Have you made your own planar theory?

[Starglim]

The physical world is formed by Water above, Fire below, and Earth and Air coalesced between, where the more energetic elements burn each other out. Watery things, like mist, clouds and sea-waves, tend to rise. Fiery and burnt things tend to descend.

This Material world is a construct, one of several formed in bubbles of potential by the Glassblower, an ancient inhabitant of the Greater World that surrounds the world. The Greater World develops outwards and upwards to successive heavenly planes (Paradise, Heaven, Elysium, and the Primal Light), inwards and downwards to successive hellish planes (Infernum, the Abyss, Gehenna, Tarterus, the Void). Strangely enough, the Heavens are smaller than the Greater World, despite being outside it, and the Hells are vast though they lie at the centre: Primal Light could be held between two hands, but the prisons of Tarterus are isolated in immensities of space.

The Gods are a family descended from the union of an Infernal ruler (a lesser successor of the Glassblowers) with the Great Goddess, the ancient power of the Material Plane. Thus the current Arch-Devils are the Gods' half-siblings and priestly magic is part-diabolic.

The dalliance of a Goddess with the Swift One, a spirit from the Primal Light, created the Muses combining natural life, infernal will and higher reason, and allowed arcane magic, bardic magic and psionic arts to exist. Druidism is an amalgam of natural magic and Muse-worship. Dispel Magic works a little differently in this world.

(In short, an incredible mishmash that tries to cram together many different sources)

 

[alsih2o]

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

Hey, it was economics and now this, I am serious like a heart attack. You entertain me.

It is all good.

 

[fusangite]

Hey, it was economics and now this, I am serious like a heart attack. You entertain me.

It is all good.

Hurray! I can't write a story hour to save my life but if you want a bunch of quirky messed-up campaign background material in this vein dumped on you at any point, just give the word.

I'm reminded of the scene in Adaptation (one of my very favourite films):

VALERIE
We all just loved the Malkovich script.

KAUFMAN
Thank you. That's... I appreciate that.

VALERIE
(still looking at her salad)
Such a unique voice. Boy, I'd love to find a portal into your brain.

KAUFMAN
(laughing nervously)
Trust me, it's no fun.

 

[alsih2o]

Hurray! I can't write a story hour to save my life but if you want a bunch of quirky messed-up campaign background material in this vein dumped on you at any point, just give the word.

I don't discuss books much, have very few threads in the rules forum and no urge to be a d20 pro. I come here for the give and take of cool ideas. Dump on me whenever.

PS, I LOVED Adaptation.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I simplified the planar cosmology in my new campaign world significantly.

I agree with Fusangite - there's no point in seperating the Elemental Planes from the Material - its what the Material Plane is made of.

So in my world, there is the Material Plane, Faerie, the Shadowlands, and Dream. Each has some subsections; for example, Nightmare is a part of Dream, and each person kind of creates a mini-dream demiplane when they sleep - only powerful dreamers can cross over into Dream itself.

Along those lines, there are two sections to the Shadowlands; one section is ruled by the Unseelie Court, and another is used by the spirits of the dead as they try to find their way to their reward; the less virtuous the person, the longer this journey takes (kind of like Grim Fandango).

Faerie and the Shadowlands also manifest in Border Realms, which kind of take the place of the Border Ethereal, and also harken back the regio of Ars Magica. These are the places mortals are most likely to run into the Fey, good or evil. If you know how, or have a guide, you could get from the Material Plane to Faerie or the Shadowlands without casting any spells. Portals are not uncommon.

Spells that use the Ethereal Plane typically access Shadow in my world. Spells that use the Astral use Dream. Psionics are Dream-related. Demi-plane creation is also pretty common amongst the highest level wizards and such.

 

[Voadam]

Outer planes are elemental planes of alignment, mostly. Outsiders and elementals are not so different cosmologically, just in their specifics (i.e. fiends are elementals of different kinds of evil as opposed to different kinds of physical elements).

Shadow is a lot like The Ways in the Wheel of Time, and there are Things out there such as the Jartaska shadow demons who fled the abyss when the tanari took over. Whether you bring light or make noise while travelling there makes a difference.

I use a bunch of Shadowrun metaphysics for magic theory so astral space has significance for a lot of spells.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

See here for the long version.

Essentially, there are 10 "cosmic forces": Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Law, Chaos, Good, Evil, Positive Energy (or Life), and Negative Energy (or Death). All these "hang" in astral space, although no one can actually ever reach them - any defenses will soon be overwhelmed if you even try to approach them.

Stable "planes" form at the "midpoints" between two non-opposed cosmic forces. Thus, you have the traditional plane of Chaos and Evil, where demons live (similar to the Abyss), but also a plane of Chaotic Air, Evil Life, or Good Water.

