D&D General Which was your favourite Forgotten Realms Cosmology?

[Corinnguard]

Your new plane, which I'll call the Elder Tangle, would take on these removed bits. It isn't strictly a magical place, that's the Feywild's job. And it isn't strictly a dread place, that's the Shadowfell. Instead, it's a place where life is at war, in several senses. Dense jungles, thick marshes, hordes of wild beasts, nasty predators stalking everywhere, barely any settlements at all because of the constant encroachment of life...and also because of the pummeling of natural disasters.

I think I better throw in the Elemental Plane of Wood and the Beastlands into the Elder Tangle then.

 

[Mephista]

To be fair, how many people have dealt with any plane that is not one of the Nine Hells or the Abyss, i.e. where one is going to encounter monsters to fight? I’m guessing very few have used the Good aligned planes.

As someone who's played through Planescape, I've had a character go through Mount Celestia, the Outlands, Pandemonium, Mechanus... we swung by the two of the three Chaotic Good planes - had to use portals to go through one of them into the second to get where we need to. Another game had a paladin (not my character) go up to Mount Celestial as part of the quest to get a Holy Avenger.

But its mostly planescape in my experience that does a lot of outer plane exploration.

There is one or two 4e adventure that travel to the elemental planes. In the Scales of War the PCs travel to the City of Brass in the elemental chaos/

Cool. Thanks for letting me know.

Back in our early days, we had a DM who had us land on the Earth plane exactly as portrayed in the 3e MotP. In that we landed in a pocket of air and had to wait until a summoned Xorn dig us somewhere that mattered.

Heh. Amusing.. thanks for sharing.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I think I better throw in the Elemental Plane of Wood and the Beastlands into the Elder Tangle then.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Feel free to use the name, by the way, if you don't have one you already like better.

 

[TiQuinn]

But its mostly planescape in my experience that does a lot of outer plane exploration.

Planescape did an enormous amount to make the planes in general a place DMs felt comfortable taking players, IMO.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Who's actually dealt with the Elemental Planes, like, ever. And how? Across any of the editions.

One of my home brew settings, the Devils won the Blood War and conquered the rest of the Outer Planes. The ended up being cut off from the Inner Planes by a magical barrier, and some extraplanar refugees fled to the Inner Planes. The Elemental Planes (Shadowfell, Feywild, Elemental planes) became a lot more important because of this. This is how I changed them up:

• The Plane of Air became the refuge for Angels and other celestials that fled the Devils’ conquests. They won a war with the Djinn and Wind Dukes of Aaqa, taking control of the plane. Now a council of celestials controls the plane, and there are Aasimar colonies in the floating islands in the plane.
• Before the Inner and Outer planes were cut off from each other, the Devils and Efreet were trading partners. The Efreet bought a lot of infernal iron because of its resistance to heat, so it’s now a common metal in the Plane of Fire. The Efreet have industrialized and transitioned to using Myrmidons as servants instead of Salamanders and Azers. Firenewts have become Viking-style raiders on the Sea of Fire. Fire Goliaths have made their home in the volcanoes of Plane of Magma. There’s also a faction founded by the redeemed Erinyes daughter of Zariel that collects knowledge.
• The Plane of Water is in a forever war between the forces of the Aboleths and their servants (Krackens, Chuul, Krackenspawn, etc) and the Tritons-Marid alliance (who also have Dragon Turtles on their side).
• I’ll be honest, I don’t really have any idea how to use the Elemental Plane of Earth. Of all the already boring Elemental Planes, it’s easily the most boring. My main idea was that there’s a Dwarven subrace that lives here, mining gemstones and eating fungus, but that’s pretty boring and similar to the Underdark.

 

[Yaarel]

I’ll be honest, I don’t really have any idea how to use the Elemental Plane of Earth. Of all the already boring Elemental Planes, it’s easily the most boring. My main idea was that there’s a Dwarven subrace that lives here, mining gemstones and eating fungus, but that’s pretty boring and similar to the Underdark.

You might say:

Earth Elemental Plane = Material Plane

They are the same thing?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

You might say:

Earth Elemental Plane = Material Plane

They are the same thing?

This is ironic to me, because of all the elemental planes, it's the one that is most naturally suited to adventuring through.

It's literally rock full of caves. Unlike the water, which has no bottom and thus can't have a food chain, nor a surface, and thus can't have kelp and other such autotrophs. Unlike air, where you literally have to make the plane contain anything but air in order to make it interesting or useful. Unlike fire, where literally every part of it you might interact with is inherently and actively hostile to mortal life.

Crystal caverns! Murky depths! Things that should not be, hidden away in forgotten caves by a mad wizard who stowed his secrets in caves he thought didn't connect to the rest of the cavern network. Creatures that burrow through rock and stone like termites burrow through wood. Entire lithovore ecosystems. Pockets of prehistoric life lit by fluorescent fungi. Etc., etc., etc.

The Plane of Earth is the one plane I can imagine adventures in.

 

[Azzy]

Which great wheel, og or 5e modified ?

There's more than just those two—there's the version in the 1e PHB, the version in the 1e Manual of the Planes, the version in Planescape, and the version in the 3e Manual of the Planes. Each has differing details.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

There's more than just those two—there's the version in the 1e PHB, the version in the 1e Manual of the Planes, the version in Planescape, and the version in the 3e Manual of the Planes. Each has differing details.

Please explain the difference?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I will always be a Planescape fan, but that said.... while I have verrrry little exposure to the FR novels, I've observed authors play around with the D&D cosmology as represented in the role-playing books... The one I'm thinking of is the Shadow Fringe described in the War of the Spider Queen books (multiple authors), which is very very cool, but doesn't really line up with any of the poll options.

Shadow Fringe is just another term for Shadow crossing.