4 layers of Heaven and Hell?

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

zombiegleemax

Jun 24, 2007 20:54:38
Hello all,

I was under the impression that Greyhawk used the default "Great Wheel" cosmology, but today I noticed in the LGG it states that the Oerth is bounded by four layers of Heaven above four of Hell below (I've owned that book for years and *just* noticed this :embarrass ).

Anyways, does anyone know more about what the four layers of Heaven and Hell entail? What the planes are like?
#2

caeruleus

Jun 24, 2007 21:58:46
I don't think that refers to Celestia and Baator. I'm assuming the passage you refer to is this one on p. 2:

Scholars from the Flanaess are certain that Oerik is the greatest of Oerth's four continents, and that four great oceans surround these lands, as do four layers of the heavens and four depths of the underworld.

It doesn't say Heaven and Hell. It says heavens, which can refer to astronomical phenomena, and the underworld, which can refer to the caverns of the underdark.

This is confirmed a couple of paragraphs later when it refers again to the heavens and talks about the sun and moons. Perhaps the "layers" of the heavens are similar to the spheres of the Ptolemaic system used during the Middle Ages.
#3

maldin

Jun 25, 2007 10:41:02
I usually just chalk those sorts of statements to "local mythology" and not facts of the campaign setting. Greyhawk canon has always used "the Great Wheel". Of course since LG is 3.5E, any changes to the "Multiverse" during edition changes may have been superimposed upon the LG Campaign.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com