Krynn and the Multiverse Beyond (Planar Krynn Campaign Seeds)

D&D 3e (3.0/3.5) Rules

by Jared Rascher

At one point in time the world of Krynn seemed to provide travelers that ranged across the planes of existence. Kender and gnomes found their way to the world of Toril, Wizards of High Sorcery studied with spellcasters from Oerth, and strange cities in the stars and in the planes, cities like the Rock of Bral and Sigil, became a second home to travelers from Krynn.

But much has changed over the years, and the Multiverse itself, as well as the River of Time have been altered, leaving Krynn and its relationship to other planes significantly altered.

What follows is an alternate history that can take into effect the changes to the rules regarding Krynn and other planes regarding cosmology and the relationship between various campaign settings. Nothing in this is official, though much of this takes its inspiration from seeds planted by various adventure ideas across the various editions.

The High God, Beyond, and the Gods of Krynn

The reality that comprises Krynn's universe was originally a mass of virulent Chaos, so much so that the Chaos became a sentient creature in and of itself. The High God sought beings to aid him in his creation, and in taming the Chaos. When the High God sought out these beings, he looked to the universe that planar sages would now call the Great Wheel. Krynn's reality was not anchored temporally to the Great Wheel, and as such, when the High God sent out his call looking for beings in the Great Wheel, his call was not limited to a given time or place within the Great Wheel.

The High God found beings that were singularly powerful, but not quite gods themselves in their native form. He did this because he wanted beings that were knowledgeable enough to understand the use of power and could deal with the massive responsibilities about to be put upon them, but beings that had not yet formed their ideas of how a god should or shouldn't act, or how the gods should conduct and organize themselves. Some of these aspects called forth other aspects that the High God might find useful, and thus some of the gods brought forth their friends and allies.

The High God, in calling these beings, created separate aspects of each of them. He did not take the being in total, but rather split the being apart, and invested the aspect that he had called to himself with deific power. Thus, parts of the beings that make up the Gods of Krynn still exist, in one form or another, somewhere in time and space within the Great Wheel. These beings have no memory of the call of the High God, nor knowledge that part of them was used to create the Gods of Krynn.

The aspects that the High God called, however, did know of their origins. The High God allowed the aspects he had made gods to bring with them the tools that they would need to help tame the Chaos of Krynn's universe, and as such, these gods did return, in part, to the Great Wheel that spawned them. For the most part, the Gods of Krynn brought with them various servitors, the celestials, fiends, and other beings, that the Gods were comfortable dealing with and using to tame the Chaos.

When the High God set the Gods of Krynn to bring forth their tools, he anchored Krynn's timeline to the Great Wheel, so that the Gods of Krynn would not get lost, or loose focus of what they were to do. Despite this particular precaution, some of the Gods of Krynn did take the time they used to "gather their tools" to establish domains within the Great Wheel itself.

The Dome of Creation was made to hold the servants and allies of the Gods of Light, the Hidden Vale was created to hold the allies and servants of the Gods of Neutrality, and the Abyss was created to hold the allies and servants of the Gods of Darkness. This is where the beings from Beyond would stay until the Chaos had been tamed and Krynn was born.

Planar Travel to and From Krynn (Before the Summer of Chaos)

Because the High God wished to control the influences moving into and out of Krynn, the planar boundaries of Krynn were very strong. Some beings could wander into Krynn from the Gray, traveling from his own world via the Plane of Shadows, and very rarely a planar rift might develop, but the High God established Krynn's planar boundaries to keep such occurrences very rare. Despite this, those that eventually learned to utilize magic would seek to bend the nature of the universe to alter these rules.

The planar boundaries within Krynn's universe were powerful as well. While the Gray was fairly easily accessed, allowing for myriad spells and items that allowed teleportation and ethereal, astral, and shadow travel, the Abyss, the Hidden Vale, and the Dome of Creation were much more heavily "barricaded" by the nature of the universe itself. Takhisis had plans that ran contrary to this planar structure, and planned to manifest fully, not only as an aspect of herself, but in her full glory, in Krynn.

Over time, Takhisis had tried various methods to breach planar boundaries, and each time she failed, but her failures were not without consequence While the "inner walls" of Krynn's planar structure held firm, the "outer walls," the planar barriers between the universe holding Krynn and other universes (such as the Great Wheel), thinned and became more easily breached. It was in part because of these damaged planar walls that Skie (known as Khellendros the Navigator to the other Dragon Overlords) managed to find Krynn (though the path was not an easy one).

