Making Sense of the Great Wheel Cosmology

Making Sense of the Great Wheel Cosmology

I always loved the D&D Great Wheel cosmology, even though nowadays it makes “players” go “aaaaah, I have to keep more than two things in mind, my brain can’t handle it, help me, this is too complex!” I think what D&D 4e did with it was a criminal offense. The Great Wheel has a rich history, both in-universe and in a meta sense, because things changed a lot between editions, even if you pretend that 4e never existed. Karilan, my homebrew setting, uses the Great Wheel cosmology as well, but with all the aforementioned changes and inconsistencies, this doesn’t say much. In GURPS, the cosmological structure actually sometimes matters, as certain spells and abilities take penalties based on a “planar distance.” Thus, a post is required that will set everything in stone and fill the gaps with headcanon.

In short, it’s all about the rings and spheres. Except when it’s not. The planes of existence that comprise the multiverse can be assigned into several different categories:

1.       Prime Material Plane

2.       Transitive Planes

3.       Echo Planes

4.       Outer Planes

5.       Inner Planes

6.       Demiplanes

7.       Anomalous Planes

 

1.       Prime Material Plane

The Prime Material plane may seem to be the simplest one – this is where Karilan and other planets lie. However, if one digs deeper, things get more complicated. The Material plane is not uniform; it consists of crystal spheres floating in phlogiston. Each crystal sphere contains one or multiple celestial bodies and the mostly empty wildspace between them. The shell of the crystal sphere can only be breached via a spelljammer, some very powerful spells, and innate powers of some rare space-dwelling creatures. Between the spheres lies phlogiston, also known as the Flow or the Rainbow Ocean – chaotic rainbow-colored flammable fluid that can be traversed to move between different crystal spheres. This is how one can travel from Karilan to Toril, for example.

What about the Alternate Material planes? Do they exist? It’s unclear, both in terms of canon and in-universe. For example, the synad race is said to originate from an Alternate Material plane, but what is the difference between two Material planes and two crystal spheres? Perhaps, they believe that their homeland is an Alternate Material plane when in truth it is a remote crystal sphere a route to which hasn’t been discovered yet? One could say that Eberron is an Alternate Material plane, but it is actually a demiplane. Abeir (the sister world of Toril) is on the same plane and in the same crystal sphere as Toril, but in a pocket dimension. Thus, Alternate Material planes are a mystery, but it is more likely that they simply are remote crystal spheres accessed via the Plane of Shadow.

Speaking of connection to other planes – the Prime Material plane is coterminous with all the transitive planes. At least the crystal spheres are, but phlogiston is not, except with the Astral Plane. Clear as mud?

 

2.       Transitive Planes

Transitive planes are called that because they mostly are used to travel between the Material and Inner or Outer Planes. Yes, they do connect the planes, but they are far from empty! This is where the D&D edition changes made a mess much bigger than on the Material plane. Let’s try to untangle it and plug holes with some headcanon.

 

2.1. Ethereal Plane

The Ethereal Plane is coexistent with the Prime Material Plane and all the Inner Planes. In D&D terms, “coexistent” means that the two planes overlap – a location on one plane has a corresponding locating on another plane. Basically, they have the same coordinate system. As was said above, the Ethereal Plane coexists with the Prime Material Plane only within the crystal spheres, but not in the phlogiston.

The Ethereal Plane is not homogeneous – it consists of the Border Ethereal and the Deep Ethereal. The Border Ethereal coexists with the Material and Inner Planes, but the Deep Ethereal does not. There actually are multiple Border Ethereal planes – one for each connected planes. For example, Border Ethereal of the Prime Material Plane and Border Ethereal of the Elemental Plane of Fire are separate places that can be reached only through the Deep Ethereal. Moving between the Border and Deep Ethereal requires passing through an ethereal curtain. I found a nice diagram that depicts this.

Aside from the Material Plane and the Inner Planes, the Ethereal Plane also connects to the various demiplanes that float in the Deep Ethereal (but more on that in the demiplanes section), and the Plane of Mirrors.

 

2.2. Astral Plane

The Astral Plane is a plane where space has no physical meaning, so it doesn’t coexist with the Material Plane, but is coterminous with it. Unlike the Ethereal Plane, this includes phlogiston. There’s only one Astral Plane that is connected to the Prime Material Plane and the Outer Planes. Transportation between them is made via color pools and conduits.

D&D 4e and 5e reworked the Astral Plane, but I consider it stupid, so the 2e version of the plane is used.

 

2.3. Plane of Mirrors

The Manual of the Planes for D&D 3.0 has an entire section with “variant” planes that are not part of the Great Wheel cosmology, but that GMs may use in settings of their creation. Except the fact that most of them actually are canon. One of my favorites is the Plane of Mirrors, not really a separate plane, but more like a collection of corridor planes connecting mirror surfaces that have something common with one another (e.g. were manufactured by the same person).

