The Cosmology of Eberron

[Hand of Evil]

Hey, what a co-incidence! Hand of Evil and I have exactly the same number of posts!

(oops, spoiled it now )

we have been changing places in the post count war off an on for about a week now.

 

[Frostmarrow]

I like it...

Eberron's going to surprise a LOT of people. Maybe even me.

Yes, it does have a certain air of that-I-got-picked-over-ten-thousand-others-was-no-accident to it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm mostly with Li. The coterminous idea is interesting, and, while hardly new, I'm glad it's being done in such a huge product. The planes are dry, though....and while that may be the intention all along, it is, I think, a sign that the planes weren't given a whole lot of thought, probably because they don't affect Eberron much unless the DM wants them to. But herin lies the problem, because the planes obviously would have had strong effects on Eberron in the past, on regular cycles that the people would have learned to predict (the bad guy who can only be killed on one plane being an example)....in theory, this has more crossover than default D&D, but default D&D's 'hell' seems to have a greater effect on the world than Eberron's, even though Eberron's is at least sometimes a lot easier to reach.

It's good; or, it's not bad enough to get me to condemn Eberron, but it's the first dissapointing thing I've seen out of there, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[Kesh]

It's a good cosmology, but for such a thing, I would have liked a bit less "core" planes (plane of chaos, plane of water, etc.) and a bit more weirdness.

I also think it's a mistake to have the "Far Realms Plane" be a part of the cosmology. I prefer when it's there without being supposed to be there.

Are you kidding? It provides so many fun plot hooks... now we have a specific place that alienists draw their power from, with a history in the world. Makes alienists even more likely to be persecuted in Eberron.

Not to mention all the fun stuff you can pull from Call of Cthulu d20.

I love the waxing/waning planes. Very nice idea. And I do believe the excerpt mentioned that scholars in Eberron do have charts for when these planes are coterminous and such, but it's left up to the DM to do the specifics to suit his campaign. Works for me. From the info they give in the core book, we should be able to fudge the last coterminous moment of the major planes, and a simple calculation can tell you when the next one will be. And, of course, you could always rig some major magic mojo that alters such timetables or forges a 'bridge' to another plane for your campaign story.

And, yet again, it gives me a great way to steal the insect spirits & Horrors from Shadowrun to use in Eberron.

 

[Greatwyrm]

The thing I like the most about the arrangement is the flexibility of it for the DM. It doesn't force planar adventuring on you or cut it off completely. It's there for as much as you want to use it, even if it's just an excuse for some weird supernatural weather from time to time.

In fact, I think that's something that I've seemed to be liking in a lot of Eberron stuff. Plenty of options, but you're not locked into anything. Options good.

 

[Hardhead]

I agree that the planes are rather bland. The only improvement over the standard planes is the "plane of the dead," which is a more adventure-prone source for negative energy and undeath than the Neg Energy Plane.

I do like the wax/wane aspect, though.

 

[~Johnny~]

I really enjoyed this update, and I'm glad Wizards decided to give us something that was more fluff than crunch. The backstory and interesting tidbits (hobgoblins and orcs were Eberron's defenders in millenia past, humans are a relatively new culture, psionics are linked to a dream plane) are really where a lot of where the Campaign Setting's distinctiveness lies. It's all about the details.

For folks saying the planes are bland and/or familiar, keep in mind that a stipulation of the setting was not to conflict with stuff in the core books. This cosmology is about as far out as you can get while still staying true to the SRD. (http://geocities.com/sovelior/srd/planes.html)

 

[BlackMoria]

Fires up the imagination to muse about what happens to the dead when the plane of the dead (Dolurrh) is 'remote' or co-terminus.

 

[Umbran]

Well, I'm no phyisicist.

Well, I am a physicist, so I'll engage in a small digression...

I just happened to catch a rather intriguing documentary on the telly. But basically scientists now believe that the particles that makes up quarks aren't dots as atoms and protons and such often are made out to be. Instead the quarks are made up of strings and loops.

Television reportage of science is notoriously bad, unfortunately.

For example - the phrase "scientists now believe", which I bet came right from the program. Makes the thing sound like an accepted truth, when it isn't. Some like the theory, others don't. It is still only a theory.

The problem with the string theory is the only way for it to work is if those loops has access to more dimensions.

At the moment, the real problem with it isn't the number of dimensions it uses. To my knowledge, no string theory has ever predicted a thing that we could verify experimentally that cannot be explained by another theory. This lack of experimental verification is somewhat troubling to many scientists.

But, enough digression. About Eberron's cosmology...

I'd expect the short description of each plane to be pretty dull. Short descriptions don't give much detail. Remember that a short description of a prime material plane would also be pretty dull, but you can have a whole interesting campaign in one. It takes an entire supplement to make the standard wheel cosmology start to seem interesting, so I'd expect the same need for Eberron's new cosmology.

The thing that annoys me more than anything are the made up names that seem to have little or no connection to the contents of the plane. Made up names for the sake of having it sound foreign annoy me.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Well, I am a physicist, so I'll engage in a small digression...

Television reportage of science is notoriously bad, unfortunately.

For example - the phrase "scientists now believe", which I bet came right from the program. Makes the thing sound like an accepted truth, when it isn't. Some like the theory, others don't. It is still only a theory.

The words "scientists now believe" were mine. I know that there are better ways to say just that but I was sloppy typing it. The reportage was actually very good from my stand point.

You can watch the show right here on the web:
The Elegant Universe