The Campaign Builder's Guild

The Rise of the Immortals
Beings came to exist in this new cosmology, and unsurprisingly, the origins of these are thoroughly debated subjects. As mentioned previously, a school of thought among the Wheel teaches that sentience is everywhere; this goes on to reason that if you have sentience, you have the existence of a being, so if this state hasnâ,¬,,¢t changed since the beginning of the multiverse, perhaps it always has held beings, living or otherwise? Many lesser scholars of the Material Planes teach that all existent beings hold within them a spark of either positive or negative energy inherent in their very essence (which for mortals translates into their soul). They go on to say that the Positive and Negative Energy Planes are the fountains of life and unlife, respectively, from which all beings can claim the source of their existence. While agreeing on the metaphorical representation of the Energy Planes, planar scholars laugh at this simplicity; innumerous creatures on other worlds exist, seemingly without connections to positive or negative energy, and many exhibit unquestionable sentience. The essence of a being can take many forms, including some that bear no resemblance to mortal existence.

However you define a being, they eventually appeared along the Wheel. At this point, the representation of the multiverse as a Wheel would be ill chosen: planes shifted in their relative positioning and borders were vague at best â,¬' the multiverse was not yet stable, to put it in a way. Of course, for those who credit the creation of the Wheel to the Old Ones, these entities are counted among the first. Regardless of whether or not they exist, all agree that the aligned forces also were among the early ones to manifest themselves as beings, though yet again philosophical entities along the Law-Chaos axis is often credited to being older in origin than those stemming from Good and Evil.
While present gods often are spoken of as being present all around, this is untrue: they are located somewhere, namely in their godly realms (for the most part). This was not the case with the ancient planar entities, as they only gradually became truly manifested beings. They had no â,¬Å"formâ,¬Â as such before they started extending their influence. A trip back to the Beginning would leave you witnessing nothing but newborn worlds devoid of civilizations, yet as planar forces became more and more manifest, you would see traits such as the landscape seemingly changing to reflect the influence of present forces â,¬' signs of the planar beings slowly and silently influencing their environment, leaving things symmetrical and organized in the wake of Law, and wild and unpredictable by the touch of Chaos.

Eventually, creatures, in a way closer to how we understand them now, emerged. Beings who more directly affected their environment, through physical means, through magical means and through the power of belief â,¬' while clerics, druids and so forth take power in their faith to further their ends, the power of belief in the sense used here is a trait not found on most Material worlds. Unlike the later Material Plane natives they were immortal: death was not an inevitable consequence of existence.
These immortal beings included the exemplars, the fully manifested creatures of the aligned forces â,¬' powers tied to moral and ethical philosophy. Sustained and defined by this philosophy, they interacted with the planes and made their influence present. Eventually, opposing exemplars met and saw in each other, all that they where not. The work of their counterparts brought about all that they held in contempt, all that they despised. But worse yet, as the influence of their counterparts grew, so faltered their own. For exemplars it is not merely a matter of what to think â,¬' it is of what to be, a matter of identity, a matter of existence. Conflict ensued. While the nature of these conflicts varies, in all cases war is not a strong enough word to encompass what they entail.

Thus began the ancient war between Law and Chaos, a war that further shaped and defined the Wheel into what it is today. The forces of Law brought forth a being commonly referred to as the Twin Serpents of Law, who succeeded in establishing a set of universal principles in an attempt to further the interests of Law. While the Serpents were separated and changed forevermore due to their internal conflict on one of the principles, they partially succeeded. By the principle of the Unity of Rings the Wheel became a true ring, and the Outer Planes were defined through the planes positioning in relation to the aligned forces. The ring was the perfect shape, unifying and binding, a symbol held in the highest esteem by servants of Law. By the principle of the Rule of Threes, a dominating pattern emerged across the Wheel: Events happened in trios, categorizations became three-fold. This principle brought predictability with it, a trait that suited servants of Law just fine. That principle also determined that there be a third principle: The Center of All, the defining center of the multiverse. The Serpents struggled among themselves, one wanting to place it at Celestia, the Lawful Good heavens, while the other wanted Baator, the Lawful Evil hells. They struggled, separated and sought out their desired planes, leaving the center undefined.

