The Great Wheel

• Parent: History

This view visualizes the planes as a group of concentric wheels, with the Material Plane and its echoes at the center. The Inner Planes form a wheel around the Material Plane, enveloped in the Ethereal Plane. Then the Outer Planes form another wheel around and behind (or above and below) that one, arranged according to the alignment, with the Outlands linking them all.

This arrangement makes sense of the way the River Styx flows among the Lower Planes, connecting Acheron, the Nine Hells, Gehenna, Hades, Carceri, the Abyss, and Pandemonium like beads on a string. But it's not the only possible explanation of the river's course.