Cosmology of Shayakand

One of the inspirations for Shayakand provides a very different cosmology. The source for this alien cosmology is not Vedic, Funan, or Asian at all. It comes from a Greek philosopher and astronomer named Anaxagoras. The changes appear subtle at first, but the effects can be quite dramatic. Before discussing Anaxagoras, let’s take a look at traditional rpg cosmologies.

Many fantasy settings are set in a world that is roughly based on Aristotle’s ideas. There are four fundamental elements, fire, earth, air and water. The fifth element, aether, exists as the building block of the stars and the heavens. These ideas express themselves in-game worlds with elemental planes of existence for each of the four fundamental elements. Based on the existence of these elemental planes, all kinds of creatures, civilizations and a myriad of other items enter the game world. Pathfinder has their own product that describes the Inner and Outer Planes that uses these concepts.

Now, imagine a place where no one believes in the elemental planes of existence. In other words, there is no plane of fire/water/air/earth, or elemental chaos. What would the world look like without these staples?

The implications may not be obvious at first. The most obvious change would be the lack of elementals. However, it goes deeper than that. If there are no elementals, then the traditional power source for golems and other constructs is not available. That’s just two of the many effects. What other effects do you see in a fantasy setting based on a lack of elemental planes? Feel free to provide thoughts in the comments.

One other consideration is this: If there are no elemental planes, what takes their place in the universe? To address this, let’s look at Anaxagoras‘ specific ideas. These ideas are in summary form, so some of his conclusions may not appear obvious at first.

He held that everything but the mind is infinitely divisible and that even the smallest portion of matter contains some amount of every element. Element in this case is an idea, not a real thing. Anaxagora believed there was no such thing as a pure element. Nothing was pure gold, pure water, pure fire, pure metal, etc. So when he talks about an element, he is usually talking about some aspect of an object.

For example, he said that snow contains the opposites of black and white and is called white only because white predominates in it. The composition of snow goes beyond white and black; snow also contains hot and cold, water and earth, and other things. In a sense, snow contains the whole of reality, each snowflake containing a specific share of all other things. The differences in form result from different portions of the elements. The variety of substances and forms we perceive is thus explained by the complexity of seemingly endless numbers of possible combinations

What this means in practical game terms is that since there is no such thing as pure fire, pure water, etc, no elemental planes can exist. Someone could object and say that there are planes that are predominantly fire, predominantly water and so on. However, the ethereal plane is also gone because there is no pure ether. There is no vast ethereal plane that holds countless numbers of demi-planes.

What exists instead is addressed by looking at the mind. Anaxagoras held that the universe was created when the mind gave shape to the vast mixture of matter that exists at the beginning. The mind is the only pure element, it is not a mixture of anything. The mind can shape matter into anything, but cannot separate one element from another.

All of that is a bit heady, so let’s put it in simple game terms.

The gods gave shape to the universe. The gods appear to be limited only in the fact that they cannot create a pure element. In order for some plane to exist that is predominantly fire, predominantly water, etc is that a god or other great mind must want to shape a plane in that way. In essence, the only thing outside the material plane is what used to be called the Outer Planes.

So then the question may be asked, “what happens to elementals when they travel to Shayakand?” That’s a question I have ideas for, but I’d be really interested in hearing what others have to say.

One last thing – for those that are Greek philosophy scholars, I’m aware that there are some misstatements and inaccuracies in how I presented Anaxagoras’ ideas. I welcome any advice in clarifying his ideas to further pursue these ideas.