Libertad's Planar Revision Project

[Libertad]

Mechanus

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”


~Spock, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan


“I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!”


~The Joker, The Dark Knight


Mechanus is the exemplar plane of Law in Dungeons & Dragons. As I discussed in my write-up of Limbo, people have differing accounts as to what behavior constitutes for Lawful alignment. Over the decades of D&D history, Lawful alignments have been associated with social conservatism, collectivism, authoritarianism, civilization over nature, sanity, and repetition. For the purposes of this section, I’ve decided to use these distinctions for Mechanus:


Extreme collectivism: collectivism in regards to societal organization is the idea that multiple groups of people are at their best when working in coordination with each other. Personal flaws and inexperience matters less when a worthier candidate can supplement for the weakness of another individual. Collectivist societies on Mechanus encourage unwavering devotion to the group (be it a species, organization, or religion). A group working in perfect unison is the ideal, accomplishing great feats of ingenuity that no individual can do alone.


Even so, a non-hierarchal "everybody's equal" society also has a place on Mechanus. Delon-Estin Oti is a walled commune on Mechanus where everybody is equal and there are no leaders. The streets are orderly, people perform repetitive tasks every day, and there are no visible levels of intra-societal strife. Even without a clear designation of mayor or administrator, the city is still strongly collectivist and encourages the welfare of the many over the few. However, most societies on Mechanus are hierarchal in nature, as a top-down level of administration by a qualified individual has a better chance of coordinating people towards a common pursuit of Law.

The Conflict of Law: Modrons, Inevitables, and Formians​

Just because the societies of Mechanus run with sublime precision doesn’t mean that it’s a squeaky-clean Utopia. The plane’s three noteworthy inhabitants all have very different ideas of the maintenance and influence of Law in the Multiverse.


Modrons: What the Modrons want really boils down to what Primus wants. With the exceptions of “rogue units,” they’re little better than computer programs executing commands. They can act without direct oversight and alter tactics based on circumstance, but they need Primus’ input to pursue new tasks and do things not in their “programming.”
Primus differs from the Formians and the Inevitables is that it’s not as belligerent: it does send Modrons all over the Multiverse every 17 years, but mostly for the purposes of gathering information. Its current plans are more defensive-minded: after Tenebrous nearly killed it with the Last Word and took its identity to control all Modrons, Primus bides its time, rebuilding its numbers and destroying “rogue Modrons” and those tainted by demonic influence.


Inevitables: The Inevitables were created long ago as a sort of interplanetary regulation force. The fate of their maker is unknown, but now the Inevitables can produce more of their own in giant crèche-forges scattered across the cogs of Mechanus. The Inevitables are sapient and capable of learning, although the code of conduct and personal duties are so hard-wired into their mind-set that conflicting actions of thoughts of self-doubt are immediately expunged.
What can be gleaned from the primary goals of the Inevitables is that their specialization is keeping others from exceeding the boundaries and limits of magic. With magic, one can transcend mortal limits, create and destroy life, alter the space-time continuum, and even become a deity. Without restraint, and individual can recursively use magic to alter himself and his surrounding environment until the entire Multiverse is reshaped in his image. How else does one explain the majority of Inevitables? Only two kinds are modified to chase down fugitives and oath breakers, while the rest have various forms of anti-magic specializations. Magic is power, and the Inevitables are the chains which bind it.
The Inevitables are not “mage-hunters” in the traditional sense of the word, attacking every spellcasting creature on sight and ridding the land of magic. They want magic to be regulated so that it can progress at reasonable levels for easy observation. They’re theoretically neutral in the affairs of deities, although conflicts with the gods of Magic and certain ideals of Freedom occur regularly.
Inevitables are in conflict with the Formians due to the influence of their expansionist Queens. The Scion Queen Mother already has the effective powers of an Intermediate Deity. The spread of Mechanus Formians across the Multiverse, combined with the Hive-Mind nature, can lead to a near-instantaneous spread of magical knowledge on a multi-planar scale. If the Formians got tainted from some dark magic, like what happened with Primus, such a doomsday scenario may be too much for even the Inevitables to contain. They’re in conflict with Primus due to its inscrutable nature and possible fears of lingering demonic taint.


Formians: The Formians are a lot like the Inevitables in that they live to serve their leader. The Scion Queen Mother of Mechanus is the greatest of all Formians, with enough combined power to rival minor gods. The Scions sends out orders and inspiration to Queens elsewhere, much like a deity in contact with someone via magic. Barring a lack of contact or willful defiance (rare except on Arcadia), all Formian Queens are instructed to spread their people across the Multiverse and take over as much territory as possible.
The ideal society to the Formians is one where all of their members work in unison for the welfare of the community. There is no room for non-Formians in this system, who must either be forcefully assimilated or destroyed. The Inevitables and Formians are dissident elements which stand in the way of their ideal society (the former due to their opposition to the Scions’ reach, the latter due to their unswerving loyalty to Primus).


The three major factions regularly go to war with other, declare ceasefires, join with another against the third, and claim and give up territorial cogs. Currently no faction has the upper hand, although a victory by any one group has far-reaching consequences for the Multiverse. Without the Inevitables or the Modrons, the Formians will expand rapidly to nearby planes. Without the Modrons or Formians, the Inevitables would have more soldiers to enforce their laws on other planes and extend their reach. Without the Formians or Inevitables, Primus would send out more Modrons across the planes and amass a huge knowledge base of the other planes’ weaknesses for future invasion.
Many outside groups use agents to keep the balance of power relatively equal on Mechanus, and adventurers of a more mercenary bent can make a lot of money through sabotage.

Rogue Modrons​

Every so often, a Modron is affected by external sources and loses its connection to Primus. Whether it’s via a lingering demonic taint or powerful magic, these “rogue Modrons” quickly develop a sense of self-identity and have no desire to return to their brethren. The regular Modrons do everything in their power to hunt down and destroy the rogues before they can influence others.
A sizable number of rogue Modrons still live on Mechanus, hidden in underground cities on the giant cogs and on floating habitats out in the void. A lot of them have no desire except survival, but a lot of them still pledge loyalty to the demon lord Tenebrous and scheme against the inhabitants of Mechanus. The fact that these rogue Modrons are a frequent source of raids and violence in nearby cities gives Primus all the evidence he needs against self-determination; the Inevitables and Formians often confuse these rogue agents with ones acting under the will of Primus, thus prolonging the three-sided war.

World-Cogs​

Many visitors to Mechanus often comment upon how the giant landmasses are shaped like the interior gears of a clock. In reality, the first clockmakers took inspiration from the worlds of Mechanus to design their machines. The landmasses have just about every conceivable biome from the Material Plane, from blazing-hot desert cogs to tropical archipelagos surrounded by water which spills off the side. Interestingly, most cogs’ biomes can reach around to the other side, resulting in a “mirrored effect” to the outside observer. Sufficiently large cogs can even have opposing biomes on each side.
Lots of colonists from other planes travel to Mechanus, using the abundant natural resources of the cogs to create settlements, profit off of natural resources, and even setting up their own nation-states. The vast majority of colonies are home to mortal petitioners and Lawful outsiders. Unlike Limbo, habitats suitable for living on are already formed; the only thing necessary is for the conventional creation of settlements. Cogs already claimed by the Inevitables, Modrons, or Formians are less welcoming and do not tolerate visitors until they’ve proven that they’re worthy to be residents of Mechanus.
Off-planar settlements contain the largest amount of non-lawful people, trying the patients of natives. Many settlers are too impatient to wait for permission and set up towns in Mechanus anyway. This usually doesn’t end well, as the towns eventually get quarantined or overrun by one of the three factions.


Adventure Hooks for Mechanus:
• The PCs are staying in a colonized world-cog when a Formian army surrounds the settlement. The messenger announces that the Scion Queen Mother has claimed the territory for the Formians, and that all residents must submit to the new authority or be crushed.
• The PCs gain a letter of marquee from a powerful nation/extraplanar organization to settle several world-cogs on Mechanus. Vast riches and unexplored lands await, as well as hostile competing factions, expansionist Formians, and Inevitables suspicious of the colonies.
• A rogue modron under demonic influence plans on opening a portal to the Abyss in a sparsely defended settlement on a lush world-cog. The rogue modrons enacts a dimensional anchor shield around the colony, preventing reinforcements from arriving (he’ll drop it upon completion of the portal). The PCs are the only ones who can stop him!

 

[Libertad]

The Outlands

Center of the Multiverse, by IBuro of Deviantart​

The Outlands is the center of the Multiverse, haven of cross-planar travel and trade. It’s the home of Sigil, the fabled City of Doors. It is home to the Spire, a place so powerful that it can rob even the deities of their powers. No trait or faction on the Outlands is dominant, not even Neutrality; it is all the Planes, and none of them.

Gatetowns​

Arranged in a rough circle 1,000 miles away from the Spire are 17 towns of varying sizes. Each of them has a portal to an Outer Plane, with limited dimensional influence. Xaos, the gatetown to Limbo, has a highly morphic nature, while the Elysium gatetown of Ecstasy has a limited Entrapment trait.


