Blackmoor Multiverse

[Havard]

An interesting tidbit about the percied planar structure of Blackmoor can be found in the Blackmoor Player's Guide p 175:

Mithgilivyr Goss theorized the existence of the following Planes:

Six Elemental Planes, Ethereal Plane, Astral Plane, Plane of Shadow and Plane of Time

Expanding on this list from various Blackmoor Sources:

The Six Elemental Planes

• Air
  
• Earth
  
• Fire (More details)
  
• Metal (More details)
  
• Wood
  
• Water

The Transitive Planes

• Ethereal Plane
  
• Astral Plane
  
• Plane of Shadow (connected to Elderkin, Pathmeer etc more details)

Other Planes

• Plane of Time (Entrem) - More details
  
• The Ephemeral Plane (MMRPG's version of the Fairy Plane)
  
• Earth/Laterre (See Dave Arneson's WWII adventures, Tom Webster's Atlantis, possibly connections to Braunstein, Brownstone, DA's Napoleonics Campaign)
  
• Tekumel (See Prof Barker's and Dave Arneson's Blackmoor/Tekumel Crossover adventures as related by Chirine)
  
• Sheardraeth - The New Lands/Skelfer's Realm. More details)
  
• The Demon Realm - Where Calelrin was banished. The Abyss or Mystara's Pyts.
  
• Vermanius - More discussion here (Piazza link)

Other Realms

• The Dweomer Realm (MMRPG) - a kind of Blackmoor Underdark - More discussion
  
• Age of the Wolf - Accessible through Time Travel
  
• The Galactic Realms (Home of the Federation and the Empires from Jon Snider's Stellar VII Campaign)
  
• Old Alphatia - Possibly a dead world in the Galactic Realm. My idea is that Alphatia is settled by Blackmoor Elementalists.
  
• The Hollow World - If the planet is hollow, what's going on within it?
  
• World of Greyhawk (aka Khoronus' Blackmoor Copy)
  
• World of Mystara - Accessinble through Time Travel

-Havard

[Rafael]

I am using the JG "planar tree" for our game here; more thought I really haven't put into it.

[Havard]

Moved to the OP

-Havard

[sheridan]

Expanding on this list from various Blackmoor Sources:
[*]Age of the Wolf - Maybe its actually a separate realm rather than an era?
-Havard

Nope, not a separate realm. Just the "future" Blackmoor (compared with the 3rd edition timeline).

Within Blackmoor cosmology, there was also The Seven Realms: a collection of seven worlds or realms, consisting of:
The Middle Realm
The Celestial Realm
The Infernal Realm
The Dark Realm
The Elf Realm
The Far Realm
The Realm of Fire and Ice

...per chapter 3, Cosmology, The Age of the Wolf

*Sheridan

[Zeromaru X]

Oh, wow.

I hope you can provide more info about this.

[Havard]

Expanding on this list from various Blackmoor Sources:
[*]Age of the Wolf - Maybe its actually a separate realm rather than an era?
-Havard

Nope, not a separate realm. Just the "future" Blackmoor (compared with the 3rd edition timeline).

Oh sure, I was just being philosophical about it. With Time Travel, either through the Comeback Inn or through The Plane of Time in general*, Blackmoor DM's could easily use different future (or even past) eras as places Blackmoor characters can visit for a few adventures before returning home.

*=Although personally, I think the Comeback Inn should be the *only* way to access the Plane of Time for Blackmoor mortals.

Within Blackmoor cosmology, there was also The Seven Realms: a collection of seven worlds or realms, consisting of:
The Middle Realm
The Celestial Realm
The Infernal Realm
The Dark Realm
The Elf Realm
The Far Realm
The Realm of Fire and Ice

...per chapter 3, Cosmology, The Age of the Wolf

Now this is very interesting! Does this mean you have read, or even have access to the Age of the Wolf manuscript? hock:

-Havard

[Greg]

To what extent was there planar travel in the original Blackmoor campaign, and is there a definitive list of planes that existed in the setting before the D20 era version of the setting and MMRPG? Are there specific references we can find in the FFC or the DA modules? I haven't looked through them for planar references yet, but the necessity of planes described in the 5E DMG got me thinking about this.

