Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The Ubbergeek 01-30-08, 08:34 PM	Okay, here is an idea. We have had two major cosmology changes, it seems. So, one may wonder, by curiosity like me and also since we have a canon war incoming.... Which one is, older players and greenwood fans, actually closest to greenwood's original ideas? The Wheel? The Tree? The newest one, if changes come? Well, really... Do we know anything on how he viewed the planes, the afterlife, the other dimensions and all originaly? (I personaly wonder if trhe later version(s) are not actually CLOSER to his original ideas... it sounds more like classical fantasy.)
Gray Richardson 01-30-08, 11:27 PM	Not sure if any is an exact fit, but the Great Wheel is probably the closest. Ed has said that he had ideas about the planes of FR long before he became aware of D&D; he wrote stories about the Realms before he discovered D&D. But after he discovered D&D he did begin to adapt the Realms to the D&D planes and you can see that some of his ideas had a seminal influence on the Great Wheel. We know that Ed wrote some articles in the Dragon Magazine early on about FR's planes and gods and you can see how his thought process developed along with the Great Wheel cosmology. There were some differences, though, few of which Ed has revealed to us. One difference that he has mentioned is that he used a version of the Wood Between the Worlds (from Narnia) as a method of traveling between planes. Don't know if that was in lieu of or in addition to the other regular methods. He has also said his Limbo was a lot different. He wrote and submitted a draft of a Limbo sourcebook to TSR, but it was never published and later TSR chose to go a different way with Limbo than what he submitted. I believe Ed also had a plane of Faerie attached to Faerūn but I don't know how it was connected to the other planes. Can't recall any other differences at the moment, maybe some other sages can recall and will post any other details that Ed has mentioned. I don't think that Ed has really said a lot on the matter.
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 01-31-08, 11:05 AM	Yes, Ed Greenwood actually helped develop the Nine Hells, or so I've read.
GothicDan 01-31-08, 07:30 PM	He wrote a -lot- about the Nine Hells, and much of it (if not all) was taken into canon. And the Wood Between the Worlds still reminds me of the Wheel's Astral.
MarkusTay63 01-31-08, 08:52 PM	Wasn't the Woods Between the Worlds used in a short story? I think it was in Realms of the Elves, where the Chosen go and become trees, or some such... :thinks: I think the new version of the Astral might actually be closest to Ed's Woods, with a little Feywild perhaps thrown in for good measure. And technically, there was more then two cosmology changes, as the wheel itself underwent quite a few versions before Planescape. There was even a 'square' one... :rolleyes:
Old Sage 01-31-08, 09:46 PM	Ubbergeek, if you're looking for details on Ed's original cosmology, here's a sketchy answer. Read "From the City of Brass to Dead Orc Pass," Ed's article on gates in DRAGON #37, and "Down-to-earth divinity" in DRAGON #54. I'd also throw in Ed's original working on the Nine Hells in DRAGON's #75 & 76. Download the compilation files of Ed's replies from Candlekeep and search for 'planes,' 'cosmology' etc. Then ask Ed if there's anything more you'd like to know. Note, originally there wasn't a planar structure in the D&D sense of a regular organization of planes, until Ed incorporated Gary Gygax's planes in the 70s. Before then, travel between alternate worlds was emphasized, sometimes via planar nexuses such the Wood between the Worlds.