There are a lot of very reasonable criticisms regarding the Gygaxian Great Wheel of Outer Planes, though I also like a lot about it. I've spent a fair number of posts on this blog trying to make it truly it some sort of coherent set of competing paradigms as Planescape promises but doesn't really deliver.
This post, I want to go in another direction entirely and see if the Outer Planes can be configured in such a way as to have a bit more Medieval flavor, a possible monotheistic bend, and potentially mostly be about the afterlife.
Take a look at the cosmology presented in the works of Dante:
Dante (like OD&D) imagines an order where what in latter day D&D terms we would call Lawful Good. So the Empyrean, the realm outside the cosmos where the Godhead or whatever supreme principle of goodness resides is the equivalent of the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia in the Great Wheel.
"Beneath" that we enter the cosm and the spheres of the heavens. Here mystical cosmology mixes with physical cosmology and we have the Aristotlean celestial spheres of the classic planets. Dante makes of them "not-quite-good-enough heavens, and I would too, but with a twist. These would be the afterlives or mystic realms of "pagan" deities (using the term here to mean deities other than our Supreme Godhead mention above). Something similar to how the cosmology of the Sandman comics series works or Jurgen by James Branch Cabell, but more systematized as Gary would have wanted it. I would probably nix specific alignments in this sort of setup, focusing on interesting themes and correspondences.
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| Frank C. Papé |
Above the planets is the sphere of the Primum Mobile or Prime Mover. This will be the mindless demiurge or ghost in the machine that makes the physical and near physical universe run. This is Mechanus of the Great Wheel.
Arriving at the Earth, we find Elysium/Elysian Fields, the Terrestrial Paradise. It can be found by the living, but it's difficult. Beneath the Earth is the gloomy, gray realm of Hades.
In the caverns beneath Hades we begin to slip into the realm of truly evil souls, places where monsters have been cast down. There realms are probably all tied to a Deadly Sin. No doubt there are several infernal realms before we get to Hell (represented the sin of Pride) proper, where the rebellious angels have built their resentful kingdom in exile.
Immediately beneath Hell would be Tartarus, where the Godhead has locked up frightening beings. Rival gods? The mistakes of former creation? Who knows?
Beneath Tartarus is the Abyss. The deep waters mentioned in Genesis, though this may not literally be water but some fluid. Liquid Tiamat (from Babylonian myth, not the the Dungeon & Dragons cartoon). Malign chaos incarnate.
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| Robert Crumb |
8 comments:
Just finished reading Divine Comedy's first part (Inferno) and I'm amazed how Dante's description of hell (and the very concept of Hades through roman/greek mythology) relates directly to the idea of D&D Mythic Underworld.
Delve deep and you might enter a whole another plane.
What is in the air these days? I literally just published a similar cosmology in my Liber Diaboli -- Book of Fiends for Shadowdark:
"For an eternity, there was Darkness.
Then there was Light.
From the first, between the twain, there was ever conflict. Eternal war. The Lords of Light and the Demons of Darkness fought, and countless numbers fell upon the battlefield.
Upon that line formed Shadow. Within Shadow was birthed Day, child of Light, and Night, child of Darkness.
Under the Light of Day was revealed Air and Water. The winds of Air blew upon the Water and from within arose Earth and Fire.
Above the Air, amidst the Clouds of Water, was the Light of the Heavens; there dwelt the Lords of Light. Beneath the Earth, amidst the Fires of the Deeps, was the Darkness of the Abyss; there dwelt the Demons of Darkness.
Life arose in between, from Air and Water, Earth and Fire, in the Shadows between Light of Day and Darkness of Night.
There too arose Spirits, the shards of the essence and power of the Lords of Light and the Demons of Darkness who had fallen in the eternal battle. Amorphous and senseless, the shards of power from Light and Darkness merged, in myriad forms, as Spirits, small and large, weak and strong.
Drawn to the Life that arose around them, these Spirits took on the forms of Life; or perhaps Life called to and captured the Spirits.
From their infinite combinations arose Beasts of Air and Water, Earth and Fire.
As Spirits merged and grew and developed in the crucible of Life, Sentient Spirits, born of neither Light nor Darkness, but of both, arose – these were the first Souls.
Life continued to develop in ever greater complexity. Souls attained ever greater Sentience. Until, in time, the Titans arose – the ultimate embodiment of Life empowered by the strongest Souls.
The Lords of Light and the Demons of Darkness realized that Titans had power that they could never possess over the World they had wrought in their conflict.
And so they called to them, seeking to turn them to Light or to Darkness. And in time, a third of the Titans turned to Light, and a third turned to Darkness, and the remaining Titans eschewed both sides, seeking only to nurture Life, or to be left alone.
And the Lords of Light and the Demons of Darkness taught the Titans their great arts and mysteries, and the Titans grew in power.
And the Lords of Light and the Demons of Darkness grew closer to their Titans, and their Power and their Souls mingled, and thus the Titans spawned a new form of being – the Gods.
The Gods. Greater than the Lords of Light, greater than the Demons of Darkness, greater than their Titan parents.
And the Gods born of the Lords of Light and the Titans were the Gods of Law, while the Gods born of the Demons of Darkness and the Titans were the Gods of Chaos.
And Law was greater than Light, while Chaos was greater than Darkness.
Then did the Lords of Light and the Demons of Darkness realized their mistake.
They sought to cast down the Titans they had brought up from humble origins, and to eradicate the Gods they had spawned that were greater than themselves.
