Good Lord I thought it said I’m resigning the D&D planes and this was a quitting video.

One approach you could take with the fiends is to set aside the dnd tradition and go for the classical seven deadly sins, with each being an alignment. For exemple. Wrath and Gluttony are chaotic, they crave destruction and to feast upon all. Greed and Pride are lawful, they seek power and riches but have a way of going about it; they won't lower themselves, they won't break their word. Lust, Sloth and Envy are neutral, chaos is too destructive and laws are too restrictive, they adapt as needed or just won't bother playing the game; a succubus may need to act submissive to seduce some, and be domineering to seduce others. Of course, you could switch these around: Greed in its pursuits is destructive and wild; Wrath is a regimented army with strict command hierarchies. For the sake of symmetry you could add 2 more Sins, so each alignment gets 3 rings each. Also, in both western and eastern sources, fiends organize themselves into generals, marquis, dukes, archdukes, princes, etc. Which would give you plenty of opportunities to create many powerful fiends, each with their own schemes and mortal cults. So basically, each Sin has their Prince and each prince has a legion of high ranking fiends at their command. Then each Sin has a number of fiend species associated with it and maybe each sin has a theme to it, as well. Sloth fiends, for exemple, tend to act through dreams and nightmares. Wrath fiends have traits associated with weapons. And so on.

That myth of the elder god going through all those forms beast on what he believed to be the strongest only to end up used by a the poter he saw as week is not only a lot like an actual old myth but also extremely though provoking 👍

Never thought I’d like to hear more tales of the pantheons of yours. Yet I’m left wanting more.

15:28 Now, this is a story that feels old school, where the diety/spirit is clearly powerful but wants to truly teach their student to have an emotional understanding and not just to instruct. Almost like the sword of damocles but much kinder and more patient Is this the same setting you want your large-scale campaign to take place?

Great work. I'd trust you more with the actual D&D than 95% of the people currently in charge of it.

That’s a really nice cosmological map and some fantastic lore to go with it! I’d definitely love to see more videos in this style too, very inspirational.

Please do more videos like this. I've attempted to make my own settings several times, and it always ended up getting scrapped because it felt flat and generic. I want to make my own setup, whether it's just a setting or an entirely separate RPG system, that's fun to campaign in but still holds to the RPG's initial purpose: to provide a challenging sandbox in which DMs and players can create their own stories. Having videos where a great writer explains the thought processes behind his best works would be really helpful and inspiring. It's almost like a writer finding some manuscripts of Tolkein explaining his intentions and reasoning behind Middle Earth.

I want to both play and dm games in this world. I want to play for sure, but I’ve been more and more disenchanted with faerun, mostly due to saturation, and thus want to lead my home game friends into tales of the Bazagonian empire, the legends of Domus Draconum, Keepers of the Silver Flame, and the many more surely to be born in this realm of adventure.

Your work and story telling is fantastic Esper!

Simply awe inspiring. The passion you have for the creative process shines through. Thank you so much for sharing your imagination and creative process with us. You are a blessing!

Now, that's worlbuilding, damn. It feels good because it feels human, it touches human themes and therefore constitutes an organic mythology. Also, I enjoy your prose very much, it's clean and simple, yet evocative and effective and works in favour of the myth (working simplicity surely is one of the most difficult assets a writer can achieve). Thank you this channel, it's a gust of clean and fresh air. Eu sei que você fala português, então você entende espanhol: ¡Saludos desde Argentina!

My mind is absolutely blown by the fabulous lore you’ve crafted for your world!!

This sounds like a book in the making. A book that I will purchase. So mote it be.

Esper out here moving everything in his campaign to the epic level!

This was badass as hell. Awesome job. Hope to see more world building and lore stuff like this

I absolutely loved the story at the end. You are truly a wonderful bard, for your tales captivate me every time

My friend sent me this video as a suggestion to help me work on building my own world, but I became distracted by watching you go to town with all those brushes

Thank you for making this. It has given me much to think about in my own world building.

