@@randomdragon8245 well that univers' space is still less dangerous than our. Yes if you die tvere your soul is stucn in this space between worlds, but dying seems very hard. If you lack oxygen you can just wait forever until you get new, you wont have radiations burning your skin, etc... No really our space is still the most dangerous environnement we know, because we are not made to live in it.
literally what was explained was that everything outside the grasp of these basic gods is the cthulhu mythos, and is the only way it makes sense that cthulhu is in DnD at all.
@@Sir_Bucket Warhammer 40k. It's our universe sapped of resources, consumed by war, powered by slavery. Humans are past their technological prime and are dieing as a species. Edit: and Lovecraft (although now quite popular) his Pantheon exists outside of our perception but within our universe. His gods viewed humans as ants, almost literally. So easy to accidentally destroy the whole colony.
@@Fedico7000 me a void lord sensing T̶̡̡̛̛̛̛̯̙̫̪͔͙̯̳̗̝̬̖̟͎͉̝̻͙̙̭͇̤͕̞̪͍̼̣̗̥̰͎̝̩̞͇̝̪̔̉͗̀̊̋͂̈́́̏͗̄̉̌̏̎͌̽̀̍̔̒͋́̃̓̊̈͂̈́̾̾͒̀̒̓̽̄̆̐̔̿̎̇̾͗̉̃̈́̔́͐͒́̽͊̈́͋̀̈̐͑̌͛͂̓̍͌͐̍̉͂̀͒͑̾̍͒̉̌̇́͂͊̏̀̋̒̊̑̌̎͒͗̈́̾͛́̂̀͘̕̕̕̕͘͘̕͜͝͝͠͝͠h̷̛̛͉͚̀̆̎̄͛̒̀͛͛̍̒͊̽̿͗̅̉̐̓͌̇̍́̑́͊̈́͋̄̑̅̌̌̑̾͊͐̾͛̈́̂̀͐̅̈͐̀͑̔̋̀̀̀́͑͌͋͗̈́͂͐̄̉̐̉̑̅̏͒͑̅̈́͛̄̊͗̕̕͘͘̚͠͝͠͝͝͝͠͠a̸̧̨̢̨̧̡̖͖̭͓̯̼̮̰͕͓̙̹̳̫̹̜̤͖̖͖̰̯̻̞̣͈̯̗̙̺͚̹̰͔̫͔͉͓͔͎̭̼̟̺̤̘̣̦̩̣̲̬͖̻̭͕̰̹͕̝͔̤̮͙̲̹͈̼̩̙̳̞̦͔̰͕̹̙̪͖͙̰̲̠̖̙̤̙̻͔̭̘̜̪͓̖͍͉̓́̏̉͆̿̋͛́́͐̍͌̋̈́̇̆͋̑̄̒̐̀̓̾̀̽̂̅̌̿̊̃̈́̅̄̓̌̈́̏̏̈̊̽̓̐̑͊͆͌͊̀̋͆̅͌̀͐̌̍͗̃̂̀͗̇͊͌̕͘͘̕͜͝͝͠͝ͅt̵̢̡̨̢̨̨̡̧̧̧̨̨̢̛̩̹̘͓͍̦̙̪͉̩̟̪̝͇̠̯̻̱̝̭̖̻͕̬̗͉̟̯̮̝̭͔̠̠̖̻̝͕̜̖͚͕̝̱͎̠̤͉̰̲̦͍̞̯̪̹̝̻̤͉̯͖̱̫̝̩̙̮̟̙̰͎̟̼͖͚̦̤̫̪̮̲̺͕̫̰̘̺̺̫̼̯̪̱͈͖̳̾̓͒͆́̀̽̎̄̆̀́͐͆̊͛̀͋͒͐͗̉̓̀̒̏̇̌̓̄͛͐̌́̑̈́͋̂̇͌͐̀̾̾͆̑͊͊́̅̍͐̍͋̓̀̄̑̐̄̐̿̍̆̿̑͗̋́̏̎͊͆̀̀̆̌̎̾̉̍̎̎́̇̍͛̀̃̕̕̕̕̕͘̕̕̕͜͜͝͠͠͠͠͝͝͝͝͝ͅͅ ̶̧̧̢̨̡̨̢̧̡̢̢̧̡̛̛̛̗͍͖̼͕̲̳̝̲̗̞̞͉͕̠͚̳͙̥͍̹͇̩̳̫̼̲̭̼̳̲͇̮̗̭̪͔̙̯̭̖̖̮̮͖̱̟̠̭͎͓̮̤̞̙̖̪̻̠̳̺͓̜̩̼̹̼̹̦̲̺̗͍͎̠͈̞̗̫̯̮͇͓̖̗́̓̽͐̇̌͑̽͐̾̈̀͐͊͛̆̈͛́̄̈́̿̐̾̑̍̔͗̌̾́͐̽͊̎̎̑̏͒̆̀́̒̀̂̄̈̈̈͐̇͌̈́̎́̓͑̀͐͑̍̿̀̈̽͗̓͆͛̀́͋͂͌̓̉͊̃͘̚̕͘͜͜͝͝͝͝͝͠͝͝ͅͅͅͅi̵̧̢̢̢̢̢̨̧̡̢̢̢̛̛͔̩͎̗͉̘͔̘͙̺͖̭͖͚̹̲̳͚̯̪̮͓͓̱̹̳͎͈̞̜̫̳̰͓̱͇͍̻͍̦͓̻̦͔͉͕͉̤͎̫̺̯̗̱̖̬͇̹̖̬͇̯̰̣͉͎͎̥̰̜̹̺͓͂͆̎̀͛̑́̒̓́̈́̔͊̌́̃̏̋̃̓͋̅͂͋͂̓͊͛̐̓̊̀̇́̆̍̓̅̋̓̃͐̋̒̽̍̐̄̈͑͘͜͜͜͠ͅş̵̧̢̧͖̺̺̗̪͕̟͉̺̪̠̠̝͍̝̩̥͎̬͔̹̲̼̺̖̘̭͇͍̣͓̝̼̦̥̬͇̤̼͓͎͍͇́̉̈̀̏͛͆͋͒̆̓̈́̃̈́̒̓̆͆̈͂͘̕͘͜͜͝͝͝͠͝ ̵̨̧̡̛̛̦͇̭̼͖̪̻̻̣̫͉͖̦̠̫̳̜̤̬͇̬͕̹̗͔̙̠̝̱̮̻̯̠̪͙̭̖̹̱͎̩̜̼̣͍̲̯͖̈͆̋̿̂̒̔͆̈́͆͑̐̐͊͋́̓̎̈́̊̎͐͂̋͆̿͐̍͊̀͌̆͘͘͜͠ą̸̧̢͙̗̺͇̘̟̗̥̭͓̫̘̳͙̝̣̗̰̄̾ͅ ̷̛̛̛̠̺̬̣̰̥̬̞͉͖̫̻̈͊̏͒͐͑̓̔͐̀̊̈́́̌̋̄̀̋̽̈̑́́͊̽̈́̇̓͌̈́̆̒̉̌̂͋̌̓̆̐̐̂̊̀̇̓͋̆̾̾́́̂̈̃̽̽͂̎̓͋̔̈̍͋̆̓̈́̅̅̈́̊̑͒̽̽͋̀̂́̀̽̒̀̒̓̑̋̾͊͛̔̀̾̊̒̉͋̓̌̽̂̐͒͘̕̚̚̚͠͠͝͠͝͝l̸͔͎͚̫̥̿̐̓̑̈͐̈́̃̍̓͌̎̔̾̚͝͠͝͠ỡ̵̢̡͈̱͓̬͇̲̪͗͌͆͐̐͂͋̈́̋͛̍̈̒͌̔̓̂̋̀̅̒͆̆͂͑͆͂̃̄̇̓͑̆̔́̍̚͘͘̕͠͝͝ͅţ̸̨̧̢̧̡̡̨̛̛̛̛̤̼̲̙̣̣͍̗͔̦̦͈͇͍͖̩̙͇̙̝̤̳̠̟̮̮̰̳̦̭͍͉̜̤̭̙̲̦͓̳͔̤̣͔̱̙̦̖͍̱͕͕̖͉̗͈̺̯͕̥͔͚̞͖̳͎̼̪̳̮̳̤̬̮͕̖͔͚͙̗̥̆̔̈̾́̒̊̋̽̀̔͛̽̓̈̈̆͋̒̈́̃̉̈́̿̓͊̃̉̊̾̇͗͆̍̀̈̍͋̋̈́͐͋͊̎̈́̿̌́̐͐͂̑̄͂͑̄͊͐̃͗̌̋͒̈̿͒͊̏̿̆̓̅̋̕̕̚͘͘͜͠͠͝͝͝ͅͅ ̷̯̱͉̲̈̓̾̔̈́̒̎͗̅̉̚o̷̢̡̡̨̢͖̹͍̖͚͕̪̮̜̗̦͎̲͈̼̼͔͓̥͍̹͈̟̪̺̬͉͈̟̻̰͚̣͙̱̹̜͍̰̩̣̮͖͍̪̺͎͍̩͖̗̺̼͙̥̹̅̌͑̿́͐̅̓͐͂̑̓̽͆̓͊̒́̉̿̌͐́̏̅̽̊̕͜͜͜͜͜͝͠͝ͅf̵̨̧̨̡̨̧̨̛̩̻͚̦͉͉͔̺͉͈͎̝̘͕̙͎̮̤͉̼̩̪̙̭̞͙̺̺̝̥̘̳̭̳̯̭̞̮̼̬̳̜̹͉̮̱͉͖̞̰̫͇̫̻͈̘͕͉̥̮̲̹̭̦̟̫̩̤̯͔̬͕̖̯̖̮͉̤̭̫͙̰͔͖̻̞͎͚́͑̃͂̾̀̓̓͊́̀́̊̀̋̆̊͐̋̉̐̾̈̾͊̂̔̀̌̆̔͌̆̈̊̆́̃̐̕̕̕͜͠͠͝͝͠ͅͅ ̸̢̨̧̧̨̧̧̛̛̥̭̬̲͈̣͈͎͓̲̭̜̳͉̟̝͖̫̫͔͔̤̼̭̖͓̜̺͎̮͖̤̬̣͔̭̩͎͍̞̼̺̖̯̤̬̲̩̭̼̻̱̰̺̺̘̣͉͇͕̙̱̞̳̬̭̯̞͕̗̰̗̘͇͙̦̭͎͔̯̣͓̪͖̬̗̗̗̟̳̮͙̖̮͕̺͈̩̘̬͕̖̞̲̟̗͌͌̽̎̍̉̍̋͑̂̈́͛̂̅̐̋͗̀͑͑̀̔͜͜͜͜͝͝͝͝͠ͅͅͅḍ̴̢̧̨̨̡̧̧̡̢̡̡̡̨̛̛͖̠̮̬̙̬̖̦͎̪̟̠̫̘͕͚͉̲͓͍̲͔̭̠̺̝̻͇̲̺͓͙͎̥̞͙͕̫̙̝̗̪͔͇̪̪̬̫̠͖͎̤̝͈̪̘̞̫̟̫̙͇̜͇̺̝͖̪͒͐͛͗̉̀̊͐͊͂̓͐̾̽̕̕̕͜͜͜͝͝ã̶̧̢̧̧̡̢̡̡̰̮̝̮̝̹͙͈͎̗͎̝̙͙̲͙͓͚̰̼̼̩̙͚̟͖̝̫̥̲̮̬͚͉̖̣̝̳̳̙͎̘̣̻͙̣͈͈̮͕̦̖̲̞̞͈̭̖͇͚̪͉̯̞̭̩̥̭̻͉̳̭͙̳̪͌́̓̽̀̎̌̅̌͗̏̃͌́͘̚͜͝ͅͅͅm̶̡̨̛̛̛̲̱̦͎͉̹̼͇͔̘̹̖͕̱͈̓̒́͐̋̀́̾̆̓̈́͊́͛̋̌͌̇̔͛͗̈́̈̂̌̓͂̄͒͐̔̈̅͒̈́̊͂͌̊̊͂̾̈͐̂̆̒̈́̏̈́͊͗̎̈͗͋̌̾̓̃̆͑͑̒̿̏̈́̽̋̐̾̾͂̈́͋̈́̓͂̉̈́̈́̓́̑̓̈́̈́̑̐́́̽̓̾̌̑͑͗̽̽͘̕̕̚̕̚͘̕̕̚͜͜͜͝͠͝͝͠ͅä̴̧̡̧̡̼̖̤̟͈̪̱͕͎̣̱̰̺̗̖͔͙̤̮̼̮͇̩̦͔͔̣̼̰̫̐̃̎̉̀́̇͐̔̽̐͛̐̆̋̀̏̈̈̓́͆͑̒̏̆̑̈́͌̓̃͆̋͂̎̅̊́́̈͆̐͊̎̀͆̆̇̓͊̓̃̿̀͗̉́̂̄̑͊͊̀̒͒͊̔͐́̐̍̍̽̿̈́̉̊̄̃̒͑̂̏̊̄̾̅̉̒̍͆́̓̑̎͗͘̕̚̚̕͘͘͝͝͝͝͠ͅg̷̢̡̧̡̡̢̡̢̡͍͎͖̫̠̦̳̞̦̳̗̱̼̦̬̦̮̳̮̲̘̘͕̙͔͉̖̹̭̦̹̫̘̟̭͓͖̳͖͓̣̟̪̤̗̏͑̉̈́̾́̎̋̈́͐͒̿͐̎̆̈́̚͘͝ͅͅe̸̛̛͔̟̎́̔̇̆̾̒̆͊̑̉̔̎̿̂̄̀̓́̉͛͗͊̒̔͌͐̒̑͂̅͋̉̀̏̆̐̈́͒̆̾̊̄̽̓͊͆͌̌͗͑̓̒͗̈́̂̅̈́̓̌̈́̐̿̏͐̽͊͛͌̆͒̚̚͘̕̕͘̚͠͠͝͠͝͝͝͝͠͝͠͝͝ ̸̧̧̡̢̢̨̢̨̡̢̛̛̛̛̹͎̜͈̥̱̺̣̱̤̭͕͈͇͈͕͕̤̞͕͙̮̹̙͇̣̫̖͚̫̜͔̬͍̫̬̪͇̫̗̝͙̼͔͔̩̘̰̖̻̤͚̣̰͍͈̤̙̲̱̳͕͚̣̘̰̩̰͔̳̫̞͕̖̪͎̥͇͍̥͈̥̺͇̩̪̰͉͉͕̟͈̟͓̺͍̦͕͓͔͓͈̮͕̰̪̀̐̉͊̀̈̾͌̋͊̿̽͌̏̏͗̓͛́̋̈́̌̈́̃̾͗͑͑̎̏͑̽̄̎̅̀̄̽̈̐́͋̄̀͋͐̊͆̊̾͛̏̆̔͋̎̿͂͐̓͂̈̈́̌̊̐͗͗̓̃̅͒̈́̀̄̎̇́͒͗̋͂̀̉͆͒͗̃̒̂̿̐̿̈͌̿̓̋͌̇̔̒̓̕͘̕͝ͅͅͅͅ
@@SCP-001DatabaseAdministrator No, you can't. Had a relative who was reminded that in a highly flammable environment, even those heating coils are dangerous. Dip, on the other hand...