If a gatetown becomes too “close” to its connecting Plane, or a dimensional breach occurs, the settlement runs the risk of being “absorbed” into the Plane and taken out of the Outlands. The inhabitants are aware of this, and power struggles between community leaders occur between those who want to move to the new Plane and others who prefer the setting of the Outlands. Planes with more expansionist power groups (such as Mechanus and Elysium) are poised to overtake the gatetowns and everyone within them.

A Storehouse of Knowledge​

The Outlands is home to a disproportionately high amount of libraries, mausoleums, museums, and other places containing the ancient memories of the past. Deities representing concepts of knowledge reside on the plane, making the Outlands a safe haven for people with forbidden texts, censored works, and various pieces of information others might want to restrict or destroy.


One might assume that this would make the Outlands an easy target for would-be tomb raiders and thieves, but this is hardly the case. A rare spellbook may be under the guard of divine minions, treacherous traps, and secluded among the shelves of tens of thousands of other books of a similar nature. A person might know that the Book of Vile Darkness was last seen in Boccob’s Library of Lore, but that doesn’t mean that anybody can just waltz in and find it easily.


Boccob’s Library of Lore is a giant building full of scholarly texts, almost an entire city in and of itself. Most areas are well-patrolled and home to sages and wizards of all stripes, but the Restricted Areas are home to the more dangerous tomes. Full of malevolently sapient books, ethereal living magical symbols of death and worse, these sections of the Library are rarely traveled and given over to decay and ruin. Boccob’s more fiendish and eccentric petitioners live here, jealously guarding their hidden knowledge from “the unworthy.”


The Cavern of Thought is home to Illsensine, deity of the Illithids. It is said that the God knows of primordial, forgotten secrets and of cataclysmic disasters yet to come. His lair is an underground cavern, its walls, ceilings, and floors fleshy and pulsating to the rhythm of a heartbeat. Illsensine and his petitioners tolerate no visitors, but anybody who manages to make it to the largest chamber can come into contact with the god himself. Illsensine can bestow knowledge upon the person strong enough to make it here, yet in exchange they must give him one of their own memories. Such a memory must be of value to Illsensine and hard to obtain, otherwise he’ll slay the intruder for wasting his time.

Khaasta and Rilmani​

The Rilmani are Outland natives committed to the balance of powers between the Outer Planes. They believe that the Multiverse is ideal as it is and reject any attempts of expansion by any of the forces of Good, Evil, Law, or Chaos. Rilmani believe that their home plane’s diversity is the ideal, and the Multiversal dominance of any one group of planes on the Great Wheel will result in the destruction of a large swath of their homeland. Many Rilmani seek Neutrality for the sake of Balance, but many more seek it out of fear of destruction.


Since they frequently intervene in the affairs of many powerful planar factions, the Rilmani’s policies earn them a lot of ill-will throughout the Planes. Were it not for their bases near the Spire, it is probable that multiple forces would have destroyed their people long ago. Rilmani also have a presence beyond the Spire and adamantly champion the right of gatetowns to stay on the Outlands; they argue that planar absorption, even of a voluntary nature, is an invasion of their land.


Adventurers in the Outlands (and possibly the rest of the Great Wheel) inevitably get entangled in the Rilmani’s affairs. They might be hired to prevent an incursion of Formian expansionists into the gatetown of Automata, or might need to protect an Archon, Eladrin, or other Outsider from a Rilmani assassin.


The Khaasta are the other well-known natives of the Outlands. They mostly live in the region closest to the chaotic-aligned gatetowns, roaming the land as tribes. Khaasta are violent and hostile to others outside their tribe and survive by plundering and attacking other settlements. They have a well-deserved reputation as bandits, slavers, and thieves. Most inhabitants view them as a scourge upon the land.

Sigil, the City of Doors​

Sigil is the crown jewel of the Outer Planes, a multicultural haven of inhabitants from all over the Multiverse. Constructed along the inside band of a giant floating ring, the city has no true sky, and its architecture adheres to grim, foreboding towers and citadels. Sigil is home to the largest amount of portals per square inch of all planar metropolises. The portals are usually subtle: a portal to Pandemonium might take the form of an echoing sewer hole in the slums, while a portal to the Abyss might take the form or a dark alleyway covered with demonic graffiti.


Some of the most powerful people and organizations gather in Sigil, and the city’s factions plan events on an interplanar scale. Whether it’s searching for a portal to a wondrous location or sabotaging the plot of a faction conspiracy, there’s more than enough quests for adventurers in the City of Doors!


Adventure Hooks in the Outlands:
• The PCs are caught in an unconventional dilemma. The Elysium gatetown of Ecstasy just got absorbed into the Upper Plane. It won’t be long before the town’s petitioners and inhabitants get assimilated by the Plane. A village of Rilmani living close to Ecstasy is enraged, and demands the return of their family, friends, and fellow citizens. The Guardinals understand their plight, but argue that the inhabitants will be happy and provided for once they’re assimilated. Whether it’s due to influence or experience, the PCs are called in to provide some sort of solution. Even Good-aligned PCs might feel uncomfortable with Elysium’s policies, and Clerics of like-minded deities and Paladins who choose to side with the Rilmani might even be threatened by the Guardinals “for siding against Good.”
• A group of archeologists is planning an expedition to a long-abandoned ruin in the Outlands. Once the site of a deity of knowledge, the scholars believe that the ruins might contain hints of ancient secrets of long-dead civilizations. The PCs are hired to provide safety and security to the team of archeologists. Unfortunately, it turns out that the ruins once belonged to Vecna, Evil deity of secrets and magic! The PCs and archeologists are now marked for death by the Whispered One’s servants, and they’ll need to fight their way out if they hope to survive!
• While performing research at Boccob’s Library of Lore, the PCs come upon a tome of powerful illusion magic. The book’s spell activates unexpectedly, and the PCs find themselves in an imaginary world full of ancient myths and legends! The spell will end once the PCs finish the saga. Feel free to borrow inspiration from real-world epics and myths, but with a D&D twist!

 

[Libertad]

Carceri

“With all our boasted reforms, our great social changes, and our far-reaching discoveries, human beings continue to be sent to the worst of hells, wherein they are outraged, degraded, and tortured, that society may be "protected" from the phantoms of its own making.”


“Prison, a social protection? What monstrous mind ever conceived such an idea? Just as well say that health can be promoted by a widespread contagion.”
~Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays


The Multiverse is full of extradimensional pocket realms cut off from planar travel, magically-warded buildings containing fell monsters, and gems of great necromantic power brimming with hordes of mortal souls. That an entire plane is dedicated to the imprisonment of evil souls should be no surprise to those learned in the history of the Great Wheel.


Carceri is the kind of place that most people don’t choose to live in. The higher-ranking Demodands and Nerull’s favored minions get rewarded with power, privilege, and creature comforts, but the vast majority of inhabitants and petitioners live a terrible existence: the average settlement is a walled frontier town surrounded by inhospitable terrain, where a loaf of bread is seen as a luxury and one meal a day is fine dining. Even the Demodands don’t get much beyond a glorified “prison guard” status: the lower-ranking ones don’t get much in the way of equipment, and betrayal and treachery from one’s peers is a huge problem. Despite this wretched existence, there is not much desire for most petitioners to willingly leave the plane. Upon entry into Carceri, prisoners (both petitioners and people given over to the Demodands) have memories of their life erased and altered. They believe that the entire Multiverse is a hellish, desolate landscape full of famine, war, and crime, while the propaganda tells them that other Planes are much worse. Without knowledge of the outside world, less people are inclined to leave if they believe that Carceri is the king of the crap pile.


And when the propaganda fails and prisoners strive for better treatment, they’re encouraged to become part of the system and work with the Demodands for choice privileges. When you’re starving, naked, and isolated from human contact, becoming a prison snitch doesn’t seem so bad if you get to live in a posh cell.

The Dark Shield Project​

One simply doesn’t Plane Shift into Carceri, or pass through it via the Styx. Despite its position and alignment on the Great Wheel, travel is strictly regulated and monitored. The Demodands can’t have spellcasters, fiendish soldiers in the Blood War, and saboteurs entering and exiting the plane at their leisure. Such permissiveness would throw the entire security of Carceri into ruin and compromise its reputation as a planar prison. Enter the Dark Shield Project.


The Dark Shield Project is an amazing endeavor of magical power and knowledge on a Planes-wide scale. It’s capable of detecting all but the most dedicated of intruders, and can neutralize their planar travel abilities once they get in. The Project requires a massive amount of resources to maintain, although it has more than enough due to unanimous support from the council of Demodand leaders and the deity Nerull. Carceri’s movers and shakers are aware that many people are as interested as breaking into their plane as they are of breaking out of it.

The Effects: Anybody who attempts to enter or leave Carceri without the proper authorization from a high-ranking Demodand is blocked. Casting a spell of planar travel must succeed on a Caster Level check (DC 30) in order to work, while unauthorized passengers on the River Styx are redirected to a random tributary on their current plane. Even if an unauthorized person gains access to Carceri or is on the verge of leaving, several Contingency spells go off: first the person is hit with a Dimensional Lock spell, then a Greater Scrying Spell is cast upon them (the scryer is a crystal ball construct located in a Demodand watchtower). All magical effects function at Caster Level 20. If the scrying is successful, the attendant Demodands at the watchtower will be able to discern the intruder’s location in regards to region and layer, possible magical effects active on their person, and their plane of origin from which they went into Carceri in 1d4 rounds. 2d6 rounds after that, a strike force of Demodand will converge on the area to capture or kill the intruders or escapees.

