DreamingGod05
2016-03-04, 06:43 AM
Cosmology has always been fun for me. One of my favorite parts of all the worlds I read is reading how their Otherworlds work. As I've been penning down, concretely, my cosmology I've been having some trouble with it. I love animism, and wish it to play a bigger part in my cosmology, while keeping some of my favorite DnDisms that I've grown fond of. So here we go...
COSMOLOGY OF THE MULTIVERSE
This explanation for the structure of the local multiverse is the one most favored by the various academics. Clerics tend to prefer a more deity-centric version, while Warlocks tend to favor a version that places their patron at the top of the celestial pecking order. Druids tend to put deities below the essence of life, and the spirits that exist beside us. As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in-between.
The universe uses a “top down” model of the multiverse, with the Light (sometimes the 'Source' or the Divine Fire) at the top and the Void at the bottom. All of creation lies between them, created by the interplay of energies between the two.
Emypereal Flames
At the highest reaches the multiverse touches a place of creative, ordered energy; this plane is where the soul-stuff comes from. It's where the creative movement, and the way to get a universe comes from. This is the true source of all magic, all life, and all of everything. Primal energies suffuse the top most layer of the Spiritual Realm, where thought-forms and the platonic representation of all that is dwells, where the god's formed fed on the primal energy from the Divine Fire.
Flux and Entropy
Related, but different, to the Light is the Void. It is a selfish, consuming place that takes and corrupts. However, where it not for the interplay between the Light and the Void nothing would exist to break down and solidify the primal energy into forms, both subtle and gross.
THE TRANSITIONAL PLANES, REALM OF SPIRITS
This is the plane that makes up the space between other planes. Generally you must travel through the spiritual realm in order to get to another plane, although powerful spells and permanent gates can make it a very short journey. In some circles the spiritual realm is divided into the Ethereal Plane, and the Astral Plane, but in practice they are the same plane, but in different places along the energy frequency.
Both are known as the Spirit World. Most commonly it is known as the realm of Essence, and Spirit that exists right beside us; where the animating spirits of animals, trees, mountains and rivers are. Some of the beings commonly found here originate in other planes. It is often disputed, for instance, if elemental spirits come from the Elemental Planes, or if the Elemental Planes are populated by elemental spirits because the phenom and the spirit are inseparable.
The Astral Reaches
Is the Spirit Realm that connects the High Heavens to the Material Universe, and the Material Universe to the Lower Realms. It can be reached via Astral Projection and Dreamwalking, it is also the plane that Teleportation type spells send you through (very briefly) before reaching your destination.
Physical travel to the Astral Plane itself is difficult, and even then the plane seems to reject physical matter. Travelers report being pulled towards the nearest Color Pool (a one way gate to another Plane) with increasing force and speed the longer they stay there. If they do reach their chosen destination quickly they will find themselves ejected into a random Mortal Realm. The Astral Reaches are populated by conceptual spirits, and symbol-beings. This plane takes the form of a great, silvery sea with pool or clouds of color that send one elsewhere. While in dream-form a person flies and travels at the speed of thought, while physical travelers seem to be propelled by unknown forces.
The Spiritwilds
Sometimes called the 'Border Ethereal' or 'Border Astral' is the realm closest to the Material World. It is a twin sister to it, the contours of it's surface mirrors that of our own; it coexists with every facet of our universe, and it houses creatures made of finer matter, and more purse essence. When a soul is released from it's mortal coil, it finds itself in the twilit realm of the Spiritwilds, where a psychopomp may lead it to the Shadowfell, unless emotional turmoil keeps it from moving on. (a major problem for dis-intended souls). The Spiritwilds is nearly always darker than the mortal realm, like a haze has developed over it. The stars, however, are more prominent, and the moon larger. This is where spiritual beings exist, where courts of Jinn are held; where the mountains hold vigil, and the brooks laugh in their own tongue. Areas within the Spiritwilds can be aspected to certain other Planes. A Shadowland is a place in the Spiritwilds that the Shadowfell leaks out, aspecting the area to be like it. This, in turn, affects the material realm. Much as a lot of death, and mournign in the mateiral will aspect the Essence towards it, and let the Shadowfell bleed through.
