Have you made your own planar theory?

[alsih2o]

In my homebrew (see Beale Knights storyhour in my sig) I decided I wanted the planes to be run a little differently.

Each Elemental plane (earth, fire, air, water, wood, flesh, and mood(emotion)) acts like a lighthouse. They exist independently from the Material plane but also overlap just a bit. As they spin their "Light" is broadcast onto the prime for a certin period of time, not unlike a lighthouse beam.

As each planes beam shines upon the prime gates can open to the plane and that plane has a greater effect and influence on the prime. Sometimes more than one plane is shining its influence on the prime at once. Fire, Water and Mood turn pretty quickly, whereas Earth, Air and wood turn rather slowly. Flesh barely turns at all, and some scholars specualte that life is only guaranteed a chance while the Flesh plane shines upon the prime. Scholars argue about how long it has shown and how long remains.

What have you done differently with the planes?

 

[diaglo]

What have you done differently with the planes?

each plane is a star/planet/body in the sky. so you can see them at night when you look up. infinite numbers of them.

and the tribal elders can point to the one you will eventually go to when you die.

 

[Raven Crowking]

The first post of my primary Story Hour includes the cosmology of my planes.


RC

 

[Evilhalfling]

Celestial Sphere - ie the sun - where the Good gods live in layers (like and onion!)
The Inferanal Sphere i.e. the moon - Where the dark gods and all 3 demon lords live. In mini realms that are surrounded by chaos, where they move in relation to each other (like soup!)

The Shadow Realm - former home of magic, demi-humans and humanoids
It collapsed 200 years earlier and all three invade the human (mundane) world.
(bent space, normal time)

The Dream Realm - replaces the etherial - constant leaks into one human kingdom , but can be reached from anywhere. The outer spheres are within easy reach of this realm.
(bent time, normal space)

Elemenal planes - They exist but the northern kingdoms have no adequate explination for them. Frequently confusing fire, and water with 2 of the demon lords' realms.
The Southern kingdoms are more intimaly involved with them, and have to deal with elementals and genies of all sorts.

 

[howandwhy99]

I like the idea of viewing the universe from a medieval perspective. Space, the stars, planets, quasars, black holes, etc. do not exist. Each faith had rather unique perspectives about what the stars and moon really were. Each followed their own sense of the universe and how they believed it was constructed.

In game, several gods could be omnipotent (though it makes no logical sense). The power of belief aligns the cosmology of the universe along the particular lines of the believer. So a person who believed in one god or no gods could not be influenced "universally" by all the other gods. (Of course, the other gods' believers can still have influence over them)

This may mean several cosmologies need to be created. But really only for every different religion you use in game.

In other words, every faith is "right" about their beliefs.

 

[diaglo]

In other words, every faith is "right" about their beliefs.

welcome to OD&D.

 

[Wombat]

One game I came up with had this configuration:

No elemental planes -- the elements are the building blocks of the terrestrial sphere, so all elementals are of this plane.

Elysium -- this is the plane of All Things Good.

Inferno -- this is the plane of All Things Evil

Shadow -- this is a nearly contiguous plane with the terrestrial sphere; this is where ghosts, wraiths, and spirits live, where you travel when you "phase", and the like.

That was the extent of that campaign. We were quite happy with the limited nature of the planes

 

[Kemrain]

The Universe is truely infinite.
It is made up of an infinite ammount of Multiverses, some of which are infinite.
Traveling from one universe to another is quite possible...

The Prime Material Plane, what we call "Alsatia," is a world like Earth in a universe like Earth's. It follows most of the laws of physics, after you include Magic and Gods, and it has Billions of Billions of stars, with other planets and such, out in space. The whole "Universe" (as we know it) is the Prime Material Plane, and it's not alone.

Coexistant with the Prime is Heaven, Hell, and Limbo, infinite planes aligned to Goodness, um, Evility, and Neutrality. All three are infinite (wheres the plane is Finite but expanding infinitely over time... Perhapse it is infinite 4th dimentionally...) and their borders (if you can concieve such a thing in an infinite plane) extend far beyond the reaches of Alsatia, and contain whole other universes like the Prime.
In Hell, every place in the prime corresponds to a place there, and, while they are not usually similar, they occupy the same space in a higher dimention. (The same way 2 objects can occupy the same point in space at different times, think dimentionally!) Those who were wicked in life are doomed to spend eternity in Hell in torment at the hands on it's Demonic natives. Souls in Hell are used as Currency, Building Materials, Food, Amusement, and Fuel. Those that are consumed, as food or fuel, are the truely lucky, for sweet sweet oblivion is their reward.
Heaven is a bit different, occupying the same space but functioning on a strange level. Everyone, dead or no, has their own personal heaven, that is perfect in every way, down to who's there, and even the existance of heaven itsself. People who have not yet died can be in Heaven, because, how could things be perfect without your children there to love you? This creates logical inconsistancies, but Heaven is, by deffinition, exceedingly difficult to comprehend. Mortals can barely wrap their heads around infinity; perfection is right out. Everyone who was good and pure, upon their death, rises to Heaven, to live in bliss for all time.. Unless eternirt doesn't suit them, in which case they can ecist as long as they wish before being either reborn or givingthemselves to oblivion.
Limbo is a strange place, misunderstood by most. It is mostly an empty expansive plane, only sparsely populated, and home to the souls of those not Good enough for Heaven nore Wicked anough for Hell. While Heaven is Bliss and Hell is Torment, Limbo is just, boredom. There is very little color, no flora or fauna, often nothig even to stand on. Some serve time and go to heaven, like a sort of Purgatory by Bordome, but most are doomed to boredom and frustration, either forgotten forever or harvested, eventually (once they're ripe), to be reincarnated.
Of all the Afterlife Destinations, Heaven is by far the least populated. Hell is next, it's requirements being quite a bit easier to meet, with Limbo taking the lead, as most people weren't terribly good or evil (though you wouldn't know it by looking- Limbo is, again, very empty!)

