Planes in Homebrew Worlds Pt. 1 - The Material Plane & Its Echoes
Planes! They are an essential part of the DnD experience but how can DMs use them in their homebrew worlds, specifically if you want to potentially publish your work and thus have it be compatible with the System Reference Document (SRD5) for 5e?
Because let's face it, if you want to use the Planes for a home game, then you can just copy the system described in the books word for word, but once you get into monetization (that goes beyond maybe streaming your games on Twitch), then you need to put some work into it. This post is the first in a (probably) two-part series which intended to give you something to work of, an off-brand cosmology primer for your personal setting.
This half of the series deals with the Material Plane and its echoes, while the next half of it will deal with
The Material Plane is obviously the part of the setting where you have the realms of mortals and where most of your worldbuilding takes place. Go hogwild with it! Populate it with settlements, peoples, flora and fauna, all that jazz! In terms of astronomy, I recommend that the Material Plane is surrounded by the Astral Plane and that if one passes through the Astral Plane without ending up in an Outer Plane, you reach space. The final frontier. But how everything but the Material Plane can work, you gotta wait for a bit.
But, as a sidenote, you can't have an underground civilization area that you call the "Underdark", because that term is copyrighted by WotC. You can 100 percent have an inner world (the SRD does include the language Undercommon and lists its users as "underworld traders", for the record, so they are very much aware of that being something people want to use), you just gotta call it something else.
The Echoes of Material Plane
Now in regular 5e, the Material Plane has two echoes, the Shadowfell and the Feywild. The Shadowfell, which is the muted, dreary counterpart, is home to the Raven Queen and her fortress, and is also linked to the Domains of Dread (like Barovia), and undead in general. The Feywild meanwhile is home to lush wilderness, revelry and ectasy, and fey creatures.
Now I'm not a legal expert, but based on certain precedents in the SRD (I'm looking at you, Tiamat!), both of these terms are probably off-limits, too, but the ideas are fair game. Therefore you can use these two off-brand versions in your setting, the Graylands and the Sylphame.
The Graylands is one of two echoes of the Material Plane. It is infamous for its hostile towards life. Journeys through it feel longer and more draining than in the Material Plane, even if the same amount of time and distance is covered. Sometimes paths are even temporarily blocked through fog. Plantlife seems on the cusp of death, sprawling cities and mighty fortresses on the Material Plane are instead ruins, and lights are perpetually dim.
These lands are primarily inhabited by Shadows, amorphous undead that drain the lifeforce of their victims. Mortals and beasts who land in the Graylands often transform into Shadow-like entities themselves, and undead seem to thrive in the Graylands. Very few beings remain something resembling their old selves here, and those that do often become emotionally hardened...
Sylphame is the other echo of the Material Plane. It is lush with vegetation, in fact most inhabited places on the Material Plane are instead wilderness or at least mixtures of nature and settlement. Journeys through the Sylphame can be deceiving. Sometimes travel is nearly instant, sometimes you encounter intraversible wilderness instead, with no way of knowing how this echo will treat you when your journey begins...
In terms of its inhabitants Sylphame is home to beasts, plant creatures, and of course fey. Mortals who reside in Sylphame are often erratic in terms of mood, both quick to anger and to forgive.
In both of these echoes you may encounter powerful beings that have carved out their own domains where additional phenomena may be experienced.