The Realms of Dreams, and the Dreamlands
Most dreamers are trapped within a bubble within the Spirit World, where their psychic desires shape their local reality into forms they experience in the lull of a dream. Sometimes these dreams hold meaning gleaned from the soul, and subconscious writ into the world. However, within the Spiritworld exists the Dreamlands, where a dreamer manifests the portal in his own dreams and connects to the Demiplane known as the 'Dreamlands'. (Basically, H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands).
THE INNER PLANES
These planes are the ones most in-tune with the material universe, they are close to the Spiritwilds, and prove to be easy enough to journey too. These realms include the Elemental Planes, the Feywilds, and the Shadowfell (Underworld). Many beings from this realm can be found within the Spiritwilds, trying to materialize into the Material Realm, or effecting the local spirit ecology.
The Shadowfell, land of the dead
The Shadowfell, also called the Underworld, is a plane of gray, blacks and whites. It is a place that teems with entropic energy taken from the undead spirits that make up most of it's residences. All essence and energy bears part of the Light and Void. When a soul dies, it is lead to the Shadowfell where it's entropic energy is released and the soul ascends. At least, that is what many of the religious belive. Many wizards and academics doubt a soul ever ascends. No one has witnessed such an event, and souls seem to fade without any strong emotional anchors to keep them there. The Shadowfell is replete with Entropic energies, it is situated close to the void, but is alos connected through the River of Souls to the Astral Reaches, where a soul is said to be taken back to the Light, to reincarnate; but only when it has released all it's torments, passions and entropic energy.
The Feywilds
The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, is a land of soft lights and wonder, a place of music and death. It is a realm of everlasting twilight, with glittering faerie lights bobbing in the gentle breeze and fat fireflies buzzing through groves and fields. The sky is alight with the faded colors of an ever-setting sun, compared to the near twilight of the Spiritwilds, which never truly sets (or rises for that matter); it remains stationary, dusky and low in the sky.
Away from the settled areas ruled by the seelie fey that compose the Summer Court, the land is a tangle of sharp-toothed brambles and syrupy fens- perfect territory for the unseelie fey to hunt their prey.
Like the Spiritwilds, the plane of Faerie exists in parallel to the Material Plane, an alternate dimension that occupies the same cosmological space.
The landscape of the Feywild mirrors the natural world but, unlike the Spiritwilds which is nearly identical to the mortal realm, turns its features into spectacular forms. Where a volcano stands on the Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscrapersized crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the Feywild. A wide and muddy river on the Material Plane might be echoed as a clear and winding brook of great beauty. A marsh could be reflected as a vast black bog of sinister character. And moving to the Feywild from old ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the door of an arch fey's castle.
The Feywild is inhabited by sylvan creatures, such as elves, dryads, satyrs, pixies, and sprites, as well as centaurs and magical creatures such as blink dogs, faerie dragons, treants, and unicorns. The darker regions of the plane are home to such malevolent creatures as hags, blights, goblins, ogres, and giants.
Fey crossings are places of mystery and beauty on the Material Plane that have a near-perfect mirror in the Feywild, creating a portal where the two planes touch. This is an extremely rare occurrence in the Material Plane, but is common when on the Spiritual Plane.
A traveler passes through a fey crossing by entering a clearing, wading into a pool, stepping into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like he or she has simply walked into the Feywild with a step. To an observer, the traveler is there one moment and gone the next.
Like other portals between planes, most fey crossings open infrequently. A crossing might open only during a full moon, on the dawn of a particular day, or for someone carrying a certain type of item. A fey crossing can be closed permanently if the land on either side is dramatically altered- for example, if a castle is built over the clearing on the Material Plane.
The Elemental Chaos
The Inner Planes surround and enfold the Material Plane and its echoes, providing the raw elemental substance from which all worlds were made. The four Elemental Planes- Air, Earth, Fire, and Water- form a ring around the Material Plane, suspended within a churning realm known as the Elemental Chaos. These planes are all connected, and the border regions between them are sometimes described as distinct planes in their own right.
