A Far Out Rant

[Tequila Sunrise]

I hate that the Far Realm has become the ultra-evil realm! I'm sorry, are nine hells of burning souls not evil enough? Are three endless plains of soul-numbing greyscape not evil enough? Not even an uncountable number of cursed chaos-scapes? It isn't enough that the denizens of these planes provide an endless variety of filthy, retched, malicious, scheming, 99% irredeemable fiends who have the evil subtype? We really need an even more ULTRA-EVIL REALM?

Honestly, how is a DM supposed to explain that a realm is more evil than the realms where murderers, rapists, genocidal maniacs and politicians go when they die? No, really, I'd love to hear the explanation!

Now, I'm not often nostalgic about second edition, but I remember my introduction to the Far Realm back when I discovered planescape. Maybe I didn't read all the first references to the Far Realm, or maybe I just blanked them out, but I remember when for me at least the Far Realm was just bizarre. And what's wrong with bizarre? Oh, I suppose that once the Far Realm became part of standard D&D it suddenly had to conform to the archetypal "Bizzare = Evil" standard, even at the cost of internal consistency.

I say, to the Abyss with "ultra-evil"! If I need a realm devoted to evil and insanity in my game, I'll just label another layer of the Abyss because THAT is the realm of evil and insanity. If I need a certain breed of aberrations to have a defined origin, I'll put such a place in Baator with the devils because THEY are the epitome of cunning, diabolics, arrogance and evil. In my game, the Far Realm will always be bizzare. PERIOD.

That feels better,
TS

 

[Hussar]

Well, considering that the Far Realms is based on Lovecraft, painting them evil isn't all that hard. They're not evil in the "We want to take over the world and eat your soul" kind of demonic or devilish evil. No, they're evil in the sense of "We are here to completely obliterate all life and twist and pervert it for our own purposes".

That's a different flavour of evil, but, it's still evil.

Somehow I just never got the sense that the Far Realms were good.

 

[Creeping Death]

In this case, I would use evil as a warning word and not in the kicking puppies sense of the word. "Don't go there it is dangerous" just doesn't carry the same weight as "Don't go there, it is evil!".

Me personally, the far realm is just bizarre and way beyond the understanding of most things in the multiverse including the long lived races. Meaning, in my view, Asmodeus might understand the Far Realm only partially, but look how long he's been around. Everyone else, good luck.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Piratecat]

Actually, I always got the feeling that the Far Realms were utterly uncaring. That's what makes them scary.

 

[Hussar]

Actually, I always got the feeling that the Far Realms were utterly uncaring. That's what makes them scary.

But, by D&D definition of evil, wouldn't "utterly uncaring" (which would include completely not caring about sentient life) count as evil?

There's no real "amoral" alignment. Even Neutral isn't so much amoral as undecided.

 

[Piratecat]

When the dam breaks, is a flood evil as it rushes down the narrow valley towards you?

Implacable. Uncaring. Destructive. Terrifying.

 

[Hussar]

However, floods are objects and thus have no alignment according to RAW. Far Realms critters are ((differently)) alive and ((sort of)) sentient, thus they have alignments. A total and complete disregard for life is pretty much definitively evil, by D&D alignments.

 

[Kestrel]

That's a good point. Should make them beyond alignment, so far so that alignment based effects have no impact on them. (Also makes them more powerful)

 

[Set]

Being a Lovecraft fan, I like the Far Realms *more* than the Abyss, Nine Hells, Three Hades, Seven Gehennas, Pink Clovers and Green Triangles.

It just feels more evocative to me than Acheron, for example.

 

[Shemeska]

One problem though: the Far Realms aren't Evil.

They might be antithetical to life as we know it, but so is the Elemental Plane of Fire to an ice paraelemental, but that doesn't make it Evil.

The Far Realm is just different, dangerously different, based on utterly divergent concepts and laws of reality than the Great Wheel. Evil might not even be a basic concept of alignment in its conception of reality. It's dangerous to being from the Great Wheel, and the feeling is mutual because exposure to our reality seems to be harmful, painful, and maddening to beings from the Far Realm. In fact this mutual harm actually motivates one major denizen of the Far Realms to seek to prevent contact between the two seperate realities.

The Far Realms isn't Evil. It isn't about Evil. Fiends are Evil. The Far Realms may be based on Lovecraft's work, but it's not Evil taken up to 11 in the Spinal Tap way. You'll find the heart of Evil in the Gray Waste, not in the paradoxical wonderland of the Far Realm.

Edit: the Far Realms aren't about Chaos either. It operates by its own set of laws, just ones that are different from ours, might not make sense to us, and ones based on concepts alien to our minds. Glip'xoth the Uvuaduum will take the same perspective on the laws and concepts of the Great Wheel multiverse.