The Revolutionary League​

One might find it odd that an anarchist faction has a major presence in Carceri (and an unofficial headquarters, even!). It actually makes perfect sense if you’re an anarchist. Basically, the system of Carceri is an oppressive and corrupt form of hierarchal government. Whether the anarchist is Good, Evil, or Neutral, Carceri represents the logical extremes of tyranny run amok, taking away one’s right to self-determination and liberty. “What happens in the Lower Planes can one day happen to all of us,” is a favorite cautionary saying of the League.


The faction’s efforts in Carceri relate to freeing unjustly held prisoners, encouraging petitioners and vindictive Demodands to turn on their superiors, and finding a permanent solution to dismantling the Dark Shield Project. The League doesn’t want to just destroy the system: they want to thoroughly ravage it so that no other powerful group can reclaim it for themselves.


PCs interested in traveling to Carceri are encouraged to contact the Revolutionary League. They know of several backdoors which bypass the Dark Shield Project, but such opportunities are temporary as the Demodands maneuver to close up any gaps in their security. The journey itself is still fraught with risk, as groups loyal to Carceri’s leaders infiltrate the League and pose as members to set traps for people trying to break into their plane.


The Revolutionary League’s cells in Carceri are spread out among the frontier towns and markets, working to earn the reputation and support of communities to help the upcoming insurrection. They also have sympathetic allies among the Upper Planes Celestials and the Slaadi, all of whom have their own reasons for subverting the existing power structure of Carceri.

Injustice in the System: The Innocents of Carceri​

A lot of times somebody needs someone to disappear from the face of the Great Wheel, or be put somewhere where almost nobody can reach them. Sometimes an anti-magic prison cell located in an extradimensional space is not enough. Sometimes a person needs a staff of highly-trained, unscrupulous guards and a jail so dire and feared that none of his opponents will move against him once the offending party is made an example of. The Demodands don’t care much for guilt and justice, and accept princely sums of money in exchange for adding extra souls to the plane. Carceri may be well-known and notorious, but the place is so big that actually trying to find specific prisoners is incredibly difficult. The trafficking of souls is a major source of income for the Demodands and their Dark Shield Project, making Carceri a for-profit prison in every sense of the word.


This is the primary reason so many people try to break into Carceri. Lots of these “vanished” people were important figures on their home planes, or where at the verge of completing some important task before they got captured. It’s also one of the most common adventure hooks for PCs. Carceri isn’t ordered like a typical cell block with a top-down administration. It’s got several territories and layers, each ruled over by different council members of the Demodands and a legion of sadistic wardens. The Sand Tombs of Payratheon are used for “preserving” prisoners in a corpse-like near-death state. The citadel of Nerull has rows of alters carved out of onyx gems, each holding thousands of souls. Frontier towns on the layer of Colothys may serve as prisons in among themselves, located on top of mesas with all airborne travel controlled by winged throngs of Demodands. Whenever you plan adventures in Carceri, keep in mind that the entire land is a prison and get creative in designing inhospitable terrain!


Adventure Hooks in Carceri:
• The PCs all wake up in tombs. They’re being held in the dank depths of a ship. They still have their equipment and possessions, but the locals are hostile and believe them to be harbingers of the apocalypse. Once they reach the ship’s surface, they’ll find themselves in a large ocean. The water is acidic and contains the memory-stealing properties of Styx, while an army of Demodand by the shore has orders to destroy anybody who tries to escape the ship. The PCs find extraplanar travel nearly impossible. If they hope to escape, a fellow prisoner on the ship tells them that they must find a hidden cache of magical items believed to be planted by a Revolutionary League member. The PCs must act quickly, for the ship is moving of its own accord to land and certain doom.
• A powerful planar faction has pulled some strings and called in favors for the release of a Titan in Carceri for their own use. The PCs are entrusted with the task of traveling to the plane to oversee the prisoner exchange. Unfortunately, the Demodands are aware of the power of the Titan and have no plans on releasing him (or allowing the PCs to leave). The PCs can fight their way out, but they’ll be wanted men as the warden promises a month off of hard labor to any prisoner that catches or kills them.
• Nerull promised to create a legion of undead minions for a major villain in your campaign. The PCs must sneak into his lair on the innermost layer of Carceri and sabotage the production of undead. In addition to their own destructive capabilities, the PCs receive several scrolls of disintegrate to use on the black onyx towers containing the most powerful undead souls. Through creative use of metamagic and positive energy, the scrolls will utterly destroy the structural integrity of the towers and the undead beings inside. This is the perfect excuse to introduce the Load-Bearing Boss or Collapsing Lair tropes to your action-packed adventure of mayhem and destruction!

 

[Libertad]

Hades

“My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.”


~Thomas Jefferson


Although it does not have the infinite variety of horrors of the Abyss or the eternal warfare of Acheron, Hades is quite possibly the most dangerous of the Lower Planes. Its unique trait robs all hope and willpower from visitors, mortal and outsider alike. Those who fall victim to this insidious entrapment lose their memories and powers and turn into large, wormlike petitioners known as larvae. Since the souls of larvae are the most common ingredient in magical enhancement among fiends and evil spellcasters, this makes Hades a prime location and economic powerhouse.


The Yugoloths and Night Hags, being natives of the plane, are immune to Hades’ entrapment and thus control the most territory and therefore the most souls and larvae. Even then, Hades does not have the creature comforts of the cities of Gehenna, so most Yugoloths who live here tend to be extra-paranoid about their larvae stock, starry-eyed idealists seeking to live on their ancestral homeland, or using the plane’s features as a form of protection from interlopers.


Hades is also a massive conflict zone and the primary battlefield of the Blood War. The Yugoloths of Gehenna pull in favors from both Demons and Devils to maintain their Plane’s “neutral” status; Carceri’s Dark Shield Project prevents most armies from occupying the plane; and Acheron and Limbo are full of multiple factions hostile to demons and devils, meaning that neither side has yet to claim them as tactical advantages. This pretty much leaves Hades as the only place where both factions can easily occupy large swaths of the same plane. The war is just as much about economic dominance as it is about eradication of the opposing side. Destroying the enemy’s larva supply, or claiming territory containing larva strengthens the army’s home plane and weakens the other. More larva equals more potential fiends, more souls to be used for the creation of magic items and undead, and less for the other guys. The Yugoloths sell larva and land titles to both sides as well as security and protection for an extra fee. The prices are high and the Demons and Devils know that they’re getting screwed, but Yugoloth merchants are easily capable of imposing trade sanctions on offending Demon Lords and Archdevils. Grossly inflated prices are seen as the “lesser evil” in comparison to losing a major source of power.

The Siege Malicious and the Oinoloth​

In theory, the Oinoloth is the ruler of the entire Yugoloth race and his word is law. In reality, he’s merely the absolute ruler of the Yugoloth communities of Hades. He’s got representatives in Gehenna, but they’re more of an ambassadorial nature. He’s headquartered in the Wasting Tower of Khin-Oin, where he sits on his throne The Siege Malicious.


The Oinoloth is merely a title, with each succession of ruler the assassin of his or her forebear. The Oinoloth has the power to alter the landscape of Hades as though he were an Intermediate deity, and can create new forms of life. Most Oinoloths use the latter power to create insidious diseases, which they then sell to the highest bidder.


Many Yugoloths desire the Siege Malicious for themselves and engage in cloak and dagger warfare to narrow the field of potential candidates. However, the Demon Princes and Archdevils are aware of the throne’s power and occasionally maneuver armies to take the tower. The Yugoloths would rather be ruled and oppressed by their own kind than another species of fiend, meaning that this scenario’s the closest thing the Yugoloths have to unity. The last time a Demon Prince did this (Orcus), Yugoloth merchants across the Multiverse blocked off the larva trade to his layer and hired legions of mercenary demons and devils (not together, of course) to destroy his holdings. This show of force sent a powerful message to the power players of the Lower Planes: “Do what thou wilt on Hades, but never try to claim dominion over us.”


Even then, fiendish lords aren’t known for giving up. If the Yugoloths ever show weakness or lose their powerful status over the soul trade, then even the Oinoloth and all the Yugoloths of Gehenna may not be enough to defend the Wasting Tower.

Hades' Underworld​

In addition to Mount Olympus on Arborea, the Greek God Hades also has a primary home on the plane of the same name. He claims dominion over the Underworld on the third layer, but his power and reach extend across the entire plane. A lot of planar travelers refer to the plane as Hades’ realm, but such things should not be said around the Yugoloths, who will tell you that the Oinoloth’s the true ruler and the plane’s proper name is the Gray Wastes.


Hades’ secret weapon and reason for his dominance is due a unique trait of his realm: soul replication. Since souls not of Neutral Evil alignment go to other planes, Hades’ status as the God of Death is not so absolute. But, as part of his portfolio, he knows of the circumstances of the deaths of all mortal creatures. If desired, he can create a copy of a mortal’s soul upon their death to materialize in the Underworld. The replicated soul has the same alignment, knowledge, personality traits, and shape of the original. The copy is, for all intents and purposes, a clone.


