Cosmology

The Material Plane that holds the world of Abeir-Toril is one of many planes of existence. Beyond Toril lie the Elemental Planes, the Positive and Negative Energy planes, and many realms of the deities, demons and devils (collectively called the Outer Planes). The Ethereal and Shadow planes overlap the Material, with the Astral Plane connecting to all of them.

Overview
The planes of existence are different realities with interwoven connections. Except for rare linking points (portals) the planes are in effect seperate universes with each its own set of natural laws and native creatures. The planes break down into a number of types, Material Plane (Also known as the Prime Material Plane, or just Prime), Transitive Planes, Inner Planes, Outer Planes (Neutral, Celestial or Fiendish) and demiplanes.

All the planes fall into different categories of Planar Traits, which desribe what laws govern each plane.

Transitive Planes
These planes have little in common, except for their most common use: getting from one plane to another. A great number of spells that allow travel from one plane to another, briefly sends travelers through one of the Transitive Planes before they reach their destination. The Shadow Plane and Ethereal Plane are most commonly used for travel within the Material Plane with which they're connected, through spells like Shadow Walk. Each plane has a set of unique native inhabitants.

Ethereal Plane
The Ethereal Plane is a misty continuum that coexists with the Material Plane. Individuals within the Ethereal Plane can see into the Material Plane, but not vice versa. It is accessed by spells such as etherealness and ethereal jaunt, as well as various portals scattered through the Realms and the planescape.

Plane of Shadow
The Plane of Shadow is coexistent with the Material Plane, but all colors are drained from the world, everything appearing in gray-tones, and the other senses like hearing, touch and emotion are also dulled when in this eerie plane. The most common way of accessing the plane is through spells and abilities like shadow walk, most often used for covering great distances on the Material Plane undetected and unhindered. Mask and Shar both make their homes within the Shadow Plane.

Astral Plane
The Astral is an open empty plane, it has no directional gravity so travelers are weightless. The few bits of matter scattered throughout the vast plane are mostly portals leading to every plane in the cosmology. Spells like astral projection and gate access the Astral Plane in one form or another. The deity Ulutiu is suspended in a voluntary stasis within the plane, slumbering unaware that Auril is draining his divine powers ever so slowly.

The Inner Planes
Also called the planes of power, these realities are incarnations of the basic buildings blocks of the universe. The planes are the four elemental planes and the positive and negative energy plane. All the planes are very inhospitable to all but the most adopted native creatures of the plane.

The Elemental Planes
The Elemental Planes embody the four basic elements in nature, air, earth, fire and water. The planes are extremely inhospitable except for natives of the plane, such as elementals, genies, mephits and other outsiders. Each Elemental Lord also makes their home in the elemental planes. Several quasi-elemental and demi-elemental planes also exist, sitting at the junctures between the elemental planes such as the Elemental Plane of Cold that lies between the plane of air and water.


 * Akadi rules the Elemental Plane of Air.
 * Grumbar rules the Elemental Plane of Earth.
 * Kossuth rules the Elemental Plane of Fire.
 * Istishia rules the Elemental Plane of Water.

The Energy Planes
The Negative and Positive Energy Planes are no less extreme than their elemental counterparts, and very few beings are native to these planes. No deities make their home in either plane.

The Outer Planes
The home of most of the deities of Toril, these planes are many and varied, most take on the traits of the powers that inhabbit them. They can be divided into three different categories, the Celestial Outer Planes, the Neutral Outer Planes and the Fiendish Outer Planes.

Arvandor
Home plane of the Elven Pantheon and the drow goddess Eilistraee. Hanali Celanil maintains a portal to Sune's realm in Brightwater, and the entire pantheon maintains a portal to the House of Nature. Everan Ilesere maintains a portal to the realm of Hlal in Dragon Eyrie.

Brightwater
Home plane of Lliira, Sharess, Sune, Tymora and Waukeen. Sune maintains a portal from her realm to Hanali Celanil's realm in Arvandor. Sharess also has a small realm on Heliopolis, the home of her native pantheon. Tymora maintains a portal to Green Fields.

