D&D General Does Earth (or at least a fantasy version of it) have a crystal sphere and exist in the D&D Cosmology?

[dead]

In the D&D Cosmology, countless worlds, along with their solar systems, are encased in crystal spheres that bob in the Astral Sea. You can travel between the worlds in a spelljammer ship. All the worlds share the same Prime Material Plane.

I was wondering if our Earth, or at least a fantasy version of it, has been officially recognised as existing in a crystal sphere in D&D’s Prime Material Plane.

I know there has been references to Earth in the past. For example, there was an AD&D 1E adventure in Dragon magazine where the PCs had to travel to our real Earth to recover the Mace of St Cuthbert. Also, I believe, Elminster has said he knows a guy from Earth called Ed Greenwood. I think these references predate Spelljammer, though - ie. the idea of one Prime Material Plane with many crystal spheres/worlds in it.

Also, many gods of Earth pantheons exist in D&D’s Cosmology, ie. the Egyptian pantheon, Greek pantheon, Norse pantheon, etc. These gods must have at least come from a fantasy version of Earth. Did any of these real-world pantheons feature in 5E’s Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse? Or were they not mentioned?

 

[pawsplay]

I'm pretty sure it's another "dimension." In the BECMI version of the rules, other dimensions could have different laws and properties, and I'm pretty sure that non-magical Earth qualifies.

 

[Tonguez]

Dragon 100 had the City Beyond the Gate adventure that had a portal between Toril and Earth (specifically London), so yes it does exist in DnD cosmology, but I dont think its canon in 5e.

Earth is noted for being almost exclusively human and its very weak links to the Astral. However Arcana works, and some DnD dieties are also known on Earth. I’d say go for it and do You

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Of course it does, how else could Elminster and Raistlin and Mordenkainen visited Ed Greenwood in his house and shared stories with him? If we can't trust Ed, then that way lies Madness!

 

[Oofta]

There were several stories in the old Dragon magazine about famous wizards visiting earth and enjoying things like ice cream. I don't know that the current lore has crystal spheres, I think they've gone more to a multiverse theory. Which ... who knows? There are certain ideas based on string theory that our universe is just one of an infinite number of membranes each with potentially different underlying physical properties.

Which means of course, that there could be a D&D membrane out there and with sufficiently powerful magic they might be able to travel here. On the other hand, going back when you can't even cast a cantrip might be a bit problematic. Claim to be an all-powerful wizard from another universe is never going to be believed and you can't exactly cast spells for a living any more. So if you can't go back what skills do you have other than maybe spinning yarns and stories of the world you came from, maybe even become a novelist writing about some realm long forgotten.

 

[Alzrius]

In the D&D Cosmology, countless worlds, along with their solar systems, are encased in crystal spheres that bob in the Astral Sea. You can travel between the worlds in a spelljammer ship. All the worlds share the same Prime Material Plane.

I was wondering if our Earth, or at least a fantasy version of it, has been officially recognised as existing in a crystal sphere in D&D’s Prime Material Plane.

I know there has been references to Earth in the past. For example, there was an AD&D 1E adventure in Dragon magazine where the PCs had to travel to our real Earth to recover the Mace of St Cuthbert. Also, I believe, Elminster has said he knows a guy from Earth called Ed Greenwood. I think these references predate Spelljammer, though - ie. the idea of one Prime Material Plane with many crystal spheres/worlds in it.

Also, many gods of Earth pantheons exist in D&D’s Cosmology, ie. the Egyptian pantheon, Greek pantheon, Norse pantheon, etc. These gods must have at least come from a fantasy version of Earth. Did any of these real-world pantheons feature in 5E’s Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse? Or were they not mentioned?

Older editions had all sorts of references to a "fantasy Earth," but as for how official it was in terms of being a crystal sphere...that part was usually something that was implied rather than stated outright.

The most notable instance of a fantasy Earth was the "Gothic Earth" setting from AD&D 2E's Masque of the Red Death setting. We know that it was part of the AD&D cosmology, if for no other reason than it not only had planar AD&D monsters in it, but a piece of it was actually torn off to become the domain of Odiare in Ravenloft, as per Domains of Dread. Also, Dragon issue #249 outlined how the Historical Reference guidebooks (all of which were set on Earth in various periods of history) could be part of Gothic Earth themselves.

Likewise, Polyhedron issues #73 and #74 had a conversion for making the Earth of the Space 1889 RPG into a crystal sphere, as I recall.

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Baba Yaga visited Earth; in her Hut there are Soviet Tanks and other things. In Pathfinder 1 Adventure path Reign of Winter, about Baba Yaga, you have sounder proof that Earth exists.
Besides, if I remember correctly, there is a Becmi Immortal adventure in which you can visit New York.
The possibility of visiting Earth was very much implied in the earlier versions of the game

 

[Corinnguard]

This idea of our world having a crystal sphere reminded me of a series of science fiction books called the World of Tiers.

World of Tiers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It is revealed that Earth is itself an artificial world constructed to be an exact replica of the Thoan's home world during the stone age, and allowed to develop as a social experiment. Earth's "pocket universe" extends only to the edges of the solar system; the rest of the visible universe is effectively a 3-D Trompe-l'œil on the walls of the pocket universe.

Now imagine the walls of Earth's pocket universe being a crystal sphere.

 

[Reynard]

Of course it does, how else could Elminster and Raistlin and Mordenkainen visited Ed Greenwood in his house and shared stories with him? If we can't trust Ed, then that way lies Madness!

That doesn't mean it is in the D&D Prime full of crystal spheres. In fact, the fact that our universe's cosmology looks like it does essentially proves we live in an Alternate Prime. The D&D wizards visiting Ed and all the adventurers coming her were therefore using some version of Plane Shift.

 

[billd91]

I was wondering if our Earth, or at least a fantasy version of it, has been officially recognised as existing in a crystal sphere in D&D’s Prime Material Plane.

It does, but only if you want it to. As you mentioned, people have run D&D games that have crossed with the real world for decades. When I was in high school, our DM ran us through an adventure to Milwaukee. Fortunately, it was during Gen Con at the old Mecca Center so we had local guides who cottoned on to our mission easily.