The Twelve Planes

 

Still working on the planar cosmology I laid out the other week. I cut a couple of heavens, added a couple of lands-of-the-dead, and changed some other things. It's still all very top-level, but I want to define how the world works before I drill down into smaller stuff.

Overview

1. World of Earth
2. World of Fire
3. World of Air
4. World of Water
5. Material Ideal
6. Dreamland
7. Halls of the Dead
8. Elven Fields
9. Angelhome
10. Heaven
11. Spiritual Ideal
12. The Absolute

The first five planes are material, shaped from the four natural elements and infused with spirit. The following six are formed out of pure spirit. The twelfth and final plane is beyond both matter and spirit.

Each of the first four planes reflects one particular element. This is not a physical reflection (the World of Fire isn’t full of fire, for example), but rather, each of these planes reflects the philosophy of its element. Physically, these planes are not too different from each other. They all have mountains, forests, oceans, deserts, and so on.

First Plane: World of Earth

Earth is solid and comprehensible, and rarely does anything unexpected. It is difficult to influence or bypass, making it an anti-magical element.

In the world of Earth, magic is weak, to the point where many inhabitants don’t believe it exists at all. Portals to other planes are extremely rare, and do not stay open for long.

Humans and halflings come from Earth, though no halflings remain here in the present day.

Second Plane: World of Fire

Fire is chaotic and unpredictable. It can be destructive, but it is also creative, as it can change matter from one form to another. Fire is hard to kill: a small ember can cling to life for a long time, until it bursts into flames once more.

The world of Fire has seen many great changes and cataclysms throughout its history. The greatest acts of destruction and creation have taken place here.

Dwarves are native to Fire. A long time ago, humans and halflings came to Fire from Earth, and they have stayed and grown numerous. More recently, many elves have arrived in Fire from Air.

Third Plane: World of Air

Air has varying moods. It can be still and silent; it can be flighty and playful; it can be wrathful and awesome. Air is easy to pass through, and conducts magic well.

The world of Air is constantly changing, but rarely as dramatically as Fire often does. Air is highly magical, and interplanar portals are more common here than on other planes.

The immortal elves, native to Air, have a better understanding of the planar cosmology than most other beings of the material planes.

Fourth Plane: World of Water

Water wants to dominate. It submerges and drowns. It sweeps away anything and anyone weaker.

The world of Water is home to the dragons, who constantly compete for dominance. Weaker dragons search for interplanar portals, hoping to rise to power in another world - or just live in peace.

Fifth Plane: Material Ideal

The Material Ideal holds the essences of the four elements. Their power flows from here into each of the material planes. If one element becomes stronger or weaker in the Material Ideal, it will also grow stronger or weaker in all of the lower material planes. For example, if water becomes stronger in the Material Ideal, there will be heavy rains and floods in the lower planes. If water becomes weaker, there will be droughts. Many angels work to preserve balance in the Material Ideal, in order to avoid disasters.

The landscape of the Material Ideal is formed from nigh-pure elements, or simple combinations thereof. There are forests of fire-trees, bottomless oceans, mountains of mist, rivers of mud. Each of the plane’s living creatures are also strongly tied to one or two elements.

The Material Ideal is the last material plane. From here on, the planes and their inhabitants are entirely spiritual.

Sixth Plane: Dreamland

Those who sleep on the material planes visit Dreamland. The plane is in constant flux, as it is shaped by the dreamers’ subconscious thoughts, fears, and desires. Most creatures of Dreamland are not truly alive, as they are created, changed, and destroyed by the whims of dreamers. But if they escape to another plane, they will retain their form and drive.

A waking visitor of Dreamland could find any dreamer and talk to them, but the shifting dreams are difficult and dangerous to navigate. Those who have business in Dreamland instead train themselves to dream lucidly, taking conscious control of the dream, then seeking out the dreamer they need to contact.

Seventh Plane: Halls of the Dead

When a mortal being from the material planes dies, their soul travels to the Halls of the Dead. This is not their final destination, however. When the soul wishes, it can ascend to the Twelfth Plane, where it joins the Absolute. Exactly what this means is a mystery, but certainly no soul has ever returned from this journey.

