There were a lot of milestones in my appreciation of D&D, and one of the big ones was when I first started reading the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes. No matter how vast and interesting the mortal realm of a fantasy setting might be, other worlds and other planes of existence where the normal rules don’t apply fascinated me.
It brought together my love of cosmologies, about the differences between Asgard, Jotunheim, and Niffelheim. It incorporated concepts like the River Styx running through the underworld, letting mortals receive a glimpse of the afterlife. It even made me think about how to integrate the dimensions I read about in comics, like the Negative Zone or Nightmare’s dream realm.
Different fantasy worlds have introduced cosmologies with varying levels of detail, some more stylized and restrained, and others more open-ended. Whenever I see a new fantasy world, I am very invested in finding out the context of reality as it relates to the planes of existence. That brings me to the Guide to the Labyrinth, a supplement from Kobold Press, detailing the cosmology of the Tales of the Valiant RPG.
Disclaimer
My copy of the Guide to the Labyrinth came from backing the Tales of the Valiant crowdfunding campaign. Since it details some broad setting information, some of it has already leaked into the planar traveling aspects of the Midgard campaign that I run.
Guide to the Labyrinth
Designer: Wolfgang BaurEditors: Michele Carter, Meagan Maricle, Kenny WebbCover Artist: Krzysztof Porchowski Jr.Interior Artists: George Johnstone, Viktoria Kanellopoulou, William O’Brien, Ian Perks, Roberto Pitturru, Kiki Moch Rizki, Florian Stitz, Bryan Syme, Egil ThompsonCartographer: Damien MammoliniGraphic Designer: Marc RadleLayout: Kennedy WilliamsBacker World Designers: Willy Alers, Alice Avoy, Boleslav, Patrick Boyer, Jonah Buck, Bob C., Brad Castles, Ressu Crebalt, Curtis, T.D. Daigle, Fish Davidson, Rob Dearsley, Stephen Diamond, Jason Dincauze, Stephen Michael DiPesa, Benjamin L. Eastman and Matthew Dunn, Echidna Design and Follow the Fool, Emirranth, Myth Epicweaver, Robert Fairbanks, Mycelia Fearne, Cameron Feiler, Scout Fenton, Lola Fortney, Mark G., gaelQuest, David Garrison, Marbles M Goblin, Richard Green, Ian “Grendel Todd” Grey, Austin H., Hbossssobh and Baldesion, Gabriel L. Helman, Jessica Henry, Levi Indvik, IrRyo, Darryl T. “Splattered Ink” Jones, Sawyer Judkins, Marc “DM Mythall” K., Phillip Larwood, Jeff Lee, John Leonas, Christopher Lockey, Nick “Jack1Spade” Lucas, Grant Martin, Phil Mason, David Mathews, Ryan McLaughlin, Paul McNeil and Edward Rollins, Nick Milton, R Moorhead, Isaac Morley, Vish Naidoo, Sean Nester, Zachery Newbill, Evan Noone, Bill Olander, Biometal Omega, Daniel Paoliello, Justin C E Penner, Jeff Quick, Thomas M. Reid, Richter, Sebastian Rombach, Eric Sage and Gates Perrault, J Santana, Dreamfyre Shadowcaster, DC Shepard, Montana Sparks, Chelsea “Dot” Steverson, Will Struck, Brian Suskind and Jon Enge, Talador, Jonah Tappan and Katie Truelove, The Manhattan Kobolds, Jorge A. Torres, Jenn Tsai, Valin, Phil Welch, Mike Welham, Elliot Wenzel, William West, Wyrmworks Publishing
A Map of the Planes
The Guide to the Labyrinth is a 74-page PDF. The pages are allocated like this:
Credit Pages–2 pages
Table of Contents–1 page
Art Preview–2 pages
Tales of the Valiant ad–1 page
In addition to the setting information included in the book, there are about 21 pages of the PDF dedicated to backer submitted worlds. There are several art pieces in the book, many that come from previous Kobold Press products or from Tales of the Valiant projects.
My favorite piece in the book is the cosmological map that appears in the PDF, showing various clusters of worlds and planes in relation to one another.
The Twists and Turns of the Labyrinth
The Guide to the Labyrinth touches on several topics. This includes a history of the Labyrinth, the Labyrinth’s structure, and the people that live in various regions of the planar construct. The modes of travel for traversing the Labyrinth are discussed, including underlying tunnels connecting worlds, branches of Yggdrasil, the River Styx, and the Astral Plane.
