I'm running a Spelljammer/plane-hopping campaign, and apparently there's a new canon cosmology since my 3.x days: the World Axis, complete with new outer planes and some reconfiguration of the multiverse. I've never used outer planes much, but in this campaign they might be relevant. So, those in the know: which cosmology do you think is more interesting and why?
I have my own model I call the Three-Stringed Lute. IMO, neither Great Wheel nor World Axis have a decent explanation for the Elemental Planes or the Feywild/Shadowfell or all the other things they keep glomming in there. In my system, you have the “strings:” the Magical Planes (Positive/Negative; Feywild/Shadowfell, etc.); the Material Planes (Earth, Wind & Fire, etc., plus Prime); and the Philosophical Planes (Hell/Heaven). The “strings” are given shape by the Astral (the body of the lute) they resonate in the Ethereal (the air). The center of the strings, which have the most overlap when they vibrate, are the Feywild, Prime Material, and Concordant Opposition (specifically Sigil). The farther away from the center you get on the strings, the less any of the indigenous beings have in common (a devil and an efreet may share an interior decorator, but their goals and worldviews are mutually incomprehensible).
It’s not perfect, but it’s easy to visualize and it gives me an excuse to distinguish elemental Druidic magic from divine Cleric magic, because Druids aren’t just priests who like camping (this is a pet peeve of mine).
To actually answer your question, I really don’t see the advantage of one over the other, unless your Planejammer has to physically pass through one plane on the way to another.
The Prime Material, Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos operate on the World Axis system, with the Prime Material representing the exact overlap of the two (combining the order of the Astral with the chaos of the Elemental to create something mortals can inhabit).
The Outer Planes float around somewhere on the edge of the Chaos and Astral respectively, depending on alignement.
In my setting, the usual Elemental Planes exist, but they're more like slightly stabilized parts of the Chaos than planes on their own.
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I'm running a Spelljammer/plane-hopping campaign, and apparently there's a new canon cosmology since my 3.x days: the World Axis, complete with new outer planes and some reconfiguration of the multiverse. I've never used outer planes much, but in this campaign they might be relevant. So, those in the know: which cosmology do you think is more interesting and why?
Neither. Eberron's Orrery is the most interesting because mooooons.
<3 Eberron, yes, but it's in a different cosmology from Sj ;)
I have my own model I call the Three-Stringed Lute. IMO, neither Great Wheel nor World Axis have a decent explanation for the Elemental Planes or the Feywild/Shadowfell or all the other things they keep glomming in there. In my system, you have the “strings:” the Magical Planes (Positive/Negative; Feywild/Shadowfell, etc.); the Material Planes (Earth, Wind & Fire, etc., plus Prime); and the Philosophical Planes (Hell/Heaven). The “strings” are given shape by the Astral (the body of the lute) they resonate in the Ethereal (the air). The center of the strings, which have the most overlap when they vibrate, are the Feywild, Prime Material, and Concordant Opposition (specifically Sigil). The farther away from the center you get on the strings, the less any of the indigenous beings have in common (a devil and an efreet may share an interior decorator, but their goals and worldviews are mutually incomprehensible).
It’s not perfect, but it’s easy to visualize and it gives me an excuse to distinguish elemental Druidic magic from divine Cleric magic, because Druids aren’t just priests who like camping (this is a pet peeve of mine).
To actually answer your question, I really don’t see the advantage of one over the other, unless your Planejammer has to physically pass through one plane on the way to another.
I like to combine the two in a way.
The Prime Material, Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos operate on the World Axis system, with the Prime Material representing the exact overlap of the two (combining the order of the Astral with the chaos of the Elemental to create something mortals can inhabit).
The Outer Planes float around somewhere on the edge of the Chaos and Astral respectively, depending on alignement.
In my setting, the usual Elemental Planes exist, but they're more like slightly stabilized parts of the Chaos than planes on their own.