their promises to their now dead masters. Asmodeus and other angels (now devils) broke their promises and live in hell, a quarantine prison, and escape for temporary periods by making deals with mortals. This violation of their divine promise causes eternal torment and warped the angels, but they viewed it as better than giving up their free will and being enslaved by promises to dead gods.

10. The dawn war stalemate ended with the force of destruction locked up in one of the moons. The other moon is an attempt to deal with it if it does break free. This is naturally threatening to happen; very few people suspect it is possible. Almost everyone thinks the gods won the dawn war, with the exception of a few beings (some of whom have been around since said dawn war).

11. The dawn war broke mortal civilizations, and they rebuilt afterwards. The history of the dawn war was reconstructed by archeologists. It is a story like an ancient flood in the past of destruction, often used as a morality tale.