The book also includes several factions that are active across a variety of planes. The factions detailed include:
Concord of Stars–agents of various celestials
Keeper of the Keys–arcanists and planar travelers expanding connections between worlds
The Old Ring–an organization dedicated to planting seeds of Yggdrasil to grow new worlds
Servants of the Dreaming God–followers of Dreaming God, traveling the planes to discover revelations
Each of these factions contains an overview, goals, the most common adherents and agents of the faction, and three example NPCs from each faction. There is also a table of adventure hooks for each of the major factions. In addition to the major factions outlined, there are four other smaller factions given a few paragraphs of description.
There is a Pantheon of the Labyrinth presented as well. This isn’t a pantheon in the sense of being a related group of gods, so much as the most commonly worshiped gods in the major regions of the Labyrinth. The gods detailed include:
Cartokk, The Dreaming God–god of dreams and divine revelations
Herak-Mavros–god of war and thunder
Nakresh–god of thieves and tomb robbers
Rava–goddess of fate and mechanisms
Sabateus–god of magic, the moon, and the night
Solana–goddess of the sun and the forge
Because Tales of the Valiant doesn’t import alignment from the 5e SRD, the gods are presented in terms of what they represent and what goals they present to their followers. That means that some followers have a more malevolent bent to their form of worship. For example, some followers of Cartokk are laid back, hedonistic dreamers, and others are more obsessed with all of the worlds falling into Cartokk’s dream. Harak-Mavros is often seen as a god of heroes, but also has the portfolio of strife. Nakresh can be presented as a devious, dangerous, greedy deity capable of anything for personal gain, but Nakresh can also be seen as the god who inspires his followers to bring down the wealthy and powerful.
In addition to the “heroic factions,” or the factions PCs are more likely to join, work with, or at least negotiate with on a regular basis, there are also Void Factions. While not all of these are allied to one another, they all generally have nihilistic tendencies. The Great Chantry is more concerned with collecting and translating works inspired by exposure to the Void. The Last Cathedral is a cult ruled by undead brothers, raising armies to recruit the living to undead status, and opposing the forces of Solana. The Followers of the Pure Void are a group of mystics and cultists that seek to hasten Ragnarök and other Apocalyptic prophecies across the Labyrinth.
What’s Inside the Labyrinth?
The book details multiple worlds and planes. Unlike many of D&D’s worlds, a lot of the sites in the Labyrinth are specifically defined as worlds, rather than planes, but both exist, and there is an important distinction.
Worlds are different locations related to the Prime Material plane. While some of these worlds have been changed to adapt the traits of different planes of existence, these worlds didn’t start out as “conceptual” realities, like the outer planes. These are worlds with their own rules that conform to mortal assumptions, until they are fundamentally changed by forces that adopt those worlds as home.
The planes, as more traditionally defined in games like D&D, include the Astral Sea, the Elemental Spheres, and the Ethereal Plane. There are also the elements that run through the planes and worlds, such as Yggdrasil, the River Styx, and the Void. The Labyrinth itself is a mysterious construct that creates tunnels and passages between all these planes and worlds.
As described, the Labyrinth downplays the Outer Planes, as one would imagine them from D&D. Those planes are more “unknowable,” but various worlds within the Labyrinth have been converted to use by creatures from those planes. There are worlds that serve as the staging grounds for celestial armies, and worlds that serve as the dominion of archdevils.
The Labyrinth has clusters of worlds with similar traits. The Old Ring are worlds seeded directly from Yggdrasil and favor natural elements as their primary traits. The Celestial Worlds are worlds organized under the purview of celestial armies, staged to oppose the forces of the lower planes and the Void. The Void worlds are clustered together conceptually, and they represent worlds that have been infected by the entropy of the Void. These are worlds that are dying, often populated with creatures of the Void and various demons. There are about fifty sample worlds included in this section, each of which are detailed with a paragraph of text.
Other Tools
There are several tables that pull together what creatures are likely to be found in the Labyrinth, creatures that are suited for planar traveling and world hopping campaigns, organized into different challenge ratings. There is also a cult name generator, for rolling up a prefix, core, and suffix for the cult’s name.