Dwarfhome
Home of Moradin and the rest of the dwarven pantheon, except for the duergar and derro deities.

Dweomerheart
Home plane of Azuth and Mystra, as well as their subordinates Savras and Velsharoon. Velsharoon is generally not trusted by the other deities, but they suffer his company, and he suffers theirs to gain protection from Talos.

Gates of the Moon
Home of Selûne, Finder Wyvernspur, and Shaundakul.

Golden Hills
Home of the gnome pantheon, excluding Urdlen (who tunnels beneath Hammergrim). The Golden Hills also connects to the realm of Gond.

Green Fields
Home of the halfling pantheon. Brandobaris has a realm here, but he rarely resides in it, preferring to establish a small, temporary realm wherever he rests. Green Fields has a connection to the realm of Tymora.

House of Knowledge
Home of Deneir, Gond, Milil, and Oghma. Gond maintains a portal to the Golden Hills.

House of the Triad
Home of Helm, Ilmater, Siamorphe, Torm and Tyr. This is the closest thing to a heaven that exists in Toril's cosmology.

Dragon Eyrie
Home of the draconic pantheon. Tiamat maintains a portal to this plane. Hlal maintains a portal to the realm of Erevan Ilesere in Arvandor.

Heliopolis
Home of the Mulhorandi pantheon and Tiamat who maintains a portal to the Dragon Eyrie.

House of Nature
Home of Chauntea, Eldath, Gwaeron Windstrom, Lathander, Lurue, Mielikki, Nobanion, Shiallia, Silvanus, Ubtao and various animal lords and the deities of many nature-oriented creatures (e.g. centaurs). The deities of the plane maintain a portal to Arvandor.

Jotunheim
Home of the giant pantheon.

Warrior's Rest
Home of Garagos (who is hostile to the other deities residing in Warrior's Rest), Red Knight, Tempus, Uthgar (who is distant to all but Tempus) and Valkur.

The Abyss
Home of many demon lords, sages theorize the plane has 666 layers.

The Barrens of Doom and Despair
Home plane of Bane (in isolated location), Beshaba, Hoar, Loviatar, and Talona.

Blood Rift
Home of various evil outsiders.

Clangor
Home of goblinoid and kobold deities.

Deep Caverns
Home of various Underdark deities.

Demonweb Pits
Home of Lolth and the drow pantheon. Eilistraee also has a realm here, but she rarely visits it. The pantheon maintains several portals to the Abyss.

Fated Depths
Home of Sekolah and Blibdoolpoolp.

Fury's Heart
Home of the destructive deities Auril, Malar, Talos, and Umberlee.

Hammergrim
Home of the duergar deities Deep Duerra and Laduguer.

Nine Hells
Also known as Baator, the Nine Hells is home of the nine archdevils and various other devils and evil outsiders. Some of them maintain portals to the realms of Bane, Loviatar, and Talona.

Nishrek
Home of the orc pantheon.

Supreme Throne
Home of Cyric. Before Cyric arrived, this plane was dominated by the Slaad and other creatures of chaos.

Demiplanes
Demiplanes are small planes falling into the 'finite' size category. There are countless demiplanes throughout the universe of Toril, some are built by powerful wizards seeking to aquire a private space for themselves, some naturally evolve into being, yet others are willed into existence by the deities. Cynosure is a form of demiplane.

Sildëyuir
Home of the star, or mithral, elves.

The Fugue Plane
Home of Jergal and Kelemvor.

Cynosure
Cynosure is a small plane located very close—cosmologically speaking—to Toril. It is a plane only accessable to deities, and they can only access it from within their own domains. The plane is considered neutral ground by all the powers of Faerûn, and the plane is used as a meeting ground to settle disputes and decide upon punishments for those deities who upset the Balance (as defined by the guidelines Ao left).

The only way in and out of Cynosure is through the portals leading to each deities realm, and it cannot be accessed by spells that normally allow planar travel, so the plane cannot be used as a way station as Toril can. There can at times be several deities meeting in Cynosure, and yet other times the demi-plane lies empty for extended periods of time.

