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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9559156" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>In both the "original" and the new one, Chaos has its exact set of five to seven planes. It stays nicely in its lane. It doesn't spread out and conquer and corrupt. Those planes follow clean, consistent cosmological behavior and always do those behaviors. A location can never be halfway between (say) Limbo and Mechanus; either it is in Mechanus, or it is in Limbo, or it is in Concordant Opposition, and in Planescape where the Great Wheel is the whole point and focus, if you made a blob of Chaos in Mechanus strong enough, you wouldn't have successfully made a <em>invasion,</em> you would've just carved a pointlessly small chunk off of Mechanus and either glued it to CO or (if you really outdid yourself) directly to Limbo. Invasion or meaningful conflict between planes is impossible, <em>because</em> Chaos by both choice and by enforced cosmic rules must stay in its lane.</p><p></p><p></p><p>What bias? There are fixed and specific planes where Chaos is allowed to rule, and adjacent planes where it is not. This is simply objective fact from Planescape and other settings that use the Great Wheel.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The elemental planes are all actively hostile to life and cannot meaningfully be adventured in either <em>at all</em> (Air/Earth), or without specific protections that must be perfectly maintained or you just near-instantly expire (Fire/Water/Positive/Negative). The Astral is essentially devoid of locations. The Ethereal <em>is</em> devoid of locations. And then half or more of the Outer Planes are either functionally identical (seriously, how many "lower" planes are "weird geometric shapes" or "ruined wastelands of suffering"?) or completely pointless to actually visit.</p><p></p><p>4e ensured that there were extensive adventure hooks in all four non-mortal-world planes (plus the Abyss, which is sort of a subplane): Astral Sea, Feywild, Shadowfell, Elemental Chaos. You could have literal 1st level characters stumble into the Feywild or Shadowfell or Elemental Chaos and <em>actually have an adventure</em> rather than just instantly expiring because "oops, negative energy drains all your life away, now you're dead" or "haha, the Plane of Fire is <em>made of fire</em> and now you've burnt to death." It's sure as hell <em>risky</em> for a lower-level party, but it's perfectly survivable even without powerful magic just to prevent <em>near instant death.</em></p><p></p><p>The Great Wheel exists to codify the origin locations of things and to smush together as many mythologies as possible into a single space. It has <em>nothing whatever</em> to do with building a cosmos that is festooned with adventure for those brave enough to try. The World Axis started from asking how we could make myth and legend and folklore <em>adventurable,</em> not now we could turn it into a beautiful, pristine clockwork that perfectly accounts for every place and mode and aspect etc. etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9559156, member: 6790260"] In both the "original" and the new one, Chaos has its exact set of five to seven planes. It stays nicely in its lane. It doesn't spread out and conquer and corrupt. Those planes follow clean, consistent cosmological behavior and always do those behaviors. A location can never be halfway between (say) Limbo and Mechanus; either it is in Mechanus, or it is in Limbo, or it is in Concordant Opposition, and in Planescape where the Great Wheel is the whole point and focus, if you made a blob of Chaos in Mechanus strong enough, you wouldn't have successfully made a [I]invasion,[/I] you would've just carved a pointlessly small chunk off of Mechanus and either glued it to CO or (if you really outdid yourself) directly to Limbo. Invasion or meaningful conflict between planes is impossible, [I]because[/I] Chaos by both choice and by enforced cosmic rules must stay in its lane. What bias? There are fixed and specific planes where Chaos is allowed to rule, and adjacent planes where it is not. This is simply objective fact from Planescape and other settings that use the Great Wheel. The elemental planes are all actively hostile to life and cannot meaningfully be adventured in either [I]at all[/I] (Air/Earth), or without specific protections that must be perfectly maintained or you just near-instantly expire (Fire/Water/Positive/Negative). The Astral is essentially devoid of locations. The Ethereal [I]is[/I] devoid of locations. And then half or more of the Outer Planes are either functionally identical (seriously, how many "lower" planes are "weird geometric shapes" or "ruined wastelands of suffering"?) or completely pointless to actually visit. 4e ensured that there were extensive adventure hooks in all four non-mortal-world planes (plus the Abyss, which is sort of a subplane): Astral Sea, Feywild, Shadowfell, Elemental Chaos. You could have literal 1st level characters stumble into the Feywild or Shadowfell or Elemental Chaos and [I]actually have an adventure[/I] rather than just instantly expiring because "oops, negative energy drains all your life away, now you're dead" or "haha, the Plane of Fire is [I]made of fire[/I] and now you've burnt to death." It's sure as hell [I]risky[/I] for a lower-level party, but it's perfectly survivable even without powerful magic just to prevent [I]near instant death.[/I] The Great Wheel exists to codify the origin locations of things and to smush together as many mythologies as possible into a single space. It has [I]nothing whatever[/I] to do with building a cosmos that is festooned with adventure for those brave enough to try. The World Axis started from asking how we could make myth and legend and folklore [I]adventurable,[/I] not now we could turn it into a beautiful, pristine clockwork that perfectly accounts for every place and mode and aspect etc. etc. [/QUOTE]
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