The Halls of the Dead are dark and dull. Aside from the dead, they are inhabited by a few keeper spirits, who greet newly arrived souls and tell them of the journey they must make.

Some souls linger in the Halls of the Dead. Those who are afraid of what lies beyond, those who refuse to believe they are dead, and those who have unfinished business. A strong soul can will itself back to the material planes, to haunt its old home or place of death.

Magic that raises the dead works only if the dead person’s soul remains in the Halls of the Dead. If it has ascended to the Absolute, it cannot be brought back.

Eighth Plane: Elven Fields

Elves are immortal, immune to death by old age. But if an elf is slain by misadventure, their soul does not go to the Halls of the Dead. Instead, it goes to the Elven Fields.

The Elven Fields are rolling meadows, crossed by streams and dotted by groves of trees. The sky is clear, and it is twilight in late summer.

Elven souls cannot ascend to the Absolute, so they remain in the Elven Fields forever.

Ninth Plane: Angelhome

Angels are servants of the gods. Each angel is tied to one particular god, and carries out their will in the lower planes. Every god has one hundred and eleven angels. An angel cannot be permanently killed while their god still lives. If destroyed, they will reform in Angelhome after a time.

Not all angels stay loyal to their god. Some reject servitude, and decide to live by their own free will. They become demons. Demons have varying ideals, but there are two main philosophies: the Godless and the Godlike.

The Godless reject all divine influence, and believe each being should be solely responsible for itself. In the lower planes, Godless demons work to thwart gods and overthrow faiths.

The Godlike wish to impose their own will on the planes and their people. The mightiest Godlike demons take this to the final extreme: they declare themselves gods, severing the link to their former divine master. These demon lords gather lesser demons as followers, and seek worshippers in the lower planes, all to impose their own vision on the cosmos.

There is constant conflict between angels and demons, and also between Godless and Godlike demons. Angelhome is riven by war, and the three factions clash whenever they meet on other planes.

Tenth Plane: Heaven

Heaven is home to the gods.

Gods care about the beings of the material planes, and want to aid them. They listen to their prayers to find out what they need. Some gods may be capricious or easily offended, but ultimately they all want to help. Of course, different gods have different ideas of what is best for the material planes, which can lead to conflict.

There are many different gods. Most are only worshipped in one or two places on the material planes, and may at times have no worshippers at all.

Gods can be killed, but doing so is extremely difficult. A slain god ascends into the Absolute, and is never seen again. The angels (and demons) who were linked to the dead god will no longer be able to reform if they are destroyed, instead ascending to the Absolute as well.

On rare occasions, new gods spontaneously appear in Heaven, their angels appearing in Angelhome. The cause for this is unknown.

Eleventh Plane: Spiritual Ideal

The Spiritual Ideal holds emotions and concepts: the base “elements” of spirit. Anger, beauty, grief, freedom, love, and many others. A disturbance here will have spiritual consequences on all lower planes.

Beings native to the Spiritual Ideal are strange and single-minded, and can cause great trouble if they make their way to the material planes. The greatest beings in the Spiritual Ideal are perhaps better described as “phenomena”, but either way, they are more powerful than any god.

Twelfth Plane: The Absolute

The highest plane is the most mysterious one. No natural portals lead to the Absolute. Planar spells can take one there, but most such travellers never return. Those who do have difficulty describing the experience. There was a singular presence. They had to use every bit of their willpower to remain separate from it. That is all which can be understood.

The Implied Setting of Contact Higher Plane

When I first read through original D&D, the spell Contact Higher Plane intrigued me.

“Contact Higher Plane: This spell allows the magical-type to seek advice and gain knowledge from creatures inhabiting higher planes of existence (the referee). Of course, the higher the plane contacted, the greater the number of questions that can be asked, the greater the chance that the information will be known, and the higher the probability that the question will be answered truthfully. Use the table below to determine these factors, as well as the probability of the Magic-User going insane. Only questions which can be answered "yes" or "no" are permitted.