At their innermost edges, where they are closest to the Material Plane (in a conceptual if not a literal geographical sense), the four Elemental Planes resemble places in the Material Plane. The four elements mingle together as they do in the Material Plane, forming land, sea, and sky. But the dominant element exerts a strong influence on the environment, reflecting its fundamental qualities.
As they extend farther from the Material Plane, the Elemental Planes become increasingly alien and hostile. Here, in the outermost regions, the elements exist in their purest form: great expanses of solid earth, blazing fire , crystal-clear water, and unsullied air. Any foreign substance is extremely rare; little air can be found in the outermost reaches of the Plane of Earth, and earth is all but impossible to find in the outermost reaches of the Plane of Fire. These areas are much less hospitable to travelers from the Material Plane than the border regions are. Such regions are little known, so when discussing the Plane of Fire, for example, a speaker usually means the border region.
THE MATERIAL REALM
Called 'the Material Plane' or the 'Mortal realms', is the universe we are all familiar with. It is made up of empty space, with planets that surround stars that burn, giving them life and warmth. To many occultists stars are a direct conduit to the Light, and the Divine Fire, while the void between stars are a reflection of the Void and the Chaos outside the universe.
THE CELESTIAL REALMS
The planes closest to the Divine Fire where the various deities make their home. Only gods and beings protected by deity level magic can survive here, as the intense Primal energies overwhelm any lesser being, causing them to burn up from the inside. The pinnacles of the godly planes within the Celestial Realms will burn a mortal soul up, rejoining the energy back with it. The various afterlives, and home's of the gods exist here. Their planar properties are decided by the god's, so some may be nearly identical to the Material Universe (made of matter) while others are more esoteric. Many wizards theorize that none of it is actually concrete, but every astral sojourner impose their own mind's beliefs on the area (obviously aspected to the region, giving varied, but similar accounts across time and history), while many faithful believe the celestial realms become the home of their soul, if they live a pure enough life (as described by their deity).
CHAOS INCARNATE, THE FAR REALMS
In the primordial cosmic pre-time, the Light and Void touched, this boiled the anti-stuff of the void into energetic, and malevolent forces and beings that existed from the energy. These god-like beings exist between universes, outside the bubble of the cosmos, beyond time and space; beyond the celestial and infernal, dwell those-who-came-before. The Old Gods. These aberrant beings invaded the nascent universe leaving their marks on countless planets, and leaving twisted beings of mad psychic power. Many of the countless beings in the chaotic far realms have no interest in our small bubble, among countless others, but some have. These mad gods corrupted parts of our universe, warred with the gods, and play with the beings of the universe.
THE LOWER REALMS
This far from the Divine Fire, the Entropic energies of the Void (or Flux) begin to dominate. These planes are dominated by the powerful energies of that area. negative energy tends to draw things to the lower realms, and in many ways, the lower realms are a dark mirror of the celestial realms.
Home of the lesser Fiends, and the fiendish animals and plants that have managed to adapt to the harsh realm their world has become.
The creatures of the Lower Realms, the Hells, and the Infinite Planes of the Abyss have adapted to the energies of the Void, making their flesh tougher and more resilient to normal weapons, with many being resistant to magic as well. However, this comes with a price. The natives of the Lower Realms cannot live easily in the Mortal Realms because of the Entropic essences that permeate their flesh. The lack of ambient Entropic energy in the Mortal Realms causes the Fiends to bleed out Entropic essence into the environment, sickening them and tainting the local area with their Infernal essence. This usually manifests first as a sulphur and brimstone stench, but can lead to many other effects depending on the power of the Fiend and the amount of time they spend in the Mortal world.
If they stay for more than a short time they will try to make themselves more comfortable by making their lair more like the environment of the lower planes. They increase the local Entropy levels by various methods - driving mortals mad and keeping them as pets, surrounding themselves with undead (a side effect of necromantic magic and undead in general is that they constantly “leak” Entropic essence), etc.
Natives of the lower realms traffic in souls due to the lack of Primal essence this close to the the Void. The soul of every living being contains a spark of Primal energy. Various techniques can be used to induce the Primal spark to release a fraction of it’s energy and once filtered through a mortal soul they can use the energy to sustain themselves, extend their lives, power their magic, etc. Their entire society runs on energy harvested from souls. The souls can also be used to strengthen materials so that they can better resist the Entropic energies that infuse the Lower Realms. Items infused with soul energy (i.e. Primal energy) in this way are referred to as “Soulforged” or “Hellforged”.