In addition to a huge legion of potential followers and larva conversion, Hades also has a gigantic network of information. Anything known by any dead mortal can be found, but for a price. Hades doesn’t part with this knowledge for raw gold or no-name adventurers; individuals must prove their worth to him by passing all manner of tests; he’s got a reputation to protect, after all.

Spy Games​

It’s a common saying in Sigil that only three kinds of people visit Hades: Blood War soldiers, soul merchants, and Celestial spies. From Angels to Formians to Slaadi, any faction with a stake in the Blood War or an axe to grind against the fiends keeps an eye on events in this plane. Trying to find out what the Archduke Bel is planning is almost impossible to do while he’s sitting in his impenetrable tower in Baator; but when he’s leading a detachment of troops on Hades, leaving the security of his home plane and fortress behind, that’s just prime opportunity for espionage. Hades is full of neutral ground, multiple warring factions, and a cosmopolitan gathering of fiendish individuals. With the Yugoloths as the “mediators,” it’s easier to blend in or gain a safe haven when you can sell your valuable intelligence in exchange for protection and safe passage out of the Plane.


Spies and saboteurs who don’t want to help the Yugoloths can still find plenty of work here. The Celestials need to know what the Fiends are planning and the current situation in the Blood War; non-evil Slaadi will pay generously for adventurers who can disrupt the soul trade; Primus is always willing to expand his knowledge base; and the Formians will happy to know if there’s any safe havens or areas prime for colonization (their rarity on Hades makes the information all the more valuable).

Night Hags​

Night Hags are a huge power player in the soul/larva trade. Their unique abilities allow them to change any evil creature into larvae, Lawful or Chaotic. They don't even need to die to become a petitioner of Hades!


Their relationship with the Yugoloths is like that of a producer and merchant. The Hags create the larva, the Yugoloth sell them. The Yugoloth give the Hags a portion of their profits, part of which is used to create more larva. The Night Hags and Yugoloth both have a mutual defense pact out of self-interest; if some planar faction attacks one group, the other will leap to their defense.


The 'loths like others to think that they're the ones in control of the soul trade, but they know that they'd never have the power they have now without the Hags. Occasionally the two groups will get into small-scale bitter conflicts over wages or contracts, but in the end both of them reach a compromise. Hades is the biggest soul farm in the Lower Planes, and the loss of either producer or merchant will cripple their standing allow for a takeover by a Blood War faction. Anybody with a grudge against the Yugoloths or Night Hags knows that the dissolution of this alliance is key (yet another good way to get your PCs involved in extraplanar political sabotage!).


Adventure Hooks on Hades:
• It’s an open secret outside of Hades that there are extraplanar portals to the Upper Planes in the 2nd and 3rd layers (to Ysgard and Arborea, respectively). Many Yugoloths and Night Hags have been using these portals to kidnap souls from these realms to turn into larvae. The adventurers are tasked with rescuing the souls and returning them to the Upper Planes. Complicating matters is the disagreement among Celestials of the portals’ maintenance. Some argue for the portals to be closed for safety reasons, while others argue that the portals can be used as easy passage into the Lower Planes to free more innocent souls in the Lower Planes. If the PCs take too long in their rescue operation, the former faction will close the portals and strand the PCs on the other side.
• A PC who died and got resurrected has a copy of his soul in the Underworld. An enemy faction or individual plans on visiting the Underworld to learn of any valuable information the soul might have. The PCs will need to convince the representatives of the deity Hades to destroy the soul, give the copy to them, or not give it to the villain.
• A patron wishes to hire the PCs to assassinate a fiendish general in the Blood War. The general’s nearly untouchable on his home plane, but the lack of safety and presence of enemy armies on Hades means that he’ll be weaker in the next engagement. The PCs must travel to Hades, fight their way across a desolate battlefield, and kill the general. Unless the PCs have something valuable to give them or otherwise convince them it’s in their self-interest, it’s unlikely that the opposing force will help them (non-fiends and non-petitioners are treated as enemy spies from other Planes).

 

[Libertad]

Elemental Plane of Air

“Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor.”


~Bill Shankly


The Elemental Plane of Air is the safest of the Inner Planes to visitors from the Material; it’s not dominated by the crushing pressure of earth or the scorching heat of fire, but by breathable air upon an infinite expanse of sky. All creatures, visitors and natives alike, are capable of limited flight simply by willing their bodies to “fall” in one direction. Such a method of transportation is clumsy and awkward in comparison to true flight (which all of the natives possess), but this ability makes the Elemental Plane of Air the most traveled of all Inner Planes.

Skyships​

Lots of travelers from the Material Plane are uncomfortable with the “open” void of sky and feel relatively unprotected and overwhelmed. For an easy frame of reference, many visitors construct airborne vehicles shaped like sea bound ships for travel. In addition to providing living space, cargo storage, and limited protection from attackers, these “skyships” are specially designed to use the Plane’s unique nature by manipulating and changing the air currents around itself. Skyships can generate powerful gales for transportation, windstorms for combat and self-defense, and “buffer currents” to slow down incoming projectiles. It generally takes more wind power to move heavier ships, but ships with large mass can move surprisingly fast due to subjective directional gravity.


Many raiders make their lairs on the Elemental Plane of Air, using such ships to attack passing ships. Some of the wealthier “sky pirates” have mechanisms which allow them to Plane Shift. More than a few pieces of floating earth on the Plane are actually havens for these cutthroats, and have more than enough people and ships to attack small fleets.

The Djinn​

The Djinn are some of the more well-known inhabitants of the Elemental Plane of Air. Borne of the element of air as humans are borne of flesh and blood, the Djinn’s solid form is actually a “lower-powered” state; the ability to become gaseous or a living whirlwind is regarded by these proud beings as their true majesty, although they are cursed to remain solid for 23 hours of the day.


Djinn live in territories ruled by a king, noble family, or a council of the most powerful of their kind. The territories can be as small as a single city-state on a floating island, or as large as a nation with dominion over a hundred thousand subjects. Almost all rulers of Djinni-kind (known as Noble Djinni) are capable of granting Wishes to people who perform some great service to them. To prevent abuses of power, the Nobles can only grant Wishes to those not of their kind (non-Genies). Despite this limitation, Noble Djinn are overall more powerful than their “lowborn” counterparts and many even have class levels. The average Noble is well aware of their status among the Planes, and most live in fortified citadels enchanted with anti-planar travel spells to prevent summoners from calling and enslaving them.


Most Djinn on the Plane live on floating islands full of life and vegetation, both for the aesthetic value and easy point of reference for travel. Even the smaller settlements with no Nobles are richly decorated; shining stones pave the streets and colorful flowers grow in household gardens. Clothes, curtains, and carpets are made of fine fabrics from across the Great Wheel, and the local marketplace is always brimming with fantastic and rare objects. Capital cities and the homes of nobles are truly the stuff of legends: feel free to go wild with the most magnificent examples of fantasy cities. Throw in a giant clock tower attended by gear-driven golems or a statue made of living, moving stone as an example of the splendid magnificence of the Djinn.


Djinn cities are very cosmopolitan and accepting of visitors (with the exception of their mortal foes, the Efreet). The City of Jewels, the greatest known city of Genie-kind, rivals the City of Brass as a planar metropolis and has portals all over the Multiverse to facilitate travel and trade. Scheming nobles, saboteurs for the Efreet, lowborn gangs in the slums, and adventurers on all manner of dangerous quests provide plenty of action and suspense in the City of Jewels!

Cloudscapes​

More than a few clouds are solid enough to hold heavy objects in the Plane. Originally designed by Cloud Giant settlers, these huge objects make use of powerful magic to exist in a state of varying density. A central orb of frozen water serves as the “control panel” for the cloudscape, with which a person can alter its density, shape, and speed and direction. Cloudscapes charged with lightning can be truly deadly instruments of war, and are prized by Djinn and visitors alike for their destructive powers.


Many cloudscapes are used as conventional “dungeons,” used by powerful people to store treasure, imprison people, and a form of mobile living space. Air and Storm Elementals can gain great power by fusing with a cloudscape’s central orb and extending its consciousness to the entire structure. Some of the most legendary Elementals are actually giant, sentient cloudscapes.


