New Cosmology


4th Edition

Dark Archive

Look like they just put up another cosmology article on the WotC site.

HERE

I know its bound to raise some hackles but I gotta admit, sounds pretty cool to me. I'd definitely use The Shadowfell in my game.

Let the rants begin!

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Now that's much more like the change for which I was hoping.

*dance dance dance*


Sebastian, does this man you're waffling?

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

William Pall wrote:
Sebastian, does this man you're waffling?

No, they're still dicks for not explaining why it's necessary and they're still handling the release of 4e like s%~+ in general. But, this sounds much closer to the Ars Magica regio structure than the White Wolf slop structure, which makes me happy. I can ditch the creation myth of the hells/abyss if I've got something like this to wrap my arms around.


To be honest and give credit where credit is due, I like parts of this and I dislike parts of it. If it were a completely new campaign setting, I actually give them credit for making a logical set up for it. I kind of like the planar domains floating in the astral, as I wouldn't mind too much not knowing for sure how many outer planes there are.

I does sound to me as if they are trying to hedge their bets though, on weather all of D&D shares this cosmology. Given how easy it would be to not be able to find this or that divine realm, and without one leading logically to another, it would be easy to say that the Realms of FR deities are grouped together, and it might take you years to find the realms of the Greyhawk deities if you didn't start out from one of them, for example.

Now, what I don't like is that this isn't all new. If it were, I'd say the new cosmology is logical in a way that some of the other planes weren't. But I don't like the Nine Hells being the "same Nine Hells, but different," and even if it weren't a "redefinition," I don't like demons being the "evil end" of the Elemental Planes, and that particular part of the cosmology doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

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KnightErrantJR wrote:

Now, what I don't like is that this isn't all new. If it were, I'd say the new cosmology is logical in a way that some of the other planes weren't. But I don't like the Nine Hells being the "same Nine Hells, but different," and even if it weren't a "redefinition," I don't like demons being the "evil end" of the Elemental Planes, and that particular part of the cosmology doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

It will be interesting to hear if there is more explanation about the elemental planes = demons. Maybe because demons are...well...elemental evil...

Looks like positive energy plane/negative energy plane are gone. As is the ethereal.

I guess at the end of the day, I like the coterminus planes so much that the outer planes are less important to me. I'm just so happy that the coterminus planes (the ones with which players are going to interact directly most often) are useful and interesting, as opposed to the astral, shadow, and ethereal planes.


Sebastian wrote:

It will be interesting to hear if there is more explanation about the elemental planes = demons. Maybe because demons are...well...elemental evil...

Are we going to see elemental good creatures?

Scarab Sages

Talion09 wrote:
Sebastian wrote:

It will be interesting to hear if there is more explanation about the elemental planes = demons. Maybe because demons are...well...elemental evil...

Are we going to see elemental good creatures?

I think this new system will make use of both good and evil elementals.


The loss of the ethereal is a little strange to me... Though, I suppose that it was melded into the Shadowfell for the purposes of ghosts and such. It will always hold a special place in my heart due to time my red dragon obsessed sorcerer sent a tendriculos there by way of a prismatic ray...


Well, now that I'm not responding "on the clock" (not that I would do such a thing) . . .

As a brand new cosmology I do actually kind of like it except for a few parts. I don't like it as a redefining of what existed before. And much like "points of light" wasn't applied to Forgotten Realms, I'm sure this doesn't apply either (meaning somehow this will be the new FR cosmology as well, if past experience holds).

Which means if you are a FR fan, I'd be worried about Kelemvor and the Fugue Plain being on the chopping block soon as well . . . but I could be wrong . . .

I would have liked Faerie or the Feywilde or Feyetteville or whatever they are calling it to have been a little more alien, not "just like the real world, but more wild," but rather given to distortions in time and space. Almost like a fantasy version of Hyperspace, which is kind of how it works in FR now.

The part I still have a hard time feeling, even from the "new" perspective, is the demons having an elemental origin, and the Abyss being connected to the "Elemental Limbo Tempset" thing. Although it does make me wonder if Slaad will end up as elemental creatures now. I guess I'm just not seeing elementals naturally being tied to demons. I think its kind of an overreaction to wanted to make sure no one mistakes them for devils.

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