Design and Development: Cosmology

[Badkarmaboy]

I think "thousands of miles" might be figurative.

Just my guess.

Looks conceptually interesting.

 

[frankthedm]

I wonder whether they will have allowances for a 'far realm' sort of place in this cosmology?

Considering the gods don't even know where the spirits who finally depart the shadow fell go, the universe is nowhere near codified as the great wheel.

Azathoth could be floating in the dead center of the Astral sea with his retinue of Other Gods writhing around him if the DM so chose. Yog-Sothoth, forming the ‘bubble’ containing the entirety of the Astral Sea, could lie just beyond what our petty gods know of existance.

 

[Stoat]

If Tharizdun pulled the plug, and the Abyss is the world draining away, where is it draining to?

The Far Realm, that's where.

 

[Remathilis]

Color me impressed. This coming from an old PS diehard: If I want PS, I'll use the Wheel. If I want just a collection of usable planes, this works well for me and probably fits in the DMG a lot easier than the GW did...

 

[Flobby]

I'd have to agree with that-- that they're not copying Exalted or whatever, their taking from real-world myths just like games like Exalted have.

Someone also mentioned that they thought it was more simplistic than the Great Wheel, and this was an apeal to the younger crowd. This I don't get at all. If anything the Great Wheel seemed more simplistic. It was static and although logical I guess, it was not a very intuitive logic. This new cosmology makes so much more sense! And is so much easier to tweek. No complaignts here. Love it.

...except for the names, but then corny names in D&D (and fantasy in general for that matter) are nothing new.

 

[Imaro]

Both the Elemental Chaos and the Wyld seem to be areas roiling with energy, but the former seems more elemental while the latter involves things like dreams, stories, passions, rages, etc. There is a definite emotive component to the Wyld, so much so that you can actually slay powerful beings with a story. I doubt telling a story in the Elemental Chaos will help you very much. The Elemental Chaos seems much more "physical", while the Wyld contains both physical and emotional components, and it much less "restrictive" about what can be there.

Elemental creatures of all kinds live and move through the Elemental Chaos: ice archons, magma hurlers, thunderbirds, and salamanders. The most dangerous inhabitants are the demons. In the nadir of this realm lies the foul Abyss, the font of evil and corruption from which demonkind springs. The Abyss is unthinkably vast—thousands of miles in extent—and in its maw swirl hundreds of demonic domains, elemental islands, or continents sculpted to suit the tastes of one demon lord or another. Within the Elemental Chaos, heroes might explore:

Emphasis Mine. This is what gives me the Wyld vibe. You see the Elemental Chaos isn't just about elementals. It's got at it's center(just like as you move further into the Wyld) a place where creatures bent on the destruction of all that exists dwell and who shape their realms in any way they want. Thus yes you could have a realm where a demon lord weilds the power to kill with a story.

 

[WhatGravitas]

But then where *would* it go? Maybe at the far edges of the astral sea?

Sounds fitting. Or put it back, where Lovecraft put it - in the Outer Space of the Material, not accessible by planar travel, but coming to the Material to infest other planes - in fact, the Material would be the Far Realm, except for the world of the PCs, a sole bastion of sanity.

Or deep within the Abyss. The demons are, unwillingly of course, protectors of the multiverse, as the Abyss is a kind of buffer between sane reality and the Far Realm. And only the demons' lust for destruction (even within the Far Realm) keeps the Far Realm from overwhelming the planes.

Make the Material a prison plane for the Far Realm-entities (i.e. like Ptolus... or a bit like OotS).

Or just put it beyond the multiverse itself. It's the world of the gaps between the planes. You find it in the rim of a portal, in the infinitesimal gap between the Astral Sea and a Divine Dominion. Between the Material World and the Feywild. You travel through it in the split second of a plane shift, when you're neither here, nor there.

I think the Far Realm is a very easy plane, because its very concept is being not part of the planar multiverse.

Cheers, LT.

 

[The Goblin King]

I'm OK with it. I do like that I could drop in Ghostwalk or Beyond Countless Doorways or any homebrew plane without missing a beat. I'll probably add in the Axis Mundi. A place/plane where you can leave the material and walk to other planes. It is different to different people. Some see the world tree, some see a great mountain, some see an endless staircase.

 

[Rechan]

Maybe this is me reading into it, but these planar areas also look like they're "Levelled".

The threats in the Feywild are not as dangerous as the ones in the Shadowfell, which are not as dangerous as the ones in the Elemental Tempest, which are not as dangerous as the ones in the Astral Sea.

So levesl 1-7 might visit the Feywild, levels 8-16 the Shadowfell, 17-25 the Elemental Tempest, and 25-30 the Astral Sea.

Because I really like the idea of a maze of thorns ruled by Briarwitch dryads guarding an evil relic. That sounds sexy.

I also have nothing wrong with the names.

Dresden Fans: would you say the Feywild or Shadowfell could be the Nevernever?

 

[Glyfair]

I think "thousands of miles" might be figurative.

It could even be literal. At the time of Alexander the "known world" easily fit in an area thousands of miles across, with room to spare.