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Message: <blockquote data-quote="M.L. Martin" data-source="post: 9383321" data-attributes="member: 4086">Some notes on the evolution of the Great Wheel:While I don't own any of the OD&D rule books or supplements, a lot of development took place in early issues of The Strategic Review/The Dragon, which I do have access to. (I hunted down the Dragon Archive CD-ROM a few years back.) I'd appreciate if someone with access to Gods, Demi-gods, and Heroes could corroborate or debunk one of my theories based on this evolution--namely, that the Wheel is partially the result of having to shoehorn deific residences from that supplement into Gygax's earlier structure.First, the earliest version, from The Strategic Review, Vol. 2, Issue 1, which is where Gygax introduced the differentiation of Good and Evil into the Lawful and Chaotic alignments, thus creating the 5-point system used in Holmes and the AD&D Monster Manual:[ATTACH=full]368768[/ATTACH]When researching this article, I found that G, DG, & H is advertised as new in The Dragon #2, thus suggesting that this article predates the supplement.Second, from DRAGON #8, the first layout of the Great Wheel--but it is not the final form. [ATTACH=full]368769[/ATTACH]From the notes on the following page:The Lower Planes are pretty well set, but the Upper Planes are in a bit of flux. Elysium retains its position at the Chaotic Good pole from Strategic Review 2, the Paradise from that article has become the Twin Paradises of pure Good, the Happy Hunting Grounds are in the L/NG position, and Olympus is in the N/CG slot. However, there's no mention of the 'shading' of alignments, and the examples of the main text use the 'primary' planes of the earlier article: "Typical higher planes are the Seven Heavens, the Twin Paradises, and Elysium. The plane of ultimate Law is Nirvana, while the plane of ultimate Chaos(entropy) is Limbo. Typical lower planes are the Nine Hells, Hades’ three glooms, and the 666 layers of the Abyss." Hence my hypothesis.  I can't find anything between DRAGON #8 and the AD&D PHB that addresses the development further; does anyone know any other pieces of the puzzle?</blockquote>

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