Within each Prime, and possibly all planes, there is an infinite number of 'dimentions', one for every decision and event throught the course of history, breaking the timeline into a causal tree of consequence. These 'alternate realities' are exceptionally poorly understood, but some people posit that Divination magics access these branches in reality to gather their information. (- Thus meaning that no divination is ever wrong, it's just reaching from an unconnected timeline.)

Other Primes exist, some within and some without the boundaries of Heaven and Hell, and these realities can be traveled to, as well, though little is understood about them. Some follow similar laws of existance to Alsatia, but others are very strange indeed, involving more or less than the 3 1/2 dimentions we're used to (1/2 for Time that functions Linearly only, like in our perception of reality). Existances on 2d planes, or in 6th dimentional paralells are possible, but their effects on creatures native to Alsatia are vague at best.

There are Elemental Planes, but they haven't been gone into in any detail. They may be whole Primes, unto themselves (which would explain why Alsatian critters have the Life type, and critters fromthe plane fo Fire have the [gasp]Fire[/gasp] type), orthey may simply be parts of Alsatia. Their true extent is unknown.

There is a Shadow Plane, a distorted mirror image of Alsatia, that is Coexistant with the plane. All things that exist here, exist there also, but.. Different... It could be saidthat Light is Shadow, Matter is Energy, Good is Evil, but that wouldn't truely describe the differences. People that have been there and returned have reported that it was often nearly identical, but the slight differences gave the whole place a dark, unwholsome feeling, like a cold wet veil draped over your face.

there are other planes that exist, but most of them are unknown or misunderstood. There is an Etherial Plane, but it seems most closely related to folds in the fabric of Alsatian space- Pocket Dimentions. Our understanding is limited at best.

- Kemrain the Theoretical Planar Physicist.

 

[fusangite]

I have a real problem with D&D planes and how they work so, for me, MOTP is a very useful text so that I can run D&D detatched from the incoherent hodgepodge of mess that has been generated.

For me, some general principles that are always true when I run D&D:
1. Elemental Planes: I never use the elemental planes. Because I actually take the 4-element system seriously, I run with most of its implications such as:
(a) the true home of the elements is, of course, in the material world and so no elemental planes are necessary.
(b) the elements vary in lightness/heaviness in the standard Aristotelian way: fire is lightest, followed by air, then water, then earth. Thus, the outer edges of the material world are pure fire and the centre of the world is pure earth.
(c) things from outside the material world are not made out of the four elements until they try to materialize into the material world -- then they elementalize
2. Outer Planes: Because I find the alignment thing so hugely problematic, (I tend to keep it for game mechanical purposes but treat it as the elephant in the room.) I don't use any of the recommended cosmologies. There are fewer death compartments, as it were and what ahppens after one dies tends to be more shrouded in mystery in my worlds.

More specifically, I have run two D&D worlds since 3E came out. The first, Kazuria, had the following "planes" (though they weren't really thought of this way):
1. Kazuria: This term refers alternately to the crumbling world-spanning empire the characters adventure in. But, problematically, there are areas of the map that Kazuria does not extend to -- it is bordered by the Encircling Ocean, the Encircling Mountains and the First Wood.
2. The Gods' World: In the Encricling Mountains, there is the Secret Gate of Amnassem that only the gods can pass through. But, in their Great Covenant, the gods agreed to withdraw from the world, save for the two living gods who live in the world but are possessed by the spirits of two of the gods. Excerpt from text follows:
After the Gods of the Veld locked the Nameless Gods outside the world, they too chose to withdraw from Kazuria and leave the realm to mortals. When they decided this, Ivno had already dug the Encircling Ocean and the Sky and Underworld had been taken out of mortal reach. Not wishing to permanently cut themselves off from the mortal realm, they could not withdraw beneath the earth, above the sky or beyond the seas so they raised the encircling mountains in the west of Kazuria and withdrew to a plateau beyond the impassable wall of stone.