Souls native to the Lower Realms have the least value (i.e. produce the least energy) and souls native to the Celestial Realms have the most (but are also the most difficult to acquire and harvest). Mortal Realm souls are the base unit of currency, with the souls of animals and unwilling sacrifices being the least valuable. Souls gained via a bargain are sought after because a living soul gives up much more energy before becoming useless. The most highly sought after of all are those living souls who willing make a pact with a creature of the lower planes in return for power. This gives the pact giver a link to the mortal realms, and energy continuously flows down that link to the pact giver, giving them a renewable source of energy, one that produces greater and greater amounts as their warlock grows in power. (The abilities that the warlock gains represent only a minor drain on the energy that the pact giver gains from the pact.)
The Courts of Hell
Below the Lower Realms are the Hells. The most famous are the 9 Hells ruled by the Arch-Devil Asmodeus, but there are many others ruled by various other devils and fiends.
The Infinite Planes of the Abyss
The layers closest to Chaos that can still sustain life, they are almost exclusively inhabited by Demons. It is said, in some myths, that a great being tore off pieces of the Spiritwilds, and various other planes, and stitched them together to create the layers of the Abyss.
The Demons constantly war with the Devils for land and resources. While the demons have more actual territory in terms of the number of planes they inhabit or control, these planes are all very resource poor. The devils have far fewer planes, but they have many more resources compared to the Planes of the Abyss. Similarly, the Demonic Hordes vastly outnumber the Legions of Hell, but the Legions are better trained and equipped. Plus the devils are much more disciplined and devious than the demons, and constantly outmaneuver the Hordes so that they can rarely bring their full might to bear.
And lastly... my flow chart! https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/17F11nqdXEvLTDKr1x-FugLwdXu-hzkmqDBdcMG4NWFA/edit
Credit goes to Caliban on ENworld who's world's cosmology got me started on formatting, and some idea on where to place and handle things. Largely because his cosmology was similar to mine already, but so much easier to read... My notes were just stream of thought style.
COSMOLOGY OF THE MULTIVERSE
This explanation for the structure of the local multiverse is the one most favored by the various academics. Clerics tend to prefer a more deity-centric version, while Warlocks tend to favor a version that places their patron at the top of the celestial pecking order. Druids tend to put deities below the essence of life, and the spirits that exist beside us. As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in-between.
The universe uses a “top down” model of the multiverse, with the Light (sometimes the 'Source' or the Divine Fire) at the top and the Void at the bottom. All of creation lies between them, created by the interplay of energies between the two.
Emypereal Flames
At the highest reaches the multiverse touches a place of creative, ordered energy; this plane is where the soul-stuff comes from. It's where the creative movement, and the way to get a universe comes from. This is the true source of all magic, all life, and all of everything. Primal energies suffuse the top most layer of the Spiritual Realm, where thought-forms and the platonic representation of all that is dwells, where the god's formed fed on the primal energy from the Divine Fire.
Flux and Entropy
Related, but different, to the Light is the Void. It is a selfish, consuming place that takes and corrupts. However, where it not for the interplay between the Light and the Void nothing would exist to break down and solidify the primal energy into forms, both subtle and gross.
THE TRANSITIONAL PLANES, REALM OF SPIRITS
This is the plane that makes up the space between other planes. Generally you must travel through the spiritual realm in order to get to another plane, although powerful spells and permanent gates can make it a very short journey. In some circles the spiritual realm is divided into the Ethereal Plane, and the Astral Plane, but in practice they are the same plane, but in different places along the energy frequency.
Both are known as the Spirit World. Most commonly it is known as the realm of Essence, and Spirit that exists right beside us; where the animating spirits of animals, trees, mountains and rivers are. Some of the beings commonly found here originate in other planes. It is often disputed, for instance, if elemental spirits come from the Elemental Planes, or if the Elemental Planes are populated by elemental spirits because the phenom and the spirit are inseparable.
