The Great Wheel is a planar cosmology which defines one possible worldview of how the planes, worlds, and realms of the multiverse are connected to one another.
It is the standard planar cosmology in the World of Greyhawk and Planescape campaign settings, and the default presented in the core rulebooks of AD&D 1st edition,[1] 2nd edition,[2] D&D 3rd edition,[3] and 5th edition.[4]
Publication history[]
AD&D 1st edition[]
An early version of the Great Wheel cosmology was first attested in Gary Gygax's article Planes: The Concepts of Spatial, Temporal, and Physical Relationship in D&D, Dragon #8 (Jul 1977), p.4-5,28. It established the Prime Material Plane, the Positive and Negative Material Planes, the four Elemental Planes, the Ethereal, Astral, and Outer Planes. Gygax wrote:
- "As of this writing I forsee a number of important things arising from the adoption of this system. First, it will cause a careful rethinking of must of the justification for the happenings in the majority of D&D campaigns. Second, it will vastly expand the potential of all campaigns which adopt the system — although it will mean tremendous additional work for these DMs. [...] Third, and worst from this writer's point of view, it will mean that I must revise the whole of D&D to conform to this new notion."
In 2022, Dragon editor Tim Kask described publishing the article:[5]
- "When Gary had gotten into all this planar stuff, and I published it with Dragon, I published it under one of my standard imprimaturs, and that's 'it's not anything I'm really interested in, but I know a bunch of people will be.'"
This arrangement of planes was referenced throughout the Monster Manual (1e) (1977), and described in more detail in "The Known Planes of Existence", Players Handbook (1e) (1978), p.120-121.
The term "great wheel" first appeared in Manual of the Planes (1e) (1987), p.73, which described the contents of that cosmology in great detail:
- "The conventional view of the outer planes is of a great wheel divided into 16 pieces. Each piece is the upper layer of a plane and is joined to the upper layers of the two planes adjacent to it."
AD&D 2nd edition[]
The Great Wheel remained the standard cosmology in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition rulebooks, although it was not usually referred to by that name. The Dungeon Master Guide (2e) (1989) described all manner of different campaign settings as existing on different worlds within the AD&D multiverse.
The Great Wheel formed the core of the Planescape campaign setting, which spanned numerous sourcebooks in the 1990s. Planes of Conflict (1995) was one of the first books to capitalize "Great Wheel", for example:
- "Getting a picture of the overall balance o' the Great Wheel, I see. Well, I can tell ye what I know, for the right measure of jink."
D&D 3rd edition[]
The Manual of the Planes (3e) (2001) described the Great Wheel cosmology as the standard D&D cosmology in that edition: "a representation of the planar arrangement described in the D&D rulebooks and the one most players are familiar with." However, it encourages DMs to develop their own cosmologies for their campaign. The term "Great Wheel" would subsequently be capitalized through the edition.
D&D 4th edition[]
Dungeons & Dragons fourth edition did not use the Great Wheel cosmology. In the preview book Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters (2008), p.17, designer James Wyatt declared "The Great Wheel is dead." Wyatt's main complaint about the Great Wheel was that a great deal of it was impractical as an adventuring location, such as the Elemental Plane of Fire, a three-dimensional expanse made entirely of fire.
The Great Wheel was briefly mentioned in Manual of the Planes (4e) (2008), p.15 as one possible alternate cosmology.
D&D 5th edition[]
The Great Wheel returned to Dungeons & Dragons with the Dungeon Master's Guide (5e) (2014), which describes it as one of several possible models to explain the arrangement of the planes. However, the planes contained in the Great Wheel are described as part of the standard D&D cosmology. D&D 4th edition's Elemental Chaos, Feywild, and Shadowfell are integrated into the Great Wheel alongside the traditional Inner Planes, Transitive Planes, and Outer Planes.
References[]
- ↑ Players Handbook (1e) (1978), p.121).
- ↑ Dungeon Master Guide (2e revised) (1995), p.178-179.
- ↑ Dungeon Master's Guide (3.5) (2003), p.147.
- ↑ Dungeon Master's Guide (5e) (2014), p.44.
- ↑ The Curmudgeon in the Cellar #211, Apr 16, 2022. Tim Kask, YouTube. 5m 0s.