So I get enough of a gist to not completely feel stupid, but I definitely would like to get a better understanding of how D&D's... reality is made up.
Mainly, I want to know what's what in terms of what fits inside or alongside other cosmic things in the lore.
So there's Everything, but somewhere within all that, there're planes (material, elemental, ethereal, astral, feywild, shadowfell, outer-upper/lower) then within the material plane there is... a universe? Filled with... space? Galaxies? Solar systems? Toril's the only planet I've seen mentioned, so... maybe other planets, solar systems, and galaxies besides just Toril? But then going deeper, what is Faerun, "The Forgotten Realms", Eberron, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, etc? How far do you have to zoom in from the beginning (everything that contains or is the multiverse unfocused) to see these locales? Are any of them planets, are any of them planes, are any of them continents, etc?
As far as I'm aware none of the 5th edition books go into detail about how the Material Plane is organized, but based on Mike Mearl's video about Mind Flayers, 2nd edition's Spelljammer book is still relevant. I don't own the book but based on Mike's description and the little I've read, the Material Plane has crystal spheres separated by phlogiston, each containing a sun or planet at its center which other planets (D&D worlds) orbit.
You can buy a PDF of the Spelljammer book for pretty cheap at DrivethruRPG if you're curious. The free preview gets far enough into the book to talk about crystal spheres and all that.
A person with the name Planeswalker doesn't know this stuff... :)
Canon differs, but this is written from someone whose formative D&D era was 2e. Newer editions may ignore or update this, but:
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
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The "Planes' stuff connects everything, but it's not the only way. The Multiverse is a collection of planes representing worlds. These are connected by the planar model (The Ethereal Plane, the Astral Plane, the Inner and Outer planes, etc.) which is best featured in the Planescape setting. Basically, take a portal and you're somewhere else. Lots of infinities. Don't sweat the details.
Then there's Crystal Spheres. back in days of yore (the mid-80s) D&D in SPAAAAAAACE was a thing. But not space as we know it. The "physics" of Spelljammer were designed to support the kind of things the developers wanted. Basically, flying ships that looked kind of like real-world seagoing vessels where guys in swords could point the swords at things from a deck. No real need for space suits, pressurized cabins, etc.
In Spelljammer, each 'setting' was it's own Crystal Sphere, which could enforce it's own local rules. For example, the Crystal Sphere of the Dragonlance setting (Krynnspace) was noted as being cold. Not "freeze you in seconds" but more "Wear warm clothes" cold. The Spheres tended to have various spacegoing things. Due to Spelljammer being an 'add-on' not everyone wanted to use, most settings only minimally referenced Spelljammer.
The Crystal Spheres were traversed by various fanciful vessels. Going between planets in a sphere was a 'short' trip, usually measured in days or weeks. Ships used a Spelljammer Helm which basically consumed a caster's spellcasting abilities for the day for power. Ships had gravity, but on a plane, and maintained a bubble of air that was good for a few months depending on use.
But the Forgotten Realms was on Sphere, Dragonlance another, so that asks how you get between them. The answer is the Phlogiston! If you went to the edge of the titanic, nigh-invulnerable crystal sphere you could find a portal to a swirling ocean of color. This ocean was hard to sail, but after weeks of travel you could go between Crystal Spheres. For example, from Krynnspace to Realmspace. The Phlogiston was weird and strange, with shifting currents. On the one hand, you couldn't die from foul air there, as you'd be strangely preserved. However, the Phlogiston is very flammable.
Later editions treated a lot of Spelljammer as Astral Plane stuff, which I feel weakened both.
However, in practice you can ignore this. Developers often did, as did fans.
The big settings of D&D history:
The Forgotten Realms has been a major setting since late 1e. It's "absorbed' some settings, being the default location for Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim, and others. It's a relatively high-magic 'traditional' setting. The planet of the Forgotten Realms is Toril, with Faerun as the main continent.
Greyhawk is Gygax's setting, and was mostly ignored once he left the company. Also 'high fantasy' similar to FR.
An older setting, Dragonlance was popular as an early major effort at 'cross media' with books and game adventures that covered the same territory. Dragonlance was born of a unique look at the setting by doing adventures to feature different dragons, but grew into a setting with several distinct features. It's got unique magic (tied to multiple moons), some odd races (Minotaurs and Kender), and a focus on alignment and such. Dragonlance was often slightly 'hard to reach' but less so than, say, Dark Sun.
As stated, Spelljammer was a setting to make cross-setting play easier in a unique way. Before this, there was material covering the Planes that could be sued, but the planes were tough and would remain so for quite a while.