Adventure Hooks in the Elemental Plane of Air:
• A particularly sadistic Storm Elemental has gained control over a cloudscape and uses it to terrorize floating island villages. He’s absorbed many buildings and incorporated them into the structure, often with entire families trapped inside. The Elemental suffers from a giant ego, and boasts that nobody is capable of seizing control of the cloudscape. He offers the PCs to come into the cloudscape and best his trials. If they win, they get a mobile cloudscape fortress. If they lose, well the Storm Elemental kills them. PCs venturing into the cloudscape (whether to rescue the families or show up the Elemental) will have to deal with shifting rooms, limited visibility, rogue electrical attacks, and lesser Air and Storm brethren of the Elemental. Are the adventurers up to the task? Can they conquer this confusing dungeon? Tune in next time on Dungeons & Dragons!
• A floating island, long torn away from the Material Plane, floats among others of its kind in a flying archipelago on the Elemental Plane of Air. It contains ancient ruins from a long-forgotten civilization of the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, and may possess knowledge critical to the PCs (blueprints for a powerful artifact, hieroglyphs that are the final part of a prophecy, etc). The PCs are hired by a patron to visit the ruins. Unfortuantely, the patron works for the Queen of Chaos, a Demon lord who fought against the Wind Dukes long ago and wishes to rid the Multiverse of their influence. The Queen’s agents will wait until the PCs cleared the ruins of its guardians and traps. Then they’ll move in for the kill and find whatever secret lies in the temple’s catacombs.
• Hot on the trail of a fugitive with something important, the PCs track his location to a floating island in the Elemental Plane of Air. Unfortunately for them, the island’s home to a gang of sky pirates who now “own” the fugitive. The pirates’ captain is aware that the fugitive has something of great value, and won’t accept any coin the PCs have in exchange (and flashing gold around is a sure way to get attacked in this place). Instead, he’ll auction off the fugitive to the highest bidder. The enemy factions in your campaign also want whatever the fugitive has and can pool more wealth than the PCs’ collective pockets. The PCs must break the fugitive out and fend off a horde of pirates, sabotage the auction and/or eliminate rival bidders, or somehow get the information/object of value before he’s taken out of their grasp.

 

[Libertad]

Elemental Plane of Water

The Elemental Plane of Water is tied with Air for the most traveled and heavily settled of the Inner Planes. It’s got a vast connection network to Material Plane oceans, its habitat provides suitable living conditions for many aquatic species, and its primary method of travel (swimming) is one of the most commonly understood methods of locomotion. From bronze dragons to marid genies, from merfolk to sahuagin, the Elemental Plane of Water is full of settlements and nations populated by all manner of interesting folk in need of planar-hopping adventurers.

Habitats​

The Plane isn’t just a big mass of water stretching in all directions, bereft of land and solid objects. Even the natives need a common point of reference for travel, and many aquatic life forms need earth to survive; small prey animals need tiny tunnels to escape from larger predators, while coral and kelp need to anchor on a solid surface. Due to close proximity to the Plane of Earth, floating masses of rock and similar materials drift through the Plane of Water. These “islands” drift on the currents of the Plane at varying speeds; the largest masses are the size of small countries and move so little that they may as well be still, while the smallest masses are little more than scattered pieces of human-sized boulders. The latter can cause great devastation to settlements they come into contact with, and many natives use existing landmasses or artificial habitats as shelter against these “rock storms.”


Another common danger on the older rocks is limited visibility. Erosion of earth causes the particles to form into large underwater “clouds” of a brownish hue. Many creatures with blindsense and blindsight live in these clouds, using the terrain to their advantage to catch prey and hide from predators.


Aside from the rock islands, Zaratan fleets and airtight glass structures are two other popular forms of settlement for both colonists and natives alike. The Zaratan (see Arms and Equipment Guide) are colossal turtles easily the size of small islands. Using a combination of mussel glue, hooks, and other such means, small buildings can be affixed to their shells. Such homes are usually small and take the form of smooth bumps (to minimally impact the Zaratan’s mobility and not break off in close corners and narrow passages), but the more grandiose fleets have glittering palaces and spires rising up from the turtles’ shells.


Glass structures are the primary habitat of choice for visitors who cannot breathe in water. The fabled City of Glass is the most famous example. Glass structures are usually spherical and have alterable levels of transparency to ensure the occupants’ privacy. The structure is capable of travel, and contains a floating orb which serves as the pilot’s control panel. Although magically designed, the controls can be manipulated by non-casters and are often sold with instructions. The subjective dimensional gravity on the plane means that many glass cities are built in a circular ring on the inside of the sphere, although more imaginative architectural designs are possible.

Colonists​

The merfolk, aquatic elves, locathah, ixitxachitl, and sahuagin are the most prolific aquatic races on the Material Plane in terms of population and territory. The marid and triton are some of the oldest residents on the Plane of Water, and the oldest cities and civilizations on the Plane have their influence.


The sahuagin are the most vicious and militarized of the colonists, and they are in frequent conflict with the other groups. The marids’ magical expertise and economic dominance prevents the sahuagin from being the most powerful faction, although the genies’ individualism and frequent power struggles among the nobility result in sudden setbacks and loss of territory from hostile groups. The sahuagin show no signs of slowing down the war effort, and even the marids’ are barely keeping them at bay.


The merfolk are next most industrialized society on the Plane. Like humans, their culture and ways of life vary greatly. Some of them live in great citadels carved from rock, while others live as nomads with little in the ways of wealth or possessions. Their main advantage is their adaptability to new traditions. They have little qualms about adopting the worship of other deities or incorporating new forms of magic and technology. Many merfolk even live among the locathah, and vice versa. Both races commonly pay homage to Eadro, and there’s evidence to believe that the two share a common ancestral bond.


The locathah are nomadic and live simple lives. Most families move from island to island, using up and gathering resources before traveling again. The wealthier and more organized tribes can afford a Zaratan to provide protection and transport. Given the myriad dangers of travel, locathah fleets are usually heavily armed, and their more powerful Druids have altered their Zaratan to assist them in times of war. It’s not uncommon to see a giant turtle decked out with giant crossbows and javelin launchers on common locathah trade routes.

The Marid Kingdoms​

The so-called “Marid Empire” is actually a collection of semi-independent city-states; in theory, the Great Padishah claims absolute dominion over his people, but the marid inclination for independence and their huge egos means that a lot of them prefer to do their own thing. Almost all marid view themselves as “royalty” and have the right to rule others, meaning that slavery and indentured servitude of non-marid is a common practice in their communities. Espionage and assassinations occur with a frequency that would shock outsiders, as the lust for political power is often all-consuming among the upper class.

Dangers​

Aside from vicious marid nobles and warmongering sahuagin, there are other common dangers for PCs to face:


Ixitxachitl: These creatures look like manta rays and live in the deep caverns of Material Plane oceans. Capable of mentally enslaving others and evolving into more advanced “vampiric” forms, ixitxachitl are one of the most maligned aquatic civilizations (think of them as the orcish equivalent of underwater folk).


Ixitxachitl on the Plane of Water usually lair in abandoned ruins and island caverns, regularly making raids on nearby settlements for slaves and wiping out entire habitats and ecologies of all life forms, sapient and non-intelligent alike. This policy of total warfare and ecological devastation has earned them a particular enmity which eclipses the sahuagin (who are more than willing to accept terms of surrender in exchange for servitude). The other aquatic civilizations temporarily put aside their differences to push back the ixitxachitl into isolated and remote regions. But these creatures can hold a grudge like no other, and still regularly attack settlements. It’s said that they’re mobilizing their forces in hidden pyramids and rebuilding their numbers with necromantic magic; it may not be long before another war breaks out…


Krakens: The Krakens used to be the dominant aquatic power on the Material Plane before the forces of good (and more than a few evil civilizations) drove them to the darkest corners of the ocean. Many Kraken fled into the Elemental Plane of Water, and from there they built a new civilization.


There are no Kraken settlements per se: most of them are solitary or with one mate, ruling over a settlement of weaker creatures. Most of their slaves are trapped in caverns or otherwise isolated from the outside world, knowing of no other life than that of servitude. They’ve also got a stake in the Lower Planes soul trade, breeding and raising slaves in cult-like conditions and entrusting their souls to a powerful fiend. Many Krakens often have the backing of fiendish entities, and it’s not uncommon for them to have demon or devil bodyguards.

Dark Zones​

The vast majority of aquatic life on the Material Plane (and in the real world) lives close to the ocean’s surface (10-600 feet). The subjective directional gravity and clear lighting of the majority of the known Elemental Plane is unsuitable for sea life accustomed to living deeper and in the trenches. Fortunately, there’s a place for them on the Plane as well. Their habitats are known as “Dark Zones.”


From the outside, Dark Zones appear as a massive expanse of blackness; even nearby light sources get dimmer as they approach. The pressure of the area increases as well, making the regions highly dangerous to those without magical protection or environmental adaption. The regions are a favored spot for deep sea fish, krakens, undead, aberrations, and alien forms of life unknown to even the most learned of sages.


The Dark Zones have a sinister reputation among the aquatic civilizations. People capable of seeing the environment reported sightings of strange rock formations and creatures that look bizarre at best, the stuff of nightmares at worst. Incredibly brave adventurers have also reported finding strange civilizations deep inside these areas, made of identical square blocks strangely resistant to the pressure and decorated with runic carvings impervious to divination spells. No visible entrances or exits were present on the buildings, but strange rumblings could be heard from within.


Adventure Hooks on the Elemental Plane of Water:
• A demon lord or archdevil is in need of mortal worshipers to bolster his ranks for an upcoming Blood War siege. He’s entrusted one of his agents to open a portal on the River Styx into the middle of a major metropolis on the Elemental Plane of Water. Such a plan would create mass amnesia among the populace, and the fiend’s minions will use that opportunity to replace their historical and religious records with something more befitting the lord’s agenda.
• A nearby Dark Zone experienced a massive growth surge. Several nearby merfolk settlements got engulfed in the darkness, and all methods of contact and incursion into the zone have been met with hostility from the area’s strange inhabitants. The PCs are hired and outfitted with magical protection to explore the zone and discover the fate of the merfolk.
• A traitorous marid noble has committed the unthinkable: he’s brokered a deal with the sahuagin and a powerful kraken to help him seize the throne! The sahuagin army and the kraken’s minions of brainwashed slaves assault the City of Glass while the PCs are there. Planar travel has been blocked, and the surrounding army has several methods of detection (blindsight, divination magic) to know if anybody’s trying to break through the blockade. If the party hopes to win against this mighty force, they have to prevent breaches in the glass, safeguard civilians, and assist the city’s defenders. Otherwise, future battles may prove to be overwhelming as the sahuagin and kraken seize key areas and powerful magical items.