Okay, so I didnâ,¬,,¢t get to Material (Prime) worlds this time, that will have to wait for next time. By the way, do you think this representation of the myth on the Serpents is too close to violating intellectual property in relation to Guide to Hell?
Comments are not expected, they are demanded!

More discussion on the setting can be found at the Wizards of the Coast board here.

This is the history of the cosmos of my campaign setting. I try to incorporate a decent amount of core and Planescape canon. Due to laziness, study, work and campaign running I have no idea on how frequent updating will be, but this is the first part. Enjoy!

The Beginning â,¬' Theories by gods, scholarly planars and other powers
It is commonly believed there is a great Void, which always have been. Some say it is filled with idea, potential and power. From it come concepts such as time, space, matter and magic. It creates worlds and takes them away.
From the Void came what eventually resulted in separate collections of worlds â,¬' cosmologies, multiverses. Two dominant theories on the Void and how the multiverse called the Great Wheel came from it are presented below:

The seemingly most dominant theory in the Wheel identifies the Void as a realm of primal Chaos, and is favoured by beings with some disposition towards Law or Chaos. Most Lawful supporters of this theory reason that primal forces of Law coalesced the Great Wheel into a relatively stable being of existence. They place the original force of Law as primal as Chaos, having been situated â,¬Å"insideâ,¬Â the Void until the time was right to manifest fully â,¬' a supposedly perfectly timed occurrence. These supporters see the formation of the Wheel as a Lawful act, along the same lines that many humans see their civilization as a conquest over nature.
Most Chaotic supporters instead place the formation of the Wheel as random chance by the powers of creation inherent in the Void - the happenstance of a set of particularly stable worlds brought into existence simultaneously and by supporting each other through interconnection, solidified their existence. Similarly, they place Law as the result of the random creation of a concept from the Void, thus identifying Law as inherently Chaotic â,¬' a mind-boggling paradox, many say, which suits Chaotic supporters just fine.
Both sides often closely relate Limbo to the Void, a minority even identifying them with each other. Almost all supporters of the Primal Chaos theory lend strong support to the myth of the Twin Serpents of Law, briefly summarized later.

The other theory relates or identifies the Void with the strange world known as the Far Realm. This â,¬Å"planeâ,¬Â is seemingly completely separated from the rest of the known multiverse, and is also completely beyond understanding, which is the cause of many arguments both for and against this theory. Supposedly, forces there with powers beyond present gods either found or created the multiverse for unknown reasons, and withdrew from its existence. These beings are often referred to as the Old Ones.

A few other theories relate the Void to the Astral or Deep Ethereal, while many instead place it separate from the known planes, sometimes adopting the Old Ones in them as well. Whether any of the mentioned theories have any support in other cosmologies than the Great Wheel, is unknown. Regardless of whether any of them are right, they almost all agree that the newly born multiverse emerged unlike the present one, namely with the absence of transitive and material planes. Many also place the Inner Planes as older than the Outer ones, while none have succeeded in even making an educated guess on whether the Far Realm has an origin place able as before or after the origin of other planes (most have in fact gone mad during their research with such an attempt). The Astral Plane is thought to have either been formed or become accessible to the rest of the planes with the emergence of the first sentient beings in the Wheel, as their thoughts either are believed to have manifested the Astral, or have reached out and discovered it. This idea is only slightly dominant though, usually due to scholars that believe that sentience is everywhere, pointing to spells such as stone tell and speak with plants as arguments. Also, the philosophical nature of the Outer Planes might indicate that a sentient entity is responsible, possibly the Great Wheel itself or something residing in the Void. The other transitive planes, the Ethereal and Shadow planes are similarly commonly believed to either have formed or been discovered with the creation of material worlds.

