D&D General What is your favorite D&D cosmology?

[Mirtek]

I didn't vote for FRs world tree, but I will say its had alot of cool stuff, it had a ton of potential, but they did nothing with it. I mean all those FR books in 3.5e and not one Forgotten Realms Manual of the Planes style book to flesh them out was a wasted opportunity.

Btw FRs World Tree isn't completely dead in 5e, the plane of Zigguraxus is mentioned in one of the last Brimstone Angels novels that Gilgeam and Enlil were completing to restore, which was intended as one of the World Tree Planes, but kind dead when the Untheric Pantheon fell apart after Gilgeam's death.
How the restoration of the planes of Zigguraxus and presumedly Heiropolis (the Mulhorandi Gods), not to mention the continued existance of the Towers of Night Plane from FR's version of the World Axis cosmology fits in with 5e Cosmology is an important question.

It suggests that the great wheel outer planes are not the only outer planes in 5e.

Probably like they did during the Great Wheel Era, those are just divine realms that are located on one of the outer planes. With a pre-3e sourcebook we could even look up where exactly these places used to be located

I'm shocked the world Axis is beating Planescape.

Only due to the two great wheels being counted separetely which I don't really see a point to. IMHO the differences are too minor, they're the same cosmology

 

[see]

Probably like they did during the Great Wheel Era, those are just divine realms that are located on one of the outer planes. With a pre-3e sourcebook we could even look up where exactly these places used to be located

So, I literally reach out with my left hand, without stretching, to snag my copy of Powers & Pantheons, flip through it to page 102, and answer, "Zigguraxus was on Avalas, which I think was a layer of Acheron."

I then have to actually look up Avalas to confirm that, yep, Acheron. (EDIT: Or, actually, look up a copule lines to where it mentions Gilgeam was a power "of Acheron", but.)

 

[Mercurius]

But... the poll is mutually exclusive...

But...its a poll. Don't take it so seriously

 

[Urriak Uruk]

But...its a poll. Don't take it so seriously

I don't understand the purpose of this poll then. I'm not sure if the insight here is valuable when the choices overlap in this way.

 

[Mercurius]

I don't understand the purpose of this poll then. I'm not sure if the insight here is valuable when the choices overlap in this way.

The purpose is as simple as it implies: to see which cosmology EN World users like best, and I included Spelljammer as a "sub-cosmology." Don't over-think it .

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The purpose is as simple as it implies: to see which cosmology EN World users like best, and I included Spelljammer as a "sub-cosmology." Don't over-think it .

You also forgot 5e's version of the Great Wheel which is very different from original and 2e Planescape's Great Wheel Cosmologies (such as having Feywild, Shadowfell, Elemental Chaos, Elemental Border regions, the lack of quasi elemental planes, outer planes divided into finite tangible regions and infinite intangible regions, and possible outer planes beyond the 9 alignment planes listed, far realms). In a sense its much bigger then previous Great Wheels.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The old Immortals boxed set for the Known World (before the Mystara branding) referred to the setting taking place on “Earth”, with an older, imagined solar system including these planets. Venus, Earth, Mars, Damocles (pre-asteroid belt planet), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Charon.

Immortals set had a bonkers description of multidimensional planes, describing the Prime plane as on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd dimensions. The Nightmare dimension existed on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th dimensions. The Astral plane exists on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th dimension.

The outer planes and immortals exist in the 5 dimensions. And there is a Dimensional Vortex in the dimensional position where a 6th dimension would exist. It’s a swirling chaos beyond which the Old Ones exist.

The Blackballs (spheres of annihilation creatures) emerged from the Dimensional Vortex.

It’s almost LSD-level planar cosmology.

 

[Voadam]

Spelljammer is a bit of its own cosmology with different D&D settings like FR and Greyhawk and Dragonlance each existing in their own solar system within their own crystal spheres within the flow within the Prime Material Plane while before in 1e there was discussions of settings being in different alternate prime material planes. It is also distinct from 4e where it gets mostly folded into the astral sea. It is consistent with 2e planescape, but you can also run any of the 2e settings and cosmologies without including crystal spheres as part of the prime material world.

I am trying to remember if 2e Legends and Lore and the HR series had different cosmologies as well, like a little discussion of the duat in the Egyptian pantheon of L&L or the nine worlds cosmology in HR1 Vikings.

 

[ccs]

I vote other.
As a player I don't really care. I'll go with whatever the DM decides on.

As the DM? {I} dont really describe it game wise. And I don't run games where picking one is of any mechanical importance. Nor do I generally provide such answers to the players.
So what I end up with are mixes of ideas, usually decided upon in the moment as needed.
The players? They're free to have their characters believe the multiverse is arranged however they please. Theres as many theories on this as there are sages in the FR.

 

[SehanineMoonbow]

I liked both the Great Wheel and World Tree.