Immortals Set Multiverse

The Immortals Set provided the first — and perhaps only — visualisation of Mystara’s cosmology. Drawing on the elemental opposition diagram from the Companion Set, it presented a reasonably clear view of the setup of the planes. This was sorely needed, because the textual description in the DM’s Guide to the Immortals was rather heavy reading.

Replica Map (August 2020)

Sources

• Immortals Rules Set (1986) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • “The Multiverse”, DM’s Guide page 4

Chronological Analysis

This is Map 48. It was published in June 1986. The updated version of this map has not yet been released. See also Appendix C for annual chronological snapshots of the area. For the full context of this map in Mystara’s publication history, see Let’s Map Mystara 1986.

The following lists are from the Let’s Map Mystara project. Additions are new features, introduced in this map. Revisions are changes to previously-introduced features. Hex Art & Fonts track design elements. Finally, Textual Additions are potential features found in the related text. In most cases, the Atlas adopts these textual additions into updated and chronological maps.

Additions

• Planes — The Multiverse consisting of two main sections, the Astral Plane encompassing all of the Outer Planes, and the Ethereal Plane encompassing all of the inner planes: the Prime Plane and the four Elemental Planes of Air, Water, Fire, and Earth. Also Wormholes connecting the Elemental Planes to the Prime.

Revisions

• Elemental Planes — The order of the Elemental Planes is different from that presented in the dominance and opposition diagram in the Companion Set. Fire and Earth have been switched.

Hex Art & Fonts

• Fonts — Baskerville.
• New Symbols — It’s all abstract representations.

Textual Additions (Immortals Set, June 1986)

Most of the text is far beyond the scope of this project, interesting though it is. Highlights include the concept that Mystara is the ancient world, in the Age of Magic; a detailed overview of the solar system, making it close but not quite identical to the real world’s configuration; and a rundown of the closest stars.

• Immortals — In summary, the Immortals Set names the following Immortals, each of whom is assumed to have their own Home Plane. Unless another page reference is given, these names come from DM’s Guide page 41b.
  • Sphere of Matter: Mother Earth/Terra/Djaea (ruling Hierarch), Ilmarinen, Maat, Ouranos, Wayland.
  • Sphere of Energy: Light/Pyro/Solario (ruling Hierarch), Guidarezzo (49b), Idraote, The Korrigans, Ninsun, Phoebus (46a), Saturnius, Thalia (49b).
  • Sphere of Time: Father Time/Grim Reaper/Khoronus (ruling Hierarch), Hymir, Simurgh, Verthandi.
  • Sphere of Thought: News/Noumena (ruling Hierarch), Sinbad, Ssu-Ma, Tyche.
  • Sphere of Entropy: Night/Old Nick/Nyx (ruling Hierarch), Demogorgon (33b), Masauwu, Orcus (33b), Skuld.
• Megalith — “The home planet of all PCs is a megalith, now nearing the midpoint of its active phase. The Immortals made special arrangements with this creature, who is known to them as Urt, before starting to cultivate life forms upon and within it.”
• Outer Planes — Although the Immortals Set doesn’t really name any Outer Planes directly, it does contain numerous references to Home Planes. Every Immortal is said to have their own Home Plane (Players’ Guide page 23), and many of the descriptions in the Creature List section include information on what planes they inhabit.
  • Archons are “native to the Home Plane of the Hierarch of Energy.” (DM’s Guide page 28a)
  • Demons are Immortals who serve the Sphere of Entropy, and as such each has its own Home Plane. (DM’s Guide page 30a) Only two demons are named, Orcus and Demogorgon. (Page 33b)
  • As mentioned in the Master Set, “Each of the dragon rulers has its own Home Plane. Immortals generally refer to this group of four adjacent Outer Planes as the Draconian Cluster, or simply the Four.” (DM’s Guide page 39b) The Master Set had previously mentioned that the dragon rulers had a home plane, but without specifying the name or number of planes.
  • Flickers: “This race began long ago, in the Home Plane of an Immortal of Energy.” (DM’s Guide page 41a) There is no mention of which Immortal.
  • Named Immortals: the list on DM’s Guide page 41b provides quite a few Immortals, each of whom of course is assumed to have their own Home Plane. (See Immortals above for the full list.)
  • Notions are not said to have a Home Plane as such. Their creator was a “powerful Immortal of Thought” who dispersed his essence and became mortal once again. His aide gave his new mortal form a gift, and the Notions were born from his dreams (caused as a side effect of that gift). (DM’s Guide page 45b)
  • Phoenixes, which are native to the Elemental Plane of Fire, were created by Phoebus, an Eternal of the Sphere of Energy. (DM’s Guide page 46a)
  • Tonals: “All tonals share a common Home Plane”. They were created by Thalia, “a famous High Eternal of Energy”. Another Eternal, Guidarezzo, changed their alignment from Chaotic to Lawful. Thalia is said to watch over their Home Plane, suggesting that the Tonals’ Home Plane is not the same as Thalia’s Home Plane. (All DM’s Guide page 49b)