Next up, Iâ,¬,,¢ll go through the emergence of the first beings, the power of belief, speculation on overgods, creation and destruction of material worlds, rise of the mortals and dirt on the entity known today as Tharizdun, among other things. Stay tuned!

Well, Iâ,¬,,¢d say you overdramatize a bit, but thatâ,¬,,¢s fair enough :D.

Who are the overgods? The Realms natives call theirs Ao. And perhaps there only is one, throughout the multiverse. That really isnâ,¬,,¢t an important point, as it/they generally are distant beyond the relevance of a campaign.

As to why, that can be answered in the cheapest possible way: Theyâ,¬,,¢re overgods. They work in ways beyond the grasp of other gods. Few dare guess at their motives. Who knows how or if they agree on how or if to act? Consider this: overgod politics.
Iâ,¬,,¢ll stop being an ass at this point. Of course, Iâ,¬,,¢ve given that a lot of thought, and the answer is woven into my own history on the meta-setting. The essence of each cosmos is contained within creatures, objects, spells, everything originating from that particular cosmos. Known to the most knowledgeable beings in the multiverse, there have been at least one cosmos that no longer exists. Long story short, the excessive entry of alien essence into another cosmos has had catastrophical consequences. This ancient occurrence has resulted in a general paranoia of the same thing happening again, among many of those who know about it. Organizations dedicated to the prevention of intercosmos interference have appeared, local as well as intercosmological. For the bulk of these members, that translates into investigating unusual creatures or occurrences, employing special spells to determine their essence (= cosmological roots/identity/connection).
â,¬Å"Stranger, you do not belong. Finish your business here, and return to your own world!â,¬Â
Needless to say, prejudice and banish spells are more popular among many of these groups. So, for the more â,¬Å"mundaneâ,¬Â situations, the mortals sort it out themselves.

Now, for powerful individuals, groups or powers, that is where the overgods might step in. Powerful beings are more capable of bringing about drastic change to a cosmos they are not native to. If an interference is severe enough, an overgod might in a best case scenario block the interference from taking place, and in worst case scenario remove the responsible from existence. A discernible action taken by an O.G. (sorry, couldnâ,¬,,¢t help it) is truly an almost unique occurrence, and the mere rumor about the consequences dissuades most potential transgressors.

So actually I was wrong to say that the overgods are responsible for the majority of direct preventions, but I am considering the idea that the story about intercosmos interference having caused major disaster in the past comes from them, regardless of whether or not it is true.

Characters who have business on other cosmologies do it discreetly, if they know about these issues. There may be dragonmarked and warforged in Greyhawk, but most make sure not to attract too much attention, or to back up their presence with solid documentation/argumentation on their business there, in case some of the more serious of the mentioned organizations take an interest.
My PCs are neither immune nor fated â,¬' theyâ,¬,,¢re simply people potentially thrown into a cosmos-spanning campaign who have to take the aforementioned precautions.

To finish off, thank you for the constructive criticism â,¬' it is vital for consistency of my campaign that people can bring these issues to my mind.

Hey thanks for the comments, guys.

First, to sdragon1984: Glad you like it. Never heard about Xiluh, do elaborate!
Natural 20: Itâ,¬,,¢s not finished, but enough to make it playable, I think. Iâ,¬,,¢m not as familiar with all the settings as I want to be, so Iâ,¬,,¢m limiting my current campaign to what Iâ,¬,,¢m familiar with â,¬' that is, some sages in my game know more about the full extent of the cosmos, but the campaign currently revolves around familiar terrain.