Ravenloft as a setting was based on an earlier adventure module, I-6 Ravenloft. The original adventure, much like the modern Curse of Strahd, focuses on the PC against a smart opponent who holds nearly all the cards. The original adventure was in a generic world intended for PCs to place into their own settings. Once it became it's own setting, it became a demiplane, the "Demiplane of Dread" which was a collection of small regions based around horror themes. Ravenloft could reach out to many settings, and would take or copy places to torture those doomed to exist there.
For a change of pace, Dark Sun was designed in part to feature links to the BATTLESYSTEM(tm) Mass combat/wargame rules TSR sold around that time. Dark Sun was also an early effort at working closely with a specific artist (this time Brom) who gave the setting a strong post-apocalyptic feel. Think fantasy Mad Max, with some cloths and weapons that might fit in the old Schwarzenegger Conan movies. Dark Sun also used the Psionics rules and suffered a bit due to this, I feel: I've heard the 4e Dark Sun material is that edition's masterpiece. Basically, endless sandy wastes with rough cities rules by sorcerer-kings.
Birthright focused on realm management, with PCs likely acting as rulers of nations and developing features based off this.
One of the last 'major' settings for 2e was Planescape which was also a major way to hop settings. Planescape took previous material on the other planes, including heavens, hells, and various places adventures would likely die by visiting. It made these a bit 'safer' by adding a central city of Sigil and various safer ways to travel. Sigil, especially, added a vaguely Victorian feel to the setting. Tieflings premiered here, as the descendents of lower planar beings who show signs of their ancestry.
Eberron is the first post-2e setting listed. It's based around concepts including "semi-industrialized magic" and "Fantasy version of the mid-war period" so there's ruling houses with politics, magic-powered trains, etc.
"Points of Light" was the non-setting "mission statement" for 4e later incarnated as "Nentir Vale." Basically, the official stance was the DM could develop the world they wanted, but it assumed a unfriendly world with the light being the spare friendly cities.
An older setting, Mystara or "The Known World" was used for Basic D&D during the early era, then later merged into 2e. It was substantially different, with adventures adding in bits like crashed sci-fi spaceships and such to the setting. It got some expansions, but they were minimal
There's probably a few I've forgotten. There's several, like Council of Wyrms or the Historical book series, that got minimal support beyond an initial release.
Lol Funny, considering my username. I can't post it word-for-word, but found the basic breakdown in the Dungeon Master's Guide for 5th Edition.
It basically says all these settings (besides at least one) are all amongst the Material Plane (of course) and sounds like they're planets, and adding in the Crystal Sphere concept, means they're isolated to a degree... Forgotten Realms is on Toril, Faerun is just the main continent, and Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim, etc are continents that used to house their own settings. Greyhawk is on Oerth (how do you pronounce that? Lol) Dragonlance is on Krynn, Dark Sun is on Athas, Eberron is on Eberron, Birthright (never heard of it) is on Aebrynis, and Mystara is on Mystara. Oh, and Ravenloft is merely a demiplane inside of the Shadowfell.
That does basically answer my question, and it would seem Toril, Oerth, etc are planets, but the "Crystal Spheres" are basically analogs to the "planes" from Magic: the Gathering's multiverse, making them theoretically compatible, as, say, Zendikar may be the planet and the name of the equivalent of its "crystal sphere", just as James Wyatt said the Weave could be a tool by which mages use to draw upon mana from the land, it could be said the dead that don't become sone form of undead could very well still go to the upper/lower planes, though of course they're not within canon.
So I get enough of a gist to not completely feel stupid, but I definitely would like to get a better understanding of how D&D's... reality is made up.
Mainly, I want to know what's what in terms of what fits inside or alongside other cosmic things in the lore.
So there's Everything, but somewhere within all that, there're planes (material, elemental, ethereal, astral, feywild, shadowfell, outer-upper/lower) then within the material plane there is... a universe? Filled with... space? Galaxies? Solar systems? Toril's the only planet I've seen mentioned, so... maybe other planets, solar systems, and galaxies besides just Toril? But then going deeper, what is Faerun, "The Forgotten Realms", Eberron, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, etc? How far do you have to zoom in from the beginning (everything that contains or is the multiverse unfocused) to see these locales? Are any of them planets, are any of them planes, are any of them continents, etc?