Lebanem carl I wonder if similar gods to him convene like gold dragons? Do they have the same fear of Phlogysten as the other gods? After all, they are the gods of gods.
“All living beings (temporarily) crystallise when they run out of air while in the phlogiston”. d-does that mean the crystal orbs protecting reality are made from crystallised living tissue?
"Please remember to douse all flames before existing the Crystal Sphere. Should we find ourselves in an area devoid of oxygen, a mask will deploy from the ceiling above your seats. Please, fasten your own mask before helping your neighbor with theirs"
I gotta say this sounds like a pretty awesome set up for a lvl 20 campaign. After reaching level 20 you are summoned to the home of the gods, where they explained that something is causing the breakdown of the crystal shells. They task the adventurers with leaving the crystal shell since they can not and finding and fixing the cause of the breakdown phenomenon to save not only the universe but they themselves from total annihilation. Imagine as a player being given a task that not even the gods can complete because you are mortal you can do something that even they can not. It's the perfect scenario for a group of lvl 20 adventurers!
"Why dont we have beings that think kf us as Gods?" Me: Looks at Dog. Dog: *Stares in pure wonder lust as I listen to a voice emitted from a box and eat food from the infinite food box, perhaps reflecting how him and his Father were so fortunate to be the servants of this gentle entity.*
My feels..... I thank you both for this. I can't have a dog (or almost any pets) because they make my allergies act up real bad. I still love them and pet them, even if I have to suffer for a few days. Maybe one day I can find one that doesn't make me sneeze.
campaign idea: a team of clerics and paladins traveling and evangelizing throughout the differing crystal spheres to grow their god's influence/ power.
While they question their own religions. Some slowly lose their faith and some descent to madness because of the lack of godly presence as they travel.
The gods actually can't do that only IO can expand the "space" where the two serpents create realm. Plus if they make it too big, the never-ending cthulhu army gonna notice where the world location...
I love dnd and the title got me too. Reminds me of that one line in The Grand Experiment by Doomtree “And all of Olympus was laughing Until we go and split the atom” Like, the even gods are afraid of the vast power that exists here
I've been working on a homebrew campaign with a BBEG that's a lesser god from the shadowfell who lives in a huge lake of slime that he can form into his body. His ultimate goal is to have a ship drag his slime across the phlogistim rivers, turning himself into a sorta living leyline between spheres who can keep growing and keep connecting spheres until he has power over every world
@@MaestroRigale Thanks! I hope to build him up with a few campaigns based around him, starting with his ascension from adventurer to godhood, then his growth in power and a war with the Raven Queen, then if he's still alive a campaign of him trying to take his influence multiverse-wide!
“Guys! The Phlogiston has broken through the crystal sphere and is heading for the sun! What do we do?!” *Everyone turns to look at the wild magic sorcerer* Sorcerer: frantically begins casting spells trying to cause the sun to explode
I once dreamed of the Greek Pantheon had a space program, to reach even higher than Olympus, but their powers had never extended into the Uranian void, and thus struggled despite being gods. I had no idea that D&D had basically canonized this idea :D
thank you, ive been having a similar thought of this, the gods never able to leave beyond our solar system and because of that they make and remake the earth to create creatures who might eventually leave beyond or to reset so we dont learn that we can never truly leave our solar system
@@TheSonofhatchet you're only putting a restriction on your variety of experiences that you allow yourself to experience by trying to shame others like this
the way i understand it in DND is YOU are the SOUL. you HAVE a BODY. you exist as the soul and when your body dies your soul goes to the afterlife, probably the nine hells unless you worshiped a god faithfully. then you would go to the corresponding "heaven"
Actually He made a video a long time ago that explained a lot about the souls and what happen when you die it is the one named "Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Asmodeus' Truth Revealed"
Well now I just have a badass scenario in my head of a level 20 party ordering a mass evacuation of a crystal sphere that cracked through some truly unholy power.
Imagine waking up and seeing a crack in the sky and when you look through you see something looking back clawing away in a desperate attempt to enter the realm. The ultimate dnd adventure. You’re not fighting to win, you’re fighting to survive whatever has been wrought upon this cursed plain. I’d love to see a campaign play out like this. Kind of a majoras mask scenario except there is no saving the world this time only not being there what it’s destroyed
"Mathematically speaking in comparison to the scale of the material plane, gods can't do anything to us. We however remind our dear readers, neither we can do anything at all."
Imagine a villain who left his home sphere to uncover the secrets of phlogistion and intentionally became an ephemeral to allow himself to continue his research, all in a bid to find a way to kill all of the gods...
Could a lich enter the phlogiston? Could any undead, by that measure? Maybe a necromancer would be able to study the ephemerals without necessarily dying, because I feel like only a very very strong soul would be able to keep their minds after becoming one.
@@AzafTazarden or why not suck the souls out of a body or group of bodies right before entering the interstellar area, so that the Ephemerals have an empty body that isn't quite dead yet. Then promise them to take them to the nearest port in exchange for information and knowledge. What happens if one becomes a lich in this place
@@AzafTazarden I don't see why corporeal undead couldn't. They still have souls tied to their bodies, and aren't multidimensional like ghosts or banshees.
My guess is that the phlogiston is a resemblance of the DM's thoughts, connecting the diffrent worlds. Thats why every map of it could be diffrent depending on your game. (furthermore the phlogiston is known as the "essence of creation" so I think it makes sense)
Yah i also picked up on this line of reasoning and applied it when designing my campaign. It mentions ao of answering to a luminous being which was widely interpreted as the gm and the philogiston is his mind. This would make the Chuthulan monsters there the gm monsters of the id perhaps his/her darkest thoughts. Anyway its food for thought.
Well, the probability of an ancient evil trying to bring an end to gods and everything is awesome. Wonder if it's even possible for players to stop this kind of apocalypse.
its a lovecraftian inspired thing ( farrealm and shit), the whole idea that players not only powerless, but close to non-existing compared to those things, best players and gods can do is to stop influence of those things on their planets/spheres. Maybe in future editions we will get some modules where gods unite to stop those thing (playing as gods them selves or combined avatars of several dozens god)
It seems like the only way to stop such a force would be for all the gods in the multiverse to join forces with their followers. But even that's a tall order.
Back in 2e Spelljammer I remember it saying something about how a god could establish itself in a new sphere. Basically, a cleric of his/hers/its has to travel to the new sphere, then establish a congregation of converts numbering at least 100 or 1,000 (can't recall which one). If the cleric can do that and maintain that number of believers for a year, the god can grant powers and spells the same in the new sphere as in the old. There were also religions that focused heavily on space and spelljamming, and so clerics of those religions (Ptah and Celestian) had access to their spells in any sphere.
Bonus fact: phlogiston means something that catches fire or something like that in my language. I believe it comes from another word "Phloga" meaning fire :D
It was actually believed to be a material that existed inside any flammable object, giving the object its flammable property. Hence the whole super flammable aspect it has
People be talking about that being a JoJo reference, but that's an IHNMBIMS line as well, and most definitely first (implying a reference, not a lack of creativity, don't kill me neckbeard weebs) also it's infinitely more shocking to read that line on a cold morning drinking coffee in your back porch. Puts a really shaky fear in your core.
So theoretically, if you somehow managed, by rolling like, a billion charisma check on Tiamat and convinced them to join you on a voyage through the phlogiston and you managed to push them off your ship, would Tiamat eventually run out of air and petrify and resulting anyone relying on their power to become powerless??
The premise is wrong. If you're rolling that many billions of successful charisma checks on Tiamat herself, to the point you can convince her to join you? Buddy, you're clearly a Bard - you're going to be too busy banging her. You're not riding a ship through space you're riding a dragon.
nah, candle sized flame (about what i'd expect from a match or lighter) just becomes a 1 die fireball 4 inches in radius. you've got a pretty decent chance to survive :)
@@yaronsinger7271 nah. One boom, then it takes a little while for the phlogiston to backfill the "hole". Lighting a cigar in the flow is the equivalent of putting a firecracker in the cigar. A few points of fire damage, and a big laugh had by all, but not enough to destroy the ship... unless something else catches fire from the little bitty fireball. Still, experienced spelljammers would probably kick you off the ship for doing something that stupid.
@@acedias12 But I am sure that, in the end, Lovecraft wasn't content with his work... Oh, an him and Houdini happend to be best buds, as someone who wasn't the social type and would rather hang out in the night.
If I remember correctly, in the Forgotten Realms after the time of troubles everybody found out that the gods worshipped Ao, and at the end of the book based on the module it turned out that Ao worshipped a higher deity as he pulled off a Mork calling Orsen, and his boss was The Luminous Being aka God, big G. I haven't read it in over 30 years but I think that's the jist of it. Also Ao has no fear of the Phlogiston? As he is the overgod of two spheres. Mind you last time I played ad&d or read the books Wizards of the Coast had just purchased everything from TSR back in the late 80s so things may have changed.
Most actual, real, interstellar space ~91% is hydrogen, the rest is helium, oxygen, bits of dust... Hydrogen is named after water. In D&D there's phlogiston, named for fire... If phlogiston is the analog for hydrogen, then the crystal sphere already has a star/sun fusing "phlogiston" into helium. Fantasy space is weird.
Before modern combustion theory, the older understanding of "how things burn" was that burnable things contained phlogistan. When they burned, they "released" the phlogistan into the air. If burned in an enclosed space, it would burn until the air was saturated with phlogistan; when it couldn't hold any more, the fire would go out. Eventually, some clever people figured out that "phlogistan" was actually oxygen and they had the process backwards; the oxygen was already in the air and would be used up in the combustion. So D&D Phlogistan is based on an anachronistic understanding of oxygen but with a metaphysical spin.
I would say yes, as the GOOs are based on the Lovecraftian gods, who are as terrifying as the bizarre powerful beings that were mentioned @ the end of the vid. I'd even say that they can only make Warlocks, not Clerics, because of the existence of the Crystal Spheres
I'm pretty sure the other planes the great old ones reside in are still tied to the same crystal sphere. It's my understanding that the crystal sphere is not just the material plane, but all planes connected to each other.
@@MatthewSmith-pv6gd if the Warlock was tied to an Outer God rather than a Great Old One, they should have access to their spells as the Outer Gods are extra Dimensional and not tied to planes of existence. Yog Sothoth exists outside of reality and has absolute knowledge of everything that happens on all scales of potentiality, whether it be within parallel universes, 1st-10th dimensional occurrences, interplanar activity, etc. Omniscient but rarely able to interfere save for the ocassional portal or link with cultist followers who can summon an avatar that he can feed on the energies existing here, he is still very powerful and capable of empowering his followers as he sees fit without hinderance.
I did do the gods have gods, well specifically a god, he was the main villain. Long story short we could not kill them because this will kill the multiverse, so we put it to sleep under the collective power of gods, This made another campaign where the villain tried to wake up the god.
Had a homebrew setting once where the gods were manifestations of their worshipers faith, and after several millennia the gods would be culled and devoured along with most of their followers by a sort of "great old one" entity. The world was a garden for its food, so to speak.
D&D gods do have gods, at least they had when I was still playing 15-20 years ago. I think the Toril one was called Ao or something like that and he had a father/god in return. At the end of one D&D book (about the Time of Troubles) he talked to the gods of Toril, then he left and went back home were his Father told im he did a good job... (or something like that!? Like I said its been a pretty long time since I read my last D&D book or played the pen and paper the last time)
You are correct, that is the ending of the time of troubles book. Not sure if it was Ao’s father per se, but definitely a higher order being. Also, the gods don’t worship Ao, but he is definitely their superior.
It was true in D&D and most real world myths. The gods are offspring of Gods or other powerful creatures who are sometimes themselves offspring of even higher beings. Greece and the gods being offsprings of Titans for example who were offspring from other beings.
The highest god in D&D is the Cosmic EGG, who wrote the Akashic Record that determines the fundamental physics of all D&D gameworlds (and stranger distant worlds which seem to be emulations and echoes of D&D).
I hate to be that guy but, D&D gods are not all the same. Before Forgotten Realms, which was an independent work by Ed Greenwood, the original D&D what was called greyhawk, Which had gods did that did not have over gods. Forgotten Realms was incorporated into Dungeon & Dragons the God and over God story was incorporated. This is only existing in the Forgotten Realms. If you would have take a look at every other Campaign World in Dungeons & Dragons, you will not find a God's God usually if ever.
Yea AO is still a thing and infact has been exapnded on rather recently. It has been revealed that HE is actually a Dragon, and He has a boss, The grand creator.
Alternate theory: the gods fear the mighty Crab Empire which dwells in the phlogiston, so they hide away in their Crystal Spheres and pretend to be in control.
The crabs... the crabs... oh Ao, the crabs are come! Clicking, clacking in the deep... the feet, the claws... so many... so many many claws... CRAAAAAAAAAABS
Third theory...lord AO is the "shepherd" overgod of Faerun, insert another overgod for each sphere. Tablets of fate series? Spelljammer sourcebooks. Elminster mutterings and Shar Selune battles, spellplague series spoilers. Shar dances in the far realm constantly and controls much..."In the darkness of the void we hear the whisper of the night , heed its voice"
My pet theory: Phlogeston is essentially a material assertion of everything existing. And elemental void is a similar assertion that nothing exists, with the difference in color and shade being a result of how EMPHATIC the assertion is in that place/time. Ergo by grabbing specific times/places of the two, and ramming them together you neutralize all possible existences except one or two thus creating items, events, people, gods, etc. This idea makes the natural dissipation of phlogeston inside a crystal sphere the result of the sphere being defined by the lack of phlogeston being inside. Which I kind of like. Bonus note: I used to have dreams of drifting through a substanceless place with the same visual description as the phlogeston. This was always the intro to a dream about visiting a world forign to me.
The gassy ether that is the phlogiston is not space, it is something more akin to sub-space or hyperspace. The crystal spheres are really Dyson spheres that protect wild space from the far realm. The far realm isn't that far. It's just on the other side of the Dyson spheres. You see, D&D is set billions of years in to the future after the Milky-way collided with Andromeda. The denizens of the far realm are just life forms from Andromeda.