The unintentionally longwinded answer to Luminous Crayon:
Thanks a lot for the very delicate considerations. Itâ,¬,,¢s almost creepy how much your words reflect some of the thoughts I had going while doing this :D. To address your concerns in an orderly fashion:

First of all donâ,¬,,¢t worry, Iâ,¬,,¢m not going to overwhelm my players with all of this at once â,¬' in fact, I donâ,¬,,¢t mind if they ever discern the full extent of how my cosmos is connected and why. Iâ,¬,,¢m satisfied enough that Iâ,¬,,¢ve begun to see an old dream start to work out (not that itâ,¬,,¢s an original idea, 2nd Ed / Planescape did a great job â,¬' I just wanted more). Youâ,¬,,¢re right, I could likely get away with making things up as I go, and my players would take long to discover any inconsistencies. I simply made this project as a hobby. However, I have players who crave to understand the multiverse, and I donâ,¬,,¢t mind setting up adventures for them to achieve that.
 

QuoteSeems to me you could get the same result in a much simpler fashion by treating the various material planes (Oreth, Toril, Eberron) as alternate material planes of each other, with none dominant over the other two. They're connected by the transitives, and each one is surrounded by its own array of assorted secondary planes, as normal. Gives you the same amount of flexibility to change between one setting and another by traveling through Shadow or the Deep Ethereal, and I don't have to memorize a huge honkin' diagram to figure out how it works.

[blockquote]Epic storytelling in the Realms, pulp action and dark adventure in Eberron and deep philosophy in Planescapeâ,¬Â¦ Mmmâ,¬Â¦[/quote]
I understand your confusion and Iâ,¬,,¢ll try to elaborate. We like the individual styles of the campaign settings, and we like them being prevalent there. Weâ,¬,,¢d play Forgotten Realms if we were in the mood for campaigns where gods very directly influence mortals, and Greyhawk when we like to consider more down-to-earth adventures. However, my players also bond strongly to their characters, and like to have them explore the same regions and worlds. So, when weâ,¬,,¢re in the mood for philosophical conflicts about moral alignment, I might set up an adventure that goes to the Outlands, when weâ,¬,,¢re in the mood for something gritty and dark, yet not sinister, I go about bringing them to Eberron.
Sure, I could throw all those styles together in a single campaign world, but gods donâ,¬,,¢t frequently interact with mortals in Greyhawk (like in the Realms), and the power of belief doesn't have that strong effects in Eberron (like in Planescape).

QuoteCombining various cosmologies makes some planes redundant. I see that your diagram shows them as connected, but you could simplify things further by making pairs like Fernia and the Elemental Plane of Fire simply two different names for the same thing. As far as I know, there's not a whole lot that goes on in those places that runs the risk of contradiction if you do so.

If you deliberately mix all these settings, strange things are going to happen when warforged and dragonmarked folk start showing up on Oerth, or when spellcasters armed with Toril's customary huge magic level decide they have a score to settle on Eberron. How many dragonshards does Waterdeep have to import before we start to notice a drastic effect on the economy? I don't know enough about Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms to start ferreting out all the possible consequences of crossover, but remember, it doesn't take a very powerful spellcaster (in the grand scheme of things) to Plane Shift, and crossover between people is going to be at least as important as crossover between settings, histories, and gods.[/quote]

That is a very important concern. The short answer is this: The overgods prevents the majority of intercosmos interference. Only a minority, including my PCs, can ever hope to travel beyond their own cosmos. Any noticeable commerce, migrations, or the like will be prevented, as well as individuals trying to promote drastic changes to a world, they are not native to â,¬' by powerful magic or other means. I have many ideas for how the overgods will do this, drastic as well as subtle.

The Great Tree sounds good, but perhaps too similar to the World Tree of the Realms?

Damn, this is the longest reply Iâ,¬,,¢ve ever written to anythingâ,¬Â¦ Well, hope it answered some questions.

Behold!

I present to you my campaign setting (in development), based on the simple concept of incorporating as much content as possible from the most prominent D&D campaign settings, while minimizing any loss of consistency (currently featuring content from Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Eberron and Planescape).