[aldarron]

Well this is a massive and excellent bit of work!

[*]Earth/Laterre (See Dave Arneson's WWII adventures, Tom Webster's Atlantis, possibly connections to Braunstein, Brownstone, DA's Napoleonics Campaign)
[*]Tekumel (See Prof Barker's and Dave Arneson's Blackmoor/Tekumel Crossover adventures as related by Chirine)
[*]Sheardraeth - The New Lands/Skelfer's Realm. More details)

These I would not consider "planes" but as part of the Other Realms section. I think Earth and Tekumel are planets in the Blackmoor universe and Shaerdraeth just seems to be a name for the "new lands" just south of the valley of the ancients.

[*]The Demon Realm - Where Calelrin was banished. The Abyss or Mystara's Pyts.
[*]Vermanius - More discussion here (Piazza link)[/list]
-Havard

Vermanius seems to be a location within the Demon realm.

[Havard]

To what extent was there planar travel in the original Blackmoor campaign, and is there a definitive list of planes that existed in the setting before the D20 era version of the setting and MMRPG? Are there specific references we can find in the FFC or the DA modules? I haven't looked through them for planar references yet, but the necessity of planes described in the 5E DMG got me thinking about this.

Original Campaign/FFC
Cosmology seems vague. Different Worlds/Time travel is definitely a thing. Characters are able to travel to Blackmoor from Earth, Tekumel etc. Demons, Gods, Elementals likely have their own realms. Characters visit Earth to fight Nazis, WWII era Japanese etc.

TSR Era: I assume BECMI cosmology is in place.

D20 Era: Everything from the list above is assumed to be in place.


-Havard

[Havard]

Well this is a massive and excellent bit of work!

[*]Earth/Laterre (See Dave Arneson's WWII adventures, Tom Webster's Atlantis, possibly connections to Braunstein, Brownstone, DA's Napoleonics Campaign)
[*]Tekumel (See Prof Barker's and Dave Arneson's Blackmoor/Tekumel Crossover adventures as related by Chirine)
[*]Sheardraeth - The New Lands/Skelfer's Realm. More details)

These I would not consider "planes" but as part of the Other Realms section.

I think Earth and Tekumel are planets in the Blackmoor universe

This is certainly possible. Travel between these worlds does appear to have been through portals or magical means rather than space travel. The distinction between planes and planets is likely vague since such concepts have become more specific in later decades. If you look at HP Lovecraft's concepts, he often assumes Planes and Planets to be the same thing for instance.

and Shaerdraeth just seems to be a name for the "new lands" just south of the valley of the ancients.

I disagree. Shaerdraeth was the world discovered by Skelfer and is also the homeworld of the Docrae. The Docrae likely settled west of The Vales and were then driven to Blackmoor by the advancing Afridhi forces.

The region north of the Valley of the Ancients was sometimes called "the new lands" in the original campaign and the DA modules (See Veslo Meridan entry in DA1), but ZGG and CMP used this term and later Shaerdrath about a separate world. I believe this was their contingency plan for publishing D&D material should the Blackmoor lisence be lost. I believe Robert Reed has still not fully abandoned this idea.

[*]The Demon Realm - Where Calelrin was banished. The Abyss or Mystara's Pyts.
[*]Vermanius - More discussion here (Piazza link)[/list]
-Havard

Vermanius seems to be a location within the Demon realm.

I agree. There is not much to go on when it comes to Vermanius, but I personally like the idea of having Vermanius as a City in the Demon Realm.

I believe I recently came across a reference in the FFC to "Hell", which may or may not be the same as "The Demon Realm" (Or the Infernal Realm in the Age of the Wolf manuscript Scott refers to above). I will have to check the FFC again to find the page number though.

-Havard