In our Cosmology, the Far Realm is from where all the planes come from, the Astral Plane being basically the entropy version of the Realm, for them we are similar to what the Plane of Negative Energy, or the Shadowfell is to us, so when Azathoth is giving that crazy ass Warlock the spells he needs to start a cult, he thinks he is trying to help us by making us "normal", like stuff is in the Far Realm. If we happen to grow tentacles and spit spiders everytime we sneeze is because it is what's meant to be. Also every character that reads the book where the real way Cosmology works is laid out, he or she starts losing Wisdom until they become insane rambling lunatics writting the truth in odd alien runes with their poop in padded walls.
That was cool. You actually helped me out quite a bit. I had a character I've been meaning to bring over and I needed an explaination of how he got to our world from Ravnica.
This is the 8th apocalypse you've covered on this channel. Civilization ending: Dracolitch, Aboleths, Krakens, Mindflayers, Dragons Vs Giants. Existence ending: Asmodeus' true serpent form, Entropy, Far Realm.
I can imagine a campaign centered around a fallen god. One whose crystal sphere was cracked open by an eldritch aberration. They take the form of an avatar wandering aimlessly through the void until rescued by the players and then brought to their new crystal sphere where they can regain their powers and bless the players. Perhaps even making them part of a new pantheon altogether?
Part 2 could be finding out what that aberration is/was, how it got there and where it is now. What if a rival entity lured it there or there was no aberration and it's just a coverup story from a god that has been banished from their seat of power for their crimes.
@@Hotarubi-dono Probably because they have an intimate relationship with an incomprehensible being from beyond the stars, so facing the unknowable horror of the void is an old hat? That's my guess at least Actually got to the parts about the Gods, the Old ones are from beyond the Stars. If the stars are inside the spheres, or even within the "flammable space that I can't spell", then the old ones should be outside of even that, meaning their power, which is already transferring through said unspellable space, should still reach the warlock
As I recall from the SpellJammer 2nd Edition source books, there is a mysterious shattered Crystal Sphere out there where it is speculated that somehow the Phlogiston got in.
I lean towards the theory of a power above the gods; an Absolute that set up separate realities where things can play out differently. Perhaps the beings of the Far Realm serve as a reset button, to be released into individual spheres to wipe everything out, and let things start over anew.
I'm so happy we have an explanation for what happens to clerics and warlocks outside their crystal sphere. But what happens to wizards and sorcerers? Don't their spells rely on the weave, which is generated by a god?
@@Washeek the weave is only even a thing in forgotten realms. no other settings even *had* a "weave" at all in the first place for a god to control. remember, forgotten realms rules do *not* apply beyond the crystal sphere. the weave is a specific forgotten realms thing that a specific forgotten realms deity does. step beyond her influence, and there is no more mystra, no more weave, and magic still works without either of them.
@@sharkforce8147 Thanks for the clarification. I admit I am using a lot of headcannon here. Question is though if in Forgotten realms, the arcane magic comes from Mistra's weave... Wouldn't the arcanists and especially wizards need to relearn how to cast spells once outside of the crystal sphere? Like especially realmspace wizards.
@@Washeek *shrug* apparently not. probably the weave works the same, but has higher theoretical limits. or, possibly the weave works exactly the same, since there is just no clear mention of level 10 spells outside of realmspace but they might be possible anyways. i don't know of anything that clearly 100% for sure states that they can only be done with the weave, after all. that said, the forgotten realms was balanced very differently from the rest of their settings from what i can tell, so i would personally be inclined to stick with the assumption that things that are possible in forgotten realms are only possible elsewhere if explicitly mentioned as a general rule.
I love how the phlogiston is so threatening yet strangely serene. And it allows you to get as meta as you want with creation lore. Absolutely great video and can’t wait to see the TOA one!
"The universe of Dungeons and Dragons is an ocean of worlds inside crystal spheres, but outside of these crystal spheres is composed of nothing but a rainbow colored ether called The Phlogiston." And that was only the first ten seconds.
@peterbenckendorf9724 pretty sure it is, since Toril, the world Faerun is on, isn't the only D&D world, and I believe the different crystal spheres thing is meant to explain the different gods and universal/metaphysical construction of existence itself, despite it being part of the same mythos. So I think the Astral Sea, as well as the Elemental and Outer Planes, are also contained within these crystal spheres. After all, the Astral Sea isn't space outside the planet, it's a different, adjacent plane of existence, but also part of the same crystal sphere.
@@omegagilgamesh but there are two things, the astral plane, and the astral sea. One of those is the seperate plane that all material planes have, the other is the space between the different planes, and I believe has replaced the phlogiston or what have you
@peterbenckendorf9724 okay, after some research, the Astral Plane and the Astral Sea are, indeed, the same thing, seen on pages 44 and 46 of the DnD 5e Dungeon Masters guide, and while I haven't found any mention of the Phlogiston in 5e material yet, I haven't found any reason why it wouldn't still exist. I stand corrected in one thing: the Phlogiston and Crystal Spheres are part of the Prime Material Plane, rather than each Crystal Sphere containing a multiverse with the Phlogiston separate. To make this clear, as terminology has changed in-lore after the Spellplague, each world is called a Material Plane, but all of them, including Wildspace (the space between the planets and the Crystal Sphere), and the Phlogiston between the Crystal Spheres, are collectively referred to as the Prime Material Plane. Now the Astral Plane/Sea connects all the Material Planes, as well as the Outer Planes (Elysium, Limbo, the Abyss, the Nine Hells, ect) and could be used to bypass the Phlogiston when traveling to other Material Planes. Any questions?
One question keeps nagging me: since arcane magic seems to work fine, and gods have no power, it would appear that wizards can show Mystra the middle finger in the phlogiston and cast whatever non-planar magic they know with no restrictions. How does this actually work out?
well, so far as i'm aware it isn't clearly stated that elven high magic or high level spells are possible at all in the core rules. barring explicit mention that it is possible (as it was at one point in realmspace), i'm not sure you could cast that sort of magic. but if it's just a low level spell that mystra doesn't like and which doesn't rely on special magical rules to function, then sure, no problem.
@@sharkforce8147 I don't care much about game rules, especially not what is core or isn't, only lore. The issue is whether Mystra's Ban changed the structure of the Weave in 1) Realmspace only, 2) all crystal spheres or 3) everywhere including Phlogiston. If Option 1 or 2 is true, wizards not only potentially get access to forbidden spells in the Phlogiston, but also don't have to choose which spells to memorize on any given day (cast like sorcerers rulewise).
I think it's worth considering that God's may in fact have control of phlogiston, but by limited capacity, or perhaps by great cost. It may be possible that the gods can manipulate that space and ether, but only over eons. Or perhaps to do so they need to sacrifice other gods, or great power. If magic works well enough there, then what is to say a god could not use the souls of their followers as a magical power to manipulate it? Afterall, elvish high magic sometimes requires the souls of their highest wizards. I don't buy that the gods have no power outside of the shells. I think it is supposed to be a cosmic mystery, of which the oldest and most powerful gods know the truth of, but that even lesser or demi gods do not know. I think that it is more likely that in the D&D world, it is simply that the gods are not willing to make whatever grand self sacrifice that would be necessary to harness control over it.
But wouldn't Ao technically have influence over the crystal sphere if anything were to happen? I mean, each crystal sphere has an Overgod who created and rules over it. And, in the event that a particularly important Sphere were to be damaged, would it not make sense for the Luminous Being to intervene directly? (Though, if you take the idea that the Luminous Being is in fact the DM, then I guess having your DM say "Nope. I deny access of the Phlogiston in to the world." would technically be canonical...)
My greatest campaign I ran was a Spelljammer one. It was over a six month period. And now almost, ow boy, 18 years later my friends that were on it still bring it up! Makes me proud.
D&D designers grasping inside a hat: "And we shall call the interplanar space ocean.... uuuh.... Phlogiston." "Shouldn't that have to do with alchemy?" "Do you have a better idea?" ".... No."
All this does is put the image of medieval Gurren Lagann in my head. Heroes rise up to the ranks of godhood and beyond in order to stop an evil force trying to destroy the crystals
What happens to the elven kind? If I recall they are connected, unless they are the dark kind, they are out of the elven channel? If there are 2 elven people in the space vessel they get a private elven channel or still can't communicate write each other?
@@DanielAfroHead You were confusing the spell-weave which is the domain of mystra with the weave of all magic everywhere. I know it's confusing cuz they use the term the weave.
@@joshuacr I could be wrong but I've never heard greyhawk use the weave. And I know other spheres don't need a god/goddess to maintain magic in their worlds. But if you know anymore I'd be really interested, there's so much lore that it's hard to get through it all haha
I like the idea that the spheres were made by a higher power and that power is us as dms. It’s a lore based way to explain why homebrew settings can’t be interacted with by beings from another setting.
Hey just while you’re on crystal spheres and this subject maybe something you could talk about. In the lore of the devil Moloch it talks about a second edition quest line where a plane or a planet some how got lost or cut off from the gods. I don’t know the entire lore but I guess that quest is still cannon because it’s described in Moloch’s page of Mordekinan
Just a quick thought: maybe a cleric of the travel domain could be granted more spells? Could be a good homebrew idea. If most powerful deities can give spells of 1-2 level, maybe a travel domain greater power could grant up to 3 or 4?
@@DemigodoftheSea Depends on mechanism of delay. If delay is caused because the spell summons a fire magic at a timely manner...then it wont work because summoning spells don't work. If the spell is innate...then you catch fire/blow up...
You've got the right idea. If you made a pact with a Great Old One who hails from the Far Realm, then yes, you would still receive your spells as normal in the Phlogiston, as well as any other crystal spheres. Just keep in mind that if your Great Old One hails from within a Crystal Sphere, you suffer the same limitations as a Cleric would. And unlike a Cleric, your Great Old One would not be able to influence other spheres just based on Worship alone. GG Clerics and Paladins.
I didn't know anything about this. never really dealt with planar stuff in any of my past gaming groups. Clicked on the video purely by accident. And was still thoroughly entertained. Good work, man.
I would love to hear more about SpellJammer. Perhaps more about the different crystal spheres that canonically can be travelled to, and what it's like for people who cross from one to another.
Technically you really need the box set to see all the lands that are Short of looking for something online for that spelljammer map and I can't guarantee you that's allowed by copyright law, but I can tell you right now, you could go to all the major campaign settings that ever were out. You can technically Spelljam to if there's no history blocking them. For instance, the Dragonlance series not only took the physical location of the planet out of alignment, but also put them out of time so you weren't able to Simply Spelljam for a long time, but you are now. In no particular order, that would be Oerth on Greyhawk, Toril (another planet Aber is phase shifted) in Forgotten Realms/Kara Tur/Al-Kadim/Chult, Kyrnn in Dragonlance, Athas in Dark Sun, Mystara Planet in Blackmoor/Mystara. These are the major planets in the crystal spheres. There are others in the system, especially in the Toril system. Apologies if I'm forgetting a classic campaign planet's setting, but obviously not mentioning Planescape or Eberron Which are out of the Prime material plane areas.
I guess a Ring of Mind Shielding is a must in The Phlogiston. Since Raise Dead can't be cast there your only hope is for you companions to carry your soul into a Crystal Sphere and then cast Raise Dead.
I think it would be cool to have a campaign playing as a necromancer or death domain cleric where you travel the phlogiston helping lost souls return to their spheres
If we're going with the notion that all lore across every edition of D&D is given equal weight, then the "correct" answer to the question is that there IS, in fact, a higher authority that created the spheres and the phlogiston. Early D&D took a lot of inspiration from contemporary fantasy sources, and one of the more interesting "high cosmology" inclusions is that the Wheel of Time is canon. Rand al Thor is, or was, real, on some world or place, at some point in time. The Dragon is real. The Enemy is real. Io, the God of Gods, is explicitly based off of the transcendent existence Rand attained at the end of the series. Many of Io's nicknames are callbacks to the Wheel of Time and the accomplishments of Rand and his friends (the Ninefold Dragon, the Shadeswallower, the Great Wheel). At the end of Wheel of Time, Rand achieved a state where he stood "outside of the world," and held the Enemy in the palm of his hand. In that moment, he realized that the long shadow cast by the great nemesis was thrown from a tiny, wretched, wormlike thing that was almost completely powerless when met on equal ground. Rand had the opportunity to destroy it, and in doing so end all Evil everywhere for all time. But standing outside of all worlds and time and looking in, he realized that the existence of Evil and the enemy served a purpose: the cosmos was a wheel, and the spinning of that wheel is what time itself was. The Enemy, ever defeated and ever craving to invade and take over the cosmos, would exert it's own power to turn the wheel and try again to conquer existence. If it was destroyed, then eventually time itself would end and all of existence would simply stop where it was, forever frozen and dead. So Rand al Thor did what every other manifestation of the Dragon has done when, having triumphed in the great struggle against the Nemesis, they stood in that place with a sword to the throat of the heart of all Evil. He sheathed his sword and walked away. Thus the cycle continues. The enemy taunted him as he left, saying "I can try forever, one day I will win." And Rand, not even bothering to look back as he left that place that was not a place, said "no. You won't. Because we will always be there to stop you." If we accept the 1st and 2nd edition lore on the subject, then the inclusion of the Wheel of Time means there IS a hierarchy of gods, and it looks like this: The Watchmaker God Rand Prayed To Who Created Everything And Showed Him The Truth > Overgods like Io/Rand al Thor/titans/other supreme beings > normal gods > demigods > mortals. Gods absolutely have their own gods, in the sense that there are beings that far surpass them to whom they own their existence, though whether beings like Io or the Creator need worship or prayer in ANY form to maintain their existence is questionable at best. This is also the reason, for the record, that in older editions of the game, Io was the only being in the entire D&D canon that was "unaligned." Because he was based off of Rand al Thor (because he IS Rand al Thor), and at the end of his massive saga Rand had achieved a state of 'greater goodness' in which he realized that evil had to be permitted to exist so time would advance and good things would flourish and create more good things. His morality was transcendent and incomprehensible god morality to anyone who hadn't been with him every step of the way and seen what he had seen. Ergo he was "unaligned." When Rand communed with the 'Creator,' it was revealed to Rand that the vast systems of the cosmos, including the Wheel and the structure of Time itself, had been arranged by Him. Originally, he rejected what he saw and raged against what he thought was an unfair system, but when he finally stood Outside himself and looked in, he realized that it WAS the best system that could be made, all things being considered. So the Spheres and phlogiston in D&D were almost certainly created by an aloof but benevolent YHWH-style creator, who reveals His will and designs to various Overgods like Io/Rand who then filter that design further down to normal gods and mortals. Beings like the Nemesis, and places like the Far Realm and the abominations within, are permitted to exist because their omnicidal ambitions and actions play a direct role in allowing the broader multiverse to continue to exist.
