looking for a different cosmology

[AIM-54]

AIM-54



Wow, that's what I did for a campaign I've been running since 3.0 came out. The party didn't know that they'd moved to a new place (a long boat ride to another continent was all they thought was happening, but I was actually pulling them out of the old cosmology and into a new one).

I have a prime plane, a spirit plane, and a darkspirit plane. The spirit plane is some mixture of astral, ethereal and shadow elements. Some of the PCs and NPCs who've been reduced to -10 have risen later as ghosts, and I let them keep playing (I've established rules for what ghost abilities they can and can't get, and have associated LA changes to them if they want the more powerful attributes). The darkspirit plane is somewhat like FR's Underdark stuff with a bit of shadow and ethereal mixed in.

So far, my players have liked the change. The characters think they're in the Abyss or something--they're sure they're being tricked and are on a plane that they've heard of before.

Dave

Well so much for originality...

On the other hand, it's cool to think that maybe it's not as crazy as I may have thought. Seems like a pretty cool setup you got there, definitely gives me something to think about as I work through the design process.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[LoneWolf23]

Why don't you take a look at the cosmology I designed here: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91838

 

[Hand of Evil]

An old thread about the subject...with pictures.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52011&highlight=Cosmology

 

[JoAT]

My take on the planes is... remarkably similar to Vrecknidj and AIM-54's - I have the material realm, the Spirit Realm (Abode of most of the gods, and the spirits, since I use an animistic basis, with the gods merely being really, really powerful spirits), the Shadow Realm (Abode of, well... Some of the darker, more mysterious gods and a bunch of shaodw-like races), the Dream (Basicly like the World of Dreams in the Wheel of Time, except that it's possible to slip to the Far Realms by going to far afield in the inbetween/dreamseeker layer), the Fey World (Source of the world's elves), and finally, the Realm in between, better known as the worlds of mirror (Place that connects The Spirit, The Shadow and The World).

 

[baseballfury]

Book of the Righteous has an excellent cosmology and a complete religion to go with it.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I'm partial to the three-world cosmology Dogbrain described. I've been using it because it is both somewhat commonly known and also fairly simple.

 

[Dogbrain]

What if every major culture in your campaign (much like our own reality) has a different cosmology, due to its religion and social mores.

That depends on a lot. Oddly enough, most real-world cosmologies that I'm famliar with could "fit together". The majority that I've come across say that humans live in a "middle world". Above the middle world is a "good place" that might be the abode of the virtuous or fortunate dead and beneath it is an "unpleasant place" that might be the abode of the evil dead or of all dead. Various places between might or might not be in the model.

This three-tier system can be found among the Achaeans, the Norse, the Chinese, and others. It's remarkably widespread.

 

[Ibram]

To humans there are two "planes" the Mortal World and the AEtherium. The mortal world is described either as floating ontop of an endless sea or sitting under an endless sky.

The closest part is similar to the Ethreal plane in other settings, a shadowy place where everything is half real.

Further out is similar to the Astral Plane, an endless expanse of energy. However unlike the astral plane this area of the Aetherium is very much inhabited. this is where most nearly every single outsider comes from. An endless expanse of energy home to various spirits (daemons and such) criss crossed by the marked paths and titanic cities of the more organized inhabitants (such as angels and devils). There is no realy line between a god and a spirit, so there is no real "land of the gods".

Beyond that lies is the "Shadow Realm", which even the current gods fear to enter. that to is "inhabited" so to speak; dark, vast, things move there. According to the priests who serve the gods living in the "astral plane" (good or evil) the souls of the dead who have no strong attachment to the gods go to this place and are devoured. Though this is taught as truth it is mere speculation.

The TRUTH is that reality is folded in an infinite fractal pattern.