Beyond Countless Doorways is a planar sourcebook under the "d20" roleplaying system, edited and published by Monte Cook under the Malhavoc Press imprint.
What follows is an attempt to chart the links between the planes detailed in that sourcebook. It is meant for people who have the book already. For details on the planes described below, I recommend buying the book.
Mapping BCD cannot be done in the conventional sense. The BCD multiverse does not behave like a 2-D map of the sea or a 3-D map of outer space.
Planes typically exist in self-countained space (usually three dimensional with a familiar flow of time), and connect to other planes by means of links. BCD proposes that these links exist in various stages of conjunction, and proposes "common conjunction planes" for the eighteen planes it describes.
Many links between planes persist through years or even millions of years. For instance, plane 18 is the only access point to one of its satellites, which then becomes effectively one of plane 18's hidden banes and treasures. Planes 10 and 11, meanwhile, are subject to influence from planes linking to them. If those "auxiliary" planes could fade out of conjunction, let alone into severance, their descriptions in BCD would be a lot different; more like that of plane 13. Assuming persistence for BCD's other common conjunctions (more exactly, assuming they persistently stay out of severence) is what makes charting them feasible.
The way I have chosen to chart the planes of BCD is through a node chart. In what follows, each circular node is a plane, each rectangular node is a plane which acts as a crossroad, and each line is a planar connection. These nodes do not represent size and the links between them do not represent any form of distance or time of travel.
Each numeral represents a chapter number in BCD. Each letter describes a placename mentioned but not detailed in that supplement:
Justiral is a heaven of the Knights Militant, which in the standard cosmology of Wizards of the Coast best corresponds to the Arcadia of Planescape. Sceth, similarly, is inspired by the Abyssal layer of Fraz Urb Luu. Serran is the world of the Diamond Throne setting also published by Malhavoc. Triala is inspired by Caer Sidi in the classic module Queen of the Demonweb Pits by Gary Gygax, the first of D&D's planar romps.
The above is a chart of the connections mentioned in the book, not my own flight of fancy. I could not, by that criterion, add any speculations as to where else the nondetailed nodes would lead. Also, in the interest of keeping the map simple, I deliberately omitted "dead ends" which connected to one node only.
I did make an exception for Sceth and Xinder; but I flagged that with a dashed line. Also, I incorporated a few extra connections and impediments to existent connections which had been scattered through the text. According to p. 15, there is a map of sections of planes 16 and 6 which detail two planar rifts from 16 to 6, and then 6 to 12. According to p. 25, the Ethereal Sea also connects with Erithan; but the encapsulating narrative assumed that another of the Sea's connections, to plane 5, was broken. Where the Ethereal Sea is involved, I prefer to err on the side of inclusion (p. 19); plus plane 5's king seems like he has the power and motive to block unfiltered access from the Sea. Both factors accord with p. 25. So I cast the link between plane 5 and the Sea as a dotted line, subject to the plane 5 king's will.
The omitted canonical connections are as follows:My reason for connecting Sceth and Xinder is that they seemed so similar. BCD generally has rational reasons for linking its planes (especially elemental planes: p. 12). I considered similarities between planes when speculating on those connections which went unmentioned in the book.
Planes 3 and 18 are not directly connected to this map; but may be connected to the major crossroads through such auxiliary planes as Cryllt and Etherasadair, respectively (see below). In addition there may be a route from plane 3 to Emmasaulis to Vilo to plane 6; and plane 18 may connect to Colaris via Estrabal, and to The Thunder God's Hand (and Wordor) via Etherasadair. But in the case of plane 18, its connections to other planes are so ephemeral (p. 197) that there is really no point in attempting to join it to this or any other chart.
BCD's auxiliary planes likely have other connections. At Erithan, the salamanders may come from Stocneau and the efreet from Whitetongue. Ty Rhun and The Thunder God's Hand may be connected independently of plane 12, and The Thunder God's Hand may be connected further with Wordor. Djah and Roiboos may be connected. Na may be connected with those two some of the time and with Ty Rhun the rest of the time. The Obsidian Fens may connect to Innros, Laddroth, and Xeraph. Xeraph in turn likely connects to Ba-Nor-Al; in addition Xeraph has probably been in conjunction with Serran at some point in their past (but not necessarily lately). Riv Ruallithash and Jholis-dfol may be connected. Ancient Underhill and Kindapesh may be connected. Malachost and Lambrose may be connected. Freedom-In-Flight, Shining Faos, and the bucolic planes of chapter 4 are likely connected, but through a series of better-secured heavens rather than directly.
As far as disconnections are concerned, plane 12 is "rarely in conjunction with more than four planes at once, typically the Ethereal Sea and sometimes
a plane of air
" (p. 137). Even allowing for the local water plane, that rules out Center and probably Roiboos too.
The three crossroad planes mentioned in BCD are effectively infinite. The supplement mentions in passing a fourth, the "Round Road", which is finite. Of these the Underland connects locations of strong elemental Earth; the Nexus connects locations where one learns arcane magic (although it favours indirect contact with active hells like D'Stradi and the Lands Under The Lash); and the Ethereal Sea connects planes of vacuum and of strong elemental Air and Water. The Round Road will then connect places whose interest lies more in interplanar commerce and tourism than in magic. I have a personal bias against including too many once-removed connections between crossroads, despite that BCD has four or five: planes 7, 13, 16, 19, and implicitly 9. I suspended this bias for such planes that shared characteristics of multiple crossroads, and also stated explicitly that they were overrun with traders and/or tourists.
Click here to send me email
zimriel@sbcglobal.netThanks to Monte Cook for publishing Beyond Countless Doorways and to its contributors, Wolfgang Baur, Colin McComb, and Ray Vallese. Also thanks to Monte Cook for calling the 26 Nov version of the doodle you're reading, "cool".
On 26 Nov 2005 I did a quick "stub" of this page. 29 Nov, posted an expanded and explicated version with a better map, more in tune with the text.