Potential flaw in your theory -- D&D was originally released in 1974, while the first printing of The Eye of the World (Wheel of time volume 1) was in 1990. That's a 16 year gap in sourcing the blueprints of the multiverse. And all of the "Rand is transcendental" things are from much more recently than that.
This whole thing sounds suspiciously like the entire basis of Buddhism. With the Buddha being the only being to ever fully attain "true enlightenment", much the same way Rand apparently does by communing with the creator of the reality. And as the other dude pointed out, 1st and 2nd edition DnD existed before The Wheel of Time. So it's much more likely that parallels you seem to be drawing are more aligned with Buddhism than the Wheel of Time. (And the Wheel of Time itself is likely also heavily inspired by Buddhism.)
@@GeneralNickles What you and he are both ignoring us that 99% of the lore didn't exist when D&D was initially released. The lore was built up over decades of gaming. The people playing those games filled the lore they created with references to contemporary fantasy, which WoT certainly was. Ao IS a Rand al Thor reference. That's a fact, not my opinion.
@@LordRaine until you can provide objective verifiable evidence of this, I'm going to assume you are 100% wrong and Ao is, in fact, a reference to the Buddha that Rand very clearly is also a reference to.
@@GeneralNickles you haven't read the books, by your own admission. I genuinely don't care what some random illiterate on the internet assumes. If you won't even look at something before making huge assumptions and passing judgement on it, then you're not worth talking to, your opinion is worth nothing, and your assumptions don't matter.
Theory: the crystal spheres and the gods were created by a higher power, and there are other higher powers of equal or greater strength, which are either indifferent to this, or hostile...
Crystal Spheres are created by Overgods. (Toril's was created by Ao.) And each sphere has an Overgod that created it. The entity above the Overgods is the Luminous Being. But admittedly, the Luminous Being is described as basically being the Dungeon Master.
_"We push through Darkness to serve the Light, as Light wars the same, to guard us from the eternal shadow. Unseen by even our gods, a war wages for as long as time lasts. For the defeat of either side, for the end of balance between scales, signifies the end of time. All are slaves to one above. The one staring down, we resist. Such is the fate of the Source. Such is the fate of the Unravelling."_
Huh, I never realized that the Phlogiston itself was separate from the planes. The entire prime material is supposed to cover the entire expanse of the phlogiston and crystal spheres though, and all crystal spheres share the same set of planes on the Great Wheel or World Axis models (Exception being settings that have their own planes like Eberron, which I just interpret as them being personal planes for that particular sphere in addition to the normal planes.) So with that (and im considering all that as fact even though i don't have sources to provide, asked this stuff multiple times on reddit and always got answers that were basically that) i'm not really sure why a God wouldn't be able to travel to other Crystal Spheres. I like the explanation that they can't directly manipulate or enter the Phlogiston, but im pretty sure it's possible to hop to other Spheres through planar travel (I remember reading that this was the preferred method of Elminster to get to other spheres.) So couldn't a God, already being in the outer planes in most cases, simply hop to another sphere with planar travel? Or are they just planarly bound to their home sphere?
@@sadrien BUT, at leats realmspace gods, they would be basically mortals with no power after they travel to another setting, as the power of a god is a result of the quantity of their followers in the crystal sphere they are in, in another sphere there would be no followers of them at all.
As has been mentioned in this reply and other replies and other parts of this video Once a god Has their worshiper leave the crystal sphere they lose their Spells down to 1st and 2nd level and unless they have worshippers in other Crystal spheres which will then determine their god's power unless of course, they made a partnership with other God's in other spheres. Should they want to do the what does God need with a Starship method and travel as also mentioned in replies here, They would lose all powers and become effectively mortal. Also a God in their own Crystal sphere is absolute and could stop the entry of other gods outside of their spheres short of a Forgotten Realms / God like Ao and or their boss whatever that boss of Ao might be and that is only one planetary Crystal sphere and does not apply in D&D canon elsewhere.
Very enjoyable trip down memory lane for us old codgers. Things I haven't read about/thought about in years, some details I didn't have from disparate sources or just never had the chance to put all together. Thanks, made a very enjoyable morning watch.
Would Great Old One's Warlocks be affected the same way that clerics and other warlocks are? I would assume not since in context it seems like the eldritch gods they would serve work under different rules as the planar gods?
I think they still would be, remember they fled... into the planar reality with their own planar magic, if they were free to go there they would have opened the portal there where they would be uncontested and the source of their power couldn't fall forever through infinite planes it would just be there I think what is actually meant is that they are from far realms, like other spheres where the flow only goes away from us and only away from them to us i think thats also why the gods can't pass through it, so the 2 sets of world's can't go to war directly
@@papajavaleri but that's the thing they do have a worshiper base and that only happened after they opened the portals to the forgotten realms. After all the far realm and forgotten realms are both realms and outside the spheres are notably not realms
ehh the funny thing about this is that DnD added the Cthulhu mythos into DnD.... meaning that the Cthulhu creatures... are above gods. well most of em are. Cthulhu is actually the weakest and is as strong if not stronger than a god. begings like Azathoth are way beyond gods and within the mythos is literally the creator of everything purely by mistake too. maybe the explaination of the creatures outside of this space that was menioned of beings trying to destroy everything is probably those elder gods... because they are pretty much pure chaos. not evil persay just chaos in it's purest form. i love that the mythos is in DnD but it does bring up a little to many questions and plot holes.
I've just started getting into DnD lore and I had NO idea it went this much into space, that they even made it function completely differently from space as we know it
Fluid might be a better description. It applies to both gas and liquid, or the sorta in between like plasmas. They are all fluids, so thats probably the best physical descriptions.
Honestly, with the Ephemerals, I don’t really consider them to be bad. They just want to go to an afterlife and they don’t kill you, they just severely inconvenience you for a bit.
Me filling ships with animals and sending them.out on round trips in the phlogiston to just pick up lost souls and bring them back (logically they would pick the creatures with the lowest int first since that's the easiest target for them to use to get to a sphere)
@@ConstantChaos1 was just thinking of a ship flying thru the phlogiston with like nets to catch them. Maybe some magic faces carved into it that scream for help like bait.
I wonder if gods can travel on ships with their followers, or even alone but reduced to their mortal selves. I like the idea of an adventurer nearing godhood heading out into the flow and using powerful magics to experiment with it to try and gain some mastery and connection within. Imagine a powerful wizard/artificer using narrow fire tunnels and spheres sustained by artifacts to create artificial areas free of phlogiston, maybe with the fire being harnessed by energy harvesting contraptions to further power other artifacts.
It makes me think a good non-traditional character class could be something like flow ranger, flow cleric, or a flow mage. They would specialize in adventuring in the streams, and possibly be of some alien race that is native to them. Such characters could conceivably serve one or more of those hidden beings, or those "higher authorities" that created the phlogiston. This could easily be the grounding for kind, noble-minded good individuals, trying to hold malign beings in check, and also working to help trapped people to get to their various destinations. A useful ability for such a race would be enabling them to share their bodies with beings like the Ephemerals *without* allowing these flowbound hitchhikers to take over or control them. Thus, adventurers periodically become rather like Charon (or friendlier versions of the Charonadaemons) of the Styx. And hybrid character races might also be able to adventure inside the spheres as well. {Note: In "G.U.R.P.S." terms, this racial choice would need to be a bit expensive and/or entail an "Unusual Background" point cost.}
Its a fascinating thought to think there are higher gods that actually exist within the outer realms. I really hope that gets expanded on in later editions.
![The Strongest Gods in D&D Ranked by Power [Greater Deities]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lCK_f9TgotM/mqdefault.jpg)
Me getting into DND lore: oh wow fantasy!
DND: incredibly concerning cosmic horror
Donut Illuminati Nothing is complete without cosmic horror.
@@randomdragon8245 well that univers' space is still less dangerous than our. Yes if you die tvere your soul is stucn in this space between worlds, but dying seems very hard. If you lack oxygen you can just wait forever until you get new, you wont have radiations burning your skin, etc...
No really our space is still the most dangerous environnement we know, because we are not made to live in it.
Cosmic Horror is the Collared Greens or Cinnamon of Fantasy