While each of these campaign settings present different styles of play, I hunger for them all and want to provide my players with the opportunity to explore them through our main game. Epic storytelling in the Realms, pulp action and dark adventure in Eberron and deep philosophy in Planescapeâ,¬Â¦ Mmmâ,¬Â¦

Good people, I give you: the real multiverse (or intercosmology / multicosmology / ultraverse / whateverâ,¬Â¦)



After staring speechless at the unfathomable confusion that is this mighty diagram for a minute, I must admit it seems like it would drive most people insane (and Zagyg sane) faster than a trip to the Far Realms.  :blink:

Cosmos
As shown, this take on the multiverse connects cosmologies in many ways, most notably through the Plane of Shadow.
The Inner planes, the Abyss and Baator are the same for Greyhawk and the Realms, while many worlds that are considered individual planes in the Realms really only are layers or realms in layers of the Great Wheel (as described in Manuel of the Planes).
The definitive â,¬Å"shapeâ,¬Â of the Astral Plane is the shapeless cloud of the D&D (Greyhawk) cosmology, but a tree-like substructure constitutes the one commonly known to inhabitants of the Realms. Thus, when on a plane exclusively belonging to the Realms, travelers are subject to the restrictions of Astral travel presented in Playerâ,¬,,¢s Guide to Faerûn (plane shifting has to go through Toril). The rivers Oceanus & Styx (Greyhawk) and the River of Blood & the World Tree (the Realms) are still viable means of non-magical travel.
Different connectivity exists between Eberron and the other cosmoses: Due to the likeness of Eberron planes to many other famous ones, I decided that these worlds are coterminous in the same way that neighboring Outer Planes of the Great Wheel borders each other. One can use conventional travel, if the right paths are known. Similar bordering exists for some of the planes from the Realms, as indicated. An exception is the connectivity between the House of the Triad & Celestia, one of the few cases where Realms content take precedence over Greyhawk content â,¬' that is, it seems like Celestia is a layer within the Triad, but theyâ,¬,,¢re technically separate planes.
If any of the following planes are included in the Great Wheel, they should border or possibly even be identified with these Eberron planes: The Region of Dreams & Dal Quor, Elemental Plane of Cold & Risia, Plane of Faerie & Thelanis and Far Realm & Xoriat.
Eberron itself is drifting in the Astral plane, giving the impression from the perspective of the inhabitants of Eberron, that itâ,¬,,¢s the other planes that revolve around them (quite proud of this idea, heh). Alternatively, the intercosmos borders at Eberron planes can just be shifting (as described in Manuel of the Planes on page 21), often coming into contact with the indicated planes of other cosmologies.
Where you go when you die depend on which cosmos you are native to. In general, one cannot plane shift between planes of differing cosmology.

Gods
One overgod governs each cosmos (inspired by Planescape, berk!). They have several duties, but the most important is to keep intercosmos interference to a minimum (most notably, from the other gods). Havenâ,¬,,¢t decided whether shared planes (like Baator & the Abyss) are monitored by the involved overgods in cooperation, whether a separate overgod governs them or whether the involved overgods all claim jurisdiction there (possibly warring over it!). Or perhaps there only is one overgod?
I also use them for explaining the relative status quo of development of technologies, cultures, etc., but that aspect is purely due to my own desire for a reason (my players never give it a second thought).
Iâ,¬,,¢m merging the history of gods appearing in multiple settings (like many racial gods), and so far havenâ,¬,,¢t stumbled on any major inconsistencies (and some different gods seem identical, most notably Ehlonna & Mielikki). Iâ,¬,,¢ll let the Time of Troubles have consequences on other prime worlds than the Realms (e.g. Moradinâ,¬,,¢s servants in Greyhawk losing connection to him because of Ao kicking him down in the Realms). Thatâ,¬,,¢s a price they paid for gaining influence on more than one cosmos, and Iâ,¬,,¢m thinking the Time of Troubles isnâ,¬,,¢t the only occasion where being an intercosmos god had a drawback (perhaps only the creatures of the racial gods are subject to the status quo aspect mentioned before?).

