Building My Dungeons and Dragon World Part 3: The Cosmology and the Celestial Empire

 Introduction

    The Aasimar are one of the races introduced in Dungeons and Dragons that put my worldbuilding skills to the test. Unlike the Aaracokra, they are a diverse playable race with various possibilities. Moreover, their main trait is that they are humans descended from celestials and other good-aligned creatures. All this said Celestials are also a category of monsters, not one specific creature in Dungeons and Dragons. From what I have found in the books and on the wiki, the Celestials are an encompassing term referring to Angels, Archons, Guardinals, Eladrin, and more. But as I dug deeper, I learned that most of these Celestials were created by and served the gods of the Upper Planes in the Great Wheel cosmology. Between this and Elemental Plane of Air referenced last week as I worked on the Aarakocra, I realized that I would need to take a step back from the various races of the D&D Universe and explain the Cosmology I will be using for my world. I also want to establish a key location in my world that will explain what I am doing with the Aasimar in my world. So without further ado, let's get into it.

My Chosen Cosmology

Reference Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonsAndDragons/comments/zirmtj/the_great_wheel_cosmology_made_a_bit_more/ 

    My research revealed that D&D has used three cosmology layouts: The Great Wheel, The World Tree, and the World Axis. I am a man who likes patterns and clear-cut lines in world-building. This is mainly because it is easier to keep things organized this way. Of the three, I prefer the Great Wheel as it feels to me to be the most organized. It also aligns pretty well with D&D's alignment charts, lawful to chaotic and good to evil.

    I have a number of rifts and pathways in my world that will lead to other planes, but similar to how I handled the portal to the Elemental Plane of Air, these will be tackled as they come up since I am not yet sure where I want them all yet.

Gods

    There are a vast variety of gods, angels, demons, fiends, and other planar creatures in Dungeons and Dragons. There are also conflicting numbers regarding the total number of gods in the universe. While one article gave me a guess of 61, Wikipedia gave me a list of gods that equaled 127. I could do multiple blogs on them and their roles in my world, but for now, I am going to keep it broad because I am focusing on establishing a setting. Many of the gods I have found in the D&D Universe are loosely based on real-world gods.

    With that in mind, I found that many of the gods originated from the territory controlled at the peak of the Roman Empire or its enemies. So it was relatively easy to look at a map of ancient Rome and use that as the base for my crucial location.

The Celestial Empire

Reference Link: https://digitalmapsoftheancientworld.com/digital-maps/provinces-of-the-roman-empire/ 

    The Celestial Empire may be a misleading title, as it implies that the Celestials, not the gods they serve, control this territory. But in my defense, the Celestials in their many forms and their offspring, the Aasimar, spend more time in this empire than the gods themselves do. Also, labeling it the Holy Empire felt a little too close to our real-world counterpart.

    Now there are a couple of differences in the borders that I want to mention. Celtic and Norse Gods are incorporated into the D&D Universe alongside Greek and Egyptian Gods. But as you can see in the map above, they weren't controlled by Rome, or at least not entirely.

Reference Link: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-united-kingdom-countries-and-ireland-political-map-england-scotland-125781183.html

Reference Link: https://wikitravel.org/en/Scandinavia

    Celtic Mythology originates in Ireland and Wales while Norse mythology originates in Scandinavia. With this in mind, the Celestial Empire will incorporate these regions as well. Every pantheon will rule over the region it originated from in the real world.

    But don't expect me to be too original, because Rome is still the capital of the Empire, though I have renamed it to the City of the Gods, a location where every god involved with the Celestial Empire has a temple and a seat of power. This is because it is conveniently centered in the Celestial Empires' territory. Additionally, in my research, I found that the creators of D&D have incorporated an interesting feature into their cosmology.

Planar Pathways

    Planar Pathways are physical pathways that lead from one plane of existence to another. For example, Elemental Vortices are pathways that connect the Prime Material Plane to their associated Elemental Plane. I will be retconning the portal to the Elemental Plane of Air I discussed in my last article to be an Elemental Vortex.

    While there are a few Planar Pathways in the lore, there are two I want to focus on here because I believe they are the most important to the Celestial Empire.

Mount Olympus

Reference Link: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mount_Olympus?file=Mt_Olympus.png 

    Mount Olympus is the most important one I want to discuss for the Celestial Empire. This is because, in my world, it will pass through the City of the Gods in the Prime Material Plane, hence part of the reason that the City of the Gods became the capital of the Celestial Empire. Its peak reaches all the way up into Arborea, with the Greek Gods building their palaces on it. Meanwhile, it has caverns that reach into Carceri, Gehenna, and Hades.

    Olympus is important to a number of mythological and video game stories, so it's important that I incorporate it early on as a vast portion of the Celestial Empire's history will revolve around it.

    I am aware that the River Styx is another Planar Pathway that plays a huge role in Greek Mythology. But in my research, I couldn't find information that links it to the Prime Material Plane. It is part of my world, but it will get covered later when it becomes more relevant.

Yggdrasil

Reference Link: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Yggdrasil?file=Yggdrasil_map-3e.jpg

    Yggdrasil is to Norse Mythology what Mount Olympus is to Greek Mythology. If that is the case, why did I not build a second capital city around where the World Ash connects to the Prime Material Plane? Well, for a couple of reasons.

    For one, the world tree itself doesn't run through the Prime Material Plane like Mount Olympus does. Rather, there is simply a branch that connects to the Prime Material Plane. The trunk does not seem to run through any one plane of existence in the Great Wheel Cosmology.

    Second, while Mount Olympus has a variety of guardians protecting various entrances to other planes, traversing the mountain itself is not described as being particularly difficult. The ground is stable and the caverns act as natural roadways. Yggdrasil is naturally more dangerous. Gravity fluctuates along the branches and the tree itself, with some areas where gravity centers on the trunk and other areas where gravity centers along the natural gravity of the connecting plane of existence. There are no caves or natural roadways, so travelers must climb the tree directly.

    Third, I could no evidence of a city in Scandinavia that was similar to Rome. Now there is probably a variety of real-world reasons for this and I could easily be mistaken, but I am no expert on the subject. That said, when I googled a religious city in Scandinavia, I did learn of the Temple at Uppsala which used to be located in what is now Gamla Uppsala. Apparently, this Temple was a religious center for Norse Religion, though even the article I looked at stated that information on this temple was questionable and it may have been a Christian one instead.

    Finally, the Norse Gods never really seemed to share the same ideals as the Greek ones. While the Greek Gods made themselves kings of the world and demanded worship from humans, the Norse Gods seemed content to let the world do its thing as long as they were free to pursue their own interests. Again, I am no expert, so if I am wrong feel free to let me know in the comments.

    So for the purposes of my worldbuilding, I may put a portal to Yggdrasil in the area where the temple used to exist, but I will not be attempting to build a second capital for the Celestial Empire.