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Is Paladine Bahamut? Is Takhisis Tiamat? Fizban's Treasury Might Reveal The Answer!
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<blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 8345658" data-attributes="member: 79428"><p>Player's Guide to Faerun also apparently established that Toril was linked to <em>multiple</em> cosmologies with separate planes and gods:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Astral_Plane#World_Tree" target="_blank">Source</a></p><p></p><p>So the Forgotten Realms went from being part of the Great Wheel cosmology in 2E to apparently being part of multiple cosmologies in 3E, each with its own unique Astral Plane, to the World Axis cosmology in 4E (which, IIRC, was originally devised for the Forgotten Realms but then also used for the default setting) and finally back to the Great Wheel in 5E, this time bringing along the formerly independent Eberron (which did not use the World Axis cosmology in 4E).</p><p></p><p>The 3E Forgotten Realms cosmology is kind of fascinating, honestly. Instead of being surrounded by the Great Wheel or the World Axis, it was basically an independent bubble that had links to multiple Astral Planes and sets of Outer Planes depending on which pantheon of gods was most prominently revered in a given geographic region. This is a very versatile idea. It makes it so that campaign settings don't necessarily belong to a given cosmology, but can be linked to one or more. 3E Forgotten Realms was essentially the hub of a network of cosmologies, whereas settings like Eberron and Ghostwalk only had a link to one cosmology.</p><p></p><p>You could even use it to say that the Dragonlance setting may have been connected to a unique cosmology but somehow had that link severed and replaced by a link to the Great Wheel, which the people of the setting may be almost completely unaware of. This changes the context from the people of Krynn being very ignorant about their cosmology's true nature to trying to figure out why they were so wrong about cosmology, not knowing that their world had been separated from its original cosmology and linked to another.</p><p></p><p>You could also use this with 5E Eberron. It's not that the people of Eberron have always been ignorant of the Great Wheel cosmology beyond their world and its planes, but that the connection to the Great Wheel is new. You could also take a page from the 3E Forgotten Realms and say that perhaps Eberron is still most strongly connected to its original cosmology, which is entirely separate from the Great Wheel, rather than the Eberron cosmology somehow being part of Eberron's Material Plane within the Great Wheel.</p><p></p><p>This explanation is kind of complicated, but it has precedent and, IMO, has the most opportunity for connecting cosmologies to settings without invalidating the earlier identity of the setting. It's not that Eberron and Krynn have always been part of the Great Wheel, but that a new connection has been formed with it. Eberron maintains a strong connection to its original cosmology, while Krynn has lost connection to its original.</p><p></p><p>Even if Takhisis is an aspect of Tiamat, it could be that they are essentially competing Tiamats that dwell in separate cosmologies. Perhaps the Tiamat of the Great Wheel doesn't want to share with her alternate counterpart and has somehow separated Krynn from the cosmology where Takhisis is supreme and either established herself as the new Takhisis or forced her counterpart to combine with her or die, with the people of Krynn largely unaware that a change has occurred.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hexmage-EN, post: 8345658, member: 79428"] Player's Guide to Faerun also apparently established that Toril was linked to [I]multiple[/I] cosmologies with separate planes and gods: [URL='https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Astral_Plane#World_Tree']Source[/URL] So the Forgotten Realms went from being part of the Great Wheel cosmology in 2E to apparently being part of multiple cosmologies in 3E, each with its own unique Astral Plane, to the World Axis cosmology in 4E (which, IIRC, was originally devised for the Forgotten Realms but then also used for the default setting) and finally back to the Great Wheel in 5E, this time bringing along the formerly independent Eberron (which did not use the World Axis cosmology in 4E). The 3E Forgotten Realms cosmology is kind of fascinating, honestly. Instead of being surrounded by the Great Wheel or the World Axis, it was basically an independent bubble that had links to multiple Astral Planes and sets of Outer Planes depending on which pantheon of gods was most prominently revered in a given geographic region. This is a very versatile idea. It makes it so that campaign settings don't necessarily belong to a given cosmology, but can be linked to one or more. 3E Forgotten Realms was essentially the hub of a network of cosmologies, whereas settings like Eberron and Ghostwalk only had a link to one cosmology. You could even use it to say that the Dragonlance setting may have been connected to a unique cosmology but somehow had that link severed and replaced by a link to the Great Wheel, which the people of the setting may be almost completely unaware of. This changes the context from the people of Krynn being very ignorant about their cosmology's true nature to trying to figure out why they were so wrong about cosmology, not knowing that their world had been separated from its original cosmology and linked to another. You could also use this with 5E Eberron. It's not that the people of Eberron have always been ignorant of the Great Wheel cosmology beyond their world and its planes, but that the connection to the Great Wheel is new. You could also take a page from the 3E Forgotten Realms and say that perhaps Eberron is still most strongly connected to its original cosmology, which is entirely separate from the Great Wheel, rather than the Eberron cosmology somehow being part of Eberron's Material Plane within the Great Wheel. This explanation is kind of complicated, but it has precedent and, IMO, has the most opportunity for connecting cosmologies to settings without invalidating the earlier identity of the setting. It's not that Eberron and Krynn have always been part of the Great Wheel, but that a new connection has been formed with it. Eberron maintains a strong connection to its original cosmology, while Krynn has lost connection to its original. Even if Takhisis is an aspect of Tiamat, it could be that they are essentially competing Tiamats that dwell in separate cosmologies. Perhaps the Tiamat of the Great Wheel doesn't want to share with her alternate counterpart and has somehow separated Krynn from the cosmology where Takhisis is supreme and either established herself as the new Takhisis or forced her counterpart to combine with her or die, with the people of Krynn largely unaware that a change has occurred. [/QUOTE]
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