 

[Libertad]

The Elemental Plane of Fire

The Elemental Plane of Fire is the most inhospitable of the Inner Planes. The Plane of Earth has many empty pockets of caves, while burrowing creatures can move through the earth, but the extreme heat of the Plane of Fire can eradicate life at the microscopic level. Despite its reputation, the Plane still has a large number of prominent and powerful inhabitants with a stake in the political games of the extraplanar factions.

Inhabitants​

The most well-known inhabitants of the Plane of Fire include the fire elementals, Azer, Salamanders, and Efreet. Dragons immune to the negative effects of heat and fire giants often make settlements and lairs on the plane as well, although the landscape’s flammable nature makes it a poor location for storing treasure and most objects. With the exception of the elementals and dragons, all of these people live in highly militaristic societies on a constant war footing.


The Efreet rule the most significant cities on the Plane, carved out of perlite, various types of volcanic glass, and other fire-retardant materials. The genies are also known for their mercantile aptitude, and their largest communities are full of powerful elemental magic, unique items and materials, and slaves from all over the Multiverse. The Efreet allow traders and outsiders into their walled havens, but the inhabitants keep a close watch on the visitors and have no tolerance for disrespectful behavior or argument. The sympathizers of the Djinn, anti-slavery groups, and various Chaotic and Good aligned factions routinely send spies and saboteurs into these fortress cities to strike a blow against the Efreet.


The Azer are less powerful and smaller in number, but their goods and services are in high demand due to their skill in metalworking and fire magic. Many people who don’t want to give the Efreet money often visit Azer communities instead. The Efreet are aware of this, and they’re making attempts to enslave as many Azer as possible to corner the market and gain knowledge of the Azer’s unique craftsmanship. The Azer and Dwarven communities across the planes will have none of it, and provide significant protection and resources to freeing their enslaved brethren.

Holy Shrine of the Fire Lords​

Fire holds a special place in societies and cultures across the Multiverse. It is a powerful element: it is a tool which can be used to cleanse impurities, to destroy one’s enemies, to create and build powerful weapons and tools, and to provide warmth and succor against the cold elements of night.


The Holy Shrine of the Fire Lords is a fabled location that only the faithful can see. Built in cooperation between the Elemental Lords and Deities of Fire, the temple is visited by wandering pilgrims looking to pay their respects. The various statues and chambers honor the different aspects of fire: the Creator, the Destroyer, the Purifier, and the Bringer of Light. Those who prove themselves worthy are blessed with miraculous abilities which deepen their connection to the Lords and Gods of Fire. The tests center around a theme related to a certain aspect: one wishing to honor the Destroyer may be required to burn the corpse of a sworn enemy and toss its ashes into the Central Flames, while one wishing the honor the Purifier may need to embark on a quest to stop and cure a quickly spreading plague. Those who pass the test are marked as a “Harbinger of Flames” and receive respect from the servants of all Fire Lords and Deities. This doesn’t mean that worshipers of a rival deity or sect will aid him, only that they’ll recognize him as a worthy adversary.

Fields of Blue Flames​

There are some places in the Plane of Fire where even the natives fear to tread. Certain sections of the land are wreathed in blue flames, stretching for miles in all directions and hundreds of feet into the air. It is said that these fires burn so hot they melt away one’s body and soul. Efreet and Salamander alike tell their children to “fear the Curtain of Blue.”


In reality, the blue flames are as hot as the rest of the Plane, but anything they come into physical contact with is torn apart as though affected by the Disintegrate spell (DC 25 Fort Save negates, once per round, Caster Level 20th). Living creatures and outsiders reduced to 0 hit points turn into blue flames with their visage, living souls trapped within and howling in agony (treat this as a Trap the Soul spell, except that the “gem” is a blue flame).


The only known form of protection from the blue flames is the holy symbol of a God of Death, which causes the flames to shrink back and the souls to scream in terror of the wearer. Undead are also immune to the flame’s effects. Clerics with the Death domain can turn the soul-entrapped flames into unique undead creations of fire and negative energy. Anybody who manages to brave the soul-hungry flames will find a floating, mobile citadel at the land’s center. The place is a fortified temple of Nerull, and crawling with necromancers and their undead minions (all immune to fire, of course).


The minions of Nerull (or some other evil God of Death in your campaign) are responsible for the creation of the fields of blue flames. Nobody else is certain of what they’re planning, or why Nerull places so much stake in the Elemental Plane of Fire, but whatever dark goals the deity has in mind cannot be good for the decent folk of the Multiverse.


Adventure Hooks for the Elemental Plane of Fire:
• An important person the PCs care about got kidnapped by Efreet. He or she is now a slave in the City of Brass. Normally this would be a straightforward rescue mission, except that the Grand Sultan of All Efreet has claimed ownership of the person, and the price he’s asking in return for freedom is outrageous (a bunch of rare and hard to find magic artifacts). The PCs need to infiltrate the most heavily defended area of the Plane of Fire. Breaking in is a feat in and of itself, but breaking out is just as hard; the Sultan will seal up the entire city to prevent the PCs from escaping, and he’ll want to kill them himself for this transgression.
• A mass of blue flames is approaching an Azer community, and undead scouts are wreaking havoc on the outlying settlements. The PCs will need to head into the mass and destroy the citadel in the center, but in order to do that they’ll need to claim enough holy symbols from the scouts to protect the whole party. It’s a race against time as the PCs find the way to destroy the citadel and dispel the flames.
• Several Baatezu engineers are using the Elemental Plane of Fire as a testing ground for their new Hellfire Juggernauts. The PCs are hired to find out what the Baatezu are up to and how many Juggernauts are in production. The Devil’s research outpost is heavily defended by legions of infernal creatures and Salamander mercenaries. PCs prudent in their investigation will find out that Baator has many more Juggernauts in production, but are not meant to be used in the Blood War. Instead, they plan on launching an attack on the Material Plane! Their first target is one of the PC’s home town!

 

[Libertad]

Elemental Plane of Earth

Crystal Cave by joshualim91 of deviantart​

Due to limited visibility and miles of solid rock in all directions, the Elemental Plane of Earth is the least traveled of the Inner Planes (as for Fire, a lot of creatures have fire resistance/immunity). The only creatures which can easily navigate the place need a burrow speed and certain forms of blindsense, blindsight, or tremorsense. Colonists and planar travelers stick to the few pockets of natural caverns and excavated areas near extra-dimensional portals. Given that most of these portals are located deep within the Material Plane Underdark, lots of dwarves, drow, illithid, and other such folk have built large “portal cities” around major trade routes.

The Great Dismal Delve​

One of the most powerful inhabitants on the Plane of Earth is the Dao, a civilization of wicked genies who seek to dominate and enslave all other civilizations. Thanks to the efforts of xorn, earth elemental, and delver servants, the Dao created a continent-wide network of cities, mines, palaces, and territory on the Plane. The most well-traveled extra-dimensional portals are located within the Delve, meaning that the Dao have effectively cornered the market on a lot of gems and precious metals (the Plane of Earth is theoretically infinite, but most places outside of Dao control are nowhere near as large of wealthy).


The Dao nobles are imperialistic jerks who love “collecting” rare objects and people from all across the Planes, meaning that they have lots of enemies. This is the perfect opportunity for adventurers to visit the Plane. The Delve is large and varied enough to have entire adventures in, and palaces the size of small cities can make for an interesting sort of dungeon. Fortunately for the PCs, the Dao are far from unified, and a rival family is more than willing to provide assistance to adventurers if they’re going up against a hated foe.

Tombs of the Primordials​

The Material Plane is a very old world, full of long-forgotten empires and the ancestral legacies of sorcerous bloodlines. In our world, the skeletons of cavemen, dinosaurs, and other ancient beings are buried beneath layers of soil and rock. In the world of Dungeons & Dragons, the presence of underground civilizations and portals means that the corpses of many prehistoric beings ended up in the museums of Underdark capitals and the Elemental Plane of Earth.


What does this mean? Well, for starters, the Plane is home to the fossils of creatures too old to be remembered and located near the top layers of the Material Plane’s surface. Many Plane of Earth natives revere these fossils with near-religious significance, believing them to be the legacies of powerful deities. The Dao don’t care for the most part about their origins, and see the fossils as tools to be exploited. The genies’ recent attempts at animating the fossils were disastrous. Nobody knows what happened to the city in which they lived, but all traces of civilization vanished down to the last piece of dust. Attempts at divination on the fossils (such as Speak With Dead) are unsuccessful as well, as the corpses prove surprisingly resilient to magic. However, Detect Evil spells register an overwhelming aura.


