World Axis Cosmology

Port Shimmerly    The Rest of the World      World Axis Cosmology

The Port Shimmerly canon of planar cosmology.
For players who might be reading: All of this is in Kwalith’s Guide to Spelljamming in A New Astral Age, and while I didn't explain the World Axis with as much detail in game, feel free to use this page as a reference.

Phases of Reality

Psychic Realms

Home of dieties, celestials, and some Gith. In addition to portals to Deific Dominions, it is relatively easy to open portals to the Transitional Realms, especially Limbo.

The Astral Sea
A nebulous space with portals to other psychic realms, some permanent, others transitory. Also serves as a de facto Graveyard of Gods.

Deific Dominions

Arvandor

The House of Knowledge

Pantheons often share planes accesible through the Astral Sea, such as the Seldarine in Arvandor. They generally have their own dominions within these planes.
New dominions can be created through force of will and magical energy, be it from powerful individuals or large groups of dedicated followers.


Other Planes

Tu’narath

A demi-plane which contains the city of Githyanki.

Transitional Realms

The Transitional Realms act as a "plug" separating direct contact between the Psychic and Elemental Realms. Planeswalking can only occur from one "layer" or "realm" of reality to the one directly above or below. This prevents outright warfare between celestial and fiendish adversaries, and is also the primary reason fiends are so interested in the Material Plane; they must pass through the Transitional Realms before getting to the Psychic ones, and there are safeguards in place to prevent elementals and fiends from ascending into the Psychic Realms.

Limbo
The "above"; sits between the Material Plane and the Astral Sea. Mortal souls exiting the Material Plane must pass through Limbo (after passing through The Shadowfell & Ethereal Plane) in order to be judged and sorted into their respective afterlives. Exceptions are made for those whose souls have been claimed by fiends.
A small population of Githzerai is settled permanently in Limbo.

The Material Plane
Emcompassing the Prime Material Plane and its echoes.
The Prime Material Plane
Exactly what it sounds like.
The Shadowfell
The "negative plane"
The Ethereal Plane

The Feywild
The "below"; sits between the Material Plane and the Elemental Chaos

Elemental Realms

The Elemental Chaos

A storm of elemental energy that contains all of the previously separated Elemental Planes and their respective locations (at least the ones that were not destroyed during the fallout from the Spellplague). The Elemental Chaos is vaguely separated into phases, with opposite elements as far as they can be from each other, and a gradation of elemental energy throughout. The storm is roughly a flat plane. At the center of the Elemental Chaos sits the Eye of Chaos and Order, from which the fiendish realms jut out of the "sides".

The Eye of Chaos & Order

Formed due to the direct opposition of the lawful Archdevils in the Nine Hells and the chaotic plane of the Abyss. The two planes are connected at their smallest points and jut "out" of the storm of the Elemental Chaos on opposite "sides". Because of their orientation, neither plane is "closer" to the Transitional Realms (although some individual sections of each plane are).