Really enjoyed this video, love hearing your thoughts on world building

Ever since I stumbled upon your channel, you have been one of, if not the, biggest influence for me as a DM. The way you talk about the game is something that has always resonated with me. Thank you for this series.

This has been more helpful in defining my own world than a lot of videos dedicated to worldbuilding I've watched. Adding it to my lore Playlist, subbed to the channel, and checking out your channel for more. Look forward to more videos from you!

I love lore videos like these that discuss the core underpinnings of a setting. You have an awesome presentation style too, and the art is amazing!

You just draw me in with your tone and story telling. If you (re)make this setting, will you make it available for purchase?

Amazing story! Please make more of these, as they’re very nice to listen to while I’m going about my day.

Dude your drawing skills are sick!!!! great job. Also I love listening to your bardic knowledge , keep this serious up !

This is beautiful! Maybe in your hell realm, there could be endless dimensions (to replace the layers of the abyss), where demons and devils exist separately (and sometimes collide). Like a never ending nightmare, there is no limit to this plane. In that way, you could fit all the "nine hells" and "abyss" alike into it and a ton more on top.

I think the demon (chaotic evil fiends spawning from chaos & trying to destroy the Universe) & devil (lawful evil fiends corrupted angles who fight the demons now who want to control the Universe) is one of the most original & coolest part of D&D lore. Devils fit the corrupted angle & tricktsy contractor deal makers & torture souls whereas Demons are just horrific alien abominations trying to corrupt & kill everything, almost like Cuthullu outer entities invading the world

Oh wow I Really liked that story. Its nice to see the advice you give in practice rather than abstract

"From The Ether... and it's legions... of souls." A breath bellows out smoke. "To the Salamanders,... Slyphs, Pygmies,... and Undines... bound to the elements... of their birth." The labor of the inhalations intensifies. "Fiends fear their... devilish, Demon Lords. And the light... of Stars bare witness." The robed figure groans. He clasp his own arm. A worn, wooden pipe dropped. Shadows gather around him. A slow clapping beat to the heart... "And the faceless Horrors eagerly awaits," The feminine, young man approaches. He bows to the dying, old poet. "Sorry, old friend. This will be our last. Alas, I will miss your tales. Do not worry. For neither Brimstone or sickly mass await you." The body dies. And the youth begins his work. Slicing off the face and hands of the carcass. "Sadly, this is the only use I have of you left..."

I find this so fasinating that i am also creating a single universe story much like this, for my dnd campaign and books im writing. I love how artful youve created the passages of beings speaking to each other. I love it❤

I use a different system, but the setting is very similar to D&D when it comes to how planes are presented. The campaign is set in a plane that is basically the backrooms, so I've been looking for a way to better fit the other planes in the "liminal space" aesthetic. You gave me some very good ideas on how to redesign the planes, so thanks!

So I created a setting for my own campaign that is in some ways similar to yours, but here are a few key ideas that I built around: 1. Humans are what we are ultimately interested in, in TTRPGs we are exploring the stories of characters that are some spin on humanity. So humanity and the material plane has to be central not just in location, but in purpose and cosmology. 2. In order to make humans central, the other planes should derive themselves from humanity in some way. For this I built up the idea of ether, which is produced as a byproduct of mortals living their lives. All souls have a finite amount, and when it runs out, they naturally die of old age. This ether is coloured by the beliefs, actions and experiences of the mortals producing it. It builds up in the ethereal plane before leaking out into the astral sea, and segregating into each of its distinct colours, which represent different ideals and domains. The outer planes are thus indirectly created and fed by mortals. 3. Sufficiently powerful mortals can embody one of these domains, and assume authority over it, becoming a god. They are fed by it, and therefore have an incentive to try and strengthen it by influencing mortalkind. But they also want to fend off competition, because there are a finite number of domains capable of supporting a god. 4. To me, good and evil are subjective. In a world where the gods are the product of mortal thoughts, their ideas of right and wrong are simply playing to the crowd, feeding their preconceived ideas. However order and chaos seem quite real. Our world IRL is highly ordered, but entropy is inevitable. Things will eventually trend towards chaos. So the big players in this setting are the god of order, who leads the pantheon, and the primordial embodiment of chaos, who will inevitably consume everything. The role of the god of order is to keep the world running as long as possible, to hold back the inevitable.

