World Tree

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Doesn't look anything like a tree does it?

The World Tree is a cosmology option in Dungeons & Dragons, mostly associated with the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It is fundamentally a reworking of the Great Wheel cosmology.

Planes

Unlike the Great Wheel cosmology, there is no attempt to balance the alignment of the World Tree model, nor are they defined by a set of moral philosophies; the planes are not necessarily situated next to their closely aligning neighbors, nor are they situated across from their diametric opposites if they have one. "Planes" exist more as clusters of deific realms than as self-sustaining dimensions and are organised more according to the deities which inhabit them; what links they have made with each other; and those links can forged and broken as the plot advances.

This has the advantage of making the cosmology quite fluid, where planes can move and shift as deities rise and fall, rather than being locked into an aligning location. Indeed, different depictions of the World Tree model have different numbers of planes on each side of the tree, and in different positions. In the World Tree Cosmology, gods tend to inhabit the realms of their sponsors or allies regardless of their own alignment and can create areas that would otherwise overlap and blend into each other in a Great Wheel (and potentially create friction at the borders) but are kept distinctly separate in the World Tree.

Celestial Planes

• Arvandor: The home of the Seldarine, a scenic forest ported directly out of Arborea and expanded into a plane in its own right.
• Brightwater: A more civilised and refined version of Arvandor. Home to the deities of love and pleasure.
• Dwarfhome: Home of the Dwarven Pantheon (duh)
• Dweomerheart: The mountain home of Mystra. Her servants Azuth, Savras and Velsharoon make their own realms in the caverns beneath it.
• Gates of the Moon: The realm of Selune.
• Golden Hills: Home of the Gnome Pantheon; consists of seven rolling hills.
• Green Fields: Home of the Halfling Pantheon.
• House of Knowledge: Not actually a "house" but a campus of buildings in a forest. The home of the gods of inspiration and learning.
• House of the Triad: The mountain of Celestia directly ported into the Forgotten Realms setting unchanged, complete with the same angels and archons. The only difference is the addition of three lesser mountains circling it, providing the homes of Torm, Tyr and Ilmater (the "Triad") though other gods such as Helm make their home here too.

Fiendish Planes

• Abyss: Unchanged from the Planescape version. An infinite number of layers for infinite demons.
• Baator: Also unchanged, nine realms for the nine Arch-Devils
• Barrens of Doom and Despair: Vast expanses of black sand and jagged obsidian. Home to Bane and other deities of domination.
• Blood Rift: Depicted as the realm between Abyss and Baator, home of the Yugoloths and often gets missed from illustrations as to whether it counts as its own realm since no gods live here. It serves as the primary battlefield of the Blood War.
• Clangor: Home of the Goblin pantheon, a landscape of rusted war machines and abandoned weapons. Mildly positive dominant so soldiers resurrect each day to continue fighting.
• Deep Caverns: analogous to Pandemonium, tends to get missed from descriptions of the fiendish planes who often roll it into the Abyss. Home to the aberrant gods of the Illithids and Beholders as well as other alien deities.
• Demonweb Pits: Home of Lolth. Used to be part of the Abyss until the War of the Spider Queen when she dropped it out and made it into its own realm.
• Fated Depths: Deep oceans of crushing pressure and darkness. Home to the gods of the Sahuagin and Kuo-Toa. Like the Deep Caverns it often gets rolled into the Abyss, although it is not a chaotic realm in itself.
• Fury's Heart: A realm of storms, tsunamis and blizzards. Home to the deities of the destructive side of nature.
• Hammergrim: Home of the Duergar pantheon.
• Nishrek: Home of the Orc pantheon and is an endless field of trenches and fortifications. Like Clangor is also positive dominant for warriors to continue fighting each day.
• Supreme Throne: Home of Cyric and no other, thanks to his enormous ego.

Neutral Planes

• Dragon Eyrie: A single eternal mountain acts as the afterlife for Dragonkin and realm of their gods (including Tiamat, who otherwise resides in Baator). Dragons are still fiercely territorial and don't appreciate humanoids moving in to make settlements.
• Heliopolis: Realm of the Mulhorandi pantheon. Dragged along when they immigrated into Toril.
• House of Nature: A plane mostly unspoiled by civilisation where the petitioners turn into celestial animals over time, similar to the Beastlands. The Guardinals have their origins here instead of Elysium. Despite this is it not a "good" plane, though each deity can impose whatever conditions they like in their respective area.
• Jotunheim: Home of the Giant pantheon, a wildly mixed realm of varying terrains and environments.
• Warrior's Rest: Home to Tempus and the gods of battle. Acts a mix of Ysgard and Limbo in that the terrain shifts and changes all of the time, but can be altered and shaped through force of will. Though petitioners regenerate every night to continue battle there is no inherent positive trait allowing this and it can be revoked if Tempus wills it.

Inner Planes

Fundamentally the same as the Planescape versions, the realms of Fire, Water, Air and Earth, as well as Positive and Negative energy are all represented unchanged.

Transitive Planes

• Astral Plane: While it is similar to the version of the Great Wheel, the fundamental difference in the World Tree version is that the outer planes do not overlap, so it is impossible to accidentally cross the boundaries from one plane into another (like crossing from Arcadia to Mechanus for example.) All planar travel in the World Tree model must utilize the astral plane in some mode or another.
• Ethereal Plane: Coterminous to the Prime Material, exactly the same in virtually all settings.
• Shadow Plane Also Coterminous to the Prime Material, but has the distinction of being the home to the gods of darkness like Shar and Mask. As well as being the origin point for certain villainous races such as the Shades.

Trivia

In real-world mythology, the World Tree is known as Yggdrasil, and was integral to the multiverse of the Norse.