The Astral Reaches
Is the Spirit Realm that connects the High Heavens to the Material Universe, and the Material Universe to the Lower Realms. It can be reached via Astral Projection and Dreamwalking, it is also the plane that Teleportation type spells send you through (very briefly) before reaching your destination.
Physical travel to the Astral Plane itself is difficult, and even then the plane seems to reject physical matter. Travelers report being pulled towards the nearest Color Pool (a one way gate to another Plane) with increasing force and speed the longer they stay there. If they do reach their chosen destination quickly they will find themselves ejected into a random Mortal Realm. The Astral Reaches are populated by conceptual spirits, and symbol-beings. This plane takes the form of a great, silvery sea with pool or clouds of color that send one elsewhere. While in dream-form a person flies and travels at the speed of thought, while physical travelers seem to be propelled by unknown forces.
The Spiritwilds
Sometimes called the 'Border Ethereal' or 'Border Astral' is the realm closest to the Material World. It is a twin sister to it, the contours of it's surface mirrors that of our own; it coexists with every facet of our universe, and it houses creatures made of finer matter, and more purse essence. When a soul is released from it's mortal coil, it finds itself in the twilit realm of the Spiritwilds, where a psychopomp may lead it to the Shadowfell, unless emotional turmoil keeps it from moving on. (a major problem for dis-intended souls). The Spiritwilds is nearly always darker than the mortal realm, like a haze has developed over it. The stars, however, are more prominent, and the moon larger. This is where spiritual beings exist, where courts of Jinn are held; where the mountains hold vigil, and the brooks laugh in their own tongue. Areas within the Spiritwilds can be aspected to certain other Planes. A Shadowland is a place in the Spiritwilds that the Shadowfell leaks out, aspecting the area to be like it. This, in turn, affects the material realm. Much as a lot of death, and mournign in the mateiral will aspect the Essence towards it, and let the Shadowfell bleed through.
The Realms of Dreams, and the Dreamlands
Most dreamers are trapped within a bubble within the Spirit World, where their psychic desires shape their local reality into forms they experience in the lull of a dream. Sometimes these dreams hold meaning gleaned from the soul, and subconscious writ into the world. However, within the Spiritworld exists the Dreamlands, where a dreamer manifests the portal in his own dreams and connects to the Demiplane known as the 'Dreamlands'. (Basically, H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands).
THE INNER PLANES
These planes are the ones most in-tune with the material universe, they are close to the Spiritwilds, and prove to be easy enough to journey too. These realms include the Elemental Planes, the Feywilds, and the Shadowfell (Underworld). Many beings from this realm can be found within the Spiritwilds, trying to materialize into the Material Realm, or effecting the local spirit ecology.
The Shadowfell, land of the dead
The Shadowfell, also called the Underworld, is a plane of gray, blacks and whites. It is a place that teems with entropic energy taken from the undead spirits that make up most of it's residences. All essence and energy bears part of the Light and Void. When a soul dies, it is lead to the Shadowfell where it's entropic energy is released and the soul ascends. At least, that is what many of the religious belive. Many wizards and academics doubt a soul ever ascends. No one has witnessed such an event, and souls seem to fade without any strong emotional anchors to keep them there. The Shadowfell is replete with Entropic energies, it is situated close to the void, but is alos connected through the River of Souls to the Astral Reaches, where a soul is said to be taken back to the Light, to reincarnate; but only when it has released all it's torments, passions and entropic energy.
The Feywilds
The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, is a land of soft lights and wonder, a place of music and death. It is a realm of everlasting twilight, with glittering faerie lights bobbing in the gentle breeze and fat fireflies buzzing through groves and fields. The sky is alight with the faded colors of an ever-setting sun, compared to the near twilight of the Spiritwilds, which never truly sets (or rises for that matter); it remains stationary, dusky and low in the sky.
Away from the settled areas ruled by the seelie fey that compose the Summer Court, the land is a tangle of sharp-toothed brambles and syrupy fens- perfect territory for the unseelie fey to hunt their prey.
Like the Spiritwilds, the plane of Faerie exists in parallel to the Material Plane, an alternate dimension that occupies the same cosmological space.