It's a real pleasure to hear the details of your cosmology and your design/narrative rationales.

Beyond the fantastic and inspiring art, that tale at the end gave me the feeling of hearing an old myth, it made the world feel real. I'll be using it as frame of reference for tales in my own world.

I'm really excited to hear more about your ideas and how creative you are with your world and lore! I was just gonna open this video to remind myself to watch it in full later, but I just felt the need to comment about the name of your world Ichoria which is pretty cool but I can't help but wonder if perhaps the name change has to do with the MTG setting Ikoria that is relatively new and I was excited about when it was coming out which I totally understand as a valid reason to come up with something else just kinda funny haha

I truly enjoy world building. I have spent decades at this point making dozens of worlds and have modified and expanded some of them several times over. Your take is a wonderful spin, and I look forward to hearing more about it.

Bro, that art is amazing!

This looks fantastic! Made me think about my own homebrew setting.

I so love your channel and was thrilled to see you pop back into my feed.

So friggin cool. I've been trying to do something similar for my own world but having tons of trouble coming up with a good layout. This has given me some good inspiration!!

This is pure gold Esper.

The way I've gone about remaking the planes is having them be layered and bleeding through the planes below. Outermost would be the Astral Plane, made of the essence of existence; then the Elemental Planes, which provide form to existence; then the Outer Planes, which provide an intent for that form to carry out; and finally the Material Plane, which is one of potentially infinite whirlpools in the Great Sea of the planes above, which provides consciousness (either free will or the deterministic turmoil or the Great Sea, that's for the philosophers to figure out).

Esper, to me this video and redesign of intelligence are crystallized monument of creativity that shines and give a great inspiration. You are truly the Bard. 😎 My thanks for your Song of Rest. Best regards and bless to realize all needed wishes in peace and harmony.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about this lore!

I’ve followed you for a long time and god damn I love every vid. I like the way you approach things

Doing development work for an fantasy RPG at moment so your thoughts, especially about Shadow and Fey, were very helpful. Right now my focus is more on the mechanical in cleaning up the mess of the many editions of DnD that makes constant themeing hard for what comes from various planes to the material plane. Starting with lore of an Elemental Chaos that spawned the elemental planes that then crossed over into varietys of para, quasi and unique sub elemental derivitives before creating the material plane. Primoridals, true elemental powers, started creating life and dominated them finding the faith empowered them, becoming the first gods. Oppressed, the living eventually beleived in thier heroes and saints who became the second generation of Gods that rose up to oppose the Elder Gods, casting them down into the depths of the Abysal Pits. Crafting Heaven as home and afterlife for leading the living, some of the new Gods came into conflict, those turning from Heaven creating the realm of Hell to rule, taking thier Fallen Angel followers and the souls of the living lured into evil. Less defended, the demons of the Abyss would raid the Hells and in time the prisoners taken bred with the Fallen Angels to create the Devils. This set up clarifies that Devils as creatures are about souls and sin, while demons are servants of Elder Evils and destruction, as well as integrates into a pantheon system for various cultures of the world allowing evil gods to be integrated into beleifs even if it is just worship to avoid thier interfeerance. More neutral or chaotic gods may be operating out of demi plans of thier own creation allowing the integration of Limbo and more thematic planes as case by case, or be of the original Primordials in the elemental planes. The links between of the these planes would be handled by three layers of the Di-March, Shadowlands, and Space. Di-March is a plane crossed by the souls of the dead to reach Heaven, or other relevant plan. It contains elements of the Feywild and Plane of Dreams and has border realms, combining elements of the plane with the plane it meets, so near the Material Plane it is a dream like mirror realm. The Shadowlands is counterpart to the Di-March where evil souls march to Hell, but is filled with more undead, nightmares, and has its own border lands to Planes it touches. Space is present in part cause I like Spelljammer but more important to this game allows the study of Astronomy as a multiplanner procession, fundamental to understanding magics especially Teleport. The heavenly bodies from stars, constellations, bodies, comets or nebula may be other worlds, planes or entities. Thanks for your inspiration and you set the bar on where I fully write up some lore.

