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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8403545" data-attributes="member: 6801228">I'd agree. But I think part of the way to clear that up is to look at balancing the cosmic scale. I like mirroring. I'll admit it. So having the Astral Realms mirror the style of the material world has an aesthetic appeal to me. So, since the material world is divided into kingdoms ruled by various powers, with a variety of alliances, then I like doing the same sort of thing in the astral realms. The Abyss is the badlands, an open sore where monsters pour forth constantly. No one controls it, but there are a variety of powerful warlords there that threaten the civilized world. The Nine Hells is an Evil Empire. It is divided into districts ruled by a council, and despite being relatively small, they are growing and dangerous. The Realms of the Gods are an affiliated set of city-states. Each pantheon (my world is divided among the racial pantheons mostly) has their place, and the gods don't really get along great, each is trying a different model for the best system of government, but they are allies and they all agree that they'd rather one of their rivals end up on top instead of Asmo or the Demons. The Feywild is an old kingdom, ruled by two queens and overseen by multiple smaller duchies, who could really care less about what the wider world is up to, because they know they are the most awesome. The Far Realms is the ocean stretching to the horizon, where foreigners not from the continent sometimes arrive, with disastrous results.Ect Ect EctPicturing it in this manner then makes it easier to conceptualize what is going on. It is far easier to move the pieces and set-up these conflicts. But part of that set-up requires things to be relatively balanced. If the Demons want to destroy all of reality, and the Feywild offers no beings really capable of standing up to demonic forces, then smart Demons target there. The gods aren't really going to step in to save the Fey. And it makes the Fey lesser if they need to be saved by other powers. And the closer the margin between the powers involved in a conflict, the easier it is to justify a single grain of rice (adventuring party of PCs) tipping the scales. They can't personally permanently kill Asmodeus, but they can cause a tactical retreat by tipping the scales back out of his favor.</blockquote>

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