My best advice, youtube
Marvarax and Sora (Dragonborn) The retired fighter and WIP scholar - Glory
Brythel(Dwarf), The dwarf with a gun - survival at sea
Jaylin(Human), Paladin of Lathander's Ancient ways - The Seven Saints (Azura Claw)
Urselles(Goblin), Cleric of Eldath- The Wizard's challenge
Viclas Tyrin(Half Elf), Student of the Elven arts- Indrafatmoko's Defiance in Phlan
As far as I'm aware none of the 5th edition books go into detail about how the Material Plane is organized, but based on Mike Mearl's video about Mind Flayers, 2nd edition's Spelljammer book is still relevant. I don't own the book but based on Mike's description and the little I've read, the Material Plane has crystal spheres separated by phlogiston, each containing a sun or planet at its center which other planets (D&D worlds) orbit.
You can buy a PDF of the Spelljammer book for pretty cheap at DrivethruRPG if you're curious. The free preview gets far enough into the book to talk about crystal spheres and all that.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
A person with the name Planeswalker doesn't know this stuff... :)
Canon differs, but this is written from someone whose formative D&D era was 2e. Newer editions may ignore or update this, but:
The "Planes' stuff connects everything, but it's not the only way. The Multiverse is a collection of planes representing worlds. These are connected by the planar model (The Ethereal Plane, the Astral Plane, the Inner and Outer planes, etc.) which is best featured in the Planescape setting. Basically, take a portal and you're somewhere else. Lots of infinities. Don't sweat the details.
Then there's Crystal Spheres. back in days of yore (the mid-80s) D&D in SPAAAAAAACE was a thing. But not space as we know it. The "physics" of Spelljammer were designed to support the kind of things the developers wanted. Basically, flying ships that looked kind of like real-world seagoing vessels where guys in swords could point the swords at things from a deck. No real need for space suits, pressurized cabins, etc.
In Spelljammer, each 'setting' was it's own Crystal Sphere, which could enforce it's own local rules. For example, the Crystal Sphere of the Dragonlance setting (Krynnspace) was noted as being cold. Not "freeze you in seconds" but more "Wear warm clothes" cold. The Spheres tended to have various spacegoing things. Due to Spelljammer being an 'add-on' not everyone wanted to use, most settings only minimally referenced Spelljammer.
The Crystal Spheres were traversed by various fanciful vessels. Going between planets in a sphere was a 'short' trip, usually measured in days or weeks. Ships used a Spelljammer Helm which basically consumed a caster's spellcasting abilities for the day for power. Ships had gravity, but on a plane, and maintained a bubble of air that was good for a few months depending on use.
But the Forgotten Realms was on Sphere, Dragonlance another, so that asks how you get between them. The answer is the Phlogiston! If you went to the edge of the titanic, nigh-invulnerable crystal sphere you could find a portal to a swirling ocean of color. This ocean was hard to sail, but after weeks of travel you could go between Crystal Spheres. For example, from Krynnspace to Realmspace. The Phlogiston was weird and strange, with shifting currents. On the one hand, you couldn't die from foul air there, as you'd be strangely preserved. However, the Phlogiston is very flammable.
Later editions treated a lot of Spelljammer as Astral Plane stuff, which I feel weakened both.
However, in practice you can ignore this. Developers often did, as did fans.
The big settings of D&D history:
There's probably a few I've forgotten. There's several, like Council of Wyrms or the Historical book series, that got minimal support beyond an initial release.
Lol Funny, considering my username. I can't post it word-for-word, but found the basic breakdown in the Dungeon Master's Guide for 5th Edition.
It basically says all these settings (besides at least one) are all amongst the Material Plane (of course) and sounds like they're planets, and adding in the Crystal Sphere concept, means they're isolated to a degree... Forgotten Realms is on Toril, Faerun is just the main continent, and Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim, etc are continents that used to house their own settings. Greyhawk is on Oerth (how do you pronounce that? Lol) Dragonlance is on Krynn, Dark Sun is on Athas, Eberron is on Eberron, Birthright (never heard of it) is on Aebrynis, and Mystara is on Mystara. Oh, and Ravenloft is merely a demiplane inside of the Shadowfell.
That does basically answer my question, and it would seem Toril, Oerth, etc are planets, but the "Crystal Spheres" are basically analogs to the "planes" from Magic: the Gathering's multiverse, making them theoretically compatible, as, say, Zendikar may be the planet and the name of the equivalent of its "crystal sphere", just as James Wyatt said the Weave could be a tool by which mages use to draw upon mana from the land, it could be said the dead that don't become sone form of undead could very well still go to the upper/lower planes, though of course they're not within canon.