Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Naderion 12-28-07, 09:16 AM

I'm working on this for quite some time now, maybe some people have thoughts on it and may give some suggestions. The Inner Planes There are the four classical elemental planes, four infinite spaces "full" with elemental matter. Where the elemental planes "touch" (we're in a 5D-space here, infinite 3D-spaces can touch ;)) there are the zones of Ice, Smoke, and so on. Where all four elemental planes come together, that's the material world of mortals, a universe quite like the real world with a huge void filled with stars and planets. The Core Planes The material Plane is in fact three conterminous layers, much like paralel dimensions. One is the Mortal Realm, the "prime" plane, one is the Shadow Realm, a dark and silent plane of shadow, and the last one is the Fairy Realm, where nature is much more extreme in every aspect (weather, landscape, animals, ...) Astral "Outside" the Core/Inner Planes is the astral space, much like in most cosmologies. Outer Plane(s) Now the interesting part: There are no seperated outer planes like an Abyss or Elysium. Instead there is one big "soul space", "the divine", "afterlife", "spiritual world" or however you like to call it (havn't made a descision for myself, yet). There are countless of spiritual realms, wich are much like the layers of the great wheel, but they aren't arranged into "master" planes. Their number is (virtually) infinite and they all have any combinations of alignment, energy, or gravity traits. There are guardinals, demons, and eladrins which inhabit many of the realms that suit them and when a mortal dies, the soul will arrive in the realm of its deity or in a realm that is most appropiate to the souls nature. Hopping between realms is easier between realms that are alike (so demons can fight each other all the time but don't invade good realms every other day) but the spiritual space isn't really a physical place but a spiritual, so there is no real distance, direction, or connection between the realms. The reason for this arrangement is, that this cosmology is made for a setting, where the outer planes and outsiders play a very minor role compared to the otherworlds and fey, but I didn't want to exclude demon-cults and the like completely. Also the outer planes are meant to be "the mysterious afterlife", that feels more like a dream than a physical place, and deities are completely spiritual foces opposed to very powerful persons. If sometimes there's a need to discribe a planar location, I or any DM can simply create one realm that fits the bill, but there's no need to create such a huge system like the great wheel. Also it allows to make two or three locations very detailed, but I don't have to do that for any place, which is much more satisfying from an artistical view. ;) Elementals, Fey, and Outsiders In this cosmology, fey and elementals are practically the same. They are nature spirits that possess a physical body made from elemental matter. If they are made of one element, they are elementals, if they are made of all four element, they are fey. The outsiders of the spiritual space aren't that different from that, but their bodies are made of spiritual matter and not of elements, and they inhabit a different world and probably not related at all. For the elementals/fey, there are no true borders between the material planes and any place filled with water can be either on the plane of water or on the material plane for a water elemental, and more powerful fey can switch between the three paralel worlds (Mortal/Shadow/Fey) as they like, regardless of which one is the one they originated from. Mortals, Souls, Death, and so on... Mortals (Humanoids and Monstrous Humanoids) are made of a physical body, life force that animates them (like the feys spirit), and a soul. When a mortal dies, the body decays and the life force returns back into the life force of nature (the fate of all animals, fey, plants, ...), and only the soul remains intact. Souls can't exist in the Mortal Realm, but can linger on in the Fairy Realm or the Shadow Realm as almost invisible phantoms, which most do to witnes their burial. As long as the soul has not departed for the afterlife, the dead can be retured back to life by a 5th level spell of a cleric or druid, but after some days most start to slowly fade over anyway, making it more and more difficult to bring them back to life (one day per caster level). Once a soul has entered the afterlife completely, only Ressurection and True Ressurection spells can bring them back. Unless a soul tries to hold on for the arrivial of help, a burial is usually final. In some extraordinary cases, a soul will not start to fade and stay in the Shadow Realm or Fairy Realm practically forever as a ghost. Ghosts in the Shadow Realm are usually either mad, evil, or extremely sad, while those of the Fairy Realm are often mistaken as benevolent fey. I think I'm quite happy with all this, as it is now. It has the norse and gaelic fey, includes the otherworld of middle-earth (who likes ether?), there are souls not yet fully dead, an obscure afterlife, and still allows to have the classical fiends and celestials of D&D. I'm mostly interested in thoughs about what I might have missed or if someone thinks this creates some restrictions I might not have realized yet.