Planescape’s Mount Celestia

With all the talk and confusion over Tiamat and Takhisis, is there the same confusion over Bahamut and Paladine? Let’s find out while exploring Mount Celestia in the process! Buy Planescape Campaign Setting (2e): https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17272/planes-of-law-2e?affiliate_id=50797 

https://youtu.be/lO8gjpzesdU

Transcript

Cold Open

Paladine is not to Bahamut what Takhisis is to Tiamat.

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Planescape and the plane of Mount Celestia, the Seven Heavens. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the Planescape Campaign Setting boxed set, Planes of Law, and On Hallowed Ground supplements for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!

Discussion

Planescape came about in a time when TSR was nearing the end of its viability as a company. With its focus on releasing annual boxed sets, and losing money on every sale, the writing was on the wall for everyone involved. But what did that mean for the game products? TSR would eventually resort to frequently released splatbooks. These tended to retread familiar ground, as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition was becoming a bloated mess of a game with its myriad of game worlds and TSR’s insistence that they were all connected through their latest, Planescape and its new presentation of the multiverse. This would naturally bring up role-playing questions like: are all the gods versions of other gods? Spelljammer attempted to restrict that connection with its crystal spheres, but the Planescape team seemed to do their best to not only erase the boundaries Spelljammer put in place, but more, connect everything in the inner and outer planes through a single city called Sigil.

This seems like a gross oversimplification in hindsight, but it was incredibly popular as TSR continued copying the success of publishers like White Wolf. Much like Wizards of the Coast would do when they bought the company. This would lead to issues addressed in my last video about Takhisis and Tiamat. While I thought their method of addressing the confusion was a decent one, leaving it up to the Dungeon Master, it didn’t resolve any lingering confusion. This only extrapolates when we think about the other great gods of Krynn. Why the confusion and semi connection to Tiamat, when Gilean would have no counterpart, and Paladine was made separate from Bahamut? Does it really just come down to the five headed dragon form? How narrow-minded are we roleplayers that we are incapable of distinguishing between two seemingly immortal entities that look similar, some of the time? 

Planescape didn’t repeat that mistake with Paladine however, and while they firmly placed him in the plane of Mount Celestia, they clarified that Bahamut is the god of Good Dragons, while Paladine is a human god. Two separate entities with zero connection between them in the multiverse. Could this be why Takhisis is continually trying to overthrow Krynn? Out of some shallow case of mistaken identity and jealousy? While I am joking about motivations, I do find it incredibly interesting to see how the different gods are placed in later supplements. So let's take a look at Mount Celestia and see where Paladine fits into Planescape. The Planescape On Hallowed Ground supplement was released after...