Planes of the multiverse

[j_spencer93]

Already asked in the 5.0 forum but slightly remember a threat on here that detailed the planes and am curious if anyone knows what I am vaguely recalling? And if their is a list of planes somewhere, a good comprehensive list?

Mainly looking for forgotten realms info, but any planes not setting exclusive would work too.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You're looking for afroakuma's planar thread. I didn't care much for it since he ported a -lot- of 2nd edition lore into his answers but it's definitely what you're trying to find.

[Efrate]

I'm not sure on 4e or 5e changes but 3.x FR has a weird caveat saying there are more planes mostly unknown, and the realms of dead gods/pantheons which spiral off and no one is sure what they are or where they are, so you get a semi-official go for it if you want something weird.

From the FRCS from 3rd its

Outer planes:

The Abyss
Arvandor
The Barrens of Doom and Dispair
Blood Rift
Brightwater
Clangor
Cynosure
Deep Caverns
The Demonweb Pits
Dragon Eyrie
Dwarfhome
Dweomerheart
Fated Depths
Fugue Plane
Fury's Heart
The Gates of the Moon
Golden Hills
Green Fields
Hammergrim
Heliopolis
The House of Knowledge
The House of Nature
The House of the Triad
Jotunheim
The Nine Hells
Nishrek
Shadow
The Supreme Throne
Warrior's Rest

Others: Astral plane, ethereal plane, elemental planes (fire, water, air, earth), positive and negative energy planes, plane of shadow.

[Âmesang]

A few more to help, I hope:

EBERRON® Campaign Setting
Daanvi, the Perfect Order
Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams
Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead
Fernia, the Sea of Fire
Irian, the Eternal Day
Kythri, the Churning Chaos
Lamannia, the Twilight Forest
Mabar, the Endless Night
Risia, the Plain of Ice
Shavarath, the Battleground
Syrania, the Azure Sky
Thelanis, the Faerie Court
Xoriat, the Realm of Madness
DRAGONLANCE® Campaign Setting
Dome of Creation
Hidden Vale
Abyss
Gate of Souls
River of Souls

Typically the Plane of Shadow also connects Material Planes to each other, so if you traverse the plane via shadow walk for 1d4 hours you can travel from Oerth to Toril to Eberron to Krynn (to Mystara?) …even Earth, via d20 Modern (it'd explain how Oerthen deities such as Wee Jas have come to prominence there).

[j_spencer93]

Those actually do help. And I knew the shadow plane portal thing. Actually have used it in a mission before.

[Âmesang]

I like to imagine that Oerth's and Toril's Underdarks are dotted with Shadow-based portals linking them (helping to explain why Lolth exists on both worlds).

[j_spencer93]

Lolth existing everywhere seems to bother me more then most. I like her as a deitiy, however she really only fits FR.

[Khedrac]

Given that Lolth has drawn entire worlds into her web (it's unclear if they are now in her plane of the Abyss or just portals to them) I don;t see her being restricted to just a hadlful of worlds.
She is probably the most active entity at trying to corrupt/control/enslave entire worlds - and quite skilled at it too.

As for where she fits, her original appearance is Greyhawk, so where you think she fits really depends on what you have been most exposed to. If it is the Lolth and drow of the realms (e.g. via the Drizzt books) then you will see her as fitting there best; if it is that of Oerth (from D1-3 and Q1) then it's Oerth.

[jedipilot24]

From the Manual of the Planes, which is non-setting specific but also intentionally generic. Some of it will different or redundant with FRCS:

Inner Planes:
Material Plane
Astral Plane
Ethereal Plane
Plane of Shadow
Elemental Planes (Fire, Earth, Air, Water)
Positive Energy Plane
Negative Energy Plane

Outer Planes:
Ysgard
Limbo
Pandemonium
Abyss (includes Demonweb Pits)
Canceri
Hades
Gehenna
Nine Hells
Acheron (includes Nishrek)
Mechanus
Arcadia
Celestia (includes Green Fields)
Bytopia (includes Golden Hills)
Elysium
Beastlands
Arborea (includes Arvandor)
The Outlands (has Sigil)

Variant Planes:
Region of Dreams
Plane of Mirrors
Spirit World
Elemental Plane of Cold
Elemental Plane of Wood
Temporal Energy Plane
Plane of Faerie
Far Realm
The World Serpent Inn (web enhancement)

[ShurikVch]

What, nobody mentioned Neth, the Plane That Lives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#Neth)?

The Shadowlands is an outer plane in Rokugan's cosmology.

Also, "Multiple Dementia" article (Dragon #353) described three demiplanes: Black Abyss, Demiplane of Imprisonment, and Moil, the City That Waits; and briefly mentioned bunch of other (https://html2-f.scribdassets.com/4b2yg454qo1upxkb/images/28-26f2379442.jpg) demiplanes.