Plane	# of Questions	Chance of Knowing	Veracity	Insanity
3rd	3	25%	30%	nil
4th	4	30%	40%	10%
5th	5	35%	50%	20%
6th	6	40%	60%	30%
7th	7	50%	70%	40%
8th	8	60%	75%	50%
9th	9	70%	80%	60%
10th	10	80%	85%	70%
11th	11	90%	90%	80%
12th	12	95%	100%	90%

If a Magic-User goes insane, he will remain so for a number of weeks equal to the number of the plane he was attempting to contact, the strain making him totally incapacitated until the time has elapsed. For each level above the 11th, Magic-Users should have a 5% better chance of retaining their sanity. The spell is usable only once every game week (referee's option).”

- Men & Magic, Gygax & Arneson

(I believe this is the only mention of different planes of existence in original D&D.)

The spell describes a series of ten higher planes, inhabited by beings of progressively greater knowledge and truthfulness. Contacting these beings risks driving a magic-user insane: the higher the plane, the greater the risk.

Notably, the list starts at the third plane, with no mention of the first or second. This implies two things:

- The base plane, where the magic-user lives, is the second plane.

- There is an even lower plane: the first plane.

So what does "high" and "low" mean? A higher being seems to have greater knowledge and be more truthful. They also seem to have a maddening effect on the beings of lower planes, though that is possibly an effect of the act of contact, rather than the higher being itself.

If there are magic-users on the first plane, they could be using this spell to contact beings on the second (base) plane. Following the pattern, there would be two questions allowed, a 20% chance of knowing, and a 20% chance of veracity. There would be no risk of insanity.

The Wizard Knight

I came across a post on Monsters and Manuals about Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight, and taking inspiration from it for Planescape. I have not read the book (I plan on doing so!), but the way noisms describes it, the cosmos of The Wizard Knight seems to resemble that laid out by Contact Higher Plane. A finite hierarchy of planes, going from low to high.

The idea that beings of lower planes are supposed to worship beings of higher planes fits nicely into D&D: the higher planes are home to the gods.

The First Plane

If the second plane is something like the standard D&D world, then what do the other planes look like? It might be best to start with the one lower plane: the first plane. I have a few different ideas for what it could be.

Hell: If the highest plane is heaven, then the lowest plane should be hell, with the highest degree of ignorance and falsehood. Perhaps when a being dies, their soul reincarnates on another plane, moving upwards or downwards on the planar hierarchy. A being on the second plane that disrespects knowledge and truth is sent to hell when they die. (These are the two virtues that can be extrapolated from the spell - there might be others.)

Hell's inhabitants may not worship anything, but can still serve higher beings by being summoned. Perhaps beings on any plane can be summoned as servants to a higher plane?

Dreamlands: An alternative way to look at the lack of knowledge and truth on the lowest plane is to see it as unreal and whimsical. The plane of dreams, or something like Alice's Wonderland. Maybe Faerie or D&D's Feywild.

The inhabitants of this plane might have small, short-lived religions worshipping individuals on the second plane. A visitor from the second plane could find a temple dedicated to themselves!

Maybe beings from higher planes influence lower planes through their dreams. When a higher being dreams, their spirit enters a lower plane. The lower beings cannot perceive them, but the higher being's actions in their dream has an effect on the lower plane. The spell Contact Higher Plane lets the magic-user see the dreamers and ask them questions.

Earth: If the highest plane is the most maddening and incomprehensible place, then the other end of the scale should be the most mundane. There is nothing more mundane than real-life Earth. And I do like when a fantasy setting has some connection to the real world, instead of being a totally separate universe.

Are Earth's inhabitants worshipping beings on the second plane, people like the player characters? It might be better to place Earth's gods a few planes higher. That means those gods would also be venerated by people on the second plane. A PC cleric might follow Thor or Osiris. That's fine. Earth gods already feature in other D&D settings (Forgotten Realms, Wilderlands). Fantasy creatures of the second plane could be the inspiration for Earth's myths and legends.

Overall, I think Earth is the option I like best.

The Higher Planes

We've decided that gods live on the higher planes, but we'll need more than that. There are a lot of higher planes, ten in total.

