Hey, so, I went off the new edition of D&D, and I’m willing to see the final product (according to my limits), but there are things that I just need to ask.
I went off not only because of the rules, but also because of setting and cosmology issues. Basically, the Nerath setting is nowhere to be seen and cosmology feels like a mystery now to me. How these two will work out? Any (recent, please) news about cosmology and settings? I just need something to grab, here.
This DnD wiki entry overviews the Great Wheel better than I could. This Great Wheel is the cosmology used for all games of D&D, except for 4e (which used the World Axis cosmology, and the Points of Light/Nentir Vale stuff). D&D Next will apparently use the Great Wheel (there's been no mention of the World Axis yet-- but give 'em time I say).
There's a sidebar on page 15 of the 4e Manual of the Planes that gives guidelines for using the Great Wheel as an alternative to the World Axis. I think it's just a matter of time before there's are similar guidelines for using the World Axis in 5e.
The Cosmology is a mystery to me too.
Go ahead and make your own planes if you want - feel free to copy from 3/3.5 and 4E if you want, because cosmology is, despite what people think, edition-independent.
Nothing recent has been announced, AFAIK, but the latest news is:
The only confirmed setting is Forgotten Realms. They are going to support 5 settings, but the other four settings will wait until they feel they've fully supported Realms (exactly what this means, is unknown). The other 4 sessings are complete speculation, but I feel that Eberon (sp?) is a solid bet. Nerath (like my Greyhawk) seems unlike to be one of the other 4, because they are stylistically similar to the Realms (medieval fantasy).
Default cosmology is a modified Great Wheel, but (supposedly) other cosmologys can easily be used. Honestly not seeing this as a big deal, because the planar setup has affect my games maybe a half a dozen or so times in over 20 years. If you like the Cosmic Axis, you should be able to use it in 5E with only a few minor changes.
Artifact wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
cassi_brazuca wrote:
Greyhawk and Darksun were name dropped on a stream were they were answering questions as settings they intended to support.
Mephi1234 wrote:
I think Mephi typed out that whole thing to be helpful, cassi. The focus of the post seemed to be on simularities (on how things might work out).
For what it's worth, I'm also concerned about how traditional lore will *mesh* with 4e lore. Cosmology is only a part of that picture-- there's also the Dawn War, Primordials, races like deva, eladrin. and tiefling (Planescape version and the. 4e one). I use 'traditional' for lack of a better word. I mean: Eladrin aren't just 'high elves', are they 
? I wonder about that sorta thing myself.
These two approaches to lore aren't mutually exclusive however (it doesn't necessarily have to be one or ther other --unless that's what someone wants). It's just gonna take time for the designers and us (in our home games for instance) to determine how to best bring it all together in a cohesive story.
From what I've been able to ascertain by connecting the dots between things the devs have said and various references sprinkled throughout the rules (playtest and basic), the default cosmology is going to be the pre-4e Great Wheel plus the Feywild, Shadowfell and Elemental Chaos from 4e.
To start with, there will be the Material Plane, which is where the various D&D worlds are situated. Connected to the Material Plane are the Feywild, the Ethereal Plane, and the Shadowfell. They Feywild is, in turn, connected to the Positive Energy Plane, while the Shadowfell is connected to the Negative Energy Plane.
The Elemental Chaos is like a great swirling outer ring that feeds into the Elemental Planes of Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. There may also be demiplanes for elemental mixtures like smoke, magma, ice, etc. Limbo is also in there somewhere, home to both slaads and githzerai.
The Nine Hells are a layered plane in which the devils live, while demons reside on the infinite layers of the Abyss.
The Astral Sea goes back to being the Astral Plane, but I'm not sure if the gods' domains will go back to being their own planes or whether they'll be demiplanes within the Astral Plane or what.
I imagine the Far Realm will exist somewhere as well.