Dark Sun Cosmology

By David Schwartz (with help from the Wizards’ Dark Sun board community)

This document follows the format of

the Manual of the Planes (MotP).
Unless otherwise stated, planes
conform to the information
presented in that book or the DMG
3.5.
Material
(Note: Normal Magic does not imply the
presence of plants: only the Material
Black
plane has native plant life.)
Hollow Mindscapes
Hollow
In its ‘natural’ state, the hollow is
Grey
completely devoid of anything Elemental
existing. Below are the default traits
of the Hollow, and how these can be
altered if something that exists (an
‘object’) is placed in it:

* No Gravity: Objects can exert their Astral

own gravity.
* Normal Time.
* Self-Contained: The Hollow is only as large as the objects within it.
* Static: Objects brought into the Hollow retain their morphic traits.
* No Elemental or Energy Traits: Objects brought into the hollow retain their elemental or energy traits.
* Mildly Neutral-Aligned: Strongly aligned objects may alter the Hollow’s alignment trait.
* Dead Magic: No magic works in the Hollow; psionics are impeded.

Links: Coterminous with the Black.

Inhabitants: No natural inhabitants.

Movement and Combat: Because the Hollow is only as large as its contents, a character in the plane
cannot move away from any other objects in the plane.

Features: Nothing normally. Currently, the spirit of Rajaat.

Black
The Black is roughly equivalent to the Plane of Shadows. It can only be accessed through shadows.
The Black has the following traits:
* Normal Gravity.
* Normal Time.
* Infinite Size.
* Magically Morphic.
* No Elemental or Energy Traits: However, the Black is always extremely cold (below 0 [degrees] F).
* Mildly Neutral-Aligned.
* Enhanced magic: Spells with the shadow descriptor are enhanced as if by the Maximize Spell feat. Furthermore,
specific spells become more powerful in the Black. Shadow conjuration and shadow evocation spells are 30% as
powerful as the conjurations and evocations they mimic (as opposed to 20%). Greater shadow conjuration and
greater shadow evocation are 70% as powerful (not 60%), and a shades spell conjures at 90% of the power of the
original (not 80%).
* Impeded magic: Spells with the light or fire descriptor are impeded. Spells that produce light are less effective in
general, because all light sources have their ranges halved in the Black. Spells that produce, use, or manipulate
darkness are unaffected by the plane.

Links: Coexists with the Material. Coterminous with the Hollow. Spells with the shadow descriptor draw
on the Black.

Inhabitants: Shadow giants, psi-shadows, (undead) shadows, and creatures with the black-touched
and shadow templates. (For creatures from other sources, any creature normally native to the Plane
of Shadows instead comes from the Black.)

Movement and Combat: As the Plane of Shadow in the MotP.

Features: As of Free Year 11, Andropinis is trapped within the Black. Also, Tithian’s body is somewhere
in the Black, although his spirit is trapped in the Cerulean Storm.

Material
Athas is the center of the Material plane.

The Material plane has the following traits:

* Normal Gravity.
* Normal Time.
* Infinite Size: In theory.
* Alterable Morphic.
* No Elemental or Energy Traits: Specific localities may have these traits.
* Mildly Neutral-Aligned.
* Normal Magic.

Links: Coexists with the Black and the Grey. Vortices link directly from the Material to Elemental
planes (A vortex occurs where one element exists in abundance on Athas).
Grey
The Grey is roughly equivalent to the Ethereal Plane.

The Grey has the following traits:

* No Gravity.
* Normal Time.
* Infinite Size: A traveler is unlikely to see anything he is not actively looking for.
* Alterable Morphic: There is little on this plane to alter however.
* No Elemental or Energy Traits: A character who is phased between the Grey and another plane does not suffer
the effects of elemental or energy traits on the other plane.
* Mildly Neutral-Aligned
* Normal Magic.

Links: Coexists with the Material and Elemental planes. Coterminous with the Astral plane (there are
no natural links, however). Mindscapes exists as coterminous planes existing entirely within the Grey.
Ethereal effects, teleportation effects, and those that channel positive or negative energy, all draw on
the Grey. Force effects and some abjuration effects on coexistent planes can affect phased creature.
Effects that normally create extradimensional spaces instead open portals to the Grey (objects
placed in these portals float in the Grey until retrieved).

Inhabitants: Wraiths (and other undead) dwell in the Grey as long as their will prevents them from
dissolving back into the medium of the plane.