literally what was explained was that everything outside the grasp of these basic gods is the cthulhu mythos, and is the only way it makes sense that cthulhu is in DnD at all.
@@Sir_Bucket
Warhammer 40k. It's our universe sapped of resources, consumed by war, powered by slavery. Humans are past their technological prime and are dieing as a species.
Edit: and Lovecraft (although now quite popular) his Pantheon exists outside of our perception but within our universe. His gods viewed humans as ants, almost literally. So easy to accidentally destroy the whole colony.
Sometimes when you roll initiative into the void, the void rolls initiative back.
*You take ♾D♾ damage.*
@@Fedico7000 Me an empath sensing that that is a lot of damage
@@Fedico7000 me a person with eyes seeing that that's alot of damage
@@Fedico7000 me a void lord sensing T̶̡̡̛̛̛̛̯̙̫̪͔͙̯̳̗̝̬̖̟͎͉̝̻͙̙̭͇̤͕̞̪͍̼̣̗̥̰͎̝̩̞͇̝̪̔̉͗̀̊̋͂̈́́̏͗̄̉̌̏̎͌̽̀̍̔̒͋́̃̓̊̈͂̈́̾̾͒̀̒̓̽̄̆̐̔̿̎̇̾͗̉̃̈́̔́͐͒́̽͊̈́͋̀̈̐͑̌͛͂̓̍͌͐̍̉͂̀͒͑̾̍͒̉̌̇́͂͊̏̀̋̒̊̑̌̎͒͗̈́̾͛́̂̀͘̕̕̕̕͘͘̕͜͝͝͠͝͠h̷̛̛͉͚̀̆̎̄͛̒̀͛͛̍̒͊̽̿͗̅̉̐̓͌̇̍́̑́͊̈́͋̄̑̅̌̌̑̾͊͐̾͛̈́̂̀͐̅̈͐̀͑̔̋̀̀̀́͑͌͋͗̈́͂͐̄̉̐̉̑̅̏͒͑̅̈́͛̄̊͗̕̕͘͘̚͠͝͠͝͝͝͠͠a̸̧̨̢̨̧̡̖͖̭͓̯̼̮̰͕͓̙̹̳̫̹̜̤͖̖͖̰̯̻̞̣͈̯̗̙̺͚̹̰͔̫͔͉͓͔͎̭̼̟̺̤̘̣̦̩̣̲̬͖̻̭͕̰̹͕̝͔̤̮͙̲̹͈̼̩̙̳̞̦͔̰͕̹̙̪͖͙̰̲̠̖̙̤̙̻͔̭̘̜̪͓̖͍͉̓́̏̉͆̿̋͛́́͐̍͌̋̈́̇̆͋̑̄̒̐̀̓̾̀̽̂̅̌̿̊̃̈́̅̄̓̌̈́̏̏̈̊̽̓̐̑͊͆͌͊̀̋͆̅͌̀͐̌̍͗̃̂̀͗̇͊͌̕͘͘̕͜͝͝͠͝ͅt̵̢̡̨̢̨̨̡̧̧̧̨̨̢̛̩̹̘͓͍̦̙̪͉̩̟̪̝͇̠̯̻̱̝̭̖̻͕̬̗͉̟̯̮̝̭͔̠̠̖̻̝͕̜̖͚͕̝̱͎̠̤͉̰̲̦͍̞̯̪̹̝̻̤͉̯͖̱̫̝̩̙̮̟̙̰͎̟̼͖͚̦̤̫̪̮̲̺͕̫̰̘̺̺̫̼̯̪̱͈͖̳̾̓͒͆́̀̽̎̄̆̀́͐͆̊͛̀͋͒͐͗̉̓̀̒̏̇̌̓̄͛͐̌́̑̈́͋̂̇͌͐̀̾̾͆̑͊͊́̅̍͐̍͋̓̀̄̑̐̄̐̿̍̆̿̑͗̋́̏̎͊͆̀̀̆̌̎̾̉̍̎̎́̇̍͛̀̃̕̕̕̕̕͘̕̕̕͜͜͝͠͠͠͠͝͝͝͝͝ͅͅ ̶̧̧̢̨̡̨̢̧̡̢̢̧̡̛̛̛̗͍͖̼͕̲̳̝̲̗̞̞͉͕̠͚̳͙̥͍̹͇̩̳̫̼̲̭̼̳̲͇̮̗̭̪͔̙̯̭̖̖̮̮͖̱̟̠̭͎͓̮̤̞̙̖̪̻̠̳̺͓̜̩̼̹̼̹̦̲̺̗͍͎̠͈̞̗̫̯̮͇͓̖̗́̓̽͐̇̌͑̽͐̾̈̀͐͊͛̆̈͛́̄̈́̿̐̾̑̍̔͗̌̾́͐̽͊̎̎̑̏͒̆̀́̒̀̂̄̈̈̈͐̇͌̈́̎́̓͑̀͐͑̍̿̀̈̽͗̓͆͛̀́͋͂͌̓̉͊̃͘̚̕͘͜͜͝͝͝͝͝͠͝͝ͅͅͅͅi̵̧̢̢̢̢̢̨̧̡̢̢̢̛̛͔̩͎̗͉̘͔̘͙̺͖̭͖͚̹̲̳͚̯̪̮͓͓̱̹̳͎͈̞̜̫̳̰͓̱͇͍̻͍̦͓̻̦͔͉͕͉̤͎̫̺̯̗̱̖̬͇̹̖̬͇̯̰̣͉͎͎̥̰̜̹̺͓͂͆̎̀͛̑́̒̓́̈́̔͊̌́̃̏̋̃̓͋̅͂͋͂̓͊͛̐̓̊̀̇́̆̍̓̅̋̓̃͐̋̒̽̍̐̄̈͑͘͜͜͜͠ͅş̵̧̢̧͖̺̺̗̪͕̟͉̺̪̠̠̝͍̝̩̥͎̬͔̹̲̼̺̖̘̭͇͍̣͓̝̼̦̥̬͇̤̼͓͎͍͇́̉̈̀̏͛͆͋͒̆̓̈́̃̈́̒̓̆͆̈͂͘̕͘͜͜͝͝͝͠͝ ̵̨̧̡̛̛̦͇̭̼͖̪̻̻̣̫͉͖̦̠̫̳̜̤̬͇̬͕̹̗͔̙̠̝̱̮̻̯̠̪͙̭̖̹̱͎̩̜̼̣͍̲̯͖̈͆̋̿̂̒̔͆̈́͆͑̐̐͊͋́̓̎̈́̊̎͐͂̋͆̿͐̍͊̀͌̆͘͘͜͠ą̸̧̢͙̗̺͇̘̟̗̥̭͓̫̘̳͙̝̣̗̰̄̾ͅ ̷̛̛̛̠̺̬̣̰̥̬̞͉͖̫̻̈͊̏͒͐͑̓̔͐̀̊̈́́̌̋̄̀̋̽̈̑́́͊̽̈́̇̓͌̈́̆̒̉̌̂͋̌̓̆̐̐̂̊̀̇̓͋̆̾̾́́̂̈̃̽̽͂̎̓͋̔̈̍͋̆̓̈́̅̅̈́̊̑͒̽̽͋̀̂́̀̽̒̀̒̓̑̋̾͊͛̔̀̾̊̒̉͋̓̌̽̂̐͒͘̕̚̚̚͠͠͝͠͝͝l̸͔͎͚̫̥̿̐̓̑̈͐̈́̃̍̓͌̎̔̾̚͝͠͝͠ỡ̵̢̡͈̱͓̬͇̲̪͗͌͆͐̐͂͋̈́̋͛̍̈̒͌̔̓̂̋̀̅̒͆̆͂͑͆͂̃̄̇̓͑̆̔́̍̚͘͘̕͠͝͝ͅţ̸̨̧̢̧̡̡̨̛̛̛̛̤̼̲̙̣̣͍̗͔̦̦͈͇͍͖̩̙͇̙̝̤̳̠̟̮̮̰̳̦̭͍͉̜̤̭̙̲̦͓̳͔̤̣͔̱̙̦̖͍̱͕͕̖͉̗͈̺̯͕̥͔͚̞͖̳͎̼̪̳̮̳̤̬̮͕̖͔͚͙̗̥̆̔̈̾́̒̊̋̽̀̔͛̽̓̈̈̆͋̒̈́̃̉̈́̿̓͊̃̉̊̾̇͗͆̍̀̈̍͋̋̈́͐͋͊̎̈́̿̌́̐͐͂̑̄͂͑̄͊͐̃͗̌̋͒̈̿͒͊̏̿̆̓̅̋̕̕̚͘͘͜͠͠͝͝͝ͅͅ ̷̯̱͉̲̈̓̾̔̈́̒̎͗̅̉̚o̷̢̡̡̨̢͖̹͍̖͚͕̪̮̜̗̦͎̲͈̼̼͔͓̥͍̹͈̟̪̺̬͉͈̟̻̰͚̣͙̱̹̜͍̰̩̣̮͖͍̪̺͎͍̩͖̗̺̼͙̥̹̅̌͑̿́͐̅̓͐͂̑̓̽͆̓͊̒́̉̿̌͐́̏̅̽̊̕͜͜͜͜͜͝͠͝ͅf̵̨̧̨̡̨̧̨̛̩̻͚̦͉͉͔̺͉͈͎̝̘͕̙͎̮̤͉̼̩̪̙̭̞͙̺̺̝̥̘̳̭̳̯̭̞̮̼̬̳̜̹͉̮̱͉͖̞̰̫͇̫̻͈̘͕͉̥̮̲̹̭̦̟̫̩̤̯͔̬͕̖̯̖̮͉̤̭̫͙̰͔͖̻̞͎͚́͑̃͂̾̀̓̓͊́̀́̊̀̋̆̊͐̋̉̐̾̈̾͊̂̔̀̌̆̔͌̆̈̊̆́̃̐̕̕̕͜͠͠͝͝͠ͅͅ ̸̢̨̧̧̨̧̧̛̛̥̭̬̲͈̣͈͎͓̲̭̜̳͉̟̝͖̫̫͔͔̤̼̭̖͓̜̺͎̮͖̤̬̣͔̭̩͎͍̞̼̺̖̯̤̬̲̩̭̼̻̱̰̺̺̘̣͉͇͕̙̱̞̳̬̭̯̞͕̗̰̗̘͇͙̦̭͎͔̯̣͓̪͖̬̗̗̗̟̳̮͙̖̮͕̺͈̩̘̬͕̖̞̲̟̗͌͌̽̎̍̉̍̋͑̂̈́͛̂̅̐̋͗̀͑͑̀̔͜͜͜͜͝͝͝͝͠ͅͅͅḍ̴̢̧̨̨̡̧̧̡̢̡̡̡̨̛̛͖̠̮̬̙̬̖̦͎̪̟̠̫̘͕͚͉̲͓͍̲͔̭̠̺̝̻͇̲̺͓͙͎̥̞͙͕̫̙̝̗̪͔͇̪̪̬̫̠͖͎̤̝͈̪̘̞̫̟̫̙͇̜͇̺̝͖̪͒͐͛͗̉̀̊͐͊͂̓͐̾̽̕̕̕͜͜͜͝͝ã̶̧̢̧̧̡̢̡̡̰̮̝̮̝̹͙͈͎̗͎̝̙͙̲͙͓͚̰̼̼̩̙͚̟͖̝̫̥̲̮̬͚͉̖̣̝̳̳̙͎̘̣̻͙̣͈͈̮͕̦̖̲̞̞͈̭̖͇͚̪͉̯̞̭̩̥̭̻͉̳̭͙̳̪͌́̓̽̀̎̌̅̌͗̏̃͌́͘̚͜͝ͅͅͅm̶̡̨̛̛̛̲̱̦͎͉̹̼͇͔̘̹̖͕̱͈̓̒́͐̋̀́̾̆̓̈́͊́͛̋̌͌̇̔͛͗̈́̈̂̌̓͂̄͒͐̔̈̅͒̈́̊͂͌̊̊͂̾̈͐̂̆̒̈́̏̈́͊͗̎̈͗͋̌̾̓̃̆͑͑̒̿̏̈́̽̋̐̾̾͂̈́͋̈́̓͂̉̈́̈́̓́̑̓̈́̈́̑̐́́̽̓̾̌̑͑͗̽̽͘̕̕̚̕̚͘̕̕̚͜͜͜͝͠͝͝͠ͅä̴̧̡̧̡̼̖̤̟͈̪̱͕͎̣̱̰̺̗̖͔͙̤̮̼̮͇̩̦͔͔̣̼̰̫̐̃̎̉̀́̇͐̔̽̐͛̐̆̋̀̏̈̈̓́͆͑̒̏̆̑̈́͌̓̃͆̋͂̎̅̊́́̈͆̐͊̎̀͆̆̇̓͊̓̃̿̀͗̉́̂̄̑͊͊̀̒͒͊̔͐́̐̍̍̽̿̈́̉̊̄̃̒͑̂̏̊̄̾̅̉̒̍͆́̓̑̎͗͘̕̚̚̕͘͘͝͝͝͝͠ͅg̷̢̡̧̡̡̢̡̢̡͍͎͖̫̠̦̳̞̦̳̗̱̼̦̬̦̮̳̮̲̘̘͕̙͔͉̖̹̭̦̹̫̘̟̭͓͖̳͖͓̣̟̪̤̗̏͑̉̈́̾́̎̋̈́͐͒̿͐̎̆̈́̚͘͝ͅͅe̸̛̛͔̟̎́̔̇̆̾̒̆͊̑̉̔̎̿̂̄̀̓́̉͛͗͊̒̔͌͐̒̑͂̅͋̉̀̏̆̐̈́͒̆̾̊̄̽̓͊͆͌̌͗͑̓̒͗̈́̂̅̈́̓̌̈́̐̿̏͐̽͊͛͌̆͒̚̚͘̕̕͘̚͠͠͝͠͝͝͝͝͠͝͠͝͝ ̸̧̧̡̢̢̨̢̨̡̢̛̛̛̛̹͎̜͈̥̱̺̣̱̤̭͕͈͇͈͕͕̤̞͕͙̮̹̙͇̣̫̖͚̫̜͔̬͍̫̬̪͇̫̗̝͙̼͔͔̩̘̰̖̻̤͚̣̰͍͈̤̙̲̱̳͕͚̣̘̰̩̰͔̳̫̞͕̖̪͎̥͇͍̥͈̥̺͇̩̪̰͉͉͕̟͈̟͓̺͍̦͕͓͔͓͈̮͕̰̪̀̐̉͊̀̈̾͌̋͊̿̽͌̏̏͗̓͛́̋̈́̌̈́̃̾͗͑͑̎̏͑̽̄̎̅̀̄̽̈̐́͋̄̀͋͐̊͆̊̾͛̏̆̔͋̎̿͂͐̓͂̈̈́̌̊̐͗͗̓̃̅͒̈́̀̄̎̇́͒͗̋͂̀̉͆͒͗̃̒̂̿̐̿̈͌̿̓̋͌̇̔̒̓̕͘̕͝ͅͅͅͅ
@@caxe7 hahahahah
"Before there was time, before there was anything, there was nothing. And before there was nothing, there were monsters."
"Here's your Gold Star"
"We will travel to every light to extinguish it"
Nah, it's more like
"There was an army, endless unbeatable army."
I hope you havent gone hollow friend
Adventure time lore?
"So, I can't smoke inside the ship?"
"No."
"Alright, alright... I'll take it outside."
*"NO!!"*
But can I vape?
Lmao
@@SCP-001DatabaseAdministrator No, you can't. Had a relative who was reminded that in a highly flammable environment, even those heating coils are dangerous. Dip, on the other hand...
Try smoking outside I dare you!
What about hitting the space juuls
Whenever you mention, “Created by a higher authority,” I think, “Yeah. The Dungeon Master.”
True lol
I was thinking Ao tbh.
Random Dragon Ao is just the supreme god of one sphere
Lebanem carl I wonder if similar gods to him convene like gold dragons? Do they have the same fear of Phlogysten as the other gods? After all, they are the gods of gods.
Random Dragon Idk but it would be pretty dumb if Ao couldn’t change the sphere.
“All living beings (temporarily) crystallise when they run out of air while in the phlogiston”.
d-does that mean the crystal orbs protecting reality are made from crystallised living tissue?
underrated comment
WhatTheF*ckWhatTheF*ckWhatTheF*ck
@Aodhan Rhys its basically aot if you think about it ! - !)
plot twist the stars are alive and are made from phlogiston
I gagged
Inside the phlogiston - can't solve problems with fireball
Wizards: *HEAVY SWEATING*
Ivan Marcus de Goes Lopes it’s poor wizard that can’t solve a problem without a fireball.
This sounds like I can solve more problems with fireball
pfftt ice spells :P
This sounds like it can be solved with some fire immunity.
That's what Scintillating Sphere is for.
“Upon take off, all Scrying Crystals must be set to airplane-mode.”
That is a delightfully underrated joke... and I'm stealing it for use in my own campaign lol
"Please remember to douse all flames before existing the Crystal Sphere. Should we find ourselves in an area devoid of oxygen, a mask will deploy from the ceiling above your seats. Please, fasten your own mask before helping your neighbor with theirs"
Dont you mean flying ship mode?
PFFFF- HAHAHAHAHA HAAAAAA
i needed that
After arriving, you must enable interstellar roaming on your prayer focus and beware of roaming charges.
I gotta say this sounds like a pretty awesome set up for a lvl 20 campaign. After reaching level 20 you are summoned to the home of the gods, where they explained that something is causing the breakdown of the crystal shells. They task the adventurers with leaving the crystal shell since they can not and finding and fixing the cause of the breakdown phenomenon to save not only the universe but they themselves from total annihilation. Imagine as a player being given a task that not even the gods can complete because you are mortal you can do something that even they can not. It's the perfect scenario for a group of lvl 20 adventurers!
And have the dm raise the level cap with house rules and becoming more than gods! 😄😂
"Why dont we have beings that think kf us as Gods?"
Me:
Looks at Dog.
Dog:
*Stares in pure wonder lust as I listen to a voice emitted from a box and eat food from the infinite food box, perhaps reflecting how him and his Father were so fortunate to be the servants of this gentle entity.*
knowyourmeme.com/photos/1528940-wholesome-memes
_Huuuuungh!_ *MY FEELS!!!*
My feels..... I thank you both for this. I can't have a dog (or almost any pets) because they make my allergies act up real bad. I still love them and pet them, even if I have to suffer for a few days. Maybe one day I can find one that doesn't make me sneeze.
Wonderlust is one word. Two implies something not safe for youtube.
@@TheDigitalWatcher theres always one virgin grammar nazi
Nobody will ever be as good as their dog thinks they are… but you can always try
campaign idea: a team of clerics and paladins traveling and evangelizing throughout the differing crystal spheres to grow their god's influence/ power.
when he talked about the gods not having followers and it no leting cast spells i thinked in imposing your religion in that place
Nah, killing Raksasha in hell to the point of extinction is easier, plus if you died your soul won't stuck in space...
While they question their own religions. Some slowly lose their faith and some descent to madness because of the lack of godly presence as they travel.
The gods actually can't do that only IO can expand the "space" where the two serpents create realm. Plus if they make it too big, the never-ending cthulhu army gonna notice where the world location...
@@isamuddin1 more plot ideas, nice!
I have no experience whatsover with DnD, this just got into my recommendations and I got hooked by the title
Welcome traveller.
I love dnd and the title got me too. Reminds me of that one line in The Grand Experiment by Doomtree
“And all of Olympus was laughing
Until we go and split the atom”
Like, the even gods are afraid of the vast power that exists here
TL;DR: All things end in Lovecraft.
As it should be
Or being
And terraria. You do get to slay cthulu.
@@silkenemperor Conveniently, C'thulu is one of the weakest gods of the Mythos by orders of magnitude!
This reality is mental all thoughts a the truth
I've been working on a homebrew campaign with a BBEG that's a lesser god from the shadowfell who lives in a huge lake of slime that he can form into his body. His ultimate goal is to have a ship drag his slime across the phlogistim rivers, turning himself into a sorta living leyline between spheres who can keep growing and keep connecting spheres until he has power over every world
Now that's an intimidating future to fight against.
In mine I plan on connecting it over multiple campaigns until someone realizes that this old man has been in every campaign
Nice big bad, very creative!
@@MaestroRigale Thanks! I hope to build him up with a few campaigns based around him, starting with his ascension from adventurer to godhood, then his growth in power and a war with the Raven Queen, then if he's still alive a campaign of him trying to take his influence multiverse-wide!
@@Kng-hv2qb That's a Brandon Sandeson move. I like it. :)
“Guys! The Phlogiston has broken through the crystal sphere and is heading for the sun! What do we do?!”
*Everyone turns to look at the wild magic sorcerer*
Sorcerer: frantically begins casting spells trying to cause the sun to explode
Putting a spherical portal surrounding the sun might do it
Fleshcrafter : Hold my beer.
The Wild Sorcerer: My time has come.