The War of the Gods and Titans raged across the Heavens, across Air and Water, Earth and Fire, in Shadow, by Day and Night, unto the depths of the Abyss.
And in time the Gods of Law, born of Light and Life, were victorious, and cast down their enemies – whether Lords of Light, Demons of Darkness, Titans, or Gods of Chaos.
"Lords of Light who bent the knee and served the Gods of Law were granted mercy, retained much of their power, and are known today as Angels.
Lords of Light who fought not against the Gods of Law, nor aided the Demons of Darkness or the Gods of Chaos, were stripped of much of their power, and cast forth into the World, where they became the ancestors of the Genies and similar entities, from whom in time arose many of the Pagan Gods and some of the Gods of Balance.
Lords of Light who refused to bend the knee, or who fought for the Demons of Darkness or the Gods of Chaos, were cast down, into the Abyss. But the Abyss, born of Darkness, rejected them.
And so in the bowels of the Earth, where Water and Air and Fire had carved out a vast Underworld above the Abyss, they were accursed to remain, in those realms known now as the Hells. And so they became Devils, Fallen Lords of Light, the Lords of Darklight.
The Titans who remained loyal to the Gods of Law were allowed to continue as they had, and so were ancestors of the lesser Titans and such entities of today, including many of the greater Pagan Gods.
Titans who fought not against the Gods of Law, nor aided the Demons of Darkness or the Gods of Chaos, were stripped of much of their power, and cast forth into the World, where they became the ancestors of the Elementals, from whom in time arose the Elemental Gods, and some of the Gods of Balance.
Most of the Titans who took the side of the Demons of Darkness or the Gods of Chaos were stripped of their great power and exiled to the Wastelands they had created in the World, and became the ancestors of the Giants.
The greatest and most dangerous of the Titans who had allied with the Demons of Darkness or the Gods of Chaos were imprisoned between the Abyss and the Hells, in Tartarus, a terrible land of eternal torment and punishment.
The Demons of Darkness continued to rule the Abyss, where even the Gods of Law feared to tread, while many served the Devils in the Hells.
Of the Gods of Chaos, there was little the Gods of Law could do, for it took all their power to overcome their other enemies.
But the Gods of Chaos still feared the power of the Gods of Law.
And so the Gods of Chaos hid, in or between the Hells and Abyss, nigh upon Tartarus, where they built up their own Realms of Chaos, hidden from Heaven, but close to the World, that they might conquer and rule it, and use its power to cast down the Gods of Law.
In time the Gods of Chaos rose against the Gods of Law, and great and terrible battles were fought, when many Gods – of Law, Chaos, and Balance – were slain…"
"The DAMNED
The Underworld is the resting place for the souls of wicked mortals who adhere to the faith of the Gods of Law, the Gods of Chaos, and practice demonolatry, diabolism, and similar related faiths.
There are also numerous other lesser Realms in the Underworld where various other gods and similar entities inter the souls of mortals who were wicked or otherwise displeased them (in emulation of Tartarus).
The souls of those who dedicated their lives to the Chaos Gods, the Demon Princes, or Archdevils, and failed in their service to their masters, and the souls of those who dedicated their lives to the Gods of Law, yet fell from grace and with malice aforethought performed Chaotic or Evil acts, are sent to the Underworld as Larvae.
The souls of those who dedicated their lives to the Chaos Gods, the Demon Princes, or Archdevils, and were unremarkable in their service, are consigned to the Underworld as Moaning Fiends.
The souls of those who dedicated their lives to the Chaos Gods, the Demon Princes, or Archdevils, and were successful in their service, are consigned to the Underworld as Moaning Fiends.
The souls of those who dedicated their lives to the Gods of Law, but were neither very Lawful or Good, nor terribly Evil or Chaotic, yet still burdened with sin, are consigned to the Hells as disembodied, wholly impervious souls known as Shades, in a state known as Purgatory, to purify the soul of all its lesser sins.
Immune to Fiendish torments, tribulations, or troubles, Shades wander the various Underworlds aimlessly, the horrors they see purging from their mind memories of (most of) their Mortal life.
In due course the Shades are purified of their stain of sin, and are reincarnated in the Mortal World for a second chance at earning entrance to the Heavens via service to Law and Good or eternal damnation through service to Chaos and Evil."
Interesting cosmology!
When homebrewing I rarely present my players with anything like a complete or comprehensible cosmology and therefore don't spend much time on it. Adventurers might wind up going to parts of an Afterworld or Outer Plane or Divine/Profane Domain (with the locals each having their own term for where they are, usually connected to beliefs that are as incomplete and inaccurate as the PCs' are) but those just offers a snapshot of infinity and there won't be consistency between one such "place" and the next. To me this stuff should be largely a mystery to mortals, and very few other entities will have a real grasp of the big picture either.
That said, if I am going to use a published cosmology, it's usually something akin to D&D 4e or 13th Age unless I'm actually playing a Planescape-style campaign, in which case Ye Olde great Wheel gets dusted off. Haven't done that in this century though, and with my ever-increasing lack of interest in D&D and its countless relatives I doubt I ever will.
I hear ya. Elaborate cosmology isn't needed for most campaigns, for sure.
Oh yeah, most of this is invisible to the players... Right up until the moment their characters die.
I try to play out the character's journey into the Afterlife for the whole group, so the player can witness the final disposition of their character's soul.
Sometimes being witness to a character's "wages of sin" inspires other players to put their characters back onto the "Straight and Narrow"... Sometimes...
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