Mythological history
As of yet, I havenâ,¬,,¢t found any major conflicts associated with letting each setting keep their own history of mythological beginning. However, Iâ,¬,,¢m writing up history predating them all, describing how the first overgods and cosmoses came to be, among other things (and destruction of at least one, mmhehehe). Iâ,¬,,¢ll probably let most exemplars play a major role here, e.g. via the good ole bloody Blood War.

More mindless uninteresting blabbering
Reading up about how the cosmos of the Realms reflects a tree structure and considering how Eberron resembles an atom, I initially got the odd mental image of a tree untop a spinning wheel, while electrons orbit itâ,¬Â¦
I first attempted to keep true to the Planescape cosmos: The Great Wheel with the Material Plane holding several campaign worlds. However, in the end I felt that too much â,¬Å"feelâ,¬Â of the other settings were lost by limiting their planar structure this way, so I decided on the presented setup. Planescape is probably my favorite setting, as the philosophical discussions related to it adds greatly to the roleplaying aspect and itâ,¬,,¢s just much more mature than most settings. Iâ,¬,,¢m including the idea from Planescape of reality being greatly affected by the power of belief on outer planes of the Great Wheel.
I hate having too many gods around in a campaign setting. It makes them all that less special and I think it would make my players less inclined to pay them the respect they are due, in-game. So first I tried long and hard to select the most important gods from the various settings, attempting to merge similar ones, and ultimately finding little success. Keeping them separated in their own cosmos (with some exceptions) seems to work for me, though.
Iâ,¬,,¢m considering restricting natives of Toril from plane shifting between planes shared with the Greyhawk cosmos, to enforce their subjection to the tree-like Astral of their cosmos. When I mapped the cosmos of my setting I used planes from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Later I saw that the Playerâ,¬,,¢s Guide to Faerûn added more planes to the cosmos, but I presently have too much of a headache to consider how these new planes fit in (Clangor will be the cube on Acheron, of course, and seems like the Blood Rift should border the Gray Wastes). If these additional planes are included, however, it will add interesting strategical considerations to the Blood War, as it seems easier for fiends to attack each other via the Blood Rift, rather than Gehenna, the Wastes and Carceri (when plane shifting isnâ,¬,,¢t an option).
Power scaling is important when combining settings, of course, as many individuals of the Realms are far superior to similar celebrities in Greyhawk. Havenâ,¬,,¢t decided what to do yet, but I think Iâ,¬,,¢ll twist levels to put the most powerful mortals (like Mordy & Elminster) at about CR 30 and planar rulers (like Asmodeus & Zaphkiel) well above that. Gods are irrelevant, I donâ,¬,,¢t play with them being comparable to a character level, and Iâ,¬,,¢d probably never let players be involved with deicide. I simply keep them categorized as either over-, greater, intermediate, lesser or demi gods.
At present Iâ,¬,,¢m working on establishing a common timeline and noting important occurrences in it. I want to describe happenings that have intercosmos consequences, especially the Time of Troubles.

Iâ,¬,,¢m thinking that when inconsistencies are unavoidable, Iâ,¬,,¢ll let campaign settings take precedence in the following order: Greyhawk (itâ,¬,,¢s core), Planescape (itâ,¬,,¢s created with the planar perspective in mind), Forgotten Realms (no setting has as much content written as the Realms), Eberron (fresh style & WotC produces material for it). Somewhat reflects what campaigns I value most.

Iâ,¬,,¢d appreciate if anybody could point out problems that can arise in this approach of a campaign setting merging, general as well as specific, particularly with history inconsistencies.
General constructive comments and suggestions are also more than welcome.
Any suggestions for a campaign setting name?