Sometime after the Blue Lady's War, planar travel between Krynn and other worlds began to happen. It never became commonplace, or widely known, but it was happening. Rumors abound that Lord Soth himself fell into another plane of existence (though he eventually returned to Krynn), and no less a mage than Dalamar traveled to other worlds to learn magic from wizards beyond Krynn's universe. Strange flying ships from other realities occasionally found Krynn and the worlds near it. Many who found out about these other worlds, and the means to travel to them, kept the secrets to themselves, and they such secrets to make themselves more powerful.

Among some of the most powerful of Krynn, a certain jaded mindset settled into the most knowledgeable of the planar secrets, one that tended to make some of the more mundane aspects of day to day life of Krynn less important and pressing. This ended during the Summer of Chaos.

Ironically, when Chaos was freed, the planar boundaries of Krynn were nearly impossible to breach, because there were such random, fluctuating energies regulating the travel between the various universes. It was also during this time that Takhisis realized that if she, as a goddess, could very carefully study the various changing "rules" of the universe that Chaos engendered, she might be able to do exactly what she did. It is in this manner that Takhisis managed to "steal" the world of Krynn at the end of the Chaos War.

Finding Krynn and Repair the River of Time

Before the Gods of Krynn returned to the world, Raistlin Majere's spirit found where Krynn had been taken to, and he repaired the disrupted flow of the River of Time, which not only separated the present of Krynn from its past, but also separated Krynn from the universe around it. After this was reconciled, the Grey, the Elemental Planes, the Dome of Creation, the Hidden Vale, and the Abyss were now touching the reality of Krynn once again.

However, this repair of the River of Time also had consequences. History, as a whole, did not change, as is the nature of the River of Time. But minor differences in the timeline, differences that did little to affect the course of time, came about. To those within the River of Time, these changes were exactly as time was meant to unfold, but to anyone outside of the River of Time, they might prove somewhat disorienting.

One other consequence of this repair was that the River of Time repaired itself within the confines of Krynn's universe itself. In other words, beings that traveled the planes and then returned home never left Krynn, and never had any notion that they might be able to do so. Beings that left Krynn and had not returned to Krynn were returned to the River, but they usually met fates that "explained" their missing status, often fatally, so that the being would not alter the flow of the River.

Anchoring the Timeline and the Return of the Gods

Before the River of Time was repaired, time was no longer anchored to other realities. One being finding Krynn might find it at one point in history, and another might find it centuries later. The timeline was now anchored, but this created a strange phenomenon. The Gods of Krynn brought with them all of those natives of Krynn that loved Krynn more than the worlds they had traveled to. These beings, few in number, reappeared in Krynn when the gods returned. Many found that they had already died in new timeline, or that they ceased to exist. These beings, called the Timelost, are anomalies They remember nothing of Beyond, but they know that they were away from Krynn during the time that Takhisis stole the world.

Many of the Timelost remember different times and different outcomes to historical events, and many consider them mad when they expound upon the former timeline.

Some of the Timelost never returned home, and for these travelers, it is nearly impossible to find a reliable way into Krynn. Among those beings whose existence was fragmented by becoming Timelost were Dalamar and Lord Soth. The Lord Soth that died during the War of Souls had no knowledge of the plane he was trapped in, even briefly, and the Dalamar of Krynn's current timeline has no knowledge that any version of him has ever visited or traded spells with wizards from other realities.

Limits Even on the Gods Themselves

Not only did the realignment of River of Time cause some changes to the timeline, but a major event on the planes Beyond have altered Krynn and its relationship with the rest of the Multiverse. When the demi-god Vecna invaded the planar nexus of Sigil, changes spread throughout the planes and both backwards and forward in time. These changes, among others, have made it much more difficult for even the Gods of Krynn to move beyond their homes and into other planes (though it is not impossible for them). Planar portals that once worked are damaged, and only extremely difficult connections still exist between other realities and Krynn.

Many of these connections are Chaos tainted, and still suffer from the disjointed temporal connection that Krynn once had, although travelers that through some miracle manage to travel from the Plane of Shadows into the Gray will find that the temporal connection there is "stable," with the current time of their homeworld anchored to the "new" current timeline of Krynn (which is several decades further ahead than the previous anchored timeline was).

What All of This Means

The repair of the River of Time and the invasion of Sigil by Vecna caused several changes to how the planes work, and they also allow for an explanation of some minor inconsistencies in various past occurrences For the most part, Krynn only has the very dangerous, very difficult to navigate "stable" connection to other worlds through the Plane of Shadows.