The Outer Worlds
One of the clusters of worlds in the Labyrinth shown on the cosmological map in this product, the Outer Worlds are all worlds that were contributed to the project as part of the crowdfunding project, which allowed backers to pitch worlds to be included, with 70 of those pitches being chosen for inclusion.
These worlds get a little bit more detail than the fifty example worlds given in the previous section of the book. They each feature a high concept summary sentence for the setting, the names of the creators, and a slightly longer paragraph description hitting all the high points of the world.
Because these worlds were pitched by backers and not developed alongside the concepts guiding the rest of the Guide, there are a few worlds whose assumptions feel a little at odds with the “realities” of the Labyrinth. Some of them imply a greater cosmology of their own. Many of them are more science fiction/space opera oriented, which isn’t heavily supported by the currently available Tales of the Valiant rules. There are multiple worlds that are allegorical commentaries on modern issues.
Many of these are fun to read and introduce interesting thought exercises. There are definitely some worlds that work as a place to namedrop when your planar travelers need to explain where they’ve been before, or as a place for a quick visit for an adventure or two. Many others require a bit more thought and effort if they are introduced, especially since many of them describe “twists” that aren’t well supported by Tales of the Valiant (protagonists as insects living inside a giant tree, tiny protagonists living in a human scientist’s backyard, etc.).
A Heaven for Every Soul
I like the idea of making the Outer Planes/Afterlife/Divine Domains more remote, with various thematic worlds all being worlds outside of the realms of the gods that have been shaped and populated by various planar travelers. Not only does it deepen the mystery of what the afterlife is really like, or what the true nature of the gods might be, it also gives you a lot of flexibility for creating a unique realm for your Archdevil or Demon Lord without fitting them into a more all-inclusive planar framework.
I also like the theme of the Void cultists spreading through different worlds, and portraying the variety that exists within similar nihilistic organizations. I’ve been enjoying the huge, plane spanning organizations that have appeared in WotC releases like Glory of the Giants and The Book of Many Things, and I appreciate more of them, taking the Tales of the Valiant sensibilities, appearing here.
No Way Out
Here is where I get to be a little conflicted, because while I like some of the mystery and customization this planar setup allows, I also really enjoy the big, strange conceptual planes for D&D’s outer planes. They aren’t impossible to reconcile, but they also aren’t a focus of this setting. While I like the factions presented, I feel like we’re missing some archetypes, especially on the villain’s side, with the antagonist factions being Void related.
Much like factions, the pantheon presents good information, but feels a little thin and lacking in wider archetypes. Most of the gods we have can be benevolent or malevolent, and that’s cool, I would love to have a few more unambiguous gods and a few less broad concepts for the deities’ portfolios. I know, you might say “ambiguous gods with a broad collection of concepts that may not always match up” is absolutely the way actual real-world religions often work. I’m not against some of those gods, but D&D-like settings aren’t always served best by only including elements that fit a concept of historical accuracy over fantasy archetypes. The Midgard setting has similarly ambiguous deities, but also includes “Dark Gods,” which are more commonly understood to be dangerous and antagonistic.
This final comment isn’t entirely fair, but with both WotC and now Kobold Press moving toward “the setting is the broader cosmology,” it does make me wish we had a more traditional campaign setting product on the horizon.
Tenuous Recommendation–The product has positive aspects, but buyers may want to make sure the positive aspects align with their tastes before moving this up their list of what to purchase next.
I really like the flexibility of the Labyrinth and the idea that worlds, rather than planes, might be the thematic locations that PCs can explore. I really like the concept of the Labyrinth, tunnels beneath reality that run all around the multiverse, as a fantasy concept. I think this product gives us a good glimpse into what we’re going to see when the Tales of the Valiant universe is expanded, and it provides some ideas that are immediately usable in game. I’ve already incorporated some of the concepts into the plane hopping segment of my current campaign.
My main hesitation when more broadly recommending this product is that later this year (as of this writing in 2024) there will be a crowdfunding campaign for the Labyrinth Worldbook, a campaign setting book that provides more details about traveling between worlds, factions, and dangers lurking in the tunnels that crisscross reality. If you want to pick this up to see the shape of things to come and get some inspiration right now, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, but it also may not be too difficult to wait for more in-depth setting information.
If you would like to see what I’m talking about for myself, or want to see some of the other takes on the cosmology in which the world of Midgard exists, I hereby present these affiliate links, which will gather unto me a tiny bit of what you might spend when you use them. I appreciate you stopping by!