Designing the multiverse of Project Wish?, Getting the big, big world of PW in a picture. Options

[Alexander]

OK… What do you want out of this world? Naturally if you make a decision on what the world shut look like you automatically have to take other things such as the gods, races, terrain and skills into consideration. After all, if you decide to make the world flat and without any water there will be no use for swimming and climbing skills. If you add multiple planes to your game how will this affect the storyline of the gods? It are these things that I want to know from people because are the developers of Project Wish just going to spew out another simple and easy MMORPG or are they going to create a truly fantastic world?

Let’s start with the very basic, the shape of the universe of Project Wish.

Do we want only a single plane/planet drifting in space or whatnot or are we interested in multiple worlds that are connected in one or more ways. There are many options if you are considering multiple planes, good examples can be taken from the D&D cosmology. Its multiverse consists of a Material plane which basically serves its role as our Earth. Coexisted/overlapping with the Material plane are the Ethereal plane and the plane of Shadow, in other words the ghost world and a world of twilight darkness so to speak. Surrounding these are the inner planes also known as the elemental and energy planes, depending on the setting you use there can exist the elemental planes of Air, Earth, Fire and Water and the Positive energy plane and the Negative energy plane. Using a different religious setting such as the oriental view you could chance the elemental planes to Earth, Fire, Metal, Water and Wood. Surrounding the inner planes are the outer planes which are far more numerous, these planes are the places where the gods make their homes and can be seen as the moral and ethical aspect planes, here heaven and hell and other such places exist. But D&D doesn’t stop there and many more planes exist such as the Temporal energy plane, the Spirit world, the Region of Dreams, the plane of Mirrors, the elemental plane of cold, several Para-elemental planes, the plane of Faerie, the Far realm and many more possibilities I’m sure.

And as there are many possible planes and worlds so are the ways in how to put them together and connecting them is no less importuned. You could put them all neatly into a circle like they did in the standard D&D cosmology but there are other options. The Myriad cosmology is a large world of floating planes both big and small, each is a miniature world and has its own properties, some are elementally aligned while others have energy traits while moral and ethical properties are possible as well and magic might work different on each of them. Getting from plane to plane in this system is no more difficult as climbing a ladder or beating your wings a few times. Then we also have the Doppel cosmology. The Doppel cosmology consists of two Material planes, each one considering itself the “real” centre of the universe and the other being merely an alternate Material plane (if it is known at all). The two Material planes are separated by a plane of Shadow (Or an Ethereal plane or a Spirit world, a Realm of Dream. All are possible options.), so that the heart of the Doppel cosmology resembles a sandwich cookie. Orrery cosmology. In this cosmology, the various inner and outer planes orbit each other much like planets in a solar system. As planes move closer or away from the material plane their influence chances and affects the magic on the material plane. The Winding Road cosmology is a rather dull one. You simply place all the planes next to one another in a endless road with no beginning or end. After every few miles or so you could cross the border of the next plane and simply walk across it. Graffiti, time, magic, elements, energy, etc can all change dramatically or gradually as you cross or approach the border between the planes.

But there also exist interesting Anomalies between the planes that can be used to chance the scenery. Anomalies such as Outpocketing, Nested Pockets, Minor and Major Planar Bleed, Planar Rips, Time Loops and Time Wrinkles.

I hope, well actual I expect that you people are aware that there exist concrete information on more then 30 different planes just in the D&D multiverse alone. What I wonder about is why we don’t we seen this number in PC games, one would expect in MMO’s you’d see multiple planar world systems but so far… The game universe is pretty empty in the fantasy department.

I haven’t included all the derails and examples of all the planes and cosmologies here because, well, I get tired of typing this basic stuff and surely everyone of you know all of this right? After all I’ve gotten the message often enough that you people already know the stuff I’m brining up.

So the question remains, what shut the world or universe or even multiverse look like in the big, big picture?

[John]

Pretty.

[brummbart]

Do we want only a single plane/planet drifting in space or whatnot or are we interested in multiple worlds that are connected in one or more ways. There are many options if you are considering multiple planes, good examples can be taken from the D&D cosmology.

This is a good idea. Based on the "multiverse" idea, the character could switch through the levels in form of portals, like the "gates to oblivion". Or he could use magical scrolls to open gates. With the gates it is even possible to have some special places where a gate only opens on a specific setting like full moon or on 1st of each month/period.