Plane (Dungeons & Dragons)

The 5th Edition brought back a new version of the Great Wheel cosmology which includes aspects of World Axis model.

[6] The "Basic edition" of D&D had a separate, though similar, cosmology from that of its contemporary AD&D game, which is a more open planar system that is less regulated than that of its counterpart.

[2]: 97  Then in 1993, TSR wanted to do a series of books about the Outer Planes which Zeb Cook said led to the creation of the Planescape campaign setting released in 1994.

[10] This campaign setting provided a framework to create adventures across the planes with the city of Sigil acting as a hometown and starting point for players.

Kevin Kulp, for DMs Guild, wrote that "the authors used an approach that said 'here's how it's been done in the past, and here are other ways you can do it,' which allowed the book to avoid setting planar mechanics in stone.

"[23] Backstab magazine reviewers Lord Winfield and Kaneda found the Inner Planes among the places in the Planescape setting least visited by player characters, which do not lend themselves to a prolonged stay.

Each plane starts to resemble its purest form, making it harder to travel without powerful magical spells that protect the party from the environment.

It is a highly flammable gaseous medium in which crystal spheres holding various Prime Material solar systems float, traversable by Spelljammer ships.

A god-isle is the immense petrified remains of a dead god that float on the Astral Plane, where githyanki and others often mine them for minerals and build communities on their stony surfaces.

God-isles often have unusual effects on those nearby, including causing strange dreams of things that happened to the god when it was alive.

[32] Trenton Webb for Arcane magazine comments that A Guide to the Astral Plane "breathes life into what had hitherto been little more than a planar motorway.

Essentially infinite and filled with few 'solid locations' or indigenous species, the Astral Plane should by rights be a dull place.

He adds that "By expanding the accepted 'physics' of the Astral plane and applying classic Planescape thinking, the Silver Void is made solid and comprehensible.

Neth, the Demiplane That Lives, was first presented in A Guide to the Ethereal Plane, a sourcebook for the Planescape setting of AD&D Second Edition.

[citation needed] It was created by Bruce Cordell, and introduced in the Second Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure module The Gates of Firestorm Peak (1996).

[38] In this edition, members of the Warlock class can forge a pact (called the Starpact) with the entities from or near the Far Realm to gain power.

[46][47] The Feywild was next explored in-depth in the 5th adventure module The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021) and the corresponding Domains of Delight (2021) supplement (an official PDF by Wizards of the Coast released on the Dungeon Masters Guild).

[...] Home to numerous species, the most prominent entities who dwell in the Shadowfell are mysterious undead beings called shadows.

The Far Realm was originally sealed off from reality by a crystalline structure known as the Living Gate, which lay at the top of the Astral Sea.

Additionally, other Dungeons & Dragons cosmologies were developed after Greyhawk for various other campaign settings, however, "they would be subsumed under 5e's umbrella concept of the multiverse".

[2]: 95 One of the hallmarks of the Dark Sun setting was Athas' cosmological isolation, something that broke with the rest of the canonical Dungeons & Dragon's universe.

[51] Many of Dark Sun's AD&D contemporaries are accessible via planar travel or spelljamming, but Athas, with very few exceptions, is entirely cut off from the rest of the universe.

They exhibit traits similar to those of the standard D&D cosmology but also some (Irian, Mabar, Fernia, and Risia) appear more like Inner Planes.

Appelcline highlighted that the 4th Edition World Axis model "had actually originated with the Forgotten Realms, which was planning a view of the heavens as early as 2005 or 2006.

The river separates and recombines many times in its passage, so travelers often find themselves journeying down side channels that soon rejoin the main stream.

[55]: 91  Krigala is the first layer of the plane of the Happy Hunting Grounds, closest to the Astral, and through it the Oceanus flows in a relatively straight course (compared to its winding through Elysium) into Olympus.

[55]: 93 The first edition Monster Manual II mentions that the River Styx "links the topmost layers of the Lower Planes, and its branches can be found anywhere from the Nine Hells to the Abyss".

Charon may be summoned only on the banks of the Styx, and he will appear with a large black skiff, and if requested he will ferry travelers to the topmost layer of any Lower Plane for a price.

It runs from Gladsheim, home of most of the Norse mythos, to Nifflheim, the center layer of the three Glooms of Hades and the dwelling place of the goddess of the same name.

The tree is a solid and permanent conduit that weathers the waxing and waning of faiths in the Prime Material and the fortunes of gods in the outer planes.