While portals from Cynosure lead to the realms of the Elemental Lords, none of them have ever been known to appear on the meeting plane.

Faerie
The elves are not natives of Toril. Rather, they first began to emigrate to Faerûn twenty-five millenia ago from the plane of Faerie. The realm of Faerie is a twilight land lush with forests, home to the fey and their Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

Fourth Edition Cosmology
The Spellplague not only affected Toril but significantly altered the very Realms cosmos itself. , The Inner Planes became merged into the Elemental Chaos, the World Tree was destroyed, and the divine realms now drift in the Astral Sea. The following explains the cosmological structure as of 1479 DR, the Year of the Ageless One.

Astral Sea
The Astral Sea, formerly known as the Astral Plane, is a great silvery void that contains the realms of the gods. It is considered the realm of pure thought and creativity. It was once merely a silvery void that contained portals to other realms, but as a result of the Spellplague, the various realms of the gods now drift here. During the upheaval caused by the Spellplague, divine dominions fell, were merged, or disappeared entirely.

Each dominion is a vast but finite space controlled by a greater god, sometimes with other deities sharing it. Lesser divinities known as exarchs, or demigods, also live in each dominion, serving one or more gods.

Arvandor
Arvandor is the home of the elven pantheon and gnome pantheon. Corellon Larethian is the greater god and lives in his palace of Crescent Grove with his wife, the goddess Angharradh. Seven vast and rolling hills covered with golden grass, called the Seven Golden Hills (formerly a separate plain), are also scattered throughout Arvandor. These hills are primarily gnome realms.

Alignment: Neutral good

Primary Residents
 * Corellon (greater god) and his queen, Angharradh (goddess)
 * Corellon’s exarchs Deep Sashelas, Erevan, Fenmarel, Labelas, Shevarash, and Solonor
 * Garl Glittergold (god)
 * Garl’s exarchs Baervan, Baravar, and Callarduran

Banehold
Banehold, formerly known as the Barrens of Doom and Despair, is the home of Bane and his consort Loviatar, who reside in the keep called the Black Bastion. The realm is divided into fiefs held by Bane’s divine vassals under a sky lit by a green light.

The outlying area of Banehold contains ruined citadels and blasted landscape under a red sky broken by black stormclouds. These outlands serve as a warning to the deities that Bane subjugated during the Spellplague. Bane’s servant Tiamat lives here.

Alignment: Neutral evil

Primary Residents
 * Bane (greater god) and his consort, Loviatar (goddess)
 * Bane’s exarchs Abbathor, Fzoul Chembryl, Hoar, Hruggek, and Maglubiyet
 * Tiamat (goddess)

Celestia
Celestia (which now includes the former House of the Triad plane) is an enormous mountain that contains three smaller peaks. The True Court is a city near the top of the mountain, from which Torm rules from his palace called the High Seat. Ilmater’s domain, Martyrdom, is one of Mount Celestia’s lesser peaks.

Alignment: Lawful good

Primary Residents
 * Torm (greater god)
 * Ilmater (god)
 * Bahamut (god)

Cynosure
Cynosure is a neutral meeting place of the gods. It is usually closed and uninhabited. Cynosure is merely a stately meeting chamber full of high pillars and decorated with portraits of gods and goddesses both living and dead.

Deep Wilds
The Deep Wilds is Silvanus’s dominion, a vast expanse of untamed and wild wilderness. It includes every kind of earthly terrain, including a dark and foreboding ocean. There are no buildings in this dominion, although residents are allowing to clothe themselves and use tools. Auril’s Winter Hall, made of only wind and ice, moves slowly across the Deep Wilds, bringing winter where it travels.

Alignment: True neutral

Primary Residents
 * Silvanus (greater god)
 * Silvanus’s exarch Malar
 * Auril (goddess)
 * Mielikki (goddess)
 * Mielikki’s exarch Shiallia
 * Umberlee (goddess)

Demonweb Pits
The Demonweb Pits is Lolth’s domain. It is an immense and dark dominion of woven planar matter, at the center of which sits Lolth’s arachnid-shaped iron fortress.