Beings of the third plane are probably not that much more powerful or strange compared to those of the second plane. Perhaps this is where elves come from? They are good candidates for "higher beings".

The fourth and fifth planes could also hold some other not-that-much-greater higher beings. Dragons?

The sixth plane can be the elemental plane, holding sway over the elements of the lower planes. Beyond this plane, things are no longer composed of natural matter.

Beings on the seventh plane are close to the gods. They are angels and demons, serving the gods or rejecting them. Powerful demon lords may have worshippers on the lower planes.

On the eighth plane live the lesser gods. These have local religions on the lower planes, and might periodically not have any worshippers at all.

On the ninth plane live the greater gods. These have major religions on the lower planes, but are virtually unknown on the first plane, as they are simply too distant.

On the tenth plane live the gods of the gods, who have no contact with the lower planes.

On the eleventh plane live beings more powerful than any god, incomprehensible to beings of the lower planes.

The twelfth and final plane holds a singular being, greatest in the cosmos. An overgod, or an Azathoth-type dreaming the universe. But, as the spell tells us, not even this being knows the answer to every question.

What's Going On?

So, why do beings on one plane care about what happens on another plane?

One central fact has to be: Gods care. They care about mortals on the lower planes, and want to aid them. Some gods might be capricious or easily offended, but at their core, they want to help. Mortals pray to gods to let them know what help they need. Of course, different gods have different ideas of what's best for mortals, which leads to conflict.

The angels of the seventh plane serve as agents of the gods, carrying out their will on the lower planes. But some of them reject the gods, becoming demons. Some demons believe gods shouldn't interfere with other planes. Other demons set themselves up as gods - not because they care, but because they want to be worshipped. (There could be a Blood War-type conflict between these two kinds of demons.)

The elements of the sixth plane each strive for superiority. Their ebb and flow affects the elements across all of the lower planes. If the element of water is strong, there will be floods; if it is weak, there will be droughts. Angels try to keep the elements in balance, to avoid disasters on the lower planes.

The lower you get in the planar hierarchy, the harder it is for the inhabitants to travel between planes. Beings from the second, third, fourth, and fifth planes rarely leave their home plane. However, when the magic flows just right, a portal can open, and an unwitting traveller may stumble through.

What's Next?

I'm going to keep thinking about this setting. Need to decide what is going on at the fourth and fifth planes. And I want to read The Wizard Knight, but that might take a while...

Goblins & the Goblin Fumble Table

And now for something completely different. This is a PC goblin for players who like rolling on random tables, and having weird and unfortunate things happen to their characters.

The table assumes a d20 system a la 5th edition. Adjust as necessary.

 

GOBLINS AS PLAYABLE BEINGS IN A D&D TYPE GAME

If you are a goblin, you can reroll failed skill/ability checks (not saves or attacks) if you want.

If the second roll also fails, you must roll on the Goblin Fumble Table.

 

GOBLIN FUMBLE TABLE (1d100)

01-05: You seem to (?) fail on purpose. Everyone is annoyed with you.

06-10: You trip or cut yourself, taking 1d6 damage.

11-15: The items you are using break. If you aren't using items, your clothes and armor break and fall off. 

16-20: You faint. You wake up in 1d10 x 10 minutes, unless someone else wakes you up.

21-25: You fail in an extremely comical fashion. Everyone who sees it must make a Wis save DC 15 or fall over from laughter.

26-30: You slip and zoom off 30' in an unfortunate direction.

31-35: You drop all of your equipment. It scatters every which way.

36-40: You screw things up so that future attempts have +2 difficulty.

41-45: Your failure makes you insecure. Your skill bonus is permanently lowered by 1.

46-50: You learn from your failure. Your skill bonus is permanently raised by 1.

51-52: 1d6 other goblins show up and laugh at you.

53-54: You are distracted by a gem on the floor, not noticed by anyone else.

55-56: You are distracted by an attacking monster, not noticed by anyone else.

57-58: You get hungry and must eat a ration. Until you do, you must reroll all successful d20 rolls.

59-60: You really need to use the bathroom. Until you do, you must reroll all successful d20 rolls.