Movement and Combat: A character in the Grey is either phased between the Grey and another
coexistent plane or fully in the Grey. A character who is phased, is equivalent to being in the Border
Ethereal. A character who is fully in the Grey is equivalent to being in the Deep Ethereal. It takes 1d10
minutes to step ‘sideways’ from phased to fully in the plane, or vice versa. Although the Grey has no
‘color curtains’, a character must ‘travel’ for 1d10x10 hours to reach another coexistent plane (plus 1d10
minutes to phase with that plane). A character seeking a specific object (including mindscapes) must
‘travel’ 1d10x100 hours. Because space has little meaning in the Grey, the ‘traveler’ may believe the
object is coming to him (he may even be right).

Features: Save for mindscapes and ‘extradimensional’ objects, the Grey is featureless.

Mindscapes
A Mindscape is the psychic construct that links the mind of an individual to his body. Mindscapes are
normally unseen, except during psychic combat. Each mindscape appears as a location of importance
to it’s ‘owner’.

All mindscapes have the following traits:

* Normal Gravity: Relative to its form.
* Normal Time.
* Finite Size.
* Psionically Morphic.
* No Elemental or Energy Traits.
* Mildly Aligned: To the ‘owner’s’ alignment.
* Normal Magic.

Links: Mindscapes have hard borders with the Grey, visible from both sides. Travel between the two
planes is simply a matter of moving into or out of the limits of the mindscape. For example, Sadira’s
mindscape is a vision of the Pristine Tower. If she leaves the staircase, she moves into the Grey. Psionic
powers that utilize ectoplasm (such as astral construct spells) draw form and substance from the
manifester’s own mindscape.

Inhabitants: None. An individual brought into the Grey spiritually appears in his or her mindscape in
astral form (although without a silver cord). If the astral form leaves the limits of the mindscape, the
character must make a Will save (DC 20) each round or dissolve, killing both mind and body.

Movement and Combat: Normal for the virtual location.

Elemental
The Elemental planes are 8 (or 9) contiguous planes, although some philosophers argue that it is in
fact a single plane with 8 (or 9) layers. Each plane (or layer) is described below.

All elemental planes have the following traits:

* Normal Gravity.
* Normal Time.
* Infinite Size.
* Alterable Morphic.
* No Energy Traits.
* Mildly Neutral-Aligned.
* Normal Magic.

Also each plane has it’s own:

* Elemental Traits.
* Favor: Each elemental plane grants to anyone on that plane immunity to some aspect of that plane’s element.

Links: All elemental planes coexist with the Grey. Adjacent elemental planes are coterminous with soft,
shifting borders (see below). Vortices link directly from the Material to Elemental planes (a vortex
occurs where one element exists in abundance on Athas). Spells with the calling or summoning
descriptor often draw on the Elemental planes.

Inhabitants: Elementals, creatures with an elemental template, mephits, genies, drakes. Some other
outsiders with elemental subtypes also reside on these planes.

Movement and Combat: Distance is deceptive on the Elemental planes; travel in and between the
planes takes time as per the Astral Plane. However, if the characters are not being guided by an
elemental, native outsider, cleric, or druid, travel time is doubled.

Going clockwise from the ‘topmost’ plane:

Sun
This plane is a vast endless green sky dominated by a huge crimson sun. No wind disturbs it. There are
clouds (which are unmoving and support weight), but the light is ever present and shadows are faint at
best.
* Air-Dominant: no wind.
* Favor: Immunity to fire and blindness effects.
* Limited Magic: Spells with the darkness descriptor are automatically countered.

Border: Sun and Fire

The plane of Sun is considered the highest plane because one must go down to reach either of the two
adjoining planes (a character who falls with no plane in mind, has an equal chance of arriving in the
planes of Air or Fire). As one nears the plane of Fire, the air becomes smoky. To travel from Fire to
Sun, one must fly upwards.

Fire
The plane of Fire is labyrinthine, with large sheets of solid flame jutting in the air like burning rocky
badlands. The crimson sun sits unmoving above about the size that it appears on Athas.
* Fire-Dominant.
* Favor: Immunity to fire.

Border: Fire and Magma

Eventually, flaming spires turn to shafts of volcanic rock. Rivers of lava often flow between these.

Magma
This plane is an endless volcanic waste. Every sort of volcanic feature can be found here from rivers of
lava to obsidian wastes. The surface tends to be more liquid (hotter) towards the plane of Fire and
more solid (cooler) towards the plane of Earth.
* Fire-Dominant: Also Earth-Dominant below the surface.
*Favor: Immunity to fire and poison gas.

Border: Magma and Earth

Eventually, the magma cools entirely and, after a short distance, a vertical cliff drops into the plane of
earth. From the earth side this resembles the Jagged Cliffs (without the swamp at the bottom),
although caves can be found that lead up into the subterranean of the plane of Magma.