Alignment: Chaotic evil

Primary Resident
 * Lolth (greater goddess)

Dismal Caverns
The Dismal Caverns, formerly known as the Deep Caverns, is a huge subterranean maze of natural caverns. Its source of light comes from phosphorescent fungi and lava flows. This is Ghaunadaur’s dominion, but other powerful entities also live here, as well as foul and fiendish creatures.

Alignment: Chaotic evil

Primary Resident
 * Ghaunadaur (greater god)

Dwarfhome
Dwarfhome is the dominion of the dwarven deities and their worshipers. Its surface is comprised of mountainous crags teeming with life. The dwarven deities live and work upon and underneath these mountains. At the heart of Dwarfhome is the great hall called Erackinor, the residence of Moradin and his wife Berronar. Within Erackinor is Moradin’s Soul Forge.

Alignment: Lawful good

Primary Residents
 * Moradin (greater god) and his wife, Berronar (goddess)
 * Moradin’s exarchs Clangeddin, Dugmaren, Marthammor, Thard, and Vergadain

Eternal Sun
Eternal Sun is the dominion of Amaunator, Keeper of the Golden Sun. His residence is the Palace of the Four Suns, the central citadel of a golden city which is located amid shining, thriving lands and seas. Waukeen’s Marketplace Eternal surrounds Amaunator’s castle and is a place where business and the laws of trade take precedence.

Alignment: Lawful good

Primary Residents
 * Amaunator (greater god)
 * Amaunator’s exarch Siamorphe
 * Waukeen (goddess)

Fugue Plane
The Fugue Plane is a flat and featureless plane with a ground of silvery mist. A gray metropolis of the dead called the City of Judgment rests sits on the plane, from which stands the transparent Crystal Spire, where Kelemvor and his seneschal, Jergal, judge the dead.

The souls of those who die travel through the Shadowfell to the Fugue Plane to be judged. Souls of strong faith are usually taken from the Fugue to the dominions of their respective deities.

Alignment: True neutral

Primary Residents
 * Kelemvor (greater god)
 * Kelemvor’s exarch Jergal

Gates of the Moon
Gates of the Moon consists of rocky islands that float on and above a silvery sea. The moon waxes and wanes and is often just as visible during the day as it is at night. Natural beauty fills each island, along with various elegant buildings. In the center of this dominion is Selûne’s hall, Argentil. The Infinite Staircase is located in Argentil and has portals to cities in every part of the cosmos, most of which are one-way passages. Surrounding Argentil’s island is Sune’s city of Brightwater (formerly its own plane). Tymora’s realm is the Great Wheel, which is seven earthmotes connected by bridges.

Alignment: Neutral good

Primary Residents
 * Selûne (greater goddess)
 * Sune (greater goddess)
 * Sune’s exarchs Lliira and Sharess
 * Tymora (goddess)

Green Fields
The Green Fields is a place of rest and is made of green hills, rolling plains, and lush river valleys. The Mother’s Garden of Chauntea lies here, where wild food-bearing plants grow. The halfling deities also live here, moving from place to place.

Alignment: Neutral good

Primary Residents
 * Chauntea (greater goddess)
 * Sheela (goddess)
 * Sheela’s exarchs Arvoreen, Brandobaris, and Cyrrollalee

House of Knowledge
The House of Knowledge consists of an ancient and tamed wood of giant oak trees and clear and fresh lakes and springs. A series of buildings throughout the dominion called the Library of All Knowledge is said to contain all the secrets of the universe. The deities who dwell here share the buildings, although Gond prefers a part of the library called Wonderhome.

