D&D 5E The D&D Multiverse: The Weird Go Pro (Part 1)

[Doug McCrae]

This post considers the possible sources for astral projection, and the Astral and Ethereal Planes in early D&D.

Astral projection first appears in D&D Book IV Greyhawk (1975): "Astral Spell: A spell which allows the user to send his astral form, undetectable to all but others on the astral plane, from his body to other places… The magic-user may employ spells while in his astral body." Movement in astral form is very rapid. The version of Astral Spell in the AD&D 1e PHB (1978) allows travel to the Outer Planes.

D&D's Astral and Ethereal Planes are described by @Snarf Zagyg in the original post.

Theosophy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

These ideas derive indirectly from late 19th century esoteric religions – Theosophy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Jon Peterson, Playing at the World (2012):

The conception of planes entered the twentieth-century primarily through the evangelism of Theosophists: Blavatsky writes extensively about planes in The Secret Doctrine, for example, repeatedly invoking "higher planes" and even alluding to the "planes of the etheric (or Astral) Force." For the theosophic distinction between the "spirit-plane" and "earth-plane," they relied on a characteristic hodge-podge of sources, including Neoplatonist and Buddhist sources. The direct constructions "Astral plane" and "etheric plane" also appear in The Secret Doctrine. By the advent of Doctor Strange, the construction "ethereal" replaced "etheric."​

From the entry "Imagination" in Wouter Hanegraaff, Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism (2005):

The stage was set for the concept, central to all forms of 19th and 20th-century occultism, of a "magical plane" parallel to the every-day world.​

​

A central role in this regard was played by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, one of whose most important practices focused on attaining "spirit vision" by means of "astral projection". According to the Golden Dawn teachings, specific occult and ritual techniques make it possible to project one's spirit out of the "sphere of sensation" and into the "astral plane" of the reified imagination; and essentially the same approach has become a standard element of occultist magic in the 20th century.​

Lin Carter

Lin Carter's World's End series is cited in Appendix N. His non-Appendix N novel Under the Green Star (1972) features astral projection, and makes a Theosophic distinction between the "astral body" and the "etheric body":

The ancient Eastern science called eckankar – soul-travel, the projection of the so-called "astral body" – fascinated me.​

​

His [Man's] nature is sevenfold: the animal flesh, the material body itself; the vitalizing life-force that animates that flesh; the ego that is the conscious "I" of every man; the memory, that contains a record of all that each man has seen and felt and known: the astral body, the vehicle of the higher soul-levels on the second plane; the etheric body, that is the chalice contained within the astral vehicle; and, seventh and last, the immortal soul itself, that is the precious flame within the chalice.​

Carter's Enchantress at World's End (1975) describes a spiritual realm resembling D&D's Astral Plane: "At death, the Astral counterpart of the physical body departs for a higher plane of being."

Doctor Strange

The magician Doctor Strange appears in comics published by Marvel from 1963 onwards. He frequently uses the power of astral projection. His disembodied spirit is usually described as "ectoplasmic", "ethereal", or "astral." This ability is commonly used for rapid travel or stealth.

The characters in Doctor Strange comics often travel between dimensions. This is mostly undertaken in physical form but sometimes an astral form is used, for example when Doctor Strange travels to Nightmare's Dream Dimension.

Doctor Strange's "ethereal self" travels to the Dream Dimension. Strange Tales #116 (January 1964):

Doctor Strange is invisible in his "unphysical ectoplasmic form". Strange Tales #120 (May 1964):

Doctor Strange's "ectoplasmic form" can “reach any spot in seconds." Strange Tales #124 (September 1964):

Doctor Strange and Baron Mordo travel rapidly round the globe in their ectoplasmic forms while battling one another using offensive and defensive spells. Strange Tales #125 (October 1964):

Doctor Strange travels between dimensions in "ethereal form". Strange Tales #133 (June 1965):

The Ancient One uses his "spirit form" to travel between dimensions. Strange Tales #142 (March 1966):

Doctor Strange casts the spell "Flames of the Faltine" while in his "astral self". Doctor Strange #176 (January 1969):

Doctor Strange uses his "astral body" to travel to the Dream Dimension. Doctor Strange #181 (July 1969):

Clea summons aid from the "Astral Plane". Marvel Premiere #7 (March 1973):

Demons attack Doctor Strange thru "astral doors" and "ethereal doorways". Marvel Premiere #8 (May 1973):

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You also need to consider the Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics - credited to Hugh Everett in 1957. Many of these literary sources where influenced by scientific ideas (and visa versa).
Many-worlds interpretation - Wikipedia.