Textual Additions (IM1, August 1986)

Since there are no relevant maps in IM1, I am including its Textual Additions here for now.

• Dimensional Vortex — Nyx, Hierarch of Entropy regarding the dimensional vortex: “…a swirling mass of incalculable size. It appears as a vast maelstrom, a swirling gray mass before him, stretching as far as he can see. Nyx knows full well that the maelstrom is infinite, so he does not bother to explore it.” “This is the Barrier, the inevitable destination or any traveler bold and powerful enough to pass beyond the realm of the five dimensions. The Barrier might be a gigantic whirlpool or hurricane, seen from above.” (IM1 page 2a)
• Elemental Dominance — IM1 page 3b restates the rules of elemental dominance from Companion (DM’s page 20). As noted in Revisions above, the order of the planes was switched in Immortals. However, the dominance list has not been changed to match the new configuration.
• Elemental Plane of Earth — The Earthlord, the Elemaster of Earth, lives on a planet with a “brilliant white surface, perfectly smooth and unbroken by terrain, creatures, or other features.” It is nicknamed Cueball. It has six moons made of the same dense white rock. “Five of them trace intersecting orbits about 100,000 miles above the planet’s barren, flat surface.” The sixth moon’s orbit is below the planet’s surface, within a tunnel. Cueball’s circumference is 31,000 miles, with a radius of 4,925 miles. (Page 17a) Cueball has no sun, and it is mentioned that in fact “there are very few stars in the entire plane”. (Page 17b) Various other information about the planet appears in IM1.
• Elemental Plane of Fire — IM1 gives some details of the Plane of Fire. From the Astral Plane, it appears as “a very large globe of pinkish-silvery color” (page 6a). The Plane of Fire is said to be mostly “open space” similar to the Prime Plane, with “thousands of visible stars handing in inky-black space.” (Page 6a) These “starworlds” turn out to be mostly “condensed “planets” of fire, mostly of the temperature of normal fire”. The planets are covered in oceans of liquid fire with islands of solid fire. (Page 6b)
• Immortals — The Immortals Set gave multiple names for each ruling Hierarch. IM1 page 2b uses the last name given for each of them: Nyx, Noumena, Khoronus, Solarios, and Djaea. Of these, Solarios is slightly different from its Immortals Set version, Solario. In addition, the following Immortals (who presumably each have a Home Plane) are named in IM1:
  • Sphere of Matter: N’Grath (IM1 page 20).
  • Sphere of Entropy: Drekk (IM1 page 3a, 21).
• Outer Planes — A number of outer planes appear in the course of the adventure. Most of these are unnamed. In addition, every named Immortal can be assumed to have their own Home Plane, for which see Immortals above.
  • Contrary to the Immortals Set, the Notions are here said to have their own Home Plane. It “has many connections with the Astral Plane, thus appearing as a very large sphere.” The entire plane is filled with air. (IM1 pages 3b, 5b, 15-16)
  • Parallel Earth, a technologically advanced, magic-free Outer Plane; “the most advanced known technological society”. There is no magic because the plane is a trispace. (IM1 pages 3b, 21-22).
  • The Tonals’ Home Plane, previously mentioned in the Immortals Set, appears here. From the Astral Plane, it appears as “a small silvery ball, only a foot across, of pinkish-silver color”. There are also references to the Immortals Thalia and Guidarezzo, creator and modifier of the Tonals previously mentioned in the Immortals Set. (IM1 pages 3b, 5b, 10-14)

Other Multiverse Visualisations