Some thoughts on social media by Jack Shear reminded me of this old post, with Jack suggesting replacing elements of the Exalted setting with rough analogs from D&Ds implied setting. As most things D&Dish do, this inevitably got my thinking about the planes and how one could break the Great Wheel in Exaltedish pieces. 5e's cosmology even starts doing some of the work.
Yu-Shan: Exalted's Heaven, a continent-sized city. Much of it would resemble part's of D&D's Mount Celestia, but some of it's nation-sized parks would be like The Beastlands. The Celestial Bureaucracy would have elements of Mechanus (including Modrons and Inevitables).
The Wyld: The Chaos outside and encrouching on Creation. Pure Chaos is probably not something worth getting into (maybe it's like the D&D Far Realm?), but the middlemarches are like D&D's Limbo and home to Slaadi. Maybe there is an area of Pandemonium, too. We might as well call the bordermarches the Feywild, but they also include elements of Arborea the "deeper" you get.
The Underworld: This occupies the position in relation to the Prime Material Plane/Creation as the Shadowfell, but they term should be applied to the areas Exalted calls Shadowlands, where the Underworld and the Prime overlap. The Underworld proper should get a lot of Hades/Grey Wastes stuff, and beneath it is Oblivion, the Negative Energy Plane.
Malfeas: The prison of the Yozi's (the Primordials betrayed by the gods) would by the repository of much of the Lower Planes stuff: the Abyss, Carceri, and the Nine Hells. The Law and Chaos division of these worlds in D&D terms would be a hindrance to making them more like Exalted, so maybe that's dropped, or maybe demons and devils are different factions of Yozi.
Autochthonia: The world within the body of the Primordial Autochthon. Mechanus is a better name for this god and this place anyway, so whatever Mechanus stuff wasn't shunted to Yu-Shan should be here. Also, some of the old quasi- and para-elemental planes would be the elemental "reserviors" of this world (Smoke, Radiance, Lightning, Mineral, etc.)
I have a similar illustration the the one you linked at the bottom. The celestial planes are above the vault of the sky, the material plane is the stable center and the underworld runs down until it ends with a vast plane of stalactites over the void. In my map, deep gnomes are the keepers of that bottom most layer, building upside down cities of crystal and stone hanging like chandeliers from the material plane out over the void, and Reverse Gravity magics are the stock and trade of keeping things architecturally intact.
ReplyDeleteI have a similar illustration the the one you linked at the bottom. The celestial planes are above the vault of the sky, the material plane is the stable center and the underworld runs down until it ends with a vast plane of stalactites over the void. In my map, deep gnomes are the keepers of that bottom most layer, building upside down cities of crystal and stone hanging like chandeliers from the material plane out over the void, and Reverse Gravity magics are the stock and trade of keeping things architecturally intact.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a cool cosmology!
ReplyDelete