 

[Doug McCrae]

This post considers possible sources for some other aspects of the planes and planar travel in early D&D – the multiverse, the Prime Material Plane, and the silver cord.

The Multiverse

The term "multiverse", used for the first time in D&D in the AD&D 1e PHB (1978), has an obvious source – Michael Moorcock. He first used the word in The Sundered Worlds (1963):

Many who have probed the perimeter of space outside the galaxy have mentioned that they have sensed something else, something not in keeping with any recognised natural laws. Others have had the illusion of sensing suns and worlds within the galaxy - where suns and worlds just can't be! This has given rise to the theory of the "multiverse", the multidimensional universe containing dozens of different universes, separated from each other by unknown dimensions.

The multiverse is finite. Vast as it is, it has limitations. And beyond those limitations exist – other realities, perhaps.

The multiverse, agitated, swirled and leapt and delighted them with its flourish of colour and variety. All possibilities existed there.​

Its meaning later changed in Moorcock's writing to encompass an infinite number of universes. The Sleeping Sorceress (1971):

Elric's mind could hardly contain the significance of what he had heard. It suggested that the universe – or the multiverse, as Myshella had named it – was divided into infinite layers of existence… He was tempted to consider the idea of forgetting Theleb K'aarna, Myshella, Tanelorn and the rest and devote himself to the exploration of all these infinite worlds.​

The Prime Material Plane

The "Prime" in Prime Material Plane likely derives from L Sprague De Camp, The Fallible Fiend (1973):

On the first day of the Month of the Crow, in the fifth year of King Tonio of Xylar (according to the Novarian calendar) I learnt that I had been drafted for a year's service on the Prime Plane, as those who dwell there vaingloriously call it. They refer to our plane as the Twelfth, whereas from our point of view, ours is the Prime Plane and theirs, the Twelfth.​

The Silver Cord

In D&D this first appears in D&D Book VI Eldritch Wizardry (1976) as a feature of the psionic ability, Astral Projection. "The astral body is attached to the physical body by a silver cord. If this cord is broken, then the body and the astral body are dead."

The "silver cord" is surprisingly rare in Appendix N fiction. The only example I could find is Robert E Howard, "The People of the Black Circle" in Weird Tales (September 1934):

Wizards have drawn my soul through the wind-blown darkness. They seek to sap the silver cord that binds me to my dying body… They drew my soul out of my body and far away, into a stone room. There they strove to break the silver cord of life, and thrust my soul into the body of a foul night-weird their sorcery summoned up from hell.​

Another cord, not silver but with the same function, is mentioned in Robert Sheckley's alternate world short story, The Store of the Worlds (1958):

I'm trying to find a way of making the transition permanent. So far I haven't been able to loosen the cord that binds a man to his own Earth – and pulls him back to it. Not even the great mystics could cut that cord, except with death.​

 

[Baba]

The Silver Cord

In D&D this first appears in D&D Book VI Eldritch Wizardry (1976) as a feature of the psionic ability, Astral Projection. "The astral body is attached to the physical body by a silver cord. If this cord is broken, then the body and the astral body are dead."

The "silver cord" is surprisingly rare in Appendix N fiction. The only example I could find is Robert E Howard, "The People of the Black Circle" in Weird Tales (September 1934):

Wizards have drawn my soul through the wind-blown darkness. They seek to sap the silver cord that binds me to my dying body… They drew my soul out of my body and far away, into a stone room. There they strove to break the silver cord of life, and thrust my soul into the body of a foul night-weird their sorcery summoned up from hell.​

Another cord, not silver but with the same function, is mentioned in Robert Sheckley's alternate world short story, The Store of the Worlds (1958):

I'm trying to find a way of making the transition permanent. So far I haven't been able to loosen the cord that binds a man to his own Earth – and pulls him back to it. Not even the great mystics could cut that cord, except with death.​

Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if these could in turn have been inspired by divers with airhoses.

They too would enter a strange, alien world, tethered to their home only by a cord, and if that cord was broken, they would be lost.

 

[Rogerd1]

https://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/PDF/multiverse_sciam.pdf

This explains the Tegmark's multiverse in rudimentary terms.

Then there is also Brian Greene

The Hidden Reality - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Pick the one you like really.