Because a time may come that the gods need to re-enter the world or a mortal needs to reach the gods, Rovnoth created the Gate of Amnassem, in a high pass which leads to the realm of the gods. As the god of the mountains and Keeper of the Gate, Rovnoth represents everything about the earth that the Four Sisters do not. Where the sisters are yielding and maleable, Rovnoth is hard and unbending; where the sisters are fertile and generous, Rovnoth is cold and inert.

Rovnoth is the enemy of Hynand who holds him responsible for the Gods' decision to divide god from man and man from beast.
3. Outside: At the beginning of time, Rovnoth, God of the Encircling Mountains locked the nameless gods outside the world. Nobody, not even the named gods has been to this place since and nothing is known about its nature.
4. The Underworld/Moon: Excerpt from campaign materials follows:
At the beginning of time, the gods were numerous and varied. A few protected the mortal creatures of the world but most hated or indifferent to them. To protect the mortals, the Gods of the Veld fought a long war against the other gods to expel them from the world of mortals. Most of the Gods of the Veld died in this war, sacrificing their lives for the lives of men and beasts. Of the gods expelled from the ordinary world, Kurauno is the only god whose name is still remembered. It is said that there were dozens of gods who were placed beyond the reaches of the mortal world, now worshipped only in realms far from Kazuria or not worshipped at all. These gods are known sometimes as the Other Gods or the Nameless Gods

But Kurauno is remembered because while the Nameless Gods joined the Gods of the Veld in battle, Kurauno wrought a deep magic binding himself to Zhivathavno, the God of the Sky, linking their fates for all time. For he knew that no matter how angered the other gods could become, they would never sacrifice the sky, being lovers of the stars and sun just as mortal man was.

So while the Nameless Gods fought against the Gods of the Veld for dominion over the ordinary world, Kurauno retreated, betraying the Nameless Gods to cast his spell. As soon as the spell succeeded, the plan of Kurauno was laid bare to the Gods of the Veld but it was too late. Instead, the gods were forced to cast a counter spell, removing both gods almost totally from the world. The sun retreated high into the sky and the stars became little more than pinpricks, unreachable by man. The underworld, too, was withdrawn from the world and became almost totally unreachable by mortal man. Some speculate that the underworld now hangs in the night sky, too, a white ghostly presence chasing the sun through the heavens. Others say that it has been pushed farther down, leagues below the deepest mines. All followers of Kurauno seek to liberate their god and find a way for him and the Nameless Gods to re-enter the world.
5. The Beast World: Excerpted text again:
Hynand the Beast God was the deity who ruled the Veld in the days before the Four Sisters. In the days of Hynand, men lived like animals, without agriculture, cities or civilization. It was in those days that the gods erected the Encircling Mountains and dug the great trench which holds the Encircling Waters so that the beasts would not wander off the edge of Kazuria and into the realm of the gods.

It is said that Hynand does not make his home with the other gods, still being greatly wroth at their invasion of his lands. According to his worshippers, he now rules a great wild plain filled with fabulous beasts beyond the edge of the world. The beasts who roam the plain are the followers (both man and beast) of Hynand in this world.
6. The Astral/Ethereal Plane: I didn't really make this plane something people imagined as a place. I just shunted all the game functions requiring an Astral or Ethereal plane through this kind of scientific/intellectual construct.
7. The Sky:
Zhivathavno, it is said, loves mankind more than any other god. It is for this reason that he agreed to withdraw from the world to protect mortals from his sworn enemy Kurauno. It is said that each star in the sky is one of his children who died in the war against the Nameless Gods. On the anniversary of their deaths in the great war, he weeps for them, drenching the Veld in his tears.

There is much debate whether Zhivathavno lives on the plateau with the Gods of the Veld or whether he is consigned to live like Kurauno, removed from the world, trapped in his own realm.

 

[fusangite]

My other world, called Winter (or at least it was called Winter about a quarter of the time because it had a cyclical system of ages based on Taoist alchemical theories of change), had thirteen planes inspired by ancient Mexican cosmology:

1. Walled Garden
2. Tree of Beulah
3. Tree of Generation
4. Female Skeleton
5. Stars
6. Sun
7. Moon
8. Sky World
9. Earth/Shadow/Spirit/?
10. Male Skeleton
11. Obsidian Mountains
12. Wild Beasts
13. Silent Place

Where the game takes place, level 9, I have used a bit of the D&D idea of transitive planes with the Spirit World concept from MOTP standing in for the ethereal plane, and being opposed by the Shadow World. The bottom planes are for those who have died in dishonourable ways and must make their journey to the Silent Place to be taken up into the heavens. But most never complete their journey and stay in hell forever.

The Obsidian Mountains are, for instance, the plane where those who have died dishonourably in battle must live. Everything there is sharp like an obsidian blade and the place is in a constant state of war. The tree of Beulah is taken entirely from Aztec mythology (except for the appropriate Blakean name I gave it); it is where infants who died before weaning go. It is a tree of infinite size covered in human breasts where they suckle for the rest of time.