My latest attempt at a map of the planes: the mushroom model

[Millstone85]

https://i.imgur.com/uyKxhZO.png
French version / version française (https://i.imgur.com/y5ujjDn.png)

So there are several things that I dislike about the map of the planes provided in the PHB:

The Outlands and the Para-Elemental Planes are missing, even though all these are in the DMG.
The Inner Planes seem to be in-between the Outer Planes, which despite the names they aren't.
The Positive/Negative Planes look as if they were respectively linked to the Upper/Lower Planes.

Now, a common criticism with such endeavor is that the planes are not supposed to have any actual spatial relation with each other, for the whole idea of a plane is that of a separate spacetime. Which isn't wrong but isn't exactly true either.

First, it is clear that the cosmology contains two sets of cosmic cardinal points:




Good



Air



Law
+
Chaos
and
Fire
+
Water



Evil



Earth



Then there are the transitive planes. Astral color pools let you travel to the Outer Planes and the Material, while ethereal curtains let you travel to (the ethereal border of) the Inner Planes, the Material, the Feywild and the Shadowfell. There are also connections between the Astral and the Ethereal themselves.

Next, it would make sense for the Feywild to have a privileged link with the Positive, and even more so for the Shadowfell with the Negative. The lore of the nightwalker seems to confirm the latter.

Finally, I have come to the realization that the Positive, Negative, Astral and Ethereal could easily form a third set of cosmic cardinal points:




Psychic



Radiant
+
Necrotic



Force



So that's how I came up with the mushroom at the top of this post.

Something that could soon break it all apart is Spelljammer. If it turns out that there is in fact a Feywild Wildspace and that it fades into the Astral just like the Material Wildspace appears to now, then I would need to move the Feywild and the Shadowfell closer the Material so they too touch the Astral.

And yes, I know my map still suggests unintended proximities between planes. Is Hades the outer plane closest to the Material? No, unless you have the misfortune of living in the Forgotten Realms where your soul will in fact depart for Hades before going anywhere else. Is radiant energy most closely related with the elements of fire and ash, while necrotic energy goes with those of water and ice? That would make a lot of sense, actually. Is radiant energy lawful and necrotic energy chaotic? Not particularly, no.

Still, I am pretty satisfied with this picture. :smallsmile:

[OldTrees1]

I liked the 3 shell model where the inner planes formed a 3x3 Rubik cube (Positive and negative being the 3rd axis) around the Material Plane. Then that cube floated and rotated inside a bowl created by the Great Wheel + The Outlands.

With the addition of the Elemental Chaos, it makes sense for the Elemental Chaos to be at the center of the Rubik cube.


Your model is similar, although you only have a 2D version of the Inner Planes since you removed the positive/negative axis.


Oh, suggestion to anyone using this model. It is a cylinder. Give it a twist (or otherwise have the bottom and top rotate independently). It could be nice to have inner and outer planes come into and out of phase with eachother.

[Millstone85]

Your model is similar, although you only have a 2D version of the Inner Planes since you removed the positive/negative axis.Eh now, I am not the one who axed the Quasi-Elemental Planes! WotC did that. They even renamed the Para-Elemental Plane of Smoke as the Plane of Ash, which used to be the name of negative fire.

My intent was only to make a better visual representation of the 5e cosmology. Perhaps "model" wasn't the right word. Maybe "projection", like for maps of planet Earth?


Oh, suggestion to anyone using this model. It is a cylinder. Give it a twist (or otherwise have the bottom and top rotate independently).Definitely! With the Outlands, the Material and the Elemental Chaos as the central axle. I did try to give that effect by arranging the Outer Planes and the Inner Planes into ovals instead of circles. Well, that and it made the picture smaller.


It could be nice to have inner and outer planes come into and out of phase with eachother.I don't know. Very Eberron-like for sure.

[MrStabby]

For the purposes of navigation, a graph which shows which are connected to which is probably the easiest way and don't worry about the actual physical spacing.

[Kane0]

Neato! You don't mind if this gets yoink'd?

[Millstone85]

For the purposes of navigation, a graph which shows which are connected to which is probably the easiest way and don't worry about the actual physical spacing.
Neato! You don't mind if this gets yoink'd?Thank you and yes of course! I made the thread to share it.

[greenstone]

For the purposes of navigation, a graph which shows which are connected to which is probably the easiest way and don't worry about the actual physical spacing.
Agreed. Our brains tend to struggle with concepts like "physical spacing of infinite 3D planes"… :-)

[Millstone85]

In case some of you frequent Imgur, I just made it public over there:
https://imgur.com/gallery/uyKxhZO

And to add a few things beside the link, the symbol(s) I used for:

... the Material is meant to look like a random planet.
... the Feywild and Shadowfell are from the Summer Queen and Raven Queen.
... the Elemental Planes were inspired by the famous movie The Fifth Element.
... the para-elemental planes are basically just drawings of them.