 

[jgsugden]

The core 'pickle' they ran into was that while there were an infinite number of 'Prime' worlds, the intent was that there would be one set of the rest of the planes. There would be one Dis, one Happy Hunting Grounds, one Astral, and one Ethereal.

This creates conflict when the PCs visit these realms and do something significant, such as kill Dispater. As the adventures began to involve more interplanar aspects, the conflicts created caused problem - so attention was pushed away from the Outer Planes.

However, rather than fight against or flee from that current, I steer into it.

My suggestion for DMs:

1.) Don't just use the Cosmology that is provided to you in the books. Take inspiration from it, but make it your own. Why? Because them it is still mysterious to the player ans PCs when they go explore them. That sense of the unexpected and wonder give these types of adventures a distinct advantage.

2.) Use your cosmology for all of your settings.

I have a simplified Cosmology. There is one Heaven, one Hell, and one Elemental plane, for example. In Hell, the center is Nessus, which is surrounded by 7 Regions controlled by Archfiends, and then those 7 are surrounded by Avernus, the battle ground of the Blood War, which has one technical ruler, but has dozens of Generals trying to earn that title of Archfiend. Surrounding that are countless Demonic Realms where demons fight amongst themselves and try to push their armies to the Heart of Nessus to win the Blood War.

These outer planes remain the same whether I am using my version of Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, my homebrew, Krynn, or any other setting. The perceptions of the people on the Prime may differ from the reality, but if they visit the outer planes, they get my one and only Outer Plane experience.

This allows you to develop the massive details of the Outer Planes over your decades of DMing and create something that has depth and soul.

3.) Have each Prime exist in a separate plane, and have a separate Shadowfell (with Ravenloft Domains) and Feywild (with Domains of Delight) specific to that Prime.

This will give your games distinction, depth and a life over a long period.

 

[Doug McCrae]

This post considers possible sources for some other aspects of the planes and planar travel in early D&D – the multiverse, the Prime Material Plane, and the silver cord... The "silver cord" is surprisingly rare in Appendix N fiction.

Another possible source for the silver cord are popular books about the occult such as Dennis Wheatley, The Devil and All His Works (1971):

Finally he [the magician] conjures up an apparition of himself standing in front of himself. Actually this is what the Egyptians would have called his ka, his etheric double, which he has forced out of his body. His spirit then leaves his body and enters the ka, enabling it to ascend to the astral planes, but still attached to his physical body by what is called the 'silver cord', a transparent link which keeps it alive and enables him to return to it.

Occultists also hold that, in deep sleep, our spirits leave our bodies and, remaining attached to them only by what is termed the 'silver cord', ascend to the astral planes where they can communicate with other spirits whose bodies are also asleep, and those of others not in incarnation.​

 

[Casimir Liber]

Are we including all planes on this thread? If so, one thing I (slightly) miss are all the quasi- and para-elemental planes, though the latter are seemingly recently included (aaaaand welcome Cryonax to 5e ) ...anyway.....musing that the Feywild and Shadowfell have taken the roles of the positive and negative material planes....so a quasi-elemental plane of minerals is a demi-plane or region at junction of Feywild and elemental plane of earth, and a demiplane of Dust lies at junction of earth and shadowfell etc.

 

[michaeljpastor]

Just for completeness, multiverse in The Magician's Nephew (1955) - the Wood between the Worlds.

...and one cannot be complete without "the Flash of Two Worlds!

 

[ilgatto]

Whoa! Blown away by what @Doug McCrae did upthread. Many, many kudos scored.

I probably shouldn't, but his first post also made me wonder if there should be a difference between “pasts, presents, and futures” and “alternate material planes/worlds/etc.” (AMPs). That is, “presents” as seen in that sequence – i.e., from a time perspective and not, say, as per “but Boot Hill is in a different time than Old Earth so time is either a) all over the PMP, b) an AMP, c) both".

Without taking into account the science of time and how 1E and 2E D&D, DMs, and authors of relevant fiction treat time (e.g., dimension, an alternate world because branching) – and never having given the subject any thought because I've never had to deal with time travel as a DM – my gut instinct would be to say that there is a difference between the two in D&D.

In fact, if pressed, I think I would go for each AMP having its own time line(s), wherefore “pasts, presents, and futures” can only be accessed using time travel – and not plane-shifting spells or abilities.