 

[Aesmael]

This is what I put in an earlier thread to describe how the planes connect to each other.

Prime
4 Directions – Other Prime layers (Up, Down, Law-ward and Chaos)
6 Directions – Elementals (Air, Earth, Fire, Negative, Positive, Water)
3 Transitives – Astral, Ethereal and Shadow
Sometimes 1 Outer Plane in 3 Tints – Law or Chaos, depending on the edge
At the Ends - ???

Elementals
4 Directions – Other Elemental Planes (Air:Water:Earth:Fire:Air All to Positive and Negative [Not from each other])
1 Direction – A Prime layer
2 Directions – Layers of the Same Elemental
2 Transitives – Ethereal and Shadow
At the Ends - ???

Ideal
2 Directions – Other Ideal Layers, Up and Down
1 Direction – The Prime
2 Transitives – Astral and Shadow
3 Tints – Law/Neutral/Chaos {Caster’s choice of alignment when travelling by spell, otherwise matching the traveller’s if coming by transitive}
At the Ends - ???

The Hollow
1 Transitive – Shadow
2 Layers – Up or Down

Astral
Law, Prime, Chaos.
The other Transitives

Ethereal
Elementals, Prime.
The Other Transitives

Shadow
Law, [Elementals] Pri<The Hollow>me [Elementals], Chaos
The other Transitives

Now, I'm tired right now and there a probably things I did not put in the original document, so let me know if it is unclear. The Ideal is the outer planes. There are two, Law and Chaos, with about a hundred layers (think of it as 'many' rather than precision). Everything else lies between them (about ten Prime layers thick).
Plane Shift will let you travel only between adjacent layers.
Gate will let you travel more, I have not settled on how many yet.
The Elemental planes are not subdivided 'horizontally' but they are 'vertically'. However, I do not want it to be possible to enter, say, Air from one plane and leave it onto another and make the transitives redundant. Currently thinking along the lines of the direction you enter limiting the direction(s) you can leave.
The entry for Shadow is actually a good representation of the 'horizontal' structure. Imagine a hundred more identical lines on top of it and that's the universe.
Everything on a given layer (except the Ideal) is coexistent, except that an elemental plane cannot be accessed directly from its opposite element.
Edit - The prime layers (cells) are coterminous wert each other. The others are coexistent with all prime cells on that layer and each other, again excluding the opposing elements.

This of course explains nothing about their contents. As far as Creation stories go, it most resembles the myth known by the name of brane theory. Metaplot, such as it is, revolves around the great war between newly in contact forces of law and chaos.
There were no inner planes (including the elementals) before the collision, which also saw the creation of dragons (Because. That's why).

The Hollow, I suppose, could be considered the 'Fey' realm. It is also strongly Neutral aligned (natives get an exemption to penalties, I guess).
It would be be an obvious waste of time to attempt to detail each and every layer that exists in this cosmology, however it does provide a good excuse to throw in whatever world I feel like.

Locally, this time the players start in the flooded prime they voted for. Very lawful place. There's the LE Ilsensine Empire, the LE Hobgoblin Empire, and of course that Aboleth Thrallherd. Heh, sounds like I'm trying to kill them when it's put like that. Well, they can always run to the only chaotic power on the plane for help. Red Dragons are theoretically capable of kindness, right? At least the war hasn't spread here yet.
Nearby/adjacents include an 'inverted' world (player races and monsters switch which live in the dungeons, an elf dominated (opressed) prime (consider a mix of Pryan [Including treeness and driving other races belowground] from the Death Gate Cycle and Hela's [Absolution gap] moving cathedral's) and another sealed off that recently saw an evil rebellion (That's Baatezu and Tanar'ri putting aside their differences long enough to start a Blood War in miniature. Someday I hope to trick a player into playing the world's last paladin). And of course the good ole world ruled by wizard schools. Definately in the lawful half of the cosmos too.

Time to stop now. Have reached the point of essentially vomiting onto the screen. Hopefully can fix post later.

 

[Gez]

Yes, I have.

It's all about planets, and dimensions.

Outer planes are merely ethereal layers of other planets. The Ethereal layers of a finite place are infinite (and non-euclidian).

Energy and elements are the same thing. Energy and elemental planes are merely alternate dimensions of the same universe -- if you go to the Elemental Plane of Fire, you replace your being and your perception from the Three Spacial Dimensions of Matter to Three Elemental Dimensions of Fire.

That's just a brief sum-up. Because then you have Ethereal layers of every dimensions, the Astral, the Nihil (Far Realm equivalent), and lots of other strange/contradictory/unexplained/unknown stuff. Planar cosmology should be harder to grasp than quantum physics and astrophysics put together.