The landscape of the Feywild mirrors the natural world but, unlike the Spiritwilds which is nearly identical to the mortal realm, turns its features into spectacular forms. Where a volcano stands on the Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscrapersized crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the Feywild. A wide and muddy river on the Material Plane might be echoed as a clear and winding brook of great beauty. A marsh could be reflected as a vast black bog of sinister character. And moving to the Feywild from old ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the door of an arch fey's castle.
The Feywild is inhabited by sylvan creatures, such as elves, dryads, satyrs, pixies, and sprites, as well as centaurs and magical creatures such as blink dogs, faerie dragons, treants, and unicorns. The darker regions of the plane are home to such malevolent creatures as hags, blights, goblins, ogres, and giants.
Fey crossings are places of mystery and beauty on the Material Plane that have a near-perfect mirror in the Feywild, creating a portal where the two planes touch. This is an extremely rare occurrence in the Material Plane, but is common when on the Spiritual Plane.
A traveler passes through a fey crossing by entering a clearing, wading into a pool, stepping into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like he or she has simply walked into the Feywild with a step. To an observer, the traveler is there one moment and gone the next.
Like other portals between planes, most fey crossings open infrequently. A crossing might open only during a full moon, on the dawn of a particular day, or for someone carrying a certain type of item. A fey crossing can be closed permanently if the land on either side is dramatically altered- for example, if a castle is built over the clearing on the Material Plane.
The Elemental Chaos
The Inner Planes surround and enfold the Material Plane and its echoes, providing the raw elemental substance from which all worlds were made. The four Elemental Planes- Air, Earth, Fire, and Water- form a ring around the Material Plane, suspended within a churning realm known as the Elemental Chaos. These planes are all connected, and the border regions between them are sometimes described as distinct planes in their own right.
At their innermost edges, where they are closest to the Material Plane (in a conceptual if not a literal geographical sense), the four Elemental Planes resemble places in the Material Plane. The four elements mingle together as they do in the Material Plane, forming land, sea, and sky. But the dominant element exerts a strong influence on the environment, reflecting its fundamental qualities.
As they extend farther from the Material Plane, the Elemental Planes become increasingly alien and hostile. Here, in the outermost regions, the elements exist in their purest form: great expanses of solid earth, blazing fire , crystal-clear water, and unsullied air. Any foreign substance is extremely rare; little air can be found in the outermost reaches of the Plane of Earth, and earth is all but impossible to find in the outermost reaches of the Plane of Fire. These areas are much less hospitable to travelers from the Material Plane than the border regions are. Such regions are little known, so when discussing the Plane of Fire, for example, a speaker usually means the border region.
THE MATERIAL REALM
Called 'the Material Plane' or the 'Mortal realms', is the universe we are all familiar with. It is made up of empty space, with planets that surround stars that burn, giving them life and warmth. To many occultists stars are a direct conduit to the Light, and the Divine Fire, while the void between stars are a reflection of the Void and the Chaos outside the universe.
THE CELESTIAL REALMS
The planes closest to the Divine Fire where the various deities make their home. Only gods and beings protected by deity level magic can survive here, as the intense Primal energies overwhelm any lesser being, causing them to burn up from the inside. The pinnacles of the godly planes within the Celestial Realms will burn a mortal soul up, rejoining the energy back with it. The various afterlives, and home's of the gods exist here. Their planar properties are decided by the god's, so some may be nearly identical to the Material Universe (made of matter) while others are more esoteric. Many wizards theorize that none of it is actually concrete, but every astral sojourner impose their own mind's beliefs on the area (obviously aspected to the region, giving varied, but similar accounts across time and history), while many faithful believe the celestial realms become the home of their soul, if they live a pure enough life (as described by their deity).
CHAOS INCARNATE, THE FAR REALMS
In the primordial cosmic pre-time, the Light and Void touched, this boiled the anti-stuff of the void into energetic, and malevolent forces and beings that existed from the energy. These god-like beings exist between universes, outside the bubble of the cosmos, beyond time and space; beyond the celestial and infernal, dwell those-who-came-before. The Old Gods. These aberrant beings invaded the nascent universe leaving their marks on countless planets, and leaving twisted beings of mad psychic power. Many of the countless beings in the chaotic far realms have no interest in our small bubble, among countless others, but some have. These mad gods corrupted parts of our universe, warred with the gods, and play with the beings of the universe.