I really really enjoyed this. Thank you.

I’d love to hear more about this setting

Interesting video. I'm busy working on my own world (with many, though not all, of the same considerations you had) and there are several very interesting questions that pop up when doing so. I'm interested to see how you're going to handle those. Definitely looking forward to more videos about this. I really like your interpertation of the Ethereal Plane by the way. It's extremely sparse in D&D and I've actually opted to not use it at all, but I like the idea of it being a shield around the inner planes that protects it from too powerful an intereference. One question I do have about your cosmology (or indeed, any cosmology): why is everybody interested in the material plane? The material plane is, for all effects and purposes, finite (if it were infinite, or even just really really big, why do interesting things happen on that particular world), while the outer planes are typically considered infinite. There are not many natural reasons why an infinity would care about anything finite sized. And if this reason is actually defined (say, souls), then how did this reason come to be? Not a question that really needs to be answered in order for a setting to be playable, but I am curious nontheless.

There’s no light without darkness. If it can’t get really dark, it can’t get really bright and profound either.

Love the story about the void learning about the elemental cycle

This, dear Esper, was absolutely stunning. Fantastic! (edit: damn auto-correct... name fixed)

If the DnD planes would be like a construct between the membrane of dimensions and the phlogiston is a stabilization and construction material it would be interesting. Similar to abyssal deadspace from EVE Online.

Perhaps for the hell area don differentiating devils and demons is that demons are the manifestations of evil souls in that afterlife, while devils are the native/divine denizens of it But seriously, I do love this worldbuilding, amazingly cryptic yet straightforward

Truly beautiful

"this is a serious setting" there is no better invitation for humor

Consider: the ethereal plane is a barrier to the prime material plane established after a great cosmological war that created Icoria (sp?). The outer plane beings that fought understood (then) that to avoid mutual destruction, the prime material plane would be wrapped in the ethereal matter of the deceased entities (let’s call them gods for ease of reference), separating the outer plane from the prime material plane and preventing the gods from returning but souls and spirits could pass to them. Thus, a once cataclysmic event was avoided by this arrangement. But, the barrier is by its namesake, fragile, and there are those who believe that the outcome to such conflict can be different this time…

I Changed the Planes for my D&D World too

Thanks for these Idea’s I’m totally going to steal them

I don't own and D&D books but I have decided to get one of yours. Then use it for pathfinder 2

I would love to see you stream a campaign or one shot in this setting!

I don't know if I enjoyed a great art video with fantasy lore narration in the background, or the other way around... Great work in both!

Something I've kinda written for my own setting on a universal scale. First comes the material world, with Wild Space beyond that Then comes the inner planes, the echo planes, elemental planes, ethereal. Etc. All contained within a Terrestrial Sphere (imagine the crystal sphere from spelljammer. Then comes the Outer Planes, your heavens, hells, all intrinsically linked to their respective Terrestrial Sphere. Basically each Material Plane has its own version of Heaven/Hell. Beyond that is the Astral Sea, and Outer planes that span the larger cosmos. And all of that contained in an Astral Sphere. Within the Astral Sphere is many material planes, many Outer planes, but one Overgod watching over it all Beyond that is the Deep Astral, a veritable sea of Astral Spheres, the larger Multiverse. Each Sphere containing the cosmology as every DM sees it. And finally further Beyond that is the Far Realms, the point where Reality ends and the eldritch unreality begins.