The Plane of Mirrors is coterminous to the planes where the mirrors of that particular “constellation” are, and to the Ethereal Plane. What happens if you bring a mirror to the Plane of Mirrors? Can you create nested mirror constellations? I don’t see why not.

 

2.4.  Ordial Plane

This plane is a Planescape fan invention and isn’t canon in D&D, but one that just makes sense and fits well. In-universe, it is merely a hypothetical plane among the planar scholars. Supposedly, it connects the Inner Planes to the Outer Planes, but there’s no proof that it even exists.

 

3.       Echo Planes

What the hell is an echo plane? This term is not in the books! I had to come up with this new category because some other planes just didn’t fit in the other categories, in my opinion. For example, you probably have noticed the absence of the Plane of Shadow in the previous section. Why is it a transitive plane? Where do you transit? To other places on the Material plane? To the Alternate Material Planes that I deemed nonexistent a page ago? The Plane of Shadow fits nicely with the other two planes in this category instead, as they have something in common – they coexist with the Material plane and no other planes. In effect, they are reflections of the Material plane.

Echo planes coexist only with the Prime Material plane and are not connected to any transitive planes.

 

3.1. Plane of Shadow

Often called Shadowfell since the 4^th edition, the Plane of Shadow is a dark reflection of the Material plane. The only “transitive” quality it seemed to possess was the fact that it was supposed to connect the Prime Material plane to the Alternate Material planes, but I already pointed out that they probably do not exist.

 

3.2. Plane of Faerie

In the 3^rd edition, this was a variant Outer Plane that… wasn’t actually an Outer Plane because it wasn’t connected to the Astral Plane. But we all know that WotC writers don’t give a damn about consistency. Starting with the 4^th edition, it became non-optional and actually an important part of the established settings. Just like the Plane of Shadow, the Plane of Faerie, also known as the Feywild, coexists with the Material plane and is removed from the transitive planes. Just like the other echo planes, Feywild is a “parallel” of the Material plane, where geographical features of the planes more or less match each other. Also, I just found out that it has light gravity, so I might want to give fey some gravity-related traits. Nice.

 

3.3. Spirit World

This combination of words is firmly associated with Map28 of Doom II, so my mind imagines grey rock caverns with red streaks and many spiders instead of a misty and spiritual place. But digression aside, this plane is offered as an alternative to the Astral Plane in the 3.0 Manual of the Planes despite it being a canonical place in the older editions in Kara-Tur. When I read MotP for the first time back in the day, I couldn’t understand why couldn’t the Spirit World coexist with the Astral Plane? Also, the Forgotten Realms wiki claims that the Spirit World only covers the Kara-Tur part of Toril despite there being places in Faerun that are all about spirits, such as Rashemen. WotC/TSR consistency strikes again! But another digression aside, the Spirit World is yet another reflection of the Material plane that is inhabited by spirits of all kinds. In GURPS, this actually opens up interesting possibilities as there are multiple advantages that deal with this – Medium, Spirit Empathy, etc. I assume that the Spirit World is cut off from the transitive planes as well.

 

4.       Outer Planes

The Outer Planes can be reached from the Material plane through the Astral Plane. They are planes of belief and morality, and as such, they are arranged in a wheel. They also are subdivided into the Upper Planes (planes of Good) and the Lower Planes (planes of Evil). Each Outer Plane borders two other planes in this wheel-like arrangement and the Outlands – the plane of neutrality that sits in the center. Most Outer Planes also have multiple layers. The Outer Planes are:

Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus – Lawful Neutral

Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia – between Lawful Neutral and Lawful Good

Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia – Lawful Good

Twin Paradises of Bytopia – between Lawful Good and Neutral Good

Blessed Fields of Elysium – Neutral Good

Wilderness of the Beastlands/Happy Hunting Grounds – between Neutral Good and Chaotic Good

Olympian Glades of Arborea – Chaotic Good

Heroic Domains of Ysgard – between Chaotic Good and Chaotic Neutral

Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo – Chaotic Neutral

Windswept Depths of Pandemonium – between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Evil

Infinite Layers of the Abyss – Chaotic Evil

Tarterian Depths of Carceri – between Chaotic Evil and Neutral Evil

Gray Waste of Hades – Neutral Evil

Bleak Eternity of Gehenna – between Neutral Evil and Lawful Evil

Nine Hells of Baator – Lawful Evil

Infinite Battlefield of Acheron – between Lawful Evil and Lawful Neutral

Concordant Domain of the Outlands – True Neutral (connects to all of the above)

 

Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin. However! Aren’t we forgetting something? There are four more Outer Planes that are quite obscure (both in a meta sense and in-universe) – the Draconian Cluster. It was introduced (as far as I know) in Dragon Magazine #158 with respect to the Mystara setting, but since all settings in the D&D cosmology are connected, this means that these planes should exist too. The Draconian Cluster is a mini-wheel of four planes – three lesser planes that are connected to one another and the central greater plane. The planes actually have no official names, so let’s call them the Domain of the Moon Dragon, the Domain of the Sun Dragon, the Domain of the Star Dragon, and the Domain of the Great One. I actually find this article fascinating, and these planes are canon in my games. In-universe, this is where all the dragon petitioners go regardless of the god they worshiped in life, and this means that dragon petitioners are strangely absent in the “main” Outer Planes.

