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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeff Carlsen" data-source="post: 5806341" data-attributes="member: 61749">I've played in and enjoyed the Great Wheel, both in it's Planescape form and in it's 3E revision. It's fun and interesting. That said, I think the 4E cosmology is a work of genius.Now, cosmology really is a setting specific thing, but that doesn't mean an effort to apply the great wheel to the 4E structure isn't a bad idea.Outer Planes: there seems to be agreement that the Astral Sea is a great reinterpretation of the Astral Plane, and I appreciate it's merger with Spelljammer. Putting the Outer Planes in the astral sea and linking them in a wheel still works, though the Abyss becomes somewhat of a problem.Inner Planes: The elemental chaos is clearly more contentious. I like it as an elemental themed place that you can adventure in, but I don't need it to be the source of all elemental energy. So, let's treat it as "astral sea" of the inner planes. The six inner planes all exist, and they connect in many locations to the elemental chaos. This includes the positive and negative energy planes. I certainly see this as more interesting than the ethereal plane as a transport device.I would, though, remove the abyss from the Elemental Chaos, though perhaps there could be a large, abyss like portal to it.Transitive Planes: So, as mentioned above, the two transitive planes are then the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos. Both are interesting to travel through and can be the source of adventure, and they both lead somewhere. So, what about the Ethereal Plane? It's still useful for explaining ghosts and letting players walk through walls. I think the answer is in it's very name. The Ether, which is the traditional fifth element that fills voids. So, yes, it remains a transitive plane, but it doesn't connect to the other elemental planes, but leaks into the elemental chaos just like they do. The Ethereal Plane has to touch all three of the Material Plane, the Feywild, and The Shadowfell, though I don't see it as being the method of traveling among the three, but I think elements from all three should leak into it. This would cause ghosts to see elements of light and shadow that people in the material plane do not.Feywild and Shadowfell: These two planes, especially the Feywild, really captured my imagination with 4E launched. I think they're brilliant, even if I felt that the Shadowfell was a little monothematic and underdeveloped. Also, while I like the name Feywild, Shadowfell feels like Evilbaddark. The Shadow Realm seams a better colloquial name for what is known by planar scholars as the Plane of Shadow. Re-imagining Ravenloft as existing in the Shadowfell really worked for me, though I can bet it offends serious Ravenloft fans.The movement of souls: So, this is the final piece of the planar cosmology. In the Great Wheel, if I remember correctly (please correct me if I'm wrong), souls came from the positive energy plane, were born on the Material Plane, and when they died, ended up going to the outer planes to find their final resting place according to their alignment.I believe this outward movement of souls is critical to the Great Wheel. Souls should never travel inward, but might perhaps get trapped, perhaps by being sucked into the Shadow Realm or the Feywild, or by refusing to leave and wandering the Ethereal Plane.</blockquote>

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