Design and Development: Cosmology

[Mouseferatu]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070926a

This is simply going to further inflame the ongoing conflict between those who want them to keep the Great Wheel and those who don't.

Me? I like the sound of this. Feels much more mythic and properly spiritual to me.

 

[spunky_mutters]

It looks like the Ethereal is gone. I don't mind most of the changes, as they will still provide rules for elementals, elemental environments, etc., but I'll miss having rules for the Ethereal plane (or course that just makes it a more mysterious place, I guess).

 

[Perun]

Me like!

I especially like that there are no demiplanes in the Astral, they're called dominions now. I just love that!

And all the while I'm thinking how it wouldn't be particularly difficult to adapt [smallcaps]Planescape[/smallcaps] to this whole new cosmology...

Edit: I also find it interesting that the article mentions druids (could it be an indication that they are in the PH1?) and necromancers.

They also mention a few monsters: fomorians, shadar-kai, githzerai and githyanki. We also get Demogorgon, Dispater, Vecna, and Raven Queen (?).

Also, Pandemonion is listed in the Astral Sea.

 

[Henry]

I have no opinion one way or the other. To me, it works just as well as the stuff in the Great Wheel, and gives as many opportunities for adventure. The best news about it, I suppose, is that you can set all your previous planar stuff anywhere in there with very little editing.

 

[spunky_mutters]

Maybe I'm missing it, but it doesn't really explain where the Elemental Chaos is in relation to the other planes.

If it's not in the astral, and it's not noted as being co-existent with the Prime (or the natural world), then where is it?

 

[Aloïsius]

Where was this thread ! I checked twice !

....


I guess my slow typing is to blame.

I will quote what I said elsewhere :

Magic - Speculation about the new planes
I would like this thread NOT to be about doomsaying and greatwheel VS 4e cosmology
But rather about what we can guess from those tidbits.

Especialy about magic. They have found the way to fix etherealness : in the feywild, the dungeon does not exist...

Something else :

Only the mightiest of heroes dare venture into the dominions of the gods themselves

I wonder if "plane shift" won't be divided between various spells.... So that you can access feywild sooner than the astral sea.

 

[Reaper Steve]

Any kind soul care do a cut-and-paste for those of us blocked from the wizards' site at work? Please? Thanks!

 

[Desdichado]

I don't like those names. Shadowfell? Feywild? Blegh.

The ideas seem solid enough. In fact, many of them are not terribly different in many respects from what I already do. In fact, most of that was already tossed around as variants in the 3e version of Manual of the Planes several years ago.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Wow. Its the oWoD cosmology!

Astral Sea = High Umbra (Mage)
Feywild = Middle Umbra (Werewolf)
Shadowfell = Low Umbra (Wraith)

 

[mhensley]

Very cool stuff. Is that a treant?