There’s another obscure plane that was introduced in a WotC online article. Years upon years of articles are gone, as WotC wiped their website of tons of content – what a wonderful decision! Thankfully, I downloaded the entire archive before it got flushed down the toilet. The plane that I’m talking about is the Elemental Plane of Blood. This is not a “true” elemental plane, but an in-universe misnomer. This is an obscure Outer Plane that was discovered by a mad wizard who was obsessed with finding a way to cast arcane healing spells (he probably forgot that bards can cast cure [x] wounds in D&D 3.X).

 

5.       Inner Planes

The Inner Planes can be accessed through the Ethereal Plane. Between the D&D editions, they were changed the most, I believe. Between 2e and 3e, the paraelemental and quasielemental planes have been axed, and the border zones of the regular elemental planes got removed too. It seems that WotC thought “Hm, people complain about the Elemental Planes being bland and boring. Let’s make them even more bland and boring.” Then, with 4e, everything got collapsed into a literal slop plane – the Elemental Chaos. 5e returned to the 3e version, but also added the Elemental Chaos between them, which is… actually a good idea; I think the Elemental Chaos works better this way. I can’t believe that I am giving 5e praise.

The Inner Planes are arranged in a sphere. The “north and south” poles are the diametrically opposed Energy Planes, and along the “equator” you have four Elemental Planes. Paraelemental and quasielemental planes are in-between, and the Elemental Chaos is smack dab in the center. Thus, each plane borders five other planes, and the Elemental Chaos borders all Inner Planes.

I guess I could insert another digression here: I absolutely love the Inner Planes, even though I know that many find them boring and lame. It all stems from playing Heroes of Might and Magic III as a kid and for some reason being fascinated by these neutral creatures that you cannot normally recruit. Then, when the Armageddon’s Blade expansion added the Conflux faction, I was extremely happy and even more intrigued, as new ones got added. Then, when in Might and Magic VIII you could visit the Elemental Planes, I thought that that was the best thing ever, and I still think so.

Now, there’s something that to my knowledge wasn’t elaborated on officially. Every Inner Plane is infinite, but how come there are border zones that have different conditions? Keep in mind that these border zones are “hard” boundaries – you cannot simply pass from one plane to the next one without a plane shift spell or portal. The only explanation that I can come up with is that each Inner Plane is a cylinder – on four poles are border zones with the adjacent planes, one base borders the Elemental Chaos, and one base extends infinitely. Thus, the planes are infinite, but only in one direction. An infinite cone pointed towards the Elemental Chaos could work too.

The Inner Planes are:

Positive Energy Plane

Negative Energy Plane

Elemental Plane of Fire

Elemental Plane of Air

Elemental Plane of Water

Elemental Plane of Earth

Paraelemental Plane of Ice – between Air and Water

Paraelemental Plane of Ooze – between Earth and Water

Paraelemental Plane of Magma – between Fire and Earth

Paraelemental Plane of Smoke – between Fire and Air

Quasielemental Plane of Lightning – between Air and Positive Energy

Quasielemental Plane of Radiance – between Fire and Positive Energy (Dragon Magazine #321 reimagined this plane for 3.5 as a transitive plane, something of a bright counterpart of the Plane of Shadow, but I prefer the original approach)

Quasielemental Plane of Mineral – between Earth and Positive Energy

Quasielemental Plane of Steam – between Water and Positive Energy

Quasielemental Plane of Ash – between Fire and Negative Energy

Quasielemental Plane of Salt – between Water and Negative Energy

Quasielemental Plane of Dust – between Earth and Negative Energy

Quasielemental Plane of Vacuum – between Air and Negative Energy

Elemental Chaos – everything blended together

 

6.       Demiplanes

The demiplane category is a bit weird. Back in 2e, the demiplanes were planes, usually small ones, drifting in the Deep Ethereal. 3e changed it so that the demiplanes can exist “attached” to any plane, and I’m actually fine with this change. I will not list all the demiplanes, because that’d be silly – there are too many of them to count. However, three of them deserve a special mention.

Demiplane of Dread – in 5e, it suddenly stopped being a demiplane and instead became an area in Shadowfell. I think this is dumb and I don’t like it, so it’s back to being a demiplane.