THE LOWER REALMS
This far from the Divine Fire, the Entropic energies of the Void (or Flux) begin to dominate. These planes are dominated by the powerful energies of that area. negative energy tends to draw things to the lower realms, and in many ways, the lower realms are a dark mirror of the celestial realms.
Home of the lesser Fiends, and the fiendish animals and plants that have managed to adapt to the harsh realm their world has become.
The creatures of the Lower Realms, the Hells, and the Infinite Planes of the Abyss have adapted to the energies of the Void, making their flesh tougher and more resilient to normal weapons, with many being resistant to magic as well. However, this comes with a price. The natives of the Lower Realms cannot live easily in the Mortal Realms because of the Entropic essences that permeate their flesh. The lack of ambient Entropic energy in the Mortal Realms causes the Fiends to bleed out Entropic essence into the environment, sickening them and tainting the local area with their Infernal essence. This usually manifests first as a sulphur and brimstone stench, but can lead to many other effects depending on the power of the Fiend and the amount of time they spend in the Mortal world.
If they stay for more than a short time they will try to make themselves more comfortable by making their lair more like the environment of the lower planes. They increase the local Entropy levels by various methods - driving mortals mad and keeping them as pets, surrounding themselves with undead (a side effect of necromantic magic and undead in general is that they constantly “leak” Entropic essence), etc.
Natives of the lower realms traffic in souls due to the lack of Primal essence this close to the the Void. The soul of every living being contains a spark of Primal energy. Various techniques can be used to induce the Primal spark to release a fraction of it’s energy and once filtered through a mortal soul they can use the energy to sustain themselves, extend their lives, power their magic, etc. Their entire society runs on energy harvested from souls. The souls can also be used to strengthen materials so that they can better resist the Entropic energies that infuse the Lower Realms. Items infused with soul energy (i.e. Primal energy) in this way are referred to as “Soulforged” or “Hellforged”.
Souls native to the Lower Realms have the least value (i.e. produce the least energy) and souls native to the Celestial Realms have the most (but are also the most difficult to acquire and harvest). Mortal Realm souls are the base unit of currency, with the souls of animals and unwilling sacrifices being the least valuable. Souls gained via a bargain are sought after because a living soul gives up much more energy before becoming useless. The most highly sought after of all are those living souls who willing make a pact with a creature of the lower planes in return for power. This gives the pact giver a link to the mortal realms, and energy continuously flows down that link to the pact giver, giving them a renewable source of energy, one that produces greater and greater amounts as their warlock grows in power. (The abilities that the warlock gains represent only a minor drain on the energy that the pact giver gains from the pact.)
The Courts of Hell
Below the Lower Realms are the Hells. The most famous are the 9 Hells ruled by the Arch-Devil Asmodeus, but there are many others ruled by various other devils and fiends.
The Infinite Planes of the Abyss
The layers closest to Chaos that can still sustain life, they are almost exclusively inhabited by Demons. It is said, in some myths, that a great being tore off pieces of the Spiritwilds, and various other planes, and stitched them together to create the layers of the Abyss.
The Demons constantly war with the Devils for land and resources. While the demons have more actual territory in terms of the number of planes they inhabit or control, these planes are all very resource poor. The devils have far fewer planes, but they have many more resources compared to the Planes of the Abyss. Similarly, the Demonic Hordes vastly outnumber the Legions of Hell, but the Legions are better trained and equipped. Plus the devils are much more disciplined and devious than the demons, and constantly outmaneuver the Hordes so that they can rarely bring their full might to bear.
And lastly... my flow chart! https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/17F11nqdXEvLTDKr1x-FugLwdXu-hzkmqDBdcMG4NWFA/edit
Credit goes to Caliban on ENworld who's world's cosmology got me started on formatting, and some idea on where to place and handle things. Largely because his cosmology was similar to mine already, but so much easier to read... My notes were just stream of thought style.