The fossils take on weird, aberrant shapes. They’re not “primordial” in the sense of dinosaurs. Think of Lovecraft monsters, or the solidified forms of fungi and slime molds.

The Forlorn Path​

Most maps and routes through the Plane of Earth are portal-based, more so than the other three planes. There is a widely-connected series of portals which runs through the Plane and connects to almost all other locations on the Great Wheel. The network is located outside of the Great Dismal Delve, making it an effective means of avoiding Dao taxation, yet most people don’t use it. The network became known as the Forlorn path due to the huge amount of lost travelers and failed attempts at colonization.


Adventurers know they’re on the Forlorn Path by the distinctive markings. Tunnel ceilings, walls, and floors are covered in a web of interconnected runes. Mundane and magical attempts at translation reveal that the runes are, without exception, cryptic warnings and prophecies of vague concepts. “Beware those beyond the Wheel,” “The hungry pit grows,” and similar sayings are the most commonly encountered. Circular doors are spaced along the tunnel at exact 20 mile intervals, and lead into vast caverns of abandoned cities. The buildings are grey stone spirals arranged in perfect rows and columns of 500 by 500. Furniture and tools designed for Medium-sized humanoid figures are present, but all of them are decayed and crumble at the slightest touch.


No monsters, not even undead or constructs, have been sighted in the Path’s entire history. The primary danger is the environment itself. A few reported effects from survivors include the changing of gravity without reason, partners collapsing into gibbering wrecks of insanity shortly after exiting, and the painful sensation of a swarm of insects tearing off one’s skin. Despite these horrors, there is a lucrative trade of objects originating from the abandoned cities. Every so often, an adventurer finds an artifact or wondrous item containing great magical power. Such items are always unique and have effects unlike any other form of magic. Even then, the items have the same “taint” as the Path’s environment, and their passage into planar markets usually ends in the death or insanity of the current and former owners.


The Dungeon Master should use this as an opportunity to introduce new magic items into the game, preferably of a cursed or macabre nature. It also gives PCs an interesting dilemma; the magic items they might find are powerful, unique, and in high demand. But there effects can be disastrous, and selling them in a city will inevitably result in the deaths of innocents. If they keep the items, they’ll eventually suffer negative effects. Such items are usually too dangerous to just throw away, as they somehow find their way into the hands of evil folk. Finding the way to destroy these cursed items can be an adventure in and of itself, from returning them to their resting place or braving the most inhospitable areas of the Great Wheel to find a suitable prison for them.


Adventure Hooks for the Elemental Plane of Earth:
• It’s happened. A Dao necromancer uncovered the means of animating the primordial fossils, and now he’s leading an army of undead alien monstrosities across the Inner Planes. The creatures are mutable in shape and type, adapting to new terrain with frightening regularity. He’s managed to conquer vast territories of the Great Dismal Delve, and is expanding into the other Inner Planes as well. The PCs need to unite the disparate planar factions and genie-kind if they hope to contain the threat. Destroying the threat is an even taller order, and may not be possible if the PCs dally for too long. As for the Dao heading the forces… he might be a powerful spellcaster, but’s he still just a genie. It won’t be long before the creatures gain enough power to break free of his control and incorporate him as a slave into the collective.
• A tunneling expedition of dwarves accidentally opened up a portal into the Forlorn Path. Thanks to legends and hearth lore, they had the good sense to leave the area alone and seal up the area. But this did not work; the Path’s runes are now spontaneously appearing in their city, and the laws of reality are unraveling. The military and religious leaders can barely contain social stability as the number of insane dwarves rise and entire sections of town are quarantined from the spread of runes. The PCs are hired to find a solution and safeguard as much of the population as possible. To make matters worse, a raiding party of nearby derro believe that the runes speak to them and attack the settlement!
• A huge portal below a Material Plane city becomes active, sucking massive sections of town into a sinkhole leading to the Elemental Plane of Earth. A band of Dao slavers triggered the collapse, and claim that the inhabitants are now officially within the territory of the Great Dismal Delve. Attempts to free the citizens are repelled by an organized military force of Dao spellcasters and their enthralled minions. The PCs, be they within the collapsed or safe section of town, are pulled into the battle as the Dao target the heavily-armored party as “potential aggressive and/or subversive elements.”

 

[Libertad]

Positive Energy Plane

*Positive Energy Plane by WyldSoul of deviantart​

The Positive Energy Plane is the birthplace of all life, of all souls. It is the extropy to the Negative Energy Plane’s entropy, the beginning to the afterlife’s end. Like the brilliance of the sun, its raw power is so great that few can hope to stand against it unprotected. It is pure, unrestrained creation.

The Birthplace of Everyone’s Souls​

You know how undead are sustained by the essence of the Negative Energy Plane? Well, the reverse is true for living creatures (the exceptions are outsiders and elementals, who spring forth from their respective planes). The souls of those yet to live are formed in special citadels and gardens on the Positive Energy Plane, and then depart for the Material Plane and other worlds to inhabit potential vessels. These “pre-born” beings are incorporeal, mindless, microscopic entities. They belong to no species; a soul can just as easily become a lizardfolk or human depending on the vessel it enters.


These places are known as “soul gardens” to the few planar travelers aware of their existence. Such places usually take the form of massive orbs of stone, metal, glass, or other non-living material. The places appear bereft of life and contain no living spaces or visitor’s quarters, although divination magic and abilities which detect souls picks up the presence of quadrillions of invisible souls moving all over the place. The sensation is overwhelming, and the caster must succeed on a Will Save (DC 25) or fall unconscious for 1 minute. Even on a success, he is dazed for 1d6 rounds.


Due to a non-aggression pact between the major deities and planar powers, nobody save the truly mad attempt to control or halt this process. Even undead creatures originate from living beings. This doesn’t stop Lower Planes fiends from venturing to the Plane to snatch up some souls, but the Positive Energy Plane has a very powerful trump card: Spiritovore Energons (see Bastion of Broken Souls).


In addition to a legion of Contingency spells, magical traps, and Lumi volunteers, the souls gardens have Spiritovore Energons serving as guardians. These large entities have inscrutable motives, but appear to be tasked with safeguarding souls. They are supremely powerful, where even the least of their number can give a pit fiend a run for his money. Even if a would-be southief manages to avoid detection and infiltrates the complex, he must succeed on a DC 35 Spellcraft check to cast a spell which involves the manipulation, transportation, destruction, or imprisonment of souls. Regardless of whether the spell is successful, 1d4+1 Spiritovor Energons are teleported right next to the soulthief and attack.

Great Cities of the Lumi​

The Lumi (see Monster Manual 3) are humanoid beings who radiate a magical white light. Their floating heads are separated from their bodies, giving them a distinctive appearance among the Great Wheel’s inhabitants. Their brilliant spiral cities of crystal are terrific works of beauty, incorporating colorful hues and giving their buildings a prismatic flair.


The Lumi are stand-offish, unafraid to speak their mind, and any form of illusion or falsehood is punishable by death. They’d just be another group of extremists avoided by right-thinking folk, were it not for their aggressive foreign policy. They’re particularly insistent on forcing this worldview on others, and they believe that any damage or suffering caused by their crusades will be outweighed by the long-term gain of knowledge and truth.


The Lumi used to be the slaves of an ancient empire ruled by Illusionists and Enchanters; reality was mutable, as the magicians could simulate facsimiles of reality, engender love and hate, and otherwise shape the minds and perception of the populace to do whatever they want. A particularly strong-willed Lumi managed to break free of this magical hold, and he could not go back to this false world. He brought the Light of Truth to his brethren and overthrew the mages; from then on, the Lumi swore to never deny reality or engage in any form of self-deception so that they can never be enslaved again. Without propaganda, ignorance, and universal access to knowledge and truth, people can truly think for themselves and achieve freedom. This is the Lumi’s ideal society.


Lumi cities are not located near any major planar crossroads, but they do have several valuable commodities for traders: divination magic, knowledge, and information. Lumi libraries are truly impressive, and they steadfastly seek to preserve all forms of works produced. The Lumi do not even destroy propaganda and factually incorrect texts, as even these works can help people learn from the mistakes of the past (“those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”); however, such books are labeled as “factually incorrect” in appropriate passages and contain editor’s footnotes refuting the offending passages. They also sell produce of the most powerful magic items related to divination and dispelling illusion and enchantment magic; minor magic items and magical services of a relatively low Caster Level (10 or less) are sold to travelers at 120% market price, but more expensive ones require that the purchaser prove his trustworthiness to the city. As part of the agreement, purchasers need permission to sell the more powerful items anywhere else without their consent (the Lumi aren’t fond of pure self-interest).


The Lumi serve two major purposes in games: as allies who provide the PCs with service in exchange for quests and the pursuit of knowledge, and as single-minded fanatics eager to enforce their will on the Multiverse. A party might procure heretical texts and banned books to sell to the Lumi city, and then help fend off an invasion force from that very same city. It might be a possibility that the Lumi have fooled themselves into thinking that their way is the correct way of living; if one of them were to ever accept this, he would commit suicide for betraying his own tenets.

The Living City​

One of the more interesting inhabitants of the Positive Energy Plane is the Ravid. These serpentine creatures are capable of granting the spark of life in non-living material. Their very touch is enough to animate an object, and they don’t suppress this ability when on other planes (they often don’t comprehend the destruction their actions can cause). The Ravids are a constant nuisance to the Lumi, as the devastation wrought by the creature can take years to rebuild.