Love it. More please

The origin for the overseers has to he one of the coolest divine origins I think I’ve heard in a while.

5:47 "I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel" I see what you did there. 😏

Awesome storytelling!

0:25 this guy trying to reinvent the great wheel of outer planes: “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel”

This was very cool video,it feels more coherent then the mess D&D has for the planes.I want to see more videos like this.

Nice. I also went with Dreams for my fae/shadow planes. It'll be good to see how this develops. Your explanation of the elemental planes gave me big Platonic Forms vibes. And ofc the Outer Darkness is great. Something I've not seen much of is a God of darkness/void that is good, even though this largely describes Yahveh.

Ladies and gentlemen it's up it's going through the uprights and it's good!!!

So cool! Both the art and the lore. My own world is quite the opposite, with gods becoming more numerous and active over time, shaped by or sourced from the mortal races.

Yeah this is awesome!!😊

Outstanding story.

Good stuff, I did a more reinvent the wheel approach with redesigning the outer planes. For me the planes are like a ripple in a pond. The planes are levels of abstraction from the one prior.

Your worldbuilding is simply amazing, and the way you told the story was extremely captivating. May I take some inspiration from your worldbuilding? Of course I am not going to copy it. Just the technical structure of the planes is very close to what I wanted to make myself. I wanted to play a TTRPG with friends for a long time and I'm currently trying to make one from scratch.

I've been toying with the idea of a bubble-network-style cosmology. The material is the center, and anchor, there's a network of invisible leylines spanning the globe, and wherever they meet is a 'nexus'. When a nexus is polluted or influenced heavily by strong emotional overload (plague, war, religious fervor) or strong elemental effects (volcano, tsunami, dragon lair) it forms a bubble or a cyst, within which is an extradimensional space that becomes a pocket plane. There is no one hell or one plane of fire, there's dozens and they're all regional.

There's a version I like thats the world tree based (instead of wheel based). The elements are all around. The tree emerges from the elements. Earth underneath, providing to the roots. Water falling from the heavens. Fire, burning one side of the tree from hell. And Air, giving life to the tree. The roots are Hell (Hades, Abyss, etc.), where fire and earth meet. The leaves are Heaven (Ysgard, Celestia). Above it all. In the middle, a knot on the tree which is the Material Plane The shadowrealm is a branch from this knot, where Fire and Air meet to fill it with smoke. The Feywild or Faerie realm is the other opposite branch, where earth and water provide an abundance. The clashing of the planes together gives magic to the material plane. Air + Earth form the sands of time, flowing through the centered material plane as all mortals feel it linearly. Fire and water meet in a clash of lightning, giving leylines and imbuing magic in the earth as wizards and sorcerers claim this magic. Outside of this all, the Astral plane. I am just not an artist so can't illustrate... I saw an image once that was close, something like "world tree by orc shamans"

In my D&D-style universe, a Devil is a fallen/corrupted Angel/Celestial; which is why they retain their Lawful nature. In contrast, I drew upon FromSoft's Dark Souls & Demon's Souls universes for my concept of Demons, where a Demon (the Dark in Dark Souls) is the "true nature" of humanity/mortals. Devils use souls as a currency (drawing upon the concept of the Soul Coin and souls as energy to be utilized), but Demons seek to consume and essentially erase souls in order to grow in power. This erasure of souls is anethema to the current order of the universe that recycles souls back into the mortal/material realm. The Gods use this cycle of souls; the birth, life, death, and reincarnation of mortals; to enrich themselves and grow in power. Gods become more powerful the more they are revered and worshiped by mortals; essentially, the more the souls of the mortal realm align themselves with an individual God (this draws upon the concept of frequency and universal harmony)

i enjoyed the lore i want more vids like this

Nice lore good food for thought

Hope you publish a setting guide for this. I’m very intrigued as you echo many of my own thoughts on D&D settings.

