LoneWolf23
First Post
Ok, still building my own campaign world, but rather then use the default D&D cosmology, I wanted to use a cosmology taken from one of my favorite GURPS Supplements, GURPS Cabal (which is best described as an alternative World of Darkness).
In it, Reality's nature is considered a hologram constructed from 36 component images representing mystical enegies of different frequencies called Decans. It is divided into The Four Realms, based on kabbalistic lore. Assiah, the Material, is the physical world we dwell in (or, alternatively, where -all- corporeal worlds/dimensions/alternative earths are).
"Above" or "Inside" the Material Realm (depending on how you interprete it), is Yetzirah, the Astral Realm. In appearance, the "outer" reaches of Yetzirah closely echo the "neighboring" sections of Assiah. Many ghosts and magi never move beyond this "ghost zone" into the deeper Astral. In deeper zones, Yetzirah generally appears misty and indistinct to mortal eyes, although clearer paths and regions appear throughout the Astral Realm, usually linked to natives or to powerful magic-users or Outsiders. The Inner Realms of Yetzirah are were Dreamworlds and the ultraterrestrial domain of Faerie are located. At it's deepest, inmost edge is an ocean big and mighty enough to contain worlds, and actually does. It's the Pearl-Bright Ocean, the Archetypical Ocean of the Unconscious, connected to all oceans and to the Elemental Plane of Water.
On the other edge of the Pearl Bright Ocean from Yetzirah is Briah, the Iconic Realm, the Realm of Forms. It is a realm where the Decans' energies are strong enough to allow images and ideas take on a life of their own, becoming eidolons and even gods. Here, you can find the mythical Island of Atlantis, and the realm of the gods. It is "ruled" by the Four Archangels, immense, beautiful quasi-elemental beings who stand equidistant from each other, defining the four quarters of Briah. Gabriel of the West, holder of a chalice of Pure
elemental water; Uriel, Archangel of the North, holder of an immense pillar of pure Earth elemental Salt-Crystal, Rapahel, Archangel of the East and holder of a lighting wand of elemental air, and Michael, Archangel of the South and the sword of Elemental Fire. They uphold the laws of the enigmatic Atziluthian Godhead.
Between Briah and Atziluth lies a vast chasm, the Abyss, the failed, negative realm, shadowed of the direct light of Atziluth by enormous walls of un-potential. It is a place of dark things inhospitable to true life, inhabited by demons, who rejected the Godhead and the rule of the Archangels, and who seek to enter the other realms via cracks in Reality, some of which extend into Assiah. But the demons themselves pale next to the Qlippoth, failed shells from the previous attempt at reality, who dwell in the Vale of Hinnom, a crack at the very bottom of the Abyss.
Finally, there is Atziluth, the Spiritual Realm. All energies, including those from the Decans, emanate from the Prime Movie, the Source of All Energy and Being within the Realm of Atziluth, what religioous people term the Godhead. Few who have reached it have ever had the will to return. Why, they ask, for one reject perfection and walk in the cruder Realms having once tasted the divine?
In addition, there are the Elemental Planes, the "load-bearing beams" of the cosmos. At the center of each plane, only the purest irresistable force of that element can exist: howling wind, swelling water, roaring fire, crushing earth. Their "surfaces" are more accessiuble, and interact with the other Realms: the Boreal Stream of the Plane of Air blows across Yetzirah, the Pearl-Bright Ocean covers the whirlpool entrance to the Plane of Water, the Plane of Earth rests under Assiah and from inside Atziluth, the Central Fire dances and sparks shower down across the Four Realms, opening flickering doorways to the Plane of Fire. Where the planes interact are para-elemental regions.
The classic Planetary Spheres (which include The Sun and The Moon) and Zodiacal Houses also have their place. Whereas the Houses are fixed in Briah, the Planets move on their courses across the Four Realms, though they have their own connections to Briah, linked to deities and spirits associated with them (such as Ares and Mars).
As you can see, the various realms of the Cabbalistic Cosmology combine a lot of different elements together in a way that's extremly different from D&D's classic Cosmology. And yet, I want to use it in lieu of the "default" cosmology. Although I have the Manual of the Planes, I'm unsure how to handle such a cosmology with it, since rather then having a groups of different dimensions, there's really a four (or five, counting the Abyss) layered dimension.
On the other hand, just about every classical concept can find it's place in the Four Realms. Mechanus could become a Briatic domain of Pure Mechanical Order, while Limbo becomes a Yetziratic domain of chaos and unpredictability, for exemple.