A group of traveling Clerics of a God of Light established a colony on the Positive Energy Plane. Dubbed Morning’s Gaze, the colony served as a haven for fellow believers and all who sought enlightenment. They incorporated powerful magic into their buildings to shield themselves from the Plane’s harmful effects, but such abjurations were useless against the touch of the Ravid. All it took was a colony of the creatures to send the city into chaos.


Buildings lurched off their foundations and moved of their own accord; furniture broke through walls and dashed down the streets; the clock tower’s arrows spun erratically; the constant ringing of the church bells deafened the local clerics. Through some unknown magical disaster or the unique energies of the Plane, the Ravid’s spells did not wear off. Most of the inhabitants either fled or perished, and the city to this day remains a riotous sea of ever-shifting buildings and landmarks moving without rhyme or reason.


How do adventurers factor into this? Well, a lot of items of religious significance remain in Morning’s Gaze, most of them now animated. The city’s too dangerous for most travelers, and navigating the place is almost impossible without magical aid. PCs sent on a quest to this city must be wary, for every piece of treasure and magic item they find is animated and potentially hostile.


Adventure Hooks for the Positive Energy Plane:
• An influential ally of the PCs has been found guilty of a Lumi court of being intellectually dishonest. He was found in a Lumi city trying to sell an item by downplaying its flaws; the PCs are sent to the city to represent the ally. They must either prove his innocence or help him escape, both of which are fraught with risks and potentially earn the undying enmity of the Lumi.
• War has come to the Positive Energy Plane! A minion of Orcus managed to obtain one of the unborn souls from the spiritovore citadels. The soul is brimming with amazing power, and the other demon lords learned of Orcus’ capture. Ambition for power has overwhelmed the fiends’ common sense, and now every demon lord, night hag, and Lower Planes soul trader of note are amassing legions of minions and mercenaries to take over the citadels. Every major faction and deity is now amassing troops in the Positive Energy Plane to fight them off and guard the citadels. The more treacherous deities are planning on seizing control of the citadels for their own purposes; if even one faction lays claim to even a single soul garden, they’ll have unimaginable power over countless life-forms-to-be. The PCs may be hired hands, emissaries or champions of a deity, or just looking for an excuse to fight fiends.
• The animated objects of the Living City have found an escape portal back to the Material Plane. Nearby towns and villages are afflicted with the animation curse of Morning’s Gaze, and household tools and buildings start creating more duplicates to expand their reach as reinforcements from the Positive Energy Plane arrive to provide assistance. The objects are being directed a very old and powerful Ravid, who seeks to expand the city’s influence to other Planes.

 

[Libertad]

The Negative Energy Plane

The city of Death's Heart, in all its dark glory. (Courtesy of Gothic Wallpapers)​

The Negative Energy is much like the vacuum of space: a giant void of black nothingness with an environment hostile to all life. However, the overall temperature and atmospheric pressure is equivalent to a Material Plane environment, meaning that your body won’t tear itself apart or freeze to death here. Even so, the utter lack of features and solid ground in 99.99999% of the Plane means that an infinitesimally small portion is inhabited by any sort of non-Energon beings.

Death’s Heart​

For most people, the Negative Energy Plane is actually a hollow spherical city of gothic spires and citadels populated by the undead. The black sea of anti-life surrounding it is more of an afterthought. The vast majority of extraplanar travel goes through the realm of Death’s Heart, and it’s wide assortment of necromantic equipment and trade items means that most necromancers and undead are content with sticking to this one area of the Plane.


Undead creatures of all kinds populate this city. Death’s Heart is surprisingly open to the presence of living beings, as most undead creatures still have some form of connection to their "old lives." In addition to vampires, liches, and wraiths, there’s a small community of still-living necromancers, priests of deities of death, and people seeking to pass of their mortal coil “to a more powerful state of being.” Even then, they’re only tolerated by the city at large and the city’s more xenophobic political factions are advocating for additional restrictions on travel.


Death’s Heart is just recovering from a brutal civil war, and is currently unified under the administration of the vampire minotaur Kavchor. Knowing that hostilities still linger below the surface of society, Kavchor’s slowly rebuilding the shattered economy through trade and connections to other planar realms. He’s also seeking an outside enemy to turn the city against so that they’ll spend more time unifying for the oncoming threat instead of scheming against each other. To this end, he’s currying favor among the expansionist elements of Death’s Heart who want to spread their rule to Material Plane worlds, but just enough to stop short of full-scale invasions.


Kavchor’s playing a dangerous game; since he doesn’t plan on living up to most of his high-minded promises, it won’t be long before some powerful faction drums up enough hatred and resentment to start another civil war. He also has powerful enemies within the city as well: opposing him are isolationist groups who fear of foreign influence in their Plane, and the demon lord Orcus who seeks to absorb the city into his Abyssal layer. Whether from infighting or being forced to spearhead an extraplanar invasion, war will soon come again to Death’s Heart.

Castles Perilous​

In addition to the necropolis of Death’s Heart, the Negative Energy Plane is also known for its large number of prisons, commonly known as “castles perilous.” These gulags come in all shapes and sizes, but the most well-known of them are hewn from magically-enhanced stone and share architectural similarities with Material Plane fortresses. A lot of evil factions use these buildings to hold captured forces of good, usually ones too powerful and well-known to be guarded in more conventional planes. Kill a Paladin or Cleric, and his spirit goes to the Upper Planes to join the Celestial forces. Keep them indefinitely imprisoned, and their souls never escape. Since the Negative Energy Plane has no dominant planar faction, these prisons don’t run the risk of falling into enemy hands due to some geo-political shift in territory.


The castles have entirely undead staff and guards, with a singular two-way portal to serve as a strategic choke-point in the event of a prison break or riot. The Portal usually leads to whoever currently owns or helped build the prison. The warden is skilled in soul-related necromantic spells such as Magic Jar, and the “cells” consist of rooms studded with thousands of onyx gems. Unwitting adventurers can easily mistake these areas for treasure hordes, confusing the building’s high security and secrecy with a vault.

The Doomguard​

The Doomguard is a planar faction dedicated to the spread of destruction, entropy, and oblivion. The Doomguard believes that the Multiverse is flawed, and that a newer, perfect world will arise out of the ashes of the old. To this end, they seek to hasten the end of its existence by any means necessary. They see great potential in the Negative Energy Plane, and their headquarters is located in a crumbling citadel in its black void.


It would be a mistake to say that the Doomguard relishes death or undeath; on the contrary, they are fundamentally against the extension of one’s existence solely for the means of avoiding destruction. A significant portion of the faction’s members are living creatures, and thus build their outposts and fortresses in the pockets bereft of negative energy (Doldrums) on the Plane.


In recent years, the Doomguard has spent significant resources in the creation of huge planar portals located around key areas along the Great Wheel (national capitals, sites of historical/religious significance, etc). When activated, these massive portals will shift a great chunk of the land into the Negative Energy Plane. Sometimes the inhabitants will immediately die as the entropic essence of the Plane overwhelms their bodies, but other times they’ll safely land in a Doldrum. A messenger for the Doomguard will tell the survivors that the dead did not give their lives in vain, and that their deaths were but one part of a great plan for the birth of a perfect Multiverse. Before leaving, the Doomguard will accept any willing recruits who do not wish to perish when the Doldrum’s barrier fails.


This has deservedly earned the Doomguard the reputation of dangerous terrorists and genocidal madmen. The faction has responded by hastening their plans by building more portals. It’s only a matter of time before the next catastrophe strikes…


Adventure Hooks for the Negative Energy Plane:
• An ally important to the PCs has passed on, their soul nowhere to be found. Investigation reveals that powerful necromantic magic has placed the soul far beyond planar boundaries. It is said that the Curator, a powerful undead Elder Brain, can locate the soul by reaching into the “consciousness of the afterlife.” The Curator is located in the city of Death’s Heart, and he doesn’t part with his information freely. He’s also a thorn in the side of Mayor Kavchor, who fears that anyone capable of such great knowledge can learn his many secrets. The PCs will have to deal with finding the Curator while outsmarting Kavchor’s thugs.
• The Doomguard has forcefully shifted a Material Plane city containing a holy site of Pelor. Massive extraplanar armies are stationed around the planar rift and preparing for an invasion, but there’s no way such a large amount of troops can move through the Plane and survive. The PCs are called upon to strike into the portal and somehow manage to return the city to the Material Plane. The Doomguard will violently react to any attempts at rescue and do their best to stall the PCs until they can move the city out of the Doldrum.
• A shadowy patron hires the PCs for the greatest heist of all: a castle perilous belonging to Nerull, the God of Death! First, the PCs will need to sneak into the innermost layer of Carceri into the deities’ realm. Then, they must locate the portal leading into the castle perilous. Next, they must instigate a prison takeover and keep it out of Nerull’s forces long enough for reinforcements to arrive and shift the castle to the patron’s home plane. The patron’s cagey as to why exactly he wants access to Nerull’s coveted prison, and how exactly he’ll avoid the deity’s retribution. Could it all be a trap?