Earth
This plane most resembles the Material plane. It consists of an interminable desert with various sorts of
flat terrain. The sun is much smaller than on Athas, and ‘clouds’ made of stone float in the sky.
* No Elemental Traits above the surface; Earth-Dominant below the surface.
* Favor: Immunity to damage from falling, crushing, and earth-based spells (but not other effects, such
as being pinned).
Border: Earth and Silt
Perhaps the easiest border to cross, the desert slopes gently to a beach, and a sea of silt continues.
There is a coastal shelf, allowing silt skimmers to be driven along the coast, but not into the plane of
Silt itself.

Silt
On this plane one could believe oneself in the middle of the sea of silt. This is considered the lowest
plane; when not obscured by silt storms the sun is a mere pinprick in the sky. There are barren, rocky
islands towards the plane of earth, and mud flats towards the plane of water, otherwise, a traveler to
this plane must levitate or fly over the silt.
* No Elemental Traits above the surface; Silt-Dominant (treat as Water-Dominant) below the surface.
* Favor: Immunity to drowning (a character can hold his breath indefinitely). Additionally, a character
wholly submerged in silt (not on the surface) can swim as if it were water (although he is effectively
blind and deaf).

Border: Silt and Water

The border between silt and water is distinct enough that some consider it a separate plane. Where the
water and silt meet, a huge stretch of mud flat has formed. The strip is relatively thin; at some points
you can see both adjacent planes.

* No Element Traits above the surface; Earth-Dominant below the surface (always treat as soil).
* Favor: Immunity to acid.

Inhabitants: The main inhabitants of the plane of mud are the mud people, a mysterious elemental
race. They labor constantly, building and repairing huge castles. Since they build these of the native
material, the structures continually melt and slough. What makes this scene more pitiful is that the
masters for whom the mud people toil no longer exist.

Water
The plane of water resembles much of Athas during the Blue Age. It is an endless sea broken up only
by the occasional island of foreign elements. The sun is very tiny in a sky that is bluer than that of
Athas. The water varies in quality, but tends to be briny towards the plane of Silt and fresh towards
the plane of Rain.
* No Elemental Traits above the surface; Water-Dominant below the surface.
* Favor: Immunity to drowning (a character can hold his breath indefinitely). Fire-based creatures do
not take damage from immersion (but fire-based spells are still impeded).

Border: Water and Rain

The border region is a vast muddy shoreline, broken occasionally by rivers that spill from the plane of
Rain into the plane of Water. The sky is overcast, and occasional storms intrude into the plane of
water.
Rain
This plane exists between a muddy floor, and a sky of unbroken storm clouds. The rain is constant,
and at times becomes sleet or hail. With the sun obscured, most light comes from random bolts of
lightning.
*No Elemental Traits: However, the environment is always in a storm condition of one sort or another.
* Favor: Immunity to cold and electricity.

Border: Rain and Air

The storm that is the roof of the plane of Rain is the floor of the plane of Air. To travel from Rain to
Air one need only fly up into the storm. To go from Air to Rain is a simple matter of falling.

Air
This plane is green sky as far as the eye can see. Random winds move about the clouds (which support
weight). Above, the sun hangs at constant noon (and is about the size that it appears on Athas);
below lies a carpet of dark cloud. To get around one must fly or fall.
* Air-Dominant: always windy.
* Favor: Immunity to damage from falling, high winds, and air-based attacks (but not other effects,
such as being blown away).

Border: Air and Sun

As one approaches the plane of Sun the wind drops off and the light grows brighter. For flying
creatures, travel between these two planes is easy, otherwise it’s a one-way trip (from Sun to Air, and
eventually Rain).

Astral
This plane is as described in the MotP (there are no ‘dead gods’).

The Astral plane has the following traits:

* No Gravity.
* Timeless: With regard to age, hunger, thirst, poison, and natural healing.
* Infinite Size.
* Alterable Morphic.
* No Elemental or Energy Traits.
* Mildy Neutral-Aligned.
* Enhanced Magic: All spells can be cast as if enhanced by the Quicken Spell feat.

Links: Coterminous with the Grey. There are no natural links to (or through) the Grey. Whether by
accident or purpose, the Astral Plane is sealed from the rest of the multiverse. On rare occasions,
‘cracks’ have appeared in the Astral allowing extradimensional creatures to enter (such as the
githyanki and the psurlon).

Inhabitants: The Astral has no native inhabitants, although the githyanki and the psurlon both make it
their homes.
New layout and acrobat reader (pdf) adaptation
In 2004 by Sébastien Gamache
ds3[at]siltskimmer.net