Alignment: True neutral

Primary Residents
 * Oghma (greater god)
 * Oghma’s exarch Milil
 * Gond (god)

Nine Hells
The Nine Hells is the home of devils. It is ruled by Asmodeus, a former god-turned-archdevil-turned-god-again who resides in Malsheem, the Citadel of Hell. Eight other archdevils rule eight other layers of the dominion as vassals of Asmodeus. A horribly filthy and corrupt river called the River of Blood, or River Styx, flows through the Hells and dumps into the Astral Sea, polluting the surrounding area.

Alignment: Neutral evil

Primary Residents
 * Asmodeus (greater god)
 * The archdevils Baalzebul, Bel, Belial, Dispater, Glasya, Levistus, Mammon, and Mephistopheles

Nishrek
Nishrek is home to the Orc pantheon. It is an otherwise natural setting ravaged by eternal war and twisted to orc ideals. It is like a warped and dark version of Warrior’s Rest. The landscape is comprised of scorching deserts, jagged badlands, and dense and tangled forests, with black seas and rivers. Gruumsh rules over the dominion with his attendants Bahgtru and Obould from the Iron Fortress. Luthic, Gruumsh’s mate, lives in caverns beneath the citadel, and Shargaas and Vaprak have their own holds elsewhere in the dominion.

Alignment: Chaotic evil

Primary Residents
 * Gruumsh (greater god) and his mate, Luthic (goddess)
 * Gruumsh’s exarchs Bahgtru, Obould, Shargaas, and Vaprak.

Supreme Throne
The Supreme Throne is Cyric’s dominion, and it is now serving as his prison for slaying Mystra, which caused the Spellplague. It is a blasted landscape with howling wind, and the only standing structure is Cyric’s crumbling stronghold known as the Shattered Castle. The dominion has been sealed off by the other gods, and none can enter or leave.

Alignment: Chaotic evil

Primary Resident
 * Cyric (greater god)

Towers of Night
Towers of Night is the largest dominion in the Astral Sea. It is a dark wasteland comprised of mountainous regions, deserts of black sand, and malevolent seas, rivers, forests, and bogs. The sky is dark and entirely devoid of stars. The dominion also contains citadels, the largest one being Shar’s circular residence, the Palace of Loss, which rests on the dominion’s tallest peak. Sseth’s City of Serpents lies in the largest forest, the Slithering Jungle, on a black pyramid, and another black pyramid called the Plague Palace of Talona is located in a deadly and disease-ridden swamp. The interloper Zehir, a god of poison, lives near Talona’s palace in an escarpment filled with tunnels that protrudes from the Sea of Poison.

Alignment: Neutral evil

Primary Residents
 * Shar (greater goddess)
 * Sseth (god)
 * Talona (goddess)
 * Zehir (god)

Warrior’s Rest
Warrior’s Rest is the dominion of Tempus. Its landscape is rocky and arid. It also changes unpredictably and quickly recovers from the wars and battles that constantly rage across it. Most of the land is flat, and high mesas dot the plains. The souls of warriors who worshiped Tempus or other human war deities live here, always waging wars. When they are killed, they are rejuvenated again to fight on the side of the team that slew them. Tempus wanders his dominion and moves through halls where victorious groups revel so long as they can hold the grounds. Sometimes, Tempus visits the only granite tower on Blood Tor, where lives his lover Beshaba. He treats the Red Knight as a daughter and sometimes visits her in her Red Tower, as well. The other exarchs of Tempus have their own realms within the dominion.

Alignment: True neutral

Primary Residents
 * Tempus (greater god) and his lover, Beshaba (goddess)
 * Tempus’s exarchs Garagos, the Red Knight, Uthgar, and Valkur

Elemental Chaos
The Elemental Chaos was created as a result of the Spellplague. , All four of the elemental planes and the two energy planes, as well as some other planes such as Jotunheim and a cosmological relative to Abeir, were absorbed into the Chaos. At the bottom of the Elemental Chaos lies the Abyss, home of demons, which was pushed there by Asmodeus once he gained godhood, thus bringing an end to the Blood War. Aside from the demons of the Abyss, the Elemental Chaos is home to the Elemental Lords, the titans (the strongest among them having their own realms), efreets, djinns, and githzerai.