Attention! Cosmology Discussion!

[Rystil Arden]

There are basically two options to hopefully increase the number of comments. I can call for attention in the thread title, or I ask for this thread to be ignored (always a surefire way to get someone to look). I think I'll go the first route for now.

I'm not really sure about the Cosmology, as I'm just a newcomer here, but if you want this thread to get more views, perhaps we should have two people get into a flame war and then lock the thread after another page or so of posts. If you then change the title to say "Locked Due to Inappropriate Conduct" or something, that will probably draw lots of attention, but whatever you do, don't sticky it

 

[LogicsFate]

All you have to do is lock the thread and people will read over it time and time again trying to figure out why


While, I've never been a fan of the Worphant, I thing the rest of the setup looks good, Will we need to come up with new names for all these equivalants

 

[El Jefe]

Will we need to come up with new names for all these equivalants

Hmm. I would hope not. For example, especially seeing as how we've adapted and changed the planar structure that is given in the DMG, I'd think that names like "Astral Plane" and "Outer Planes" would fall under fair use.

 

[Knight Otu]

The discussion is on the Cosmology, not on how to get a better discussion started - but locking this thread is a surefire way to prevent more posts to it.

The only things we need to name are the nine outer planes, but those names can be more or less generic (individual layers could be named on later occasions, by DMs needing them, or in proposals). Everything else can keep the names we know, or go with simple descriptive names (such as, if we use the idea of citadels on the energy plane, those would be the Positive and Negative Citadel, respectively).

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

This whole planar layout thing really interests me, it's this sort of raw, completely undone stuff that makes LEW so cool.

I've been mulling things over in my head about the planes, and I've found that the Great Wheel model is kind of difficult to... change too much from, if you know what I mean. But I love the idea of the swirling, ying-yang energy planes. Now, if I understand correctly, the +/- energy planes are on the same "level" as each other and rotate about the center of Enworld, which (according to the map I have obtained from God knows where) is actually Orussus.

Now, on the map I have, the energy towers are east and west, but I read something somewhere saying that they have been relocated to north and south. This, combined with the swirling ying-yang energy plane inspired me with what I think is... a neat idea. I don't know how set-in-stone the tower locations are as of today, but I don't think any adventures have taken place there, so they should be fairly alterable still. Anyway! My idea is this:

There are the four elemental towers, Water in the NW, Earth in the NE, Fire in the SE, and Wind in the SW. Then there are four 'neutral' towers at each of the cardinal directions, N S E and W. The eternal swirling of the ying-yang of the energy planes 'underneath' the material plane 'shine up' through these 'neutral' towers. When the large positive portion of the energy plane is beneath a neutral tower, it shines gold or white, and when the small dot of negative energy is present, there could be a sort of eclipse, and vice versa. The areas around these towers could be extremely volatile, deserts one day and jungles the next. Depending on how fast we want the rotation to go, this could possibly explain night and day or the seasons of the Enworld without a solar system.

This is still in raw unedited form, but I think it warrants discussion. And maybe it'll bring life back to this dead thread.

 

[Knight Otu]

You have a map where the Energy Towers are East-West? I'd like to see that map. The map scetch I have has it as North-South, which was the original arrangement. Goblin King temporarily relocated them, but the official stance is that they are the North-South "poles". For example, I have used stuff like "(hasten) the journey southwards" as an euphemism for death and killing. I'm not sure if other DMs used that idea, though.

I do kind of like your idea, but I'm not sure how feasible it is.

 

[El Jefe]

Ok. I was going to try to sum up the information in this thread for the location recompilation thread, and it was just too confusing. We've got a lot of good ideas here, but we haven't expressed them as a coherent whole.

So, I poured over the material here, and decided to take a stab at a more detailed drawing of the EnWorld Cosmos. It will readily be apparent that I'm no great artist, especially not with MSPaint. But, it's better than nothing, and maybe it'll help revive this discussion. What I've attempted is a summary of all the ideas in this thread.

Some notes:
The EnWorphant is not shown. He/She/It (remember, the EnWorphant is androgynous) is "underneath" the Prime Material Plane. The Ethereal Plane and the Plane of Shadow "surround" the Prime Material, at a "closer" distance than the elemental planes, and are likewise also not shown. Everything on this page that is not marked is part of the Astral Plane...it just goes everywhere. The Energy planes are not a static ying-yang symbol, rather, the citadels are constantly getting pushed around, both by energy beams from "above" and "below", and by the "hostile" matter in the opposite energy plane. The energy beams that emerge from the "bottom" of the citadels that go to the neutral plane form large "ropes" of energy, one positive and one negative. Not far "below" the Energy Planes, these "ropes" intertwine. I didn't show that well, mainly because I can't draw.

I guess if there's a Sigil or something like it atop the "Energy Spire" in the Neutral Plane, it's in the shape of a doughnut (torus). Well, it has to have a hole in the middle for the energy to get through, right?

Anyway, here's the drawing.

 

[Bront]

Interesting stuff. I'm going to gather my thoughts on this and comment later