Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 lormador Feb 27, 2006 0:08:07	I'd like it if someone would share their thoughts on the subject. Here it goes. I want to create a unified cosmology that can incorporate groups of crystal spheres associated with a given set of outer and inner planes. Other groups of crystal spheres would be associated with different outer and inner planes. These groups would be defined by their being associated with a god residing on one of the inner or outer planes attached to their realm. The result of this is a set (potentially infinite) of prime material worlds with a single outer planar ring and inner planar core (or whatever other planar structure seems suitable), allowing the usual Planescape-type adventures. There could be, for example, Krynn, Toril, and Athas all together with one Sigil and one set of inner planes, one Ravenloft, etc. It would then be possible to journey (and here's the problem) to another set of prime material world and their divergent outer/inner planar structure, for example an alternate-future Dragonlance game I created featuring a massive was against the mind flayers. Now, my question is what kind of meta-planar structure could one use to make sense of this, i.e. how could it be made navigable, how could the powers of the gods of one cosmology be defined outside of their cosmology, etc. Campaign setting meld into each other often in my games, largely as a result of a certain wizard constantly needing new sources of wealth for spell research. The economic impact of epic spell research cannot be overemphasized. At one point he actually leased a world he conquered to the survivors.
#2 millennium Feb 27, 2006 5:49:02	The Plane of Shadow is said to link alternate Prime Material planes, though the details of exactly how it does this have never really been defined well. You could define Wildspace to work the same way, particularly if you go by spelljammer.org's conversion of Wildspace and the Flow into separate planes in their own right. That site includes the best explanation ever of how coterminous planes work, and then uses that definition to actually make this planar conversion work and make sense without changing the mechanics of how you go between them. It's awesome. If you want to picture this graphically, you could set up the spheres in a vertical line, as an axle around which the Great Wheel spins, along with other cosmologies. The "plane" of Wildspace fills each sphere, while the "plane" of Phlogiston wraps around them to complete the cylinder.
#3 lormador Feb 27, 2006 22:35:48	So the way to cross between cosmologies would be through the Phlogiston, right? I'm picturing a line of crystal spheres, let's say world A is small with a few gods and there is only a single outer plane, like Olympus. They have no inner planes, it's a tiny domain where greedy, reclusive gods play with their toys. Next to world A is another cosmology, a much larger one, where an overpower reigns over dozens if not hundreds of lesser gods, it has multiple crystal spheres with a prime world in each, complete inner planes and a full wheel of outer planes. Let's call it world B. Finally there is world C, which has only one 'inner' plane, but a crystal sphere incomprehensibly larger than the others, say large enough to contain an entire real-world galaxy, but the pantheon is more unified than world B, so there is only one outer plane arranged in a cone shape. So, on to the connections. A only touches B through the medium of the Phlogiston. Their outer planes don't touch. B is closer to A than C, because one has to pass through B to reach C. B is equidistant to both. I like this setup but it poses some questions. What do you think about these: 1. If the phlogiston is the link, then material worlds are a cosmological constant. The only way to demonstrate reality, is to have the potential to be affected, and nothing can affect a reality disconnected from the Phlogiston. I.E. there are no cosmologies that lack a material plane of some kind. 2. It makes sense for the gods to create planes outside of the material plane as a form of protection from powers that might hunt them in the phlogiston. 3. Extra-planar beings have a hard time in the phlogiston. Material beings are at a relative advantage. What does this mean with respect to divinity? What are the gods in a setup like this? I'll admit that considerations like this could only come into play, really, if characters had 21+ divine ranks. but maybe it would be possible to craft a kind of epic-level divine game in which overpowers (in my game, any power with more than 21 divine ranks is an overpower) play a chess game in an infinite existence. with rules stating how the inter-overpower struggle takes place, and how the overpowers depend on the deities beneath them, what the source of their power is, etc., one could get a real logic behind the actions of the overpower. then, the overpower could be less a cosmic police force and more of an actual character. Maybe the cosmic importance of Good and Evil is to create a tension that constitutes the power of an Overdeity. I don't know. What do you think?