Need help wrapping my head around the cosmology.

[Otterscrubber]

The new cosmology I like a lot, although I'm having trouble picturing it in my head. The way it is described almost makes it sound like all the "planes" are physically connected, you just have to have a boat or path or whatever to get there. Particularly the Feywild and Shadow realms. The description says Eladrin often build on the edge of the Feywild, can someone describe this to me in a way that can make sense to a more logical mind? I lack creativity and need help on this stuff sometimes. Thanks.

 

[Mentat55]

Well, the Feywild and Shadowfell are basically reflections of the Material Plane (what they call "the world"). When they say eladrin build on the edge of the Feywild, they're really somewhere where the boundary between the world and the Feywild is thin, so creatures, and even whole cities, can transition from one to another.

They are connected, in a sense, but in all cases, you can't travel to the Feywild like you'd travel to the next town, or even across the sea. You still need plane-shifting magic. Usually that is supplied by rituals or magic items. Sometimes it involves fixed portals. And sometimes it is magic inherent to the two planes, that "connects" them in particular places, at particular times.

The Feywild and Shadowfell are something of parallel worlds. There are some correspondences between a particular location in the real world, and that location in the Feywild or Shadowfell, but the correspondences are not one-to-one and are heavily influenced by the plane in question.

That probably doesn't clear anything up. I am trying to think of a good analogy, but I am failing right now. I know someone else will post with a good analogy soon.

 

[Ryujin]

I'm still working it out myself, but both the Feywild and Shadowfell are planes (alternate dimensions) that are very 'close' to the 'real' world. They are essentially twisted reflections of the normal world.

Because of this there are places where the separations between the three are very thin. At these places it is RELATIVELY easy to travel between them, by using fairly low level rituals. The Eladrin are so used to moving between the realms at these 'crossroads' between the Feywild and the world, that they can enact the necessary rituals without the need of components, assuming that the Eladrin in question knows that ritual.

The rest of the planes are further removed from the world.

 

[Nytmare]

The description says Eladrin often build on the edge of the Feywild, can someone describe this to me in a way that can make sense to a more logical mind?

I took that to mean that, in addition to building their cities on say the edge of a forest or some kind of physical landmark, they are built on a place where two (or more) different planes sometimes overlap. Think along the lines of Brigadoon, or the town of Wall from Stardust.

Brigadoon is a village that only appears in the real world for 1 day every 100 years. Inside the village the 100 years pass in a single night while everyone sleeps.

Wall is a tiny, albiet normal and boring town that is bordered on one side by a low rock wall with a small gate in it. Jumping over the wall just gets you into the barren field on the other side, but finding a way past the aging guard and going through the open gate inadvertently allows you to pass into a different world.

Maybe like you said, you can take a boat or follow a path to get to the plane. Maybe you can only take that boat or follow that path at a certain time, or day, or during/after a certain event like an eclipse. Maybe while you're riding in the boat you need to perform some kind of simple ritual, maybe someone following you from the shore will suddenly realize that they've been walking for hours in a daze and that they have no idea when they lost sight of you. It could be a forest or some kind of building or structure where you walk in one side and when you come out the other you're in a different plane.

Thinking of them as being physically connected might be throwing you off. The connection can be so alien to 3 dimensional space that thinking of it as something physical is just a headache. If you start thinking about the world as an Escher-esque jumble of Mobius strips and Klein bottles tucked into an n-cube maybe you'll be better off.

 

[RangerWickett]

You ever hear stories about someone walking through a ring of toadstools and ending up in the realm of the faeries? Or turning down the wrong alley and coming out into a bleak city of those who died or were forgotten by society?

The two planes aren't fully in the material plane, but there are connections.

 

[On Puget Sound]

One example: IMC there is a portal to the shadowfell off the coast of Britain called the North Sea Gate. It is in the center of a permanent fog bank. Its only key is "a fearless hand at the helm". As a ship is about to enter it, some horrible illusion of impending doom appears, and the slightest variation in course will cause the ship to miss the portal and remain on its current plane. The illusion is an attack vs will on whoever is steering the ship; undead are immune. If the attack "hits", the helmsman panics and moves the ship off course, and that ship cannot try again that day to use the portal.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Thanks all that does help me wrap my head around it. I was surprised (and grateful) no one made any Harry Potter similes.....

 

[Loincloth of Armour]

For a logical view:

Imagine the Shadowfell, the World, and the Feywild as part of 1 apartment building.

The shadowfell is a suite in the basement, the World is on floor 1, and the Feywild is on the top floor.

Being apartments, each suite is generally similiar to the other two. There are a few differences, but the layout of the floorplans are remarkably similar.

Because it's in the basement, the shadowfell is dark, dank, has extra vermin, and has the older, more worn down furniture that others have gotten rid of. Living there is the strange, freaky, morose neighbour who likes to collect spiders and stares at people in a way that creeps them out.

By comparison, the Feywild has the best view, the most sunlight, and lots of windows. The furniture is nice and new, and the place was painted recently. However, the people who live there are kinda stuck up and proud. And their dog is very tempermental, and if you look at it wrong it'll try and bite your face off.

Normally, you move from suite to suite by using the stairs (portals and rituals), but for some odd reason, there are places where the floors and ceilings are weak. With a bit of a push you can climb up through the roof to the higher level, or you can walk over a section of weak floor and crash down into a lower level. These are sections of the planes that are 'weak' and allows for cross-overs to happen. Your neighbours occasionally use these 'weak' areas as well and can show up in your apartment, usually when you don't want them to.

To get to the other planes (Astal Sea and Elemental Chaos) you actually have to leave your apartment and go an entirely different building with its own rules, floorplans, and tenants.

 

[Wrathamon]

I am not a fan of the apartment analogy since it sounds more like the underworld middle-earth heaven thing...
I dont know if I could come up with a better one but lets use the apartment.

the prime is your apartment...

when you turn the lights off --- things magically change (the couch might still be there but the pillows are gone and your wife is now a zombie) when you put in the red light -- your still in the same location but again its different, the wife is now a faerie princess and the couch is covered in mushrooms.

 

[msherman]

Have you watched Fringe? The Feywild is like the parallel universe that William Bell lives in. Presumably in the Shadowfell, Bell has a goatee.