61-62: You get wrapped up in your clothes and fall over, wriggling. Dex roll DC 20 to free yourself, or get help from someone else.

63-64: You despair at your incompetence, and sit down to cry. You cry for 1 hour or until someone spends 10 minutes consoling you.

65-66: Your hands become slippery from sweat. You can't hold on to anything for 1 hour.

67-68: An arrogant type shows up, easily succeeds at what you failed at, and grins.

69-70: Another goblin, with a kink for incompetence, arrives. They want to show you how to do it correctly, in close physical proximity (hands-on-hands-golf-instructor style).

71: You accidentally perform arcane movements or speak magical words. You cast a random spell, of a random level, at random targets.

72: Turns out whatever you were trying to do was next to impossible, for some reason.

73: The god of what you failed at notices you, and is angered.

74: You become obsessed with succeeding. You must try the same thing again and again until you succeed. If you can't try again, your Wisdom is permanently lowered by 1.

75: Your attempt is interrupted as you suffer a random mutation.

76: Somewhere a wizard watches you in their crystal ball, and guffaws. They brew a potion that gives a +5 bonus to what you were trying to do (lasts 1 hour) and teleport one bottle to you. Brewing the potion takes the wizard 1d6 hours.

77: It's your unlucky day. For the rest of the day you can't reroll failed rolls, and must roll on the fumble table for every failed skill check and attack roll.

78: You become overly cautious. Everything you do (including eg. moving and attacking) takes twice as long. Lasts until you succeed on a meaningful skill or attack roll.

79: You are so ashamed, you become invisible. Lasts until you succeed on a meaningful skill or attack roll.

80: You start sneezing. Whenever you do something a sneeze can interrupt (attacking, talking etc) there is a 50% risk that's exactly what happens. The sneezes continue for an hour.

81: You start raging, like a barbarian. While the rage lasts you must attack someone every turn (friend or foe) unless you pass a Wis save DC 15.

82: You shrink to half size or grow to double size, whichever is worse for what you were trying to do. As small you have +2 AC and -4 Str, as big you have -2 AC and +4 Str. Lasts for an hour.

83: An annoying fly sabotages you. It follows you and gives you -1 to all d20 rolls. It has AC 20.

84: A gossipmonger sees your failure. You become locally famous as really bad at what you were trying to do.

85: You fingers stick to anything they touch. If you wear gloves, so do the gloves. Lasts for an hour.

86: Something falls on your head and deals 1d6 damage. What it is depends on your surroundings: rock, flowerpot, dead bird, etc.

87: Your head falls off. You can still control your body, but it's difficult if you can't see it. After an hour you get a headache, and can reattach your head.

88: You stumble through an undiscovered secret door or trapdoor.

89: A choir of small animals show up and sing a peppy song about never giving up.

90: 1d2 of your parents show up. They sigh.

91: You spill all food and drink you are carrying, and fall into it face first. If you have none, you fall into the closest food that's out in the open.

92: Something gets stuck in your throat, dealing 1 damage per turn. Con-save DC 15 to cough it up. When you do, roll 1d6 to see what it is: 1 gold piece, 2 dagger, 3 poisonous snake, 4 cascade of water lasting three turns, 5 burning oil, 6 scrap of paper with embarassing secret about you.

93: It starts raining. If it's already raining, a hail begins. If you are indoors, there is a roof leak above your head.

94: Your body is frozen in its current pose. You can't move anything except your head. Lasts for an hour.

95: You smell bad, to a range of 30'. Lasts for an hour.

96: You believe/hallucinate that you succeeded. It takes you 2d6 turns to realize the truth.

97: You hurt yourself slightly (1 damage), but it at least appears extremely painful. Everyone who sees it must pass a Wis save DC 15 or take 1d6 psychic damage.

98: Time slows down, and a devil offers you to succeed on your attempt, in exchange for a sliver of your soul (1 maximum HP).

99: Your consciousness leaves your body and becomes one with the universe. An unknown spirit takes over your body. You (the player) becomes the GM, and the GM takes over your character. This continues until either of you wants to switch back.

100: You succeed perfectly, better than any goblin ever. You gain 1d100 XP.