Erin & Planescape

[elai]

I remember reading a few of Erin articles a while ago and noticing quite a similarity in themes & terminology between her articles and the dungeon & dragons Planescape campaign setting. Things like astral threads, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Why do you think there is a similarity?

Planescape - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[OlderWiser]

A good deal of material generated for the D&D game is based on actual human folklore and beliefs. All the "deities" in the Deities & Demigods book, for example, are taken from actual mythology and legend (although in the original they included some from fantasy literature, as well, until they got hit with a copyright suit). The AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide had a list of "relics & artifacts" which were based directly on actual "relics" from human history and lore.

The concept of multi-planes and good and evil and so forth has been around in various forms for centuries, and most of the stuff used in the D&D universes is taken from common human history, lore, literature, and myth.

So I'm not personally surprised to see that some of the terminology Erin uses is similar to that used in the Planescape milieu. The concepts are not unique to Erin and have been present in lore and various belief systems for a long time. The Planescape scenario clearly draws inspiration from the same sources.

I do not, of course, presume to answer for Erin. I'm just speaking as someone who has read a lot of lore/history and also used to play AD&D quite avidly way back when.

[Erin Pavlina]

Yes, what OlderWiser said is correct. You channeled my answer. Thanks!