I once dreamed of the Greek Pantheon had a space program, to reach even higher than Olympus, but their powers had never extended into the Uranian void, and thus struggled despite being gods. I had no idea that D&D had basically canonized this idea :D
bruh I dreamt of this idea to
Write the book! I wanna read it!
thank you, ive been having a similar thought of this, the gods never able to leave beyond our solar system and because of that they make and remake the earth to create creatures who might eventually leave beyond or to reset so we dont learn that we can never truly leave our solar system
My god the cringe
@@TheSonofhatchet you're only putting a restriction on your variety of experiences that you allow yourself to experience by trying to shame others like this
Please you are the only one that i trust to explain such a complicated topic:
What is a SOUL? Why so many spells, gods, entity ecc utilize them?
I can explain that, but I will need you to sign an EULA and NDA first, in blood. And I only accept Bitcoin as payment. 😈
@@jtjames79 also send a generous payment to me as proof of your determination of course :) it's all part of a test you see...
the way i understand it in DND is YOU are the SOUL. you HAVE a BODY. you exist as the soul and when your body dies your soul goes to the afterlife, probably the nine hells unless you worshiped a god faithfully. then you would go to the corresponding "heaven"
@@midas6753 shure no problem. I'll just escrow the private key with an N-of-M glyph, to be released on signing.
Actually He made a video a long time ago that explained a lot about the souls and what happen when you die it is the one named "Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Asmodeus' Truth Revealed"
Well now I just have a badass scenario in my head of a level 20 party ordering a mass evacuation of a crystal sphere that cracked through some truly unholy power.
Yes.
All my yes.
What part of "nothing can break it" did you not understand?
@@ezequielmorales4221 Nothing a bit of Homebrew can't fix. *malicious grin*
@@spartanhawk7637 Oh, you are one of *those* Dungeon Masters. Good, plan away, and if everything fails * rocks fall, everyone dies *
Imagine waking up and seeing a crack in the sky and when you look through you see something looking back clawing away in a desperate attempt to enter the realm. The ultimate dnd adventure. You’re not fighting to win, you’re fighting to survive whatever has been wrought upon this cursed plain. I’d love to see a campaign play out like this. Kind of a majoras mask scenario except there is no saving the world this time only not being there what it’s destroyed
Gods: *mostly harmless*
Hitchhiker's DM Guide to the Universe
GOD: has done you fuckin wrong.
Ya Boy: DRAG HIS ASS INTO THE PHLOGISTON AND SHANK HIS BITCH ASS.
"WE APOLOGISE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE."
"Mathematically speaking in comparison to the scale of the material plane, gods can't do anything to us. We however remind our dear readers, neither we can do anything at all."
Imagine a villain who left his home sphere to uncover the secrets of phlogistion and intentionally became an ephemeral to allow himself to continue his research, all in a bid to find a way to kill all of the gods...
I need this in my life now...
Could a lich enter the phlogiston? Could any undead, by that measure? Maybe a necromancer would be able to study the ephemerals without necessarily dying, because I feel like only a very very strong soul would be able to keep their minds after becoming one.
@@AzafTazarden or why not suck the souls out of a body or group of bodies right before entering the interstellar area, so that the Ephemerals have an empty body that isn't quite dead yet. Then promise them to take them to the nearest port in exchange for information and knowledge. What happens if one becomes a lich in this place
@@AzafTazarden I don't see why corporeal undead couldn't. They still have souls tied to their bodies, and aren't multidimensional like ghosts or banshees.
Other ways easier to do that
My guess is that the phlogiston is a resemblance of the DM's thoughts, connecting the diffrent worlds.
Thats why every map of it could be diffrent depending on your game.
(furthermore the phlogiston is known as the "essence of creation" so I think it makes sense)
Yah i also picked up on this line of reasoning and applied it when designing my campaign. It mentions ao of answering to a luminous being which was widely interpreted as the gm and the philogiston is his mind. This would make the Chuthulan monsters there the gm monsters of the id perhaps his/her darkest thoughts. Anyway its food for thought.
Well, the probability of an ancient evil trying to bring an end to gods and everything is awesome. Wonder if it's even possible for players to stop this kind of apocalypse.
its a lovecraftian inspired thing ( farrealm and shit), the whole idea that players not only powerless, but close to non-existing compared to those things, best players and gods can do is to stop influence of those things on their planets/spheres.
Maybe in future editions we will get some modules where gods unite to stop those thing (playing as gods them selves or combined avatars of several dozens god)
It seems like the only way to stop such a force would be for all the gods in the multiverse to join forces with their followers. But even that's a tall order.
@@Azarel06 Farrealm is different than space stuff though
I mean they do seem to be far less restricted there than gods. So i would say yes. I think such a giant could be killed from the inside.
How do you fight primordials bigger than planets? Can I back-stab the thing?
"Why don't we have creatures that venerate us as gods?" Clearly you've never had a beloved acolyte doggo.
Back in 2e Spelljammer I remember it saying something about how a god could establish itself in a new sphere. Basically, a cleric of his/hers/its has to travel to the new sphere, then establish a congregation of converts numbering at least 100 or 1,000 (can't recall which one). If the cleric can do that and maintain that number of believers for a year, the god can grant powers and spells the same in the new sphere as in the old. There were also religions that focused heavily on space and spelljamming, and so clerics of those religions (Ptah and Celestian) had access to their spells in any sphere.
"People who run out of air in the Phlogiston turn to stone and enter suspended animation"
*Eventually, Kars stopped thinking*
"You have been disconnected from your god."
God was not an imposter.
Gotta use 5e to connect out there
@@theharmacist3103 Holy shit
It's ok I'll just turn on my data
@@radio5637 multiclass to wizard
Bonus fact: phlogiston means something that catches fire or something like that in my language. I believe it comes from another word "Phloga" meaning fire :D
It comes from an old concept of the universe so that is not unlikely.
It was actually believed to be a material that existed inside any flammable object, giving the object its flammable property. Hence the whole super flammable aspect it has
explains how the phlogiston is flamable
evocation wizards: *heavy breathing*
Step 1: obtain efreeti chain
Step 2: enter the phlogiston
Step 3: incendiary cloud
Step 4: ?????
Step 5: profit
I feel like ether triples energy based effects. Like kinetic energy or heat energy.
Others: well we cant use fireball anymore
Me: *my job is to blow up and then act like i don't know nobody*
@Ethan Hall *heavy pyro breathing*
@Ethan Hall en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlogiston_theory
4:16 "Eventually, Kars stopped thinking"
iS ThAT a jOJo ReFerENce
I can’t escape the references
I see you’re a fellow man of culture
People be talking about that being a JoJo reference, but that's an IHNMBIMS line as well, and most definitely first (implying a reference, not a lack of creativity, don't kill me neckbeard weebs) also it's infinitely more shocking to read that line on a cold morning drinking coffee in your back porch. Puts a really shaky fear in your core.
Somewhere in deep phlogiston.....in a stone skin shell.... a man, a creature, an ultimate life form...sleeps.
So theoretically, if you somehow managed, by rolling like, a billion charisma check on Tiamat and convinced them to join you on a voyage through the phlogiston and you managed to push them off your ship, would Tiamat eventually run out of air and petrify and resulting anyone relying on their power to become powerless??
The premise is wrong. If you're rolling that many billions of successful charisma checks on Tiamat herself, to the point you can convince her to join you? Buddy, you're clearly a Bard - you're going to be too busy banging her. You're not riding a ship through space you're riding a dragon.
Me: I can't believe we finally escaped into outer space! I'm gonna have a cigar to celebrate!
Shortest spaceflight ever
nah, candle sized flame (about what i'd expect from a match or lighter) just becomes a 1 die fireball 4 inches in radius. you've got a pretty decent chance to survive :)
SharkForce
Unfortunately, Joshua is a wizard who likes to show off by lightning his cigars with the fireball spell
@@sharkforce8147 That explosion is also fire so it is an inginite explosion
@@Abdega Ultimate flex: cast Meteor Swarm just to light your cigar on the ruins left behind
@@yaronsinger7271 nah. One boom, then it takes a little while for the phlogiston to backfill the "hole". Lighting a cigar in the flow is the equivalent of putting a firecracker in the cigar. A few points of fire damage, and a big laugh had by all, but not enough to destroy the ship... unless something else catches fire from the little bitty fireball.
Still, experienced spelljammers would probably kick you off the ship for doing something that stupid.
*~ Cthulhu:* _"Sup."_
Trash mythology
@@redgraves4030 Aw...lil boyo hasn't had his milk today. Here ya go. Drink sloowly, don't wanna make a mess of ya nappy.
Warlock: Eyy B0ss, I'm in de spaaace.
@@acedias12 But I am sure that, in the end, Lovecraft wasn't content with his work...
Oh, an him and Houdini happend to be best buds, as someone who wasn't the social type and would rather hang out in the night.
@@redgraves4030 trash taste
If I remember correctly, in the Forgotten Realms after the time of troubles everybody found out that the gods worshipped Ao, and at the end of the book based on the module it turned out that Ao worshipped a higher deity as he pulled off a Mork calling Orsen, and his boss was The Luminous Being aka God, big G. I haven't read it in over 30 years but I think that's the jist of it. Also Ao has no fear of the Phlogiston? As he is the overgod of two spheres. Mind you last time I played ad&d or read the books Wizards of the Coast had just purchased everything from TSR back in the late 80s so things may have changed.
"Quite harmless to living things."
Tell that to a Survivor. Lol
I mean it keeps you alive till you're safe to breath and keeps you safe from gods.
@@silkenemperor "safe from Gods"- say that to a Cleric or Paladin.
Most actual, real, interstellar space ~91% is hydrogen, the rest is helium, oxygen, bits of dust...
Hydrogen is named after water. In D&D there's phlogiston, named for fire...
If phlogiston is the analog for hydrogen, then the crystal sphere already has a star/sun fusing "phlogiston" into helium.
Fantasy space is weird.
Before modern combustion theory, the older understanding of "how things burn" was that burnable things contained phlogistan. When they burned, they "released" the phlogistan into the air. If burned in an enclosed space, it would burn until the air was saturated with phlogistan; when it couldn't hold any more, the fire would go out. Eventually, some clever people figured out that "phlogistan" was actually oxygen and they had the process backwards; the oxygen was already in the air and would be used up in the combustion. So D&D Phlogistan is based on an anachronistic understanding of oxygen but with a metaphysical spin.
"If we see the gods as gods, then why don't we have beings that see us as gods?"
We do. We call them dogs.
@Stella Hohenheim The circle is complete.
@Stella Hohenheim *Anubis*
No. They are The Beings in our Dreams that Exist in the Braincells. There is Genuine Scientific Study being done on this
Nah dogs would see us more like elves
Either that or we're the lowest layer of only 3 layers, or perhaps infinite layers and we're the infinitesimal.
Are warlocks with great old ones patrons also lose their spell outside their home ball?
Good point! I imagine that it depends on the nature of the connection/pact with the patron and the nature of the patron itself.
I would say yes, as the GOOs are based on the Lovecraftian gods, who are as terrifying as the bizarre powerful beings that were mentioned @ the end of the vid. I'd even say that they can only make Warlocks, not Clerics, because of the existence of the Crystal Spheres
I'm pretty sure the other planes the great old ones reside in are still tied to the same crystal sphere. It's my understanding that the crystal sphere is not just the material plane, but all planes connected to each other.
home ball
@@MatthewSmith-pv6gd if the Warlock was tied to an Outer God rather than a Great Old One, they should have access to their spells as the Outer Gods are extra Dimensional and not tied to planes of existence. Yog Sothoth exists outside of reality and has absolute knowledge of everything that happens on all scales of potentiality, whether it be within parallel universes, 1st-10th dimensional occurrences, interplanar activity, etc. Omniscient but rarely able to interfere save for the ocassional portal or link with cultist followers who can summon an avatar that he can feed on the energies existing here, he is still very powerful and capable of empowering his followers as he sees fit without hinderance.
40th level spell: Pierce Crystal Sphere
Wait, what?
maybe just 13th Level
Isn’t it 10th?
@@MCNarret n, the 10th Lv one only opens portals
JoaoG R So the question then becomes, how many portals would you need to open up to completely cover a sphere?
Pelor: I AM THE LIGHT
Tempus: I AM WAR
Lolth: I am darkness and evil
Azathoth: *Yawns*
Outer Gods sensing Azazoth stirring: *extra drumming and skirling pipes*
Lovecraft is trash
@@redgraves4030 I'm sorry my good sir, it seems like you mispelled “epic”
@@shriekingskeleton I doubt a child like you knows what that word means
@@redgraves4030 Yea i'm surely a child for enjoying the works of the father of cosmic horror
I did do the gods have gods, well specifically a god, he was the main villain.
Long story short we could not kill them because this will kill the multiverse, so we put it to sleep under the collective power of gods,
This made another campaign where the villain tried to wake up the god.
Had a homebrew setting once where the gods were manifestations of their worshipers faith, and after several millennia the gods would be culled and devoured along with most of their followers by a sort of "great old one" entity.
The world was a garden for its food, so to speak.
Azathoth
You mean Dragon lance (eye roll)
D&D gods do have gods, at least they had when I was still playing 15-20 years ago. I think the Toril one was called Ao or something like that and he had a father/god in return. At the end of one D&D book (about the Time of Troubles) he talked to the gods of Toril, then he left and went back home were his Father told im he did a good job... (or something like that!? Like I said its been a pretty long time since I read my last D&D book or played the pen and paper the last time)
You are correct, that is the ending of the time of troubles book. Not sure if it was Ao’s father per se, but definitely a higher order being. Also, the gods don’t worship Ao, but he is definitely their superior.
It was true in D&D and most real world myths. The gods are offspring of Gods or other powerful creatures who are sometimes themselves offspring of even higher beings. Greece and the gods being offsprings of Titans for example who were offspring from other beings.
The highest god in D&D is the Cosmic EGG, who wrote the Akashic Record that determines the fundamental physics of all D&D gameworlds (and stranger distant worlds which seem to be emulations and echoes of D&D).
I hate to be that guy but, D&D gods are not all the same. Before Forgotten Realms, which was an independent work by Ed Greenwood, the original D&D what was called greyhawk, Which had gods did that did not have over gods. Forgotten Realms was incorporated into Dungeon & Dragons the God and over God story was incorporated. This is only existing in the Forgotten Realms. If you would have take a look at every other Campaign World in Dungeons & Dragons, you will not find a God's God usually if ever.
Yea AO is still a thing and infact has been exapnded on rather recently. It has been revealed that HE is actually a Dragon, and He has a boss, The grand creator.
Wizard: "I'll cast fireba-"
Phlogiston: "Do you want to explode?"
I'll cast an elemental-shifted fireball--lightning-ball
"Did I stutter sassy gas?"