Any advice on how I could convert this setting?
In it, Reality's nature is considered a hologram constructed from 36 component images representing mystical enegies of different frequencies called Decans. It is divided into The Four Realms, based on kabbalistic lore. Assiah, the Material, is the physical world we dwell in (or, alternatively, where -all- corporeal worlds/dimensions/alternative earths are).
"Above" or "Inside" the Material Realm (depending on how you interprete it), is Yetzirah, the Astral Realm. In appearance, the "outer" reaches of Yetzirah closely echo the "neighboring" sections of Assiah. Many ghosts and magi never move beyond this "ghost zone" into the deeper Astral. In deeper zones, Yetzirah generally appears misty and indistinct to mortal eyes, although clearer paths and regions appear throughout the Astral Realm, usually linked to natives or to powerful magic-users or Outsiders. The Inner Realms of Yetzirah are were Dreamworlds and the ultraterrestrial domain of Faerie are located. At it's deepest, inmost edge is an ocean big and mighty enough to contain worlds, and actually does. It's the Pearl-Bright Ocean, the Archetypical Ocean of the Unconscious, connected to all oceans and to the Elemental Plane of Water.
On the other edge of the Pearl Bright Ocean from Yetzirah is Briah, the Iconic Realm, the Realm of Forms. It is a realm where the Decans' energies are strong enough to allow images and ideas take on a life of their own, becoming eidolons and even gods. Here, you can find the mythical Island of Atlantis, and the realm of the gods. It is "ruled" by the Four Archangels, immense, beautiful quasi-elemental beings who stand equidistant from each other, defining the four quarters of Briah. Gabriel of the West, holder of a chalice of Pure
elemental water; Uriel, Archangel of the North, holder of an immense pillar of pure Earth elemental Salt-Crystal, Rapahel, Archangel of the East and holder of a lighting wand of elemental air, and Michael, Archangel of the South and the sword of Elemental Fire. They uphold the laws of the enigmatic Atziluthian Godhead.
Between Briah and Atziluth lies a vast chasm, the Abyss, the failed, negative realm, shadowed of the direct light of Atziluth by enormous walls of un-potential. It is a place of dark things inhospitable to true life, inhabited by demons, who rejected the Godhead and the rule of the Archangels, and who seek to enter the other realms via cracks in Reality, some of which extend into Assiah. But the demons themselves pale next to the Qlippoth, failed shells from the previous attempt at reality, who dwell in the Vale of Hinnom, a crack at the very bottom of the Abyss.
Finally, there is Atziluth, the Spiritual Realm. All energies, including those from the Decans, emanate from the Prime Movie, the Source of All Energy and Being within the Realm of Atziluth, what religioous people term the Godhead. Few who have reached it have ever had the will to return. Why, they ask, for one reject perfection and walk in the cruder Realms having once tasted the divine?
In addition, there are the Elemental Planes, the "load-bearing beams" of the cosmos. At the center of each plane, only the purest irresistable force of that element can exist: howling wind, swelling water, roaring fire, crushing earth. Their "surfaces" are more accessiuble, and interact with the other Realms: the Boreal Stream of the Plane of Air blows across Yetzirah, the Pearl-Bright Ocean covers the whirlpool entrance to the Plane of Water, the Plane of Earth rests under Assiah and from inside Atziluth, the Central Fire dances and sparks shower down across the Four Realms, opening flickering doorways to the Plane of Fire. Where the planes interact are para-elemental regions.
The classic Planetary Spheres (which include The Sun and The Moon) and Zodiacal Houses also have their place. Whereas the Houses are fixed in Briah, the Planets move on their courses across the Four Realms, though they have their own connections to Briah, linked to deities and spirits associated with them (such as Ares and Mars).
As you can see, the various realms of the Cabbalistic Cosmology combine a lot of different elements together in a way that's extremly different from D&D's classic Cosmology. And yet, I want to use it in lieu of the "default" cosmology. Although I have the Manual of the Planes, I'm unsure how to handle such a cosmology with it, since rather then having a groups of different dimensions, there's really a four (or five, counting the Abyss) layered dimension.
On the other hand, just about every classical concept can find it's place in the Four Realms. Mechanus could become a Briatic domain of Pure Mechanical Order, while Limbo becomes a Yetziratic domain of chaos and unpredictability, for exemple.
Any advice on how I could convert this setting?
