The Great Wheel

Described as a complex, comparatively cosmopolitan place in which the gods of many worlds and pantheons mingled, the beliefs of many faiths and peoples bleeding together in a set of Outer Planes shaped predominantly by the polar forces of Law, Chaos, Good, and Evil. The actual term "Great Wheel" did not mean the cosmology as a whole until after the development of the World Tree cosmology. The terms "Great Wheel" or "Great Ring" meant the was just used to describe the Outer Planes only. During this time, the cosmology as a whole did not require a name other than "the Planes" or "the Multiverse," as there were no formally named alternatives yet.

The Great Wheel cosmology consists of a series of somewhat concentric spheres. In the center is the Prime Material plane containing the phlogiston with the crystal spheres and worlds within, shouldered by the Shadowfell and Feywild echos of the Material Plane. The Ethereal Plane brushes against and permeates through the material plane and her echos, reflecting them in misty realms of proto-matter. Encapsulating the Ethereal buffer are the the Inner Planes, also called the Elemental planes, which have their own structure based on a sphere. Then comes the The Astral Plane which connected the worlds in the Prime Material plane to each other (bypassing the phlogiston) and also to the last sphere, the Outer planes. The Prime Material plane touched both the Astral plane and its Ethereal plane, though these planes did not touch one another. The Outer planes, also called the Planes of Power, were 16 planes arranged in a circle (the Great Wheel) defined mainly by alignment and surrounding a 17th neutral plane known as the Outlands.

THE ECHO PLANES

The Material Plane is a richly magical place, and its magical nature is reflected in the two planes that share its central place in the multiverse. The Feywild and the Shadowfell are parallel dimensions occupying the same cosmological space, so they are often called echo planes or mirror planes to the Material Plane. The worlds and landscapes of these planes mirror the natural world of the Material Plane but reflect those features into different forms—more marvelous and magical in the Feywild, distorted and colorless in the Shadowfell. Where a volcano stands in the Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscraper-sized crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the Feywild, and a jagged rock outcropping resembling a skull marks the spot on the Shadowfell.

• The Feywild

• The Shadowfell

Transitive Planes

The Ethereal Plane and the Astral Plane are called the Transitive Planes. They are mostly featureless realms that serve primarily as ways to travel from one plane to another.

• Ethereal Plane

• Astral Plane

The Inner Planes

The Inner Planes surround and enfold the Material Plane and its echoes, providing the raw elemental substance from which all the worlds were made. The four Elemental Planes — Air, Earth, Fire, and Water — form a ring around the Material Plane, suspended within the churning Elemental Chaos.

• Elemental Plane of Air

• Elemental Plane of Earth

• Elemental Plane of Fire

• Elemental Plane of Water

• The Elemental Chaos

Outer Planes

If the Inner Planes are the raw matter and energy that makes up the multiverse, the Outer Planes are the direction, thought and purpose for such construction. Accordingly, many sages refer to the Outer Planes as divine planes, spiritual planes, or godly planes, for the Outer Planes are best known as the homes of deities.

• The Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia

• The Twin Paradises of Bytopia

• The Blessed Fields of Elysium

• The Wilderness of The Beastlands

• The Olympian Glades of Arborea

• The Heroic Domains of Ysgard

• The Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo

• The Windswept Depths of Pandemonium

• The Infinite Layers of the Abyss

• The Tarterian Depths of Carcerii

• the Gray Waste of Hades

• The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna

• The Nine Hells of Baator

• The Infinite Battlefield of Acheron

• The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus

• The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia

• The Concordant Domain of the Outlands

Positive and Negative Planes

Almost like a blanket, the Energy Planes are parculiar in that they supply all the planes they encompass with energy enough to saturate Inner Planes underneath. The Positive Plane also known as the Plane of Life, every atom of this plane vibrate with intense energy and produces light across a wide spectrum. It is the source of radiant energy and the raw life force that suffuses all living beings. The counter is the Negative Plane or the Plane of Death, source of all necrotic energy that destroys the living and animates the undead. The Energy Planes are pure and it is near-impossible to have anything exist in a plane for any length of time before the energy of that plane simply destroys it. The Energy Planes show influence on each Inner and Outer Plane they border.

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THE FAR REALM

Well beyond the reaches of any of the planes, outside all of known existence is a place of unimaginable abstraction and madness called The Far Realm. It stretches past the borders of the known multiverse and the entities that reside there are so foreign and strange that even the gods are said to go mad trying to understand it.

Type

Cosmological Model