Fiends are fiends

Demons and devils have always have more similarities than differences. Their hierarchies, their goals, their appearances, etc. Some of them are chaotic, others lawful, but in the end fiends are fiends. AD&D DMG Appendix D used the same random generation tables for demons, devils and daemons. Why equivocate? To coincide with my condensing of the Lower Planes into one plane of arbitrary size, I am likewise condensing the various differences between fiends.

Alignment factions primer

I do not think the two-axis alignment system really makes much sense, but unfortunately for me it is baked into the design of the game. Even if PCs do not need to select alignments, the monsters and cosmology (including my homebrew) are still informed by alignment. So I am going to reframe the alignments of chaos, evil, good and law into allegiances loosely based on "Essences" from Mage: The Ascension or "Urges" from Nine Worlds or the factions from Age of Sigmar.

The order/chaos conflict

The worlds of 13th Age are locked in a fairly typical conflict for mythology: orderly civilization versus chaotic nature. [Insert fumanor references]

Order is informed by Ancient Egypt's Ma'at and Michael Moorcock's Cosmic Balance (rather than stultifying Order). It recognizes that chaos may be constructive (e.g. forest fires making way for new growth).

Chaos, then, represents mostly or only the destructive aspects.

Alignment, moral ambiguity and grimdark fantasy

5th edition downplays the influence of alignment on the rules, but it still informs the canon cosmology and my simplified cosmology. Instead of arguing the meaning of alignment, I prefer a practical approach in the form of allegiances. Inspired by Mage: The Ascension and Requiem Chevalier Vampire, my cosmology is the backdrop for a conflict between four opposing forces with dramatically different yet sympathetic world views.

An alternative great wheel

As a temporary break from my planar musings for 13th Age, I have decided to take a crack at building an alternative cosmology for 5th edition. The cosmology in the DM's guide is a bit more complicated than it needs to be in order to please Planescape partisans. I do not wish to insult that setting, but I think that many of the planes suffer from either being too hostile for adventuring or too similar to other planes. This post will explain where my cosmology departs from the canonical cosmology.

Worlds of Existence primer

The cosmology of 13th Age divides the universe into a few ages and a few worlds: the World or the Land, the Overworld, the Underworld, Hell, the Otherworld, the Aquatic Age, and others. Other worlds are alluded to in the sourcebooks, but we never received a map of the worlds so that GMs could detail it as they wished. This is my expansion of that cosmology.

Planetouched primer

Planetouched is a general term for player character races who are descended from the planes. Perhaps their ancestors were mere mortals who made a pact with or married angels or demons, lived in close proximity to a source of planar radiation or toxins, tourists from another plane of existence, or maybe nature itself is literally their mother.

When creating a character who is planetouched, take some time to consider their origin and how this would affect their appearance and history. Many sourcebooks have given colorful origins for planetouched: Legends & Lairs: Mythic Races, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races, Children of the Planes, etc. I advise treating these as backgrounds and reskins of existing races from the rulebook, third party sourcebooks, and Vault of the 13th Age. There's no need to waste your one unique thing on being planetouched.

For example, the Neirut from Planar Races may be represented by Forgeborn whereas the fiery races from The Traveler's Guide to the Elemental Plane of Fire may be represented by Elementborn. I will try to present more examples in later posts.