Alternate theory: the gods fear the mighty Crab Empire which dwells in the phlogiston, so they hide away in their Crystal Spheres and pretend to be in control.
It's a good thing I don't like crab meat.
CRAB PEOPLE
CRAB PEOPLE
TASTE LIKE CRAB
TALK LIKE PEOPLE
That's the crab room
The crabs... the crabs... oh Ao, the crabs are come! Clicking, clacking in the deep... the feet, the claws... so many... so many many claws... CRAAAAAAAAAABS
Third theory...lord AO is the "shepherd" overgod of Faerun, insert another overgod for each sphere. Tablets of fate series? Spelljammer sourcebooks. Elminster mutterings and Shar Selune battles, spellplague series spoilers. Shar dances in the far realm constantly and controls much..."In the darkness of the void we hear the whisper of the night , heed its voice"
"God, why have you forsaken me?"
"cause Cthulhu is lurking in the shadows. good luck. don't call me, I'll call you, bu-ye."
My pet theory: Phlogeston is essentially a material assertion of everything existing. And elemental void is a similar assertion that nothing exists, with the difference in color and shade being a result of how EMPHATIC the assertion is in that place/time.
Ergo by grabbing specific times/places of the two, and ramming them together you neutralize all possible existences except one or two thus creating items, events, people, gods, etc.
This idea makes the natural dissipation of phlogeston inside a crystal sphere the result of the sphere being defined by the lack of phlogeston being inside. Which I kind of like.
Bonus note: I used to have dreams of drifting through a substanceless place with the same visual description as the phlogeston. This was always the intro to a dream about visiting a world forign to me.
This is some Elder Scrolls/40k shit and I love it.
damn
Michael Kirkbride would be proud
just remember it drove HP Lovecraft insane but enjoy your creativity
The gassy ether that is the phlogiston is not space, it is something more akin to sub-space or hyperspace.
The crystal spheres are really Dyson spheres that protect wild space from the far realm.
The far realm isn't that far. It's just on the other side of the Dyson spheres.
You see, D&D is set billions of years in to the future after the Milky-way collided with Andromeda.
The denizens of the far realm are just life forms from Andromeda.
No they're humans
Can you point me to source to this? Where it is written? I'm so curious
@Owen Yin it'd be really cool though
wait, so that Kevin Sorbo space series Andromeda that was on decades ago was actually nonfiction? 😁
In our Cosmology, the Far Realm is from where all the planes come from, the Astral Plane being basically the entropy version of the Realm, for them we are similar to what the Plane of Negative Energy, or the Shadowfell is to us, so when Azathoth is giving that crazy ass Warlock the spells he needs to start a cult, he thinks he is trying to help us by making us "normal", like stuff is in the Far Realm. If we happen to grow tentacles and spit spiders everytime we sneeze is because it is what's meant to be.
Also every character that reads the book where the real way Cosmology works is laid out, he or she starts losing Wisdom until they become insane rambling lunatics writting the truth in odd alien runes with their poop in padded walls.
That was cool. You actually helped me out quite a bit. I had a character I've been meaning to bring over and I needed an explaination of how he got to our world from Ravnica.
This is the 8th apocalypse you've covered on this channel. Civilization ending: Dracolitch, Aboleths, Krakens, Mindflayers, Dragons Vs Giants. Existence ending: Asmodeus' true serpent form, Entropy, Far Realm.
Join me on discord
Can you talk about the Elder Brain ? You never finished the series on mind flayers
YES PLS
I think I’d like this too
seconding this, the ilithid are awesome
ioulaum becoming an elder brain...
this topic interests me, also.
I can imagine a campaign centered around a fallen god. One whose crystal sphere was cracked open by an eldritch aberration. They take the form of an avatar wandering aimlessly through the void until rescued by the players and then brought to their new crystal sphere where they can regain their powers and bless the players. Perhaps even making them part of a new pantheon altogether?
Part 2 could be finding out what that aberration is/was, how it got there and where it is now.
What if a rival entity lured it there or there was no aberration and it's just a coverup story from a god that has been banished from their seat of power for their crimes.
Technically a warlock that derives its power from the Old Ones should be fine.
That's an interesting idea. I know this is old but would you care to elaborate? 🥺
@@Hotarubi-dono Probably because they have an intimate relationship with an incomprehensible being from beyond the stars, so facing the unknowable horror of the void is an old hat?
That's my guess at least
Actually got to the parts about the Gods, the Old ones are from beyond the Stars. If the stars are inside the spheres, or even within the "flammable space that I can't spell", then the old ones should be outside of even that, meaning their power, which is already transferring through said unspellable space, should still reach the warlock
@@Hotarubi-dono I think the old ones exist outside the crystal spheres.
@@J0hnB09 isnt old ones from Cthulhu mythos ?
Yes
As I recall from the SpellJammer 2nd Edition source books, there is a mysterious shattered Crystal Sphere out there where it is speculated that somehow the Phlogiston got in.
@Michael Johnson Thank you for that information, which is usually lost to spelljammer history, but could you please not type all in caps?
Oh my god I just got that module
I lean towards the theory of a power above the gods; an Absolute that set up separate realities where things can play out differently. Perhaps the beings of the Far Realm serve as a reset button, to be released into individual spheres to wipe everything out, and let things start over anew.
I'm so happy we have an explanation for what happens to clerics and warlocks outside their crystal sphere. But what happens to wizards and sorcerers? Don't their spells rely on the weave, which is generated by a god?
Nope. Weave is only maintained by it's associated gods. Magic was always a bit separate from the gods in dnd especially arcane magic.
@@Washeek the weave is only even a thing in forgotten realms. no other settings even *had* a "weave" at all in the first place for a god to control.
remember, forgotten realms rules do *not* apply beyond the crystal sphere. the weave is a specific forgotten realms thing that a specific forgotten realms deity does. step beyond her influence, and there is no more mystra, no more weave, and magic still works without either of them.
@@sharkforce8147 Thanks for the clarification. I admit I am using a lot of headcannon here. Question is though if in Forgotten realms, the arcane magic comes from Mistra's weave... Wouldn't the arcanists and especially wizards need to relearn how to cast spells once outside of the crystal sphere? Like especially realmspace wizards.
@@Washeek *shrug* apparently not. probably the weave works the same, but has higher theoretical limits. or, possibly the weave works exactly the same, since there is just no clear mention of level 10 spells outside of realmspace but they might be possible anyways. i don't know of anything that clearly 100% for sure states that they can only be done with the weave, after all.
that said, the forgotten realms was balanced very differently from the rest of their settings from what i can tell, so i would personally be inclined to stick with the assumption that things that are possible in forgotten realms are only possible elsewhere if explicitly mentioned as a general rule.
Elminster went to Greyhawk and his spellcasting abilities were totally fine
I love how the phlogiston is so threatening yet strangely serene. And it allows you to get as meta as you want with creation lore. Absolutely great video and can’t wait to see the TOA one!
"The universe of Dungeons and Dragons is an ocean of worlds inside crystal spheres, but outside of these crystal spheres is composed of nothing but a rainbow colored ether called The Phlogiston."
And that was only the first ten seconds.
But does this even exist in current dnd? They now have the astral plane and astral sea
@peterbenckendorf9724 pretty sure it is, since Toril, the world Faerun is on, isn't the only D&D world, and I believe the different crystal spheres thing is meant to explain the different gods and universal/metaphysical construction of existence itself, despite it being part of the same mythos. So I think the Astral Sea, as well as the Elemental and Outer Planes, are also contained within these crystal spheres. After all, the Astral Sea isn't space outside the planet, it's a different, adjacent plane of existence, but also part of the same crystal sphere.
@@omegagilgamesh but there are two things, the astral plane, and the astral sea. One of those is the seperate plane that all material planes have, the other is the space between the different planes, and I believe has replaced the phlogiston or what have you
@@peterbenckendorf9724 huh? The Astral Plane and Astral Sea are different? I'll have to do some research.
@peterbenckendorf9724 okay, after some research, the Astral Plane and the Astral Sea are, indeed, the same thing, seen on pages 44 and 46 of the DnD 5e Dungeon Masters guide, and while I haven't found any mention of the Phlogiston in 5e material yet, I haven't found any reason why it wouldn't still exist. I stand corrected in one thing: the Phlogiston and Crystal Spheres are part of the Prime Material Plane, rather than each Crystal Sphere containing a multiverse with the Phlogiston separate. To make this clear, as terminology has changed in-lore after the Spellplague, each world is called a Material Plane, but all of them, including Wildspace (the space between the planets and the Crystal Sphere), and the Phlogiston between the Crystal Spheres, are collectively referred to as the Prime Material Plane. Now the Astral Plane/Sea connects all the Material Planes, as well as the Outer Planes (Elysium, Limbo, the Abyss, the Nine Hells, ect) and could be used to bypass the Phlogiston when traveling to other Material Planes. Any questions?
"Why don't we have beings that think of us as gods?" - we do, their called dogs
Caveman who tamed wolves: Pride
They're*
They're
They’re*
there*
One question keeps nagging me: since arcane magic seems to work fine, and gods have no power, it would appear that wizards can show Mystra the middle finger in the phlogiston and cast whatever non-planar magic they know with no restrictions. How does this actually work out?
Yeah thinking about the same thing. Wizards could use the outside of the crystal sphere to cast higher level spells.
Yeah, good point.....
well, so far as i'm aware it isn't clearly stated that elven high magic or high level spells are possible at all in the core rules. barring explicit mention that it is possible (as it was at one point in realmspace), i'm not sure you could cast that sort of magic.
but if it's just a low level spell that mystra doesn't like and which doesn't rely on special magical rules to function, then sure, no problem.
@@sharkforce8147 I don't care much about game rules, especially not what is core or isn't, only lore. The issue is whether Mystra's Ban changed the structure of the Weave in 1) Realmspace only, 2) all crystal spheres or 3) everywhere including Phlogiston. If Option 1 or 2 is true, wizards not only potentially get access to forbidden spells in the Phlogiston, but also don't have to choose which spells to memorize on any given day (cast like sorcerers rulewise).
I think it's worth considering that God's may in fact have control of phlogiston, but by limited capacity, or perhaps by great cost. It may be possible that the gods can manipulate that space and ether, but only over eons. Or perhaps to do so they need to sacrifice other gods, or great power. If magic works well enough there, then what is to say a god could not use the souls of their followers as a magical power to manipulate it? Afterall, elvish high magic sometimes requires the souls of their highest wizards.
I don't buy that the gods have no power outside of the shells. I think it is supposed to be a cosmic mystery, of which the oldest and most powerful gods know the truth of, but that even lesser or demi gods do not know. I think that it is more likely that in the D&D world, it is simply that the gods are not willing to make whatever grand self sacrifice that would be necessary to harness control over it.
But wouldn't Ao technically have influence over the crystal sphere if anything were to happen? I mean, each crystal sphere has an Overgod who created and rules over it. And, in the event that a particularly important Sphere were to be damaged, would it not make sense for the Luminous Being to intervene directly? (Though, if you take the idea that the Luminous Being is in fact the DM, then I guess having your DM say "Nope. I deny access of the Phlogiston in to the world." would technically be canonical...)
That creepy voice at the end sent shivers up my spine.
Yeah. Not going to lie, my blood got cold.
My greatest campaign I ran was a Spelljammer one. It was over a six month period. And now almost, ow boy, 18 years later my friends that were on it still bring it up! Makes me proud.
I had no idea there was a hyperspace travel network in D&D.
_"...Do you think that God stays in heaven because He, too, lives in fear of what He has created?"_
Spy kids.
@@FeliceJaganshi Yeah, you won the prize there.
Spy Kids 2, technically speaking.
@@kanseidorifto2430 Not technicality, specificity.
Can we talk about the fact that this deep line WAS in fucking Spy Kids? Why did they write it into a kid’s movie?
D&D designers grasping inside a hat: "And we shall call the interplanar space ocean.... uuuh.... Phlogiston."
"Shouldn't that have to do with alchemy?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
".... No."
Joke's on you. Phlogiston was the term scientists though an object had to have inside of it to be able to burn.
dw this lore is not for Forgotten Realms 5e and not up to date
Tony Smith that’s why op suggested the term belongs to alchemy, idiot
I know what's beyond phlagiston: EMRAKUL, THE AEONS THORN
YES!!!!
Well the elder I are indeed from outside the universal dimensions and thus you are actually right
All this does is put the image of medieval Gurren Lagann in my head. Heroes rise up to the ranks of godhood and beyond in order to stop an evil force trying to destroy the crystals
What happens to the elven kind? If I recall they are connected, unless they are the dark kind, they are out of the elven channel? If there are 2 elven people in the space vessel they get a private elven channel or still can't communicate write each other?
Isn't that through the Weave? Arcane magic seems to work fine.
@@MeneltirFalmaro The weave is only in the Forgotten realms, other worlds have different magic they draw from
@@DanielAfroHead You were confusing the spell-weave which is the domain of mystra with the weave of all magic everywhere. I know it's confusing cuz they use the term the weave.
@@joshuacr I could be wrong but I've never heard greyhawk use the weave. And I know other spheres don't need a god/goddess to maintain magic in their worlds. But if you know anymore I'd be really interested, there's so much lore that it's hard to get through it all haha
I like the idea that the spheres were made by a higher power and that power is us as dms. It’s a lore based way to explain why homebrew settings can’t be interacted with by beings from another setting.
Finally an Answer to the age old question "Why does God need a Spaceship?" - Capt. Kirk
Hey just while you’re on crystal spheres and this subject maybe something you could talk about. In the lore of the devil Moloch it talks about a second edition quest line where a plane or a planet some how got lost or cut off from the gods. I don’t know the entire lore but I guess that quest is still cannon because it’s described in Moloch’s page of Mordekinan
Just a quick thought: maybe a cleric of the travel domain could be granted more spells? Could be a good homebrew idea. If most powerful deities can give spells of 1-2 level, maybe a travel domain greater power could grant up to 3 or 4?
Successful phlogistan warfare: delayed blast fireball.
if you listened closely, i would understand that any fire spell go off immediately centered on you
@@Azarel06 it only said fire ball, not delayed fireball, however i still wonder if the spell would work as intend...
@@nattly6340 If I were your DM I would say yes, because that'd be creative.
@@DemigodoftheSea Depends on mechanism of delay. If delay is caused because the spell summons a fire magic at a timely manner...then it wont work because summoning spells don't work. If the spell is innate...then you catch fire/blow up...
@@Nameless2k6 That's not how Delayed Spell works tho. It's metamagic, not conjuration.
