My Homebrew Planar Arrangement

[Shawn_Kehoe]

Hello,

Having more or less completed the cosmology for my homebrew campaign setting a short while back, I thought I'd share it with the board for feedback. I'm not going to go into lots of details about the background, just explain the key differences from the Great Wheel, planar connections and the like. Mostly, I'm just looking for broken bits before my PCs find them. Here goes...

Material Plane: The material plane employs some fantastic geography. (i.e. It's not a globe). This plane is actually a shard of another prime plane that was lost during a techno-magical assault. It is coexistant with the Shadow Plane, Astral Plane, Ethereal Plane and Spirit World. The Material Plane is coterminous with each of the four Elemental Nexi in certain exotic locales. Dreaming creatures form limited, temporary portals to the Dream Plane.

Legalordon: Home of the lawful deities and outsiders. The devils and archons have developed an uneasy accord dividing the land. When violence occurs, it is controlled warfare, not open brutality. Legalordon is coexistant with the Astral Plane, and has its own ethereal plane. Certain portals to Discordia exist, but they have been sealed on the Legalordon side.

Discordia: This is where the chaotic gods and outsiders reside. Years ago, the lawful gods destroyed or sealed away most of the portals to Discordia, making it a closed plane. The Astral Plane is still coexistant with it, however. Unlike Legalordon, Discordia is constantly beset with warfare between the various factions of evil and good that are trapped in each other's company.

Spirit World: This dimension is coexistant with the material plane, and represents an idealised view of the natural world. Some of the neutral gods live here. A portal exists to the Positive Energy Plane. Areas that have been tainted with great evil in the material plane are reflected in the spirit world as well; daemons and other foul creatures haunt such places.

Shadow Plane: A dark shadow of the material plane. A portal in the heart of this plane leads to the Plane of Undeath, where the gods of the undead and negative energy originate. The Shadow plane extends beyond the material plane, and it may be possible to reach the prime material plane through it. Some Neutral Evil gods reside here.

Elemental Plane: A single plane occupies all four of the elements. These mindless forces clash quite violently at the edges of their influence, and exact borders are hard to draw. Portals exist from the material plane to these locations. ( A volcano may lead to the Fire Nexus, a sea trench is connected to the Water Nexus, etc). The Elemental Princes rule these areas. Also, a city exists in the Air Nexus which is closely linked to the Arabian-inspired lands of the setting.

Dream Plane: The dream plane has no known permanent portals, but dreamers travel their each night. The barriers to this plane are exceptionally strong - many of the fantastic creatures and elements of the campaign world came into being when the dream plane bled into the material plane, allowing humans to rewrite reality. This is actually the long-forgotten origin of my campaign's pantheon. The rulership of this realm is contested by two demi-gods, the Nightmare King and the Queen of Dreams.

Astral Plane and Ethereal Plane: I admit it, these were grandfathered in just for the sheer number of monsters and spells that make use of them. Mostly empty space, but I'm sure I'll come up with uses as time goes on.


And that is that. If you read this far... thank you. If you didn't... well, that's ok too.

Thoughts?

Shawn

 

[glass]

Interesting idea with all the lawfulls sharing a plane and all the chaotics sharing a plane. I like the plane of undeath being reached through the plane of shadow, too: at the very least, it makes shadows hangin out in the plane of shadow make sense cosmologically as well as thematically.

Only one slight criticism: the names 'Legalordon' and 'Discordia' strike me as a little cheesy, like something out of He-Man. OTOH, that maybe exactly the feel you are going for.


glass.

 

[William_2]

Don’t see any big holes – sounds interesting. I’m not a fan of the whole planes-by-alignment thing at all myself, so cutting back is a great start in my view. One small detail would be what exactly are celestial and fiendish animals, and where are they summoned from. Given that they are more of a good/evil split, how do they map onto a law/chaos planar split? A small matter, though. Probably both F and C creatures come from both planes, simple as that.

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

Interesting idea with all the lawfulls sharing a plane and all the chaotics sharing a plane. I like the plane of undeath being reached through the plane of shadow, too: at the very least, it makes shadows hangin out in the plane of shadow make sense cosmologically as well as thematically.

Only one slight criticism: the names 'Legalordon' and 'Discordia' strike me as a little cheesy, like something out of He-Man. OTOH, that maybe exactly the feel you are going for.
glass.

Yeah, those are more placeholder names than anything. I just find "Plane of Law / Chaos" so blah, ya know?

Shawn

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

Don’t see any big holes – sounds interesting. I’m not a fan of the whole planes-by-alignment thing at all myself, so cutting back is a great start in my view. One small detail would be what exactly are celestial and fiendish animals, and where are they summoned from. Given that they are more of a good/evil split, how do they map onto a law/chaos planar split? A small matter, though. Probably both F and C creatures come from both planes, simple as that.

I might just rule that most fiendish and celestial creatures are physical represenations of an idealised animal spirit, and thus roam the Spirit World. Of course, some would exist in the alignment-based planes, and their alignments would match the plane they reside in.

Shawn