Impressive. Very nice.

I like what you did here, especially how you have it where Heaven and Hell are the two main destinations for departed mortal souls. I think D&D has too many Outer Planes and I would simplify it to just these two. But as you said, there can be different layers within each. All of the good aligned planes like Celestia, Elysium, etc. would collectively be called "Heaven" or "the Heavens." Each good soul will find themselves in their ideal version of Heaven, whichever it may be. Likewise, all of the evil aligned planes like the Nine Hells, the Abyss, etc. would collectively be called "Hell" or "the Outer Darkness." I would also combine it with the Far Realm as I would make the Lovecraftian monsters the same as demons, which represent that primordial chaos, darkness, and evil. Taking a page from the Bible and Paradise Lost, when the renegade angels were cast out of the Heavens, they were sent to the "Outer Darkness" with the rest of the fiends. Hell would be like Pandemonium from Paradise Lost. It is a city built by the fallen angels now known as the devils so they can maintain some semblance of law and order in the chaos that is the Outer Darkness. Metaphorically, it's an island amidst a tempestuous sea. When an evil person dies, they can either be sent to one of the layers in Hell and be subjugated by the devils or be lost in the Outer Darkness and be at the mercy of the demons.

Okay i came for the D&D and world-building ... but man I stayed for the Photoshop. Would you be willing to do a video some time on your brushes and techniques? This was fascinating to watch... Instant sub. hell of a first video to find haha

My issue with this is the heaven realm and astral plane fight for one corner, while other planes have their own corner. If I were you, I'd probably put the elemental plane around the ethereal and then put the astral in the now empty corner. Or astral surrounding the ethereal.

I love your design of the planes. I kinda have similarities in mine. :3 it actually helps to better understand my own

Having the Elemental Plane as an outer plane complements nicely that Far Realm as a Plane of Void (like how Celestial Plane and Fiendish Planes complement each other).

Very interesting.

Would love to see more worldbuilding vids from you, this was cool.

One area that really seems to fall apart is translating our universe to games. Spelljammer tried to do this with the concept of the crystal spheres. Stars in that setting were described as portals. That never made any sense. Just our view of space has 9096 stars visible with the naked eye. Most game settings treat the universe as a single planet around a single star with a moon. The solar system in most settings is never described. What are the stars in the sky is never explained. I assume most designers just skip this part of world building as it is almost never relevant to gameplay.

I’m a big fan of the word “null.” It could be a good name for the void.

I've been thinking of redesigning the planes of my setting myself. Though I'm currently in a campaign using them so not yet. Maybe I'll have a big cosmological event that rearranges the Outer Planes of that setting.

i really like it ^^

Speaking of the elemental plane dnd used elemetal chaos vs astral sea i believe in Ebberon

Suggestion about devils and demons: Use the analogy from TV-shows like Supernaturall. Devils are fallen angels (or in this case other planar creatures), while demons are spirits from the material planes. They're both similar in that they need a material vessel when "visiting", but they work somewhat differently.

Wrote 5000 words this weekend about the campaign setting that I started to build. It ended up being a Tolkein rip-off, but I appreciate seeing your creative process as I revise my creation myth and planes.

In my homebrew world the ethereal plane was created when the gods screficed themselves to lock away an ancient evil that came to devour the world. The ethereal plane is a by-product of this prison holding the ancient evil at bay. The essence left by the gods within the ethereal plane is where all magic in my setting can be drawn from. But this is a finite resource, and as it's used, the barriers holding back this being is slowing being weakend. Had to share this as it's not likely my players will learn all of the information surrounding magic within my setting

I’d love to get a access to a large version for print out if this map. It works so simply to display so much