Pro Tip: Make warlock pacts with those things that dwell in the Far Realm and Phlogiston. One-up the gods. Lol
You've got the right idea. If you made a pact with a Great Old One who hails from the Far Realm, then yes, you would still receive your spells as normal in the Phlogiston, as well as any other crystal spheres. Just keep in mind that if your Great Old One hails from within a Crystal Sphere, you suffer the same limitations as a Cleric would. And unlike a Cleric, your Great Old One would not be able to influence other spheres just based on Worship alone.
GG Clerics and Paladins.
I didn't know anything about this. never really dealt with planar stuff in any of my past gaming groups. Clicked on the video purely by accident.
And was still thoroughly entertained. Good work, man.
I would love to hear more about SpellJammer. Perhaps more about the different crystal spheres that canonically can be travelled to, and what it's like for people who cross from one to another.
Technically you really need the box set to see all the lands that are Short of looking for something online for that spelljammer map and I can't guarantee you that's allowed by copyright law, but I can tell you right now, you could go to all the major campaign settings that ever were out. You can technically Spelljam to if there's no history blocking them. For instance, the Dragonlance series not only took the physical location of the planet out of alignment, but also put them out of time so you weren't able to Simply Spelljam for a long time, but you are now.
In no particular order, that would be Oerth on Greyhawk, Toril (another planet Aber is phase shifted) in Forgotten Realms/Kara Tur/Al-Kadim/Chult, Kyrnn in Dragonlance, Athas in Dark Sun, Mystara Planet in Blackmoor/Mystara. These are the major planets in the crystal spheres. There are others in the system, especially in the Toril system. Apologies if I'm forgetting a classic campaign planet's setting, but obviously not mentioning Planescape or Eberron Which are out of the Prime material plane areas.
"What does God need with a starship?"
Drag a god kicking and screaming into the warp... and feed him to the cosmic horrors there.
Wasnt that the title of the Chrono Trigger in a Nutshell paper?
"WHO IS THIS CREATURE?"
@@fienyx7333 It was what Kirk said in the movie, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
@@PlasmaMongoose ah. Its also the title of this synopsis of Xenogears, not chrono trigger. Its a hilarious summary.
the phlog is so scary since it pairs well with a coordinated uber push and can wipe the whole enemy team if you have max mmph
OH MY FUCKING GOD IS THIS A HAT SIMULATOR 2 REFERENCE?
I guess a Ring of Mind Shielding is a must in The Phlogiston. Since Raise Dead can't be cast there your only hope is for you companions to carry your soul into a Crystal Sphere and then cast Raise Dead.
I think it would be cool to have a campaign playing as a necromancer or death domain cleric where you travel the phlogiston helping lost souls return to their spheres
Paladins and clerics of the Raven Queen
This might be my favorite DnD video anyone has ever made and it's inspired me as a DM on a level that my players should fear
If we're going with the notion that all lore across every edition of D&D is given equal weight, then the "correct" answer to the question is that there IS, in fact, a higher authority that created the spheres and the phlogiston. Early D&D took a lot of inspiration from contemporary fantasy sources, and one of the more interesting "high cosmology" inclusions is that the Wheel of Time is canon. Rand al Thor is, or was, real, on some world or place, at some point in time. The Dragon is real. The Enemy is real. Io, the God of Gods, is explicitly based off of the transcendent existence Rand attained at the end of the series. Many of Io's nicknames are callbacks to the Wheel of Time and the accomplishments of Rand and his friends (the Ninefold Dragon, the Shadeswallower, the Great Wheel).
At the end of Wheel of Time, Rand achieved a state where he stood "outside of the world," and held the Enemy in the palm of his hand. In that moment, he realized that the long shadow cast by the great nemesis was thrown from a tiny, wretched, wormlike thing that was almost completely powerless when met on equal ground. Rand had the opportunity to destroy it, and in doing so end all Evil everywhere for all time. But standing outside of all worlds and time and looking in, he realized that the existence of Evil and the enemy served a purpose: the cosmos was a wheel, and the spinning of that wheel is what time itself was. The Enemy, ever defeated and ever craving to invade and take over the cosmos, would exert it's own power to turn the wheel and try again to conquer existence. If it was destroyed, then eventually time itself would end and all of existence would simply stop where it was, forever frozen and dead. So Rand al Thor did what every other manifestation of the Dragon has done when, having triumphed in the great struggle against the Nemesis, they stood in that place with a sword to the throat of the heart of all Evil. He sheathed his sword and walked away. Thus the cycle continues. The enemy taunted him as he left, saying "I can try forever, one day I will win." And Rand, not even bothering to look back as he left that place that was not a place, said "no. You won't. Because we will always be there to stop you."
If we accept the 1st and 2nd edition lore on the subject, then the inclusion of the Wheel of Time means there IS a hierarchy of gods, and it looks like this: The Watchmaker God Rand Prayed To Who Created Everything And Showed Him The Truth > Overgods like Io/Rand al Thor/titans/other supreme beings > normal gods > demigods > mortals. Gods absolutely have their own gods, in the sense that there are beings that far surpass them to whom they own their existence, though whether beings like Io or the Creator need worship or prayer in ANY form to maintain their existence is questionable at best. This is also the reason, for the record, that in older editions of the game, Io was the only being in the entire D&D canon that was "unaligned." Because he was based off of Rand al Thor (because he IS Rand al Thor), and at the end of his massive saga Rand had achieved a state of 'greater goodness' in which he realized that evil had to be permitted to exist so time would advance and good things would flourish and create more good things. His morality was transcendent and incomprehensible god morality to anyone who hadn't been with him every step of the way and seen what he had seen. Ergo he was "unaligned." When Rand communed with the 'Creator,' it was revealed to Rand that the vast systems of the cosmos, including the Wheel and the structure of Time itself, had been arranged by Him. Originally, he rejected what he saw and raged against what he thought was an unfair system, but when he finally stood Outside himself and looked in, he realized that it WAS the best system that could be made, all things being considered. So the Spheres and phlogiston in D&D were almost certainly created by an aloof but benevolent YHWH-style creator, who reveals His will and designs to various Overgods like Io/Rand who then filter that design further down to normal gods and mortals. Beings like the Nemesis, and places like the Far Realm and the abominations within, are permitted to exist because their omnicidal ambitions and actions play a direct role in allowing the broader multiverse to continue to exist.
Potential flaw in your theory -- D&D was originally released in 1974, while the first printing of The Eye of the World (Wheel of time volume 1) was in 1990. That's a 16 year gap in sourcing the blueprints of the multiverse. And all of the "Rand is transcendental" things are from much more recently than that.
This whole thing sounds suspiciously like the entire basis of Buddhism.
With the Buddha being the only being to ever fully attain "true enlightenment", much the same way Rand apparently does by communing with the creator of the reality.
And as the other dude pointed out, 1st and 2nd edition DnD existed before The Wheel of Time. So it's much more likely that parallels you seem to be drawing are more aligned with Buddhism than the Wheel of Time. (And the Wheel of Time itself is likely also heavily inspired by Buddhism.)
@@GeneralNickles What you and he are both ignoring us that 99% of the lore didn't exist when D&D was initially released. The lore was built up over decades of gaming. The people playing those games filled the lore they created with references to contemporary fantasy, which WoT certainly was. Ao IS a Rand al Thor reference. That's a fact, not my opinion.
@@LordRaine until you can provide objective verifiable evidence of this, I'm going to assume you are 100% wrong and Ao is, in fact, a reference to the Buddha that Rand very clearly is also a reference to.
@@GeneralNickles you haven't read the books, by your own admission. I genuinely don't care what some random illiterate on the internet assumes. If you won't even look at something before making huge assumptions and passing judgement on it, then you're not worth talking to, your opinion is worth nothing, and your assumptions don't matter.
Theory: the crystal spheres and the gods were created by a higher power, and there are other higher powers of equal or greater strength, which are either indifferent to this, or hostile...
Probably Armok.
Crystal Spheres are created by Overgods. (Toril's was created by Ao.) And each sphere has an Overgod that created it. The entity above the Overgods is the Luminous Being. But admittedly, the Luminous Being is described as basically being the Dungeon Master.
@@celarc99 then the players are the Gods the luminous being just kinda has around
_"We push through Darkness to serve the Light, as Light wars the same, to guard us from the eternal shadow. Unseen by even our gods, a war wages for as long as time lasts. For the defeat of either side, for the end of balance between scales, signifies the end of time. All are slaves to one above. The one staring down, we resist. Such is the fate of the Source. Such is the fate of the Unravelling."_
Oh frick. The implications... did anyone else's blood go cold after hearing the answer?
Huh, I never realized that the Phlogiston itself was separate from the planes.
The entire prime material is supposed to cover the entire expanse of the phlogiston and crystal spheres though, and all crystal spheres share the same set of planes on the Great Wheel or World Axis models (Exception being settings that have their own planes like Eberron, which I just interpret as them being personal planes for that particular sphere in addition to the normal planes.)
So with that (and im considering all that as fact even though i don't have sources to provide, asked this stuff multiple times on reddit and always got answers that were basically that) i'm not really sure why a God wouldn't be able to travel to other Crystal Spheres. I like the explanation that they can't directly manipulate or enter the Phlogiston, but im pretty sure it's possible to hop to other Spheres through planar travel (I remember reading that this was the preferred method of Elminster to get to other spheres.)
So couldn't a God, already being in the outer planes in most cases, simply hop to another sphere with planar travel? Or are they just planarly bound to their home sphere?
Any god can cast Gate to move to any crystal sphere they want...
@@sadrien BUT, at leats realmspace gods, they would be basically mortals with no power after they travel to another setting, as the power of a god is a result of the quantity of their followers in the crystal sphere they are in, in another sphere there would be no followers of them at all.
@@XvicvicX Some gods have followers in many different crystal spheres.
As has been mentioned in this reply and other replies and other parts of this video Once a god Has their worshiper leave the crystal sphere they lose their Spells down to 1st and 2nd level and unless they have worshippers in other Crystal spheres which will then determine their god's power unless of course, they made a partnership with other God's in other spheres. Should they want to do the what does God need with a Starship method and travel as also mentioned in replies here, They would lose all powers and become effectively mortal. Also a God in their own Crystal sphere is absolute and could stop the entry of other gods outside of their spheres short of a Forgotten Realms / God like Ao and or their boss whatever that boss of Ao might be and that is only one planetary Crystal sphere and does not apply in D&D canon elsewhere.
Very enjoyable trip down memory lane for us old codgers. Things I haven't read about/thought about in years, some details I didn't have from disparate sources or just never had the chance to put all together. Thanks, made a very enjoyable morning watch.
Would Great Old One's Warlocks be affected the same way that clerics and other warlocks are? I would assume not since in context it seems like the eldritch gods they would serve work under different rules as the planar gods?
I think they still would be, remember they fled... into the planar reality with their own planar magic, if they were free to go there they would have opened the portal there where they would be uncontested and the source of their power couldn't fall forever through infinite planes it would just be there
I think what is actually meant is that they are from far realms, like other spheres where the flow only goes away from us and only away from them to us i think thats also why the gods can't pass through it, so the 2 sets of world's can't go to war directly
I doubt their influence would wane since they are not inside of the sphered as the planar gods are and their power reaches into the spheres just fine.
@@papajavaleri but that's the thing they do have a worshiper base and that only happened after they opened the portals to the forgotten realms. After all the far realm and forgotten realms are both realms and outside the spheres are notably not realms
@@ConstantChaos1eh, eldritch warlocks can gain power from beings that don't even know they exist. Id assume they arent affected.
@nickriordan6539 no they don't? Your patron is very much aware of you, you literally struck a deal with them for power. Where did you get that idea?
ehh the funny thing about this is that DnD added the Cthulhu mythos into DnD.... meaning that the Cthulhu creatures... are above gods. well most of em are. Cthulhu is actually the weakest and is as strong if not stronger than a god.
begings like Azathoth are way beyond gods and within the mythos is literally the creator of everything purely by mistake too. maybe the explaination of the creatures outside of this space that was menioned of beings trying to destroy everything is probably those elder gods... because they are pretty much pure chaos. not evil persay just chaos in it's purest form.
i love that the mythos is in DnD but it does bring up a little to many questions and plot holes.
I've just started getting into DnD lore and I had NO idea it went this much into space, that they even made it function completely differently from space as we know it
Fluid might be a better description. It applies to both gas and liquid, or the sorta in between like plasmas. They are all fluids, so thats probably the best physical descriptions.
Got to the video in the first 3 minutes. A cause for celebration, and mourning over my completely vacant life.
Cool video tho, so I win.
God, now i want a DnD campaign set in these in between realms.
phlogistinator users in the phlogistion: *demonic laughing noises*
Honestly, with the Ephemerals, I don’t really consider them to be bad. They just want to go to an afterlife and they don’t kill you, they just severely inconvenience you for a bit.
Me filling ships with animals and sending them.out on round trips in the phlogiston to just pick up lost souls and bring them back (logically they would pick the creatures with the lowest int first since that's the easiest target for them to use to get to a sphere)
@@ConstantChaos1 was just thinking of a ship flying thru the phlogiston with like nets to catch them. Maybe some magic faces carved into it that scream for help like bait.
@@weezerfan1232 I think they need a vessel to come back through but yeah
@@ConstantChaos1 I know but the visual irony of nets is cool and thematic to me
@weezerfan1232 nets with soul beads/jars themed as old timey glass buoys would be fun and it would look stunning when the light hits it right
I wonder if gods can travel on ships with their followers, or even alone but reduced to their mortal selves. I like the idea of an adventurer nearing godhood heading out into the flow and using powerful magics to experiment with it to try and gain some mastery and connection within. Imagine a powerful wizard/artificer using narrow fire tunnels and spheres sustained by artifacts to create artificial areas free of phlogiston, maybe with the fire being harnessed by energy harvesting contraptions to further power other artifacts.
It makes me think a good non-traditional character class could be something like flow ranger, flow cleric, or a flow mage. They would specialize in adventuring in the streams, and possibly be of some alien race that is native to them. Such characters could conceivably serve one or more of those hidden beings, or those "higher authorities" that created the phlogiston. This could easily be the grounding for kind, noble-minded good individuals, trying to hold malign beings in check, and also working to help trapped people to get to their various destinations. A useful ability for such a race would be enabling them to share their bodies with beings like the Ephemerals *without* allowing these flowbound hitchhikers to take over or control them. Thus, adventurers periodically become rather like Charon (or friendlier versions of the Charonadaemons) of the Styx. And hybrid character races might also be able to adventure inside the spheres as well. {Note: In "G.U.R.P.S." terms, this racial choice would need to be a bit expensive and/or entail an "Unusual Background" point cost.}
11:56 Charizard is that you?
Yes
A Spelljammer campaign is open to so many options, I would kill to see a 5e version of this.
Its a fascinating thought to think there are higher gods that actually exist within the outer realms. I really hope that gets expanded on in later editions.