kigmatzomat
Legend
So to start with, I'm good with dimensions being "parallel but offset" and not being flat "planes" but blobby n-dimensional shapes that connect to whatever they need to . So lots of "this plane has a hole that the other plane passes through." Which means the model is very representational rather than being a map.
The "inner" planes are primal and elemental. Fire, air, earth, water. Mortals often perceive them as one big dimension but rather than having "dimensional boundaries", they are physical ones. All the air is the Plane of Air. All the rock is Plane of Earth. All the water is Plane of Water. All the Fire is Plane of Fire. You make a fire somewhere in the primal realm? Congratulations, that's a gate to the rest of the plane of Fire. Walls of Fire are portals. Same for Wall of Stone. The cold regions are far from the plane of Fire. The dry regions are far from the plane of Water. Steam is where Water is near Fire. Dust is Air and Earth. Etc, etc.
The most active parts of the primal planes is a kind of headwater to a "river" of sorts, but its more of a point source for creation, a white hole. Fire, water, gale force winds, rock all blasting forth from this place. At the far end of the omniverse is the opposite, the black hole, where everything turns to ice, ash, and dust and is consumed into nothing.
The outer realms are places of ideas: good, evil, hate, love, order, chaos. Also one big realm, in a way, but with very specific gates, tunnels, paths, caves, etc connecting them. Good and evil are far apart, as are order and chaos.
The mortal realms are a midgard, the place between, having elements of primal inner and conceptual outer. Not all get equal shares in all things.
There is also the Shining Lands and the Gloaming Lands, the feywilde and shadowfell, which are "upstream" and "downstream" of the mortal realms. The Feywild reflects all the mortal realms, but with the intensity turned up to 250%, while the Shadowfell is a rotting, decrepit version of all the mortal realms , foretelling their eventual demise. These are my Positive and Negative Material Planes. The Feywild is not all lightness and smiles; the winters are colder, the deserts are more brutal, the seas have higher waves, the storms are more terrifying. It's "more" not "better." And the Shadowfell isn't devoid of kindness but its a tired, exhausted kindness. Undead are drawn to it not because it nourishes them, but that the gnawing hunger becomes a dull ache.
The mortal realms almost never touch directly, but almost all of them touch both the feywild and the shadowfell, the primal realms and the conceptual realms, though usually at small gates that often ebb and flow with seasons, stars, and holy days.
The void between the primal and mortal planes is the ethereal, the void surrounding the outer and separating it from the mortal realms is the astral.
Perhaps the stars are the other mortal planes or perhaps the stars are other cosmologies that could be reached through the astral.
The "inner" planes are primal and elemental. Fire, air, earth, water. Mortals often perceive them as one big dimension but rather than having "dimensional boundaries", they are physical ones. All the air is the Plane of Air. All the rock is Plane of Earth. All the water is Plane of Water. All the Fire is Plane of Fire. You make a fire somewhere in the primal realm? Congratulations, that's a gate to the rest of the plane of Fire. Walls of Fire are portals. Same for Wall of Stone. The cold regions are far from the plane of Fire. The dry regions are far from the plane of Water. Steam is where Water is near Fire. Dust is Air and Earth. Etc, etc.
The most active parts of the primal planes is a kind of headwater to a "river" of sorts, but its more of a point source for creation, a white hole. Fire, water, gale force winds, rock all blasting forth from this place. At the far end of the omniverse is the opposite, the black hole, where everything turns to ice, ash, and dust and is consumed into nothing.
The outer realms are places of ideas: good, evil, hate, love, order, chaos. Also one big realm, in a way, but with very specific gates, tunnels, paths, caves, etc connecting them. Good and evil are far apart, as are order and chaos.
The mortal realms are a midgard, the place between, having elements of primal inner and conceptual outer. Not all get equal shares in all things.
There is also the Shining Lands and the Gloaming Lands, the feywilde and shadowfell, which are "upstream" and "downstream" of the mortal realms. The Feywild reflects all the mortal realms, but with the intensity turned up to 250%, while the Shadowfell is a rotting, decrepit version of all the mortal realms , foretelling their eventual demise. These are my Positive and Negative Material Planes. The Feywild is not all lightness and smiles; the winters are colder, the deserts are more brutal, the seas have higher waves, the storms are more terrifying. It's "more" not "better." And the Shadowfell isn't devoid of kindness but its a tired, exhausted kindness. Undead are drawn to it not because it nourishes them, but that the gnawing hunger becomes a dull ache.
The mortal realms almost never touch directly, but almost all of them touch both the feywild and the shadowfell, the primal realms and the conceptual realms, though usually at small gates that often ebb and flow with seasons, stars, and holy days.
The void between the primal and mortal planes is the ethereal, the void surrounding the outer and separating it from the mortal realms is the astral.
Perhaps the stars are the other mortal planes or perhaps the stars are other cosmologies that could be reached through the astral.
