Have you made your own planar theory?

[Commonblade]

Where Primes go when they die.

I made one change to the standard wheel. I created a plane called the Twilight, where worlds go when they die. When they go there they take all their inhabitants with them. As the Planet dies the inhabitants feed off of its dieing energies and have their life spans expanded. The energies also attract the BBEGs of my campaign. They go to the planets that enter the twilight and spread death and destruction because that is what they feed on.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I'm running Kingdoms of Kalamar, and the default D&D multiverse didn't fit.

There is 1 primary world, the rough equivelent of the "Prime Material" plane.

There is a "Realm of Dreams" which is the rough equivelent of the Astral plane. They call it the Realm of Dreams because your body stays put on the real world, so it's kind of like you're dreaming. The RoD doesn't lead anywhere and most wizards have given up on it as useless, but certain others have learned how to create little pocket hidaways in it, and even how to transport themselves and objects into it physically.

There is "Otherworld." It is a very rough equivelent to the Etherial plane. When you enter Otherworld, objects in the real world become hazy and indistinct. You cannot be percieved from the real world, though you see other creatures and objects in Otherworld normally (and they see you). The geography of Otherworld roughly equates to the geography of the real world. This is where Elementals, Fey, and Mephits come from. Even animals live here.

Otherworld has several Aspects. If you are Good, then the longer you stay in Otherworld the more you become aligned with the "Good Aspect." The landscape becomes increasingly pristine and idealized. Animals gain the Celestial template. When fully aligned with Good, the "Neutral Aspect" cannot be percieved or interacted with. The real world is still fuzzy and indistinct. Positive Energy radiates from the sun. Cities can be discovered full of Celestials.

The same thing happens if you are Evil. If you spend too long in Otherworld, the landscape becomes increasingly twisted, blighted, and dark. Animals gain the Fiendish template. The "Neutral Aspect" cannot be percieved or interacted with. The real world is still fuzzy and indistinct. Negative Energy radiates from the sun. Cities can be discovered full of Fiends (usually corresponding in geographic location to the Celestial cities).

To visit Celestials or Fiends, it is necessary to spend a week in Otherworld to align yourself to the Aspect you are associated with. Leaving Otherworld and returning to the real world is trival, but upon re-entering Otherworld you will once again be in the Neutral Aspect, and your re-alignment of Aspects must start all over again, even if you were gone for only an instant.

Each of the 43 gods maintains their own plane of existence, assessable only through concealed passages in Otherworld. These are the realms to which people go when they die - followers and clerics automatically to to the plane of their own god and other, non-devoted people go to the plane of whatever god most closely fits their personal philosophy. Each God-Plane embodies the perfect nature of that god's sphere. The god of Nature would have a plane of endless perfect wilderness, the god of Vice a world of endless earthly pleasures, the god of Darkness a world swathed in eternal night, etc... In general, to go on a quest to travel through Otherworld and enter the Realm of a God is to never return to the real world. Gods do not look favorably on intrusions. Of course, myth is rich with stories of people traveling to these Realms to beg for the lives of their loved ones, etc..., but there are no documented cases of any such missions being successful.

 

[Ry]

The Beyond, or Astral, has existed beyond eternity. Somehow, consciousnesses emerged within the Beyond - these wills became, in time, the Elder Titans. Their interaction eventually lead to a common desire and common strife, but most of all a need for the fundaments of common expression.

From that interaction came the first Emanation; eight proto-elements, that would eventually merge and interact in the Second Emanation to form the Elemental planes. The rest of time counts as the Third Emanation, and the results are more or less the Thousnad Worlds cosmology, with a few time-travel and alternate-history things thrown in.

 

[alsih2o]

Fusangite, you entertain me.

 

[pogre]

World of Zandyrium Cosmology
There are two main planes, and the pantheons of Zandyrium label them differently, but for campaign purposes they are Elysium and Hades. These outer planes are vast places divided between chaos and law. The area between these aligned places is the Great Battleground where the eternal war is fought. The area between the areas in Elysium is the calm sea, although wars in the ancient past have occurred there as well.

There are innumerable minor planes spread throughout Oblivion or the Void. The Astral, Shadow, Aether, and Elemental planes are all found in the Void.

Gods do not inhabit planes, their areas of existence are beyond mortal’s understanding. The deities do however; draw on the planes for followers, messengers, and soldiers.

 

[fusangite]

Fusangite, you entertain me.

I'll try to take that in the most complimentary possible way.

 

[Breakstone]

In my next campaign, I'm thinking something, roughly, like this:

The disc in the middle is the material plane. Celestia is sort of a light shining on it, and in the shadows of that is the Abyss. So pretty much Celestia, the Material Plane, and the Abyss have the same geography, but have completely different populations/cities.

Now you can't have a shadow without a light source, and you can't have a light without the consequence of shadows, so it's sort of an eternal war between the two sides, with the Mortal Men of the material plane stuck in the middle.

 

[Doug McCrae]

In the example above, seems to me that Celestia would want the Material Plane out of the way. Then there'd be nothing to stop its light from shining on the Abyss.

Kind of like destroying the Earth because it spoils your view of Venus.

 

[Breakstone]

In the example above, seems to me that Celestia would want the Material Plane out of the way. Then there'd be nothing to stop its light from shining on the Abyss.

Kind of like destroying the Earth because it spoils your view of Venus.

Hey, now that's a neat idea...

 

[Psion]

I use the ethereal, shadow, and spirit planes differently.

Both ethereal and shadow planes are co-existent with the material plane, but the ethereal plane borders the spirit plane (essentially, the spirit plane is the deep ethereal), and extends to the heavens. the shadow plane, on the other hands, extends to the lower planes.