In 4th Edition, the Nine Hells are an astral dominion among other deific abodes in the Astral Sea (more on that in an upcoming Design & Development column).
From the most recent Design and Development article:
Hmm... Astral Sea with many "Deific Abodes". Sounds a bit familiar, maybe? Like Mentzer's Gold Box Astral concept?
Indeed!
This could even fit in the Mentzer cosmology. The Abyss could be the Vortex (although that would make the demons not quite fit the Gold Box version). Alternatively, it could be something to do with the Spheres of Life/Death conflict from PC1.
I like the Abyss/Vortex comparison. The big difference would be that Mystara's Multiverse lumps Demons and Devils into the same category. Evil does not distinuish between Law and Chaos, its all just Entropy.
So the Vortex will not be home to Demons, but rather Vortex creatures, Blackballs and the like.
The gods vs. primordials battles seems reminiscent of fan work- specifically Mystaros and Geoff's Outer Beings articles.
Absolutely. Maybe the guys at WotC are stealing our ideas! ;)
I also read over at rpg.net that they are getting rid of the Elemental planes. That would not fit very well with Mystara's cosmology, though I'd agree that these arent the most fun places to adventure in...
Havard
I also read over at rpg.net that they are getting rid of the Elemental planes.
They are NOT getting rid of the elemental planes. What the heck. Sounds like you read hyperbole . . . which is rather common right now.
They are working at making the 4e cosmology's elemental planes playable destinations instead of infinite expanses of hostile pure element.
They are NOT getting rid of the elemental planes. What the heck. Sounds like you read hyperbole . . . which is rather common right now.
They are working at making the 4e cosmology's elemental planes playable destinations instead of infinite expanses of hostile pure element.
Ah, my bad. Thanks for clearing it up!
I am looking forward to seeing what they do with those things. I have always found them a little hard to use in actual play.
Havard
The Elemental Chaos
All of the cosmos is not tied to the mortal world as closely as the Feywild or Shadowfell. The natural world was created from the infinite expanse of the Elemental Chaos (or Tempest, or Maelstrom), a place where all fundamental matter and energy seethes. Floating continents of earth, rivers of fire, ice-choked oceans, and vast cyclones of churning clouds and lightning collide in the elemental plane.
Powerful beings tame vast portions of the chaos and shape it to their own desires. Here the efreeti City of Brass stands amid a desert of burning sand illuminated by searing rivers of fire falling through the sky. In other places in the Elemental Chaos, mighty mortal wizards or would-be demigods have erected secret refuges or tamed the living elements to build their domains.
Elemental creatures of all kinds live and move through the Elemental Chaos: ice archons, magma hurlers, thunderbirds, and salamanders. The most dangerous inhabitants are the demons. In the nadir of this realm lies the foul Abyss, the font of evil and corruption from which demonkind springs. The Abyss is unthinkably vast—thousands of miles in extent—and in its maw swirl hundreds of demonic domains, elemental islands, or continents sculpted to suit the tastes of one demon lord or another. Within the Elemental Chaos, heroes might explore:
* The crystalline tower of a long-dead archmage;
* A grim fortress monastery of githzerai adepts;
* The diseased Abyssal continent where Demogorgon rules amid ruined temples and bloodthirsty jungle beasts; or
* A vast polar sea lit only by the cold glitter of icebergs and flickering auroras, in which the frozen stronghold of a frost giant warlock lies hidden.
Also, does this remind you of anything...
The Shadowfell
Just as the Feywild is an echo of the natural world, so is the Shadowfell. However, the Shadowfell mimics the mortal world in a different manner. The Shadowfell is the land of the dead, where the spirits of the deceased linger for a time in a dark reflection of their previous lives before silently fading beyond all ken. Some undead creatures are born in the Shadowfell, and other undead are bound to it, but some living beings dwell in this benighted realm.
Like the Feywild, the Shadowfell also reflects the mortal world imperfectly. Towns, castles, roads, and other objects built by mortal kind exist in the Shadowfell about where they should be, but they are twisted, ruined caricatures. The shadowy echo of a thriving seaport in the mortal world might be a dilapidated, desolate port whose harbor is cluttered with the rotting hulks of shipwrecks and whose busy wharves are empty except for a few silent and furtive passersby. In the Shadowfell, heroes might venture into:
* A necromancer’s tower;
* The sinister castle of a shadar-kai lord, surrounded by a forest of black thorns;
* A ruined city swept by long-ago plague and madness; or
* The mist-shrouded winter realm of Letherna, where the fearsome Raven Queen rules over a kingdom of ghosts.
Limbo perhaps?
Regards
Gary
Here's the info on the Elemental Planes - I assume that this replaces the planes anyway
I seems to combine all the elemental planes into one. The concept could be borrowed from for Mystara if you say the elemental planes 'touch each other on their extremities' and over lap somewhat. It could be a way have having them connected but still very difficult to traverse since where they 'touch' would be extremely hostile. Can you imagine the possibilities of where all four touch?
Also, does this remind you of anything...
Limbo perhaps?
lol. That's the exact same thing that went through my mind when I read that.
Can you imagine the possibilities of where all four touch?
I figured where all four touched was where the new Abyss was located. The seed of evil just happened to be dropped riiiiiiight . . . there! There would be a vortex of elemental chaos surrounding the formed Abyss, sort of like an accretion disk drawing off of the still purer elemental planes around it. That's how I'd make it fit Mystara, be cause , to me, it feels like Mystara would still need a reservoir of pure element that feeds the elemental vortices all over the world.
Imagine though the possibilities if an elemental vortex gets corrupted by the swirling chaos around the Abyss. Hmm.
lol. That's the exact same thing that went through my mind when I read that.
Eh, to me Shadowfell reads very closely to Birthright's Shadow World in an eerie way. Very fitting considering Rich Baker's prominent role.