Demiplane of Nightmares – this plane is the only known proper connection to the Far Realm, as this demiplane borders both the Far Realm and the Region of Dreams.

Demiplane of Time – time travel is a mess in D&D (but where isn’t it a mess?), and it’s tied to this strange plane. Depending on the edition and book in question, this could be the Demiplane of Time, Temporal Energy Plane, or even Temporal Prime.

 

7.       Anomalous Planes

What is this category? This is where everything else goes that doesn’t belong to any other category. With the blurry definition of “demiplanes”, it may make you think about what the difference between a demiplane and an anomalous plane is and the answer is “I don’t know.” The most notorious anomalous plane is the Far Realm, but there are many more.

Far Realm – this is the place of madness and tentacles, what kids nowadays describe using buzzwords such as “eldritch” and “Lovecraftian.” While it was present in old editions, it became a huge and important thing in 4e with the Living Gate thing. If we ignore that, the shortest connection to the Material plane is via the Demiplane of Nightmares, then via the Region of Dreams.

Region of Dreams – now this is an interesting one, and I wish that it would have gotten more attention from the writers. It is coterminous with the Prime Material plane, but not the Inner, Outer, or Transitive planes, which actually means that outsiders do not dream (if they sleep at all), and that if a mortal being sleeps on an Outer Plane, he wouldn’t dream. Unless dreamscapes can be entered via intermediary planes. See what I mean? More information is required.

Fugue Plane – this is the plane where souls go first before becoming petitioners on other planes. This only applies to Toril, and no other planets! It also is allegedly coterminous with the Plane of Shadow and probably no other planes. Anyway, even though it isn’t relevant for my setting, this plane does exist and can be entered.

Elemental Plane of Wood – this is a variant plane introduced in the 3.0 Manual of the Planes. As far as I know, it was never mentioned in any other place. Thus, it probably is not canonical. However, why not? Why couldn’t it be a distant plane from some remote alternate cosmology? After all, there are hints here and there that there are many more planes beyond the Great Wheel. Also, nature elementals exist in D&D, and they’d work well as inhabitants of this plane. How do you get to this plane? No idea, but I’d say that it’s at least “three degrees of separation” from the Material plane. There’s probably and Elemental Plane of Metal next to it too.

Elemental Plane of Cold – now this is a weird one. This is another variant plane introduced in the 3.0 Manual of the Planes that was not mentioned ever again. It feels that it was supposed to replace the Paraelemental Plane of Ice that was removed in that very same book, but why is it alone? Where are the other three paraelemental planes? If you read the descriptions, you’ll see that the Elemental Plane of Cold is somewhat different from the Paraelemental Plane of Ice, so we could assume that these two are separate planes, with the Cold one being from a remote alternate cosmology, akin to the aforementioned Elemental Plane of Wood (huh-huh, “wood”). I’d say that this one also is “three degrees of separation” away from the Material plane.

Void – now you may think that I’m just making shit up, but I swear that I’m not. There was another obscure online WotC article that is not available anymore, unless you download and archive that stuff. The article was titled “Dwellers of the Void” and it described a handful of new monsters from the Void. It is strongly implied that the Void is a place, but the details are very vague. There are mentions of the void disciple prestige class that is tied to the Oriental element of the void, so it is possible to assume that the Void is something of an elemental plane from a remote alternate cosmology (probably connected to the Elemental Plane of Wood mentioned above). Or maybe it’s the primordial Void where all the planes float. After all, we do know that the planes were created by the Old Ones who then retreated behind the Great Dimensional Barrier, so there must’ve been some empty space before there was anything. However, we even have a couple of mentions of a previous multiverse that was destroyed, but is this a parallel multiverse or an actual previous one, which would imply a cyclic nature of the cosmos? “I gaze into future-past and I see the Brunnen-G’s doom?” Did this previous/parallel multiverse have the same structure (we know that the Voidharrow is a creature that is a destroyed/previous multiverse’s Abyss) or was it something different? I’m thinking too much about things that are unlikely to ever come up in the game and that the authors themselves didn’t think much, aren’t I?

The MtG Multiverse – Hasbro is trying to push this thing and made the connection canonical, but I say “no” to that. Not in my games.

 

Final Thoughts

One important thing to remember here is that the Great Wheel is an in-universe model created by the in-universe scholars in an attempt to explain the structure of the cosmos. The books themselves say that this is merely a model and some things just do not fit (like the aforementioned anomalous planes or weird Outer Planes). There are potentially uncountable numbers of other planes that just haven’t been discovered yet, and that may make the model obsolete. Thus, you may easily come up with planes of your own and insert them into this model. For example, what if you wanted to include the Elemental Plane of Magic from the Might & Magic universe? That’s fit right in. Or the Elemental Plane of Acid and Elemental Plane of Sound to complement the Elemental Plane of Cold? Sure thing.

Sky’s the limit and space is the place!