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The D&D Multiverse: The Weird Go Pro (Part 1)
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<blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 8456526" data-attributes="member: 21169"><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">The Multiverse</span></strong></p><p></p><p>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 <em>The Sundered Worlds</em> (1963):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">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.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">The multiverse is finite. Vast as it is, it has limitations. And beyond those limitations exist – other realities, perhaps.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">The multiverse, agitated, swirled and leapt and delighted them with its flourish of colour and variety. All possibilities existed there.</p><p></p><p>Its meaning later changed in Moorcock's writing to encompass an infinite number of universes. <em>The Sleeping Sorceress</em> (1971):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">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.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">The Prime Material Plane</span></strong></p><p></p><p>The "Prime" in Prime Material Plane likely derives from L Sprague De Camp, <em>The Fallible Fiend </em>(1973):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">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.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">The Silver Cord</span></strong></p><p></p><p>In D&D this first appears in D&D Book VI <em>Eldritch Wizardry</em> (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 <strong>dead</strong>."</p><p></p><p>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 <em>Weird Tales</em> (September 1934):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">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.</p><p></p><p>Another cord, not silver but with the same function, is mentioned in Robert Sheckley's alternate world short story, <em>The Store of the Worlds</em> (1958):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Doug McCrae, post: 8456526, member: 21169"] 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. [B][SIZE=5]The Multiverse[/SIZE][/B] 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 [I]The Sundered Worlds[/I] (1963): [indent]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.[/indent] Its meaning later changed in Moorcock's writing to encompass an infinite number of universes. [I]The Sleeping Sorceress[/I] (1971): [indent]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.[/indent] [B][SIZE=5]The Prime Material Plane[/SIZE][/B] The "Prime" in Prime Material Plane likely derives from L Sprague De Camp, [I]The Fallible Fiend [/I](1973): [indent]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.[/indent] [B][SIZE=5]The Silver Cord[/SIZE][/B] In D&D this first appears in D&D Book VI [I]Eldritch Wizardry[/I] (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 [B]dead[/B]." 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 [I]Weird Tales[/I] (September 1934): [indent]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.[/indent] Another cord, not silver but with the same function, is mentioned in Robert Sheckley's alternate world short story, [I]The Store of the Worlds[/I] (1958): [indent]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.[/indent] [/QUOTE]
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