Please, tell me about your custom cosmology.

[Maldin]

My campaign multiverse is based on the original Great Wheel inner/outer planes of the 1st Ed Players, the Manual of the Planes (1st edition for 2E) and Planescape. The Prime Plane that the players inhabit is the Spelljammer Prime with crystal spheres in the phlogiston. With that setup I can let them travel to any plane and any sphere (read:campaign world) that they wish to (or that I wish to send them to... BWAAAHAHAHAHAA!!).

I went beyond that, however, and developed what I call a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) to help explain the structure and original formation of that cosmology, as well as explain all the phenomena and rules of D&D... including the origin of magic, energy, interdimensional space, gods (and other immortal beings), the "spirit" and petitioners, intelligence and non-biological sentience, elementals, differential time, and the palpible ethos of the outer planes. If anybody is interested in reading my GUT, go to my "Life, the Multiverse and Everything" page on my website at http://melkot.com/mysteries/multiverse.html and let me know what you think!!!

Denis, aka "Maldin"
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Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Check out the ton of cool Edition-independent stuff on my website:
New Spells, Magic Items, Campaign Notoriety, Artifacts, Kyuss, secrets of the Twin Cataclysms, the Codex of the Infinite Planes, the Dreadwood, the cities of Melkot, Greyhawk and Irongate, and much, much more!!

 

[fusangite]

I'm not currently running a D&D world. However, the last D&D world I ran is currently being GMed by a friend back in my home town. The cosmology is an adaptation of Mexica/Nahua cosmology (among other things) with 13 levels:

1. Walled Garden
2. Tree of Beulah
3. Tree of Generation
4. Female Skeleton
5. Stars
6. Sun
7. Moon
8. Sky World
9. The World
10. Male Skeleton
11. Obsidian Mountains
12. Wild Beasts
13. Silent Place

Planes 1-4 and 10-13 are closer in scope to demi-planes. Though geographically large, they constitute a single reality. Sic Freud on me but I was very taken with the idea of a heaven exclusively inhabited by unweaned infants (like the original Christian version of Limbo) so the Tree of Beulah is based on the level of Aztec heaven that these children are sent to, occupied by a giant tree covered in lactating breasts.

Sky World, in my scheme is essentially the Astral Plane. The World is occupied by the overlapping planes of the Prime Material, Spirit World and Plane of Shadow, all of which constitute a different version of the same reality. These three planes are strongly associated with the four cardinal directions; this is combined with a 6-element/6-age system operating in a cyclic history with 4/6/8/ main gods or totems. Male Skeleton and Silent Place are water worlds.

The three worlds at level 9 are organized as:

North/Air/Owl
West/Water/Wolf Centre/Earth East/Metal/Bear
South/Wood/Mammoth

As in the Aztec schema, cyclic time is understood as a succession of suns that are destroyed at the end of each age.

Direction Animal-Winter Animal-Type Animal-Ideal Letter Age Power Colour
1 West Wolf Canine Wolf K Ice Ice White
2 South Mammoth Elephantine Elephant N Wood ? Green
3 Up N/a Serpentine Dragon V Breath ? Yellow
4 North Snowy Owl Avian Eagle Sh Cloud Thunder Grey
5 Down N/a Marine mammal Whale P Water Water Blue
6 East Polar Bear Ursine Grizzly Bear G Blood ? Red

 

[NewLifeForm]

I have so many...

But the one I use primarily for D&D is as follows...

An infinite number of prime material planes exist due to a single all-powerful deity's inability to make up their mind at the moment of creation. To prevent these realities from colliding, the Astral Plane pushes them apart and the Ethereal Plane holds them together so they stay right where they should.

The Concordant Opposition, staffed by Watcher-like beings called The Neutral Men, sits in the exact center of it all checking for problems in the universe mechanic described.

Matter, Energy, Thought and Belief form the power known as Mana - which is magic - but it is also what the entire multiverse is made of. The one all powerful Deity created various dragons, titans, gods and such to put the finishing touches on reality. When they were done, the left over Mana was used to create homes for them to observe and sometimes tinker with their work. These homes became the other 'planes', but in truth they exist within a given prime material plane. For example, the BiFrost Bridge leads from a nation in the frozen north to the realm of the Norse Gods on most worlds. Some Asgards are lead by Odin, others Thor, following his fathers death. On still others, the world is so hot there is no frozen North, no BiFrost Bridge, no Asgard.

NewLifeForm

 

[Storyteller01]

My last campaign:

The Prime is connected to the Plane of Shadows (the Dark Road), the Astral (The Divine Path), and the Etherial (The Arcane Crossroads). Neither of these planes interacted with each other.

The Astral plane connects with the divine realms (The Abyss, Celestia, etc). If you can travel the astral, you may find your way to one of these realms.

The Etherial plane connects with the six elemental planes. If you can travel the etherial, you may find your way to one of these elemental refuges.

The Shadow Realm... well, no ones come back to say where it leads to.


Made life VERY interesting. Clerics were nearly helpless in the face of the primordial, wizards spells (based on maniplating the universe via the 6 elements) were largly ineffective when seeking divine aid, and everyone was up s-creek in the plane of shadow.

 

[PhoenixDarkDirk]

I'm building a fairly simple cosmology based on the Myriad Planes setup described in the Manual of the Planes with a few alterations. Every plane has a material and an ethereal layer. Any kind of creature might be found in a plane with the right environment. The Outsider type is eliminated, with the creatures reclassified. Alignment has no place in the mechanics of the game, and no race has any alignment tendencies.

 

[Plane Sailing]

A bit like the 'winding road' cosmology in the manual of the planes, my old campaign cosmology was an infinite series of planes stacked against each other like a deck of cards, and surrounded by the astral plane.

Planar traval only allowed you to move to one of the two planes on either side of you. Astral projection allowed you to move 'outside' and enter any plane along the way, not just the adjacent one.

Fiends and Celestials are in a constant war over the planes, but it is difficult for them to get a foothold into a plane which is strongly occupied by other life - so elemental planes are largely elemental, but there are some pretty barren places which are battlegrounds between fiends and celestials.

Afterlife, if it exists, is off the map. You can't go and visit a god on his home plane!

My current campaign is in Eberron, with the lovely Eberron Orerrey cosmology.

Cheers