[JonVMD]

Try this book. Manual of the Planes, D&D 3.5. It fit well on the Pathfinder.

[Psyren]

You're looking for afroakuma's planar thread. I didn't care much for it since he ported a -lot- of 2nd edition lore into his answers but it's definitely what you're trying to find.

This. Granted a lot of that stuff is useful for background info (i.e. why some things ended up the way they did/how certain sacred cows came about) or fleshing out things that were left pretty barebones in the 3.5 materials like the City of Brass, but other stuff was changed for a good reasons and I mostly play in Golarion these days anyway.

[j_spencer93]

What, nobody mentioned Neth, the Plane That Lives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#Neth)?

The Shadowlands is an outer plane in Rokugan's cosmology.

Also, "Multiple Dementia" article (Dragon #353) described three demiplanes: Black Abyss, Demiplane of Imprisonment, and Moil, the City That Waits; and briefly mentioned bunch of other (https://html2-f.scribdassets.com/4b2yg454qo1upxkb/images/28-26f2379442.jpg) demiplanes.

This is exactly the kind of stuff i am looking for.

[martixy]

~snip~

Also, the Plane of Radiance, Shadow's opposite.
Rainbow-themed, home to Lillends and such and found in Dragon #321.

[Âmesang]

Given that Lolth has drawn entire worlds into her web (it's unclear if they are now in her plane of the Abyss or just portals to them) I don't see her being restricted to just a hadlful of worlds.
She is probably the most active entity at trying to corrupt/control/enslave entire worlds - and quite skilled at it too.
I recall that Dungeons & Dragons Online had an adventure, "Menace of the Underdark," in which Lolth was also trying to take over Eberron via a FORGOTTEN REALMS® crossover.

Having never played DDO, though, I don't what what, if any, dating comparisons was used—based on the year of release, my guess would be 4th Edition's 1479 DR = 998 YK (even though DDO was built off of 3rd Edition).


From the Manual of the Planes, which is non-setting specific but also intentionally generic.
Weren't the planes from Manual of the Planes and the DUNGEON MASTER'S Guide derived from PLANESCAPE®?


What, nobody mentioned Neth, the Plane That Lives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#Neth)?
There's also Ulgurshek, the 92nd "layer" of the Abyss (in actuality an immense and ancient creature called a draeden which had laid dormant whilst the Abyss grew around it).

[jedipilot24]

Weren't the planes from Manual of the Planes and the DUNGEON MASTER'S Guide derived from PLANESCAPE®?

Had to look it up on Wikipedia as Planescape was before my time. But that is what it looks like, though it seems that Planescape was mostly just about Sigil. 3.0/3.5 made Sigil a part of the generic cosmology.

[Khedrac]

The Isle of the Ape and Dungeonland are both demi-planes usually accessible only from Castle Greyhawk.
Also in there is access to a reversed reality (cannot remember its name) from which reversed versions of Greyhawk's inhabitants can come.

[Âmesang]

Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk expanded upon/retconned it a bit (and included a reference to the Empire of Lynn derived from The Black Moon Chronicles):

The object on the pedestal is the Orb of Opposition—a strange artifact created by the Mirrormasters of Lynn. These old enemies of the Company of Seven once attempted to assassinate the Seven by sending oppositely aligned "mirror images" into their lair. Zagig and the rest couldn't bring themselves to kill these doubles, so they imprisoned them within the stained-glass portraits in this room for further study—and perhaps later rehabilitation. Fortunately for the PCs, these duplicates represent the legendary heroes in their youth, long before they ascended to quasi-deityhood.

[martixy]

Btw, it gets tricky(and interesting, if you're the right sort of person) when you get into planar geometry.

There are in general 3 types of relationships:
Separate
Coterminous
Coexistent

What they don't mention anywhere, is that coexistent planes can also have one of 3 types of "coexistence" - injective, surjective and bijective.

If you, as a DM, can wrap your head around this, this opens a lot of possibilities for messing with your PCs or creating highly original puzzles and mazes(4D mazes/puzzles anyone? (http://miegakure.com)).
Which, your players, unless they're mathematicians and/or understand the concept of a "manifold", are unlikely to trivially be able to solve.

[Sian]

If you, as a DM, can wrap your head around this, this opens a lot of possibilities for messing with your PCs or creating highly original puzzles and mazes(4D mazes/puzzles anyone? (http://miegakure.com)).
Which, your players, unless they're mathematicians and/or understand the concept of a "manifold", are unlikely to trivially be able to solve.

My favorite is unfolding a Tesseract into 6 cubes and use that as a 'small' dungeon