Great Wheel Cosmology
Cosmology was the study of the cosmos—the structure, organization and composition of all that existed. What most people would call the "known universe" was labeled the Prime Material Plane. It held the world of Nym, the moon, the sun, and extended out into space to the stars.
How far out into space was a question of cosmology, and the answer might depend on which cosmological model was used to describe the Prime Material plane. But there were many other planes of existence, some very much like the Prime and some so alien that they almost defied description.
Like other dimensions, these other planes might overlap, surround, or penetrate the Prime Material plane, or they might be connected by some mystic avenue, often requiring magic to explore. Together, all the various planes were usually referred to as the "multiverse" and they were the focus of cosmologists as they tried to map, measure, and understand the planes and their relationship to life, to death, and to each other.
Great Wheel Cosmology
The Great Wheel cosmology consisted of a series of somewhat concentric spheres. In the center was the Prime Material plane containing the phlogiston with the crystal spheres and worlds within, surrounded by an Ethereal plane (misty realms of proto-matter). Outside of the Prime and Ethereal were the Inner planes, also called the Elemental planes, which had their own structure based on a sphere. Then came 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 Inner planes were the six major elemental planes (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Positive Energy, Negative Energy), the four para-elemental planes (Smoke, Ice, Ooze, Magma), and the eight quasi-elemental planes (Lightning, Steam, Radiance, Minerals, Vacuum, Salt, Ash, Dust). They could be thought of as being on the surface of a sphere with Positive Energy at the north pole, Negative Energy at the south pole and Fire, Earth, Water, and Air on the equator, equidistant from each other. The para-elemental planes were found on the equator between the boundaries of Fire, Earth, Water and Air (Magma was between Fire and Earth, for example). Four of the quasi-elemental planes were found between the boundaries of Positive Energy and the four elements (Steam was between Positive Energy and Water, for example). And the other four quasi-elemental planes were between Negative Energy and the four elements (Vacuum was between Negative Energy and Air, for example). The Inner planes were surrounded by the Ethereal planes, which connected them to the Prime Material planes. Demiplanes were planes of finite extent found within an Ethereal plane. They may have been the creations of extremely powerful wizards, technologists, or demigods or they may have been created when a large glob of proto-matter began to pull away from its Ethereal plane and achieved separation. Demiplanes might eventually collapse in on themselves, re-merge with its parent Ethereal, or merge with an Inner plane or Prime Material plane. Each demiplane had its own rules regarding gravity, vision, magic, and material make-up
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