In the discussion with said presser that would no doubt follow, I'd say that there is much about planes in the 1E and (early) 2E D&D source books but not very much about time travel – in fact, I do believe the first and only time I read about it for D&D in that period of the game was in This Is, Of Course, Impossible, by Marcus L. Rowland in White Dwarf 29 (GW, 1982). But that may well be because I didn't have the proper relevant sources and this argument will crash and burn the very moment somebody procures one that says that “pasts, presents, and futures” are all AMPs.

So let's assume that an AMP is a phenomenon that can exist without having any causal relation to a phenomenon in another AMP – as opposed to one that depends on another for its existence.

What would that mean for the origins of “infinite prime material planes”?

(...) Examples of Infinite Parallel Worlds

The following excerpts provide evidence that a large number of creators used the idea of infinite parallel worlds (including alternate histories).

Murray Leinster, "Sidewise in Time" in Astounding Stories (June 1934)
There is more than one future we can encounter, and with more or less absence of deliberation we choose among them. But the futures we fail to encounter, upon the roads we do not take, are just as real as the landmarks upon those roads… There are an indefinite number of possible futures, any one of which we would encounter if we took the proper 'forks' in time… As there must be any number of futures, there must have been any number of pasts besides those written down in our histories… and it would follow that there are any number of what you might call 'presents.'

Well, for one thing, going by the quote above, I suppose it could be argued that Murray Leinster's infinite possible pasts, presents, and futures are not actually AMPs but “pasts, presents, and futures” of “the world”, however infinite. They depend on things happening in a certain world existing in time, while it could be argued that Gamma World can exist independently from what happens, has ever happened, or will ever happen in, say Mystara, wherefore the concept of time doesn't come into play when one travels from one to the other.

Stanley Weinbaum, "The Worlds of If" in Wonder Stories (August 1935)
The worlds of "if," the weird, unreal worlds that existed beside reality, neither past nor future, but contemporary, yet extemporal. Somewhere among their ghostly infinities existed one that represented the world that would have been had I made the liner.

This one is trickier, for it seems to depend on the notion of “if”, which doesn't necessarily need to involve time. However, the last sentence seems to imply that the existence of at least one of these worlds of “if” depends on the “I” not having made a liner, perhaps effectively not making it an AMP?

Stanley Weinbaum, "The Circle of Zero" in Thrilling Wonder Stories (August 1936)
Through all the multifold eternities of the past-future cycle you can't have been always Jack Anders, securities salesman. There will be fragmentary memories, recollections of times when your personality was partially existent, when the Laws of Chance had assembled a being who was not quite Jack Anders, in some period of the infinite worlds that must have risen and died in the span of eternities.

This speaks of “past-future cycles” and “times when” but it doesn't seem to actually come to mention a place where this “being not quite Jack Anders” is supposed to be? Rather, it seems to speak of many Jack Anderses being possible … somewhere/time.

CL Moore, "Greater Than Gods" in Astounding Science Fiction (July 1939)
Before time has caught up with it, while our choice at the crossroads is still unmade, an infinite number of possible futures must exist as it were in suspension, waiting for us in some unimaginable, dimensionless infinity.

Infinite futures? Out.

L Sprague De Camp and Fletcher Pratt, "The Roaring Trumpet" in Unknown Fantasy Fiction (May 1940)
The world we live in is composed of impressions received through the senses. But there is an infinity of possible worlds, and if the senses can be attuned to receive a different series of impressions, we should infallibly find ourselves living in a different world.

These infinite other worlds… exist in a logical but not in an empirical sense. (...)

Wait... what?!

Godd...! I thought mine was a unique concept! I am seriously having very serious trouble reading this.

[very lengthy, frustrated sequence][/very lengthy, frustrated sequence]

Oh well. Perhaps the lesson here is that there's nothing one can think of that someone hasn't thought of before, especially if one considers the possibility of infinite pasts.

(...) Jack Vance, "Rumfuddle" (1973)
I can tune the machine very finely. I can code accurately for the 'Home' class of worlds, and as closely as necessary approximate a particular world-state. But at each setting, no matter how fine the tuning, we encounter an infinite number of worlds. In practice, inaccuracies in the machine, back-lash, the gross size of electrons, the very difference between one electron and another, make it difficult to tune with absolute precision. So even if we tuned exactly to the 'Home' class, the probability of opening into your particular Home is one in an infinite number: in short, negligible.

P.S.: Left this one because Jack Vance.