What follows are some suggested ways of making this addendum to the history of Krynn more useful from a gaming standpoint.

The Prodigal Son (Native Krynn Campaigns)

When Gellidus attempts to pierce the Gate of Souls to create a connection to the world of the Dragon Overlords, the brief disruption allows for a powerful, desperate spellcaster to return home. Due to this disruption, the Timelost version of Dalamar appears in Krynn. This Dalamar remembers a different Krynn, just before the Chaos war, and views himself as the Head of the Conclave. He may seek to retake his position from the current Head of the Conclave, and perhaps to get rid of his "impostor" self as well. He may instead approach adventurers as if he were the "real" Dalamar in order to gauge them and find out about the current state of affairs in Krynn.

Where Did Everybody Go (Planar Campaigns)

A group of spellcasters from Krynn have been traveling to every known portal leading to Krynn in the "old days" in the hope of finding a means of returning home. While some planewalkers know that Krynn is an alternate reality, and remember meeting travelers from that reality, almost every single one of them remembers Krynn as a "lost world," one no longer connected to the Great Wheel or the Great Tree (the Forgotten Realms cosmology), and none can remember Krynn travelers ever going back home after traveling the planes (these altered memories are a result of the changes wrought by Vecna).

Just as with the Timelost, there are some in the planes that remember what the universe used to be like, and like many of the Timelost, these beings are often seen as insane. But if a party of Krynn planewalkers are desperate, they may seek one out to find out what is going on with the planes. They may even eventually get desperate enough to try and navigate the uncertain road of Shadow to find their home. A journey like this can lead to all sorts of alternate Prime Material Planes, even to the home of the Dragon Overlords, and can be somewhat of a planar Odyssey.

Things that Cannot Be (Native Krynn Campaign)

As a brief encounter, some creatures that were stranded in Krynn when the River of Time were repaired might be "rewritten" as temporal anomalies After hearing a long, convoluted history of Spelljamming, drow, and/or illithids, the adventurers are convinced of the existence of such things, until they have to fight and kill some of these creatures. Soon after, there appears to be no evidence that they existed, as the River of Time has written them out of existence The adventurers are left with an adventure that no one believes because only they remember the event.

The Inspirational Words of a Madman (Native Krynn Campaign)

The adventurers run into a Timelost soul, someone that remembers some aspect of Krynn's history differently. It might be easy to dismiss the person as an idealistic madman, but they also know exactly where some hidden treasure or artifact can be found. In their time, many lost artifacts were found and used for good or evil, and they know where the people of his timeline found them.

The adventurers may need these artifacts to complete a goal themselves, but the Timelost may be working at cross purposes with them, concealing what actually happens when some things are used in certain ways, in order to help insure that a future similar to their past is to occur. Alternatively they may just be spiteful enough to want to see the current version of Krynn fall apart, and they work to manipulate the adventurers into unleashing a horrible evil.

Who Rules Here (Planar Campaign)

A group of Krynn born Timelost are adventuring in Sigil, when they find out that according to some planar atlas both Chemosh and Hiddukel and realms in the Abyss, and not the Abyss that is native to their home universe. Wanting to know if there are portals in these planes that might lead back to their native reality, they might investigate one or both of these planes.

Chemosh's realm in the Abyss is a version of Krynn that is inhabited solely by undead versions of what should exist in a given region. From time to time, an aspect (from the Miniatures Handbook, not in the DragonLance understanding of the term) of Chemosh will appear to assert its authority. Between this and the powerful undead in the realm, no other being will assault the plane.

Hiddukel's realm is similar, but it is a version of Krynn completely corrupt, and many of the beings that inhabit the plane are tieflings or half-fiends. While they are violent and vicious, the demons bound to the planar layer are loyal to the aspects (again, in the Miniatures Handbook definition of aspect) of Hiddukel that appear across the plane.

There are no planar portals that are active, though there are old dormant ones that exist in the palaces of the gods on these planar layers (alternatively, you could combine this campaign theme with Dalamar's return, and allow these portals to open when Gellidus attempts to breach the Gate of Souls). However, there are secrets native to these planar layers.

Neither Hiddukel nor Chemosh have been to these layers in a long time, but since their power was tied into the shaping of these layers, occasionally aspects of these gods will appear and direct the inhabitants of the planes. If a powerful demon lord, prince, or god were to claim the layer and destroy either gods' seat of power, they could claim the layer for themselves, but none will dare challenge the powerful "alien" gods without knowing that the gods are only shadows cast by the planes that they once claimed.

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