Planescape Primalshard: other "echo" plane.

[LuisCarlos17f]

(Metal foam).

Stormhive.

If an Eden was created by the deities of sentient vernims.

Although civilitations of sentient arthropod (insects and arachnids) are known these are really rare, but there is a place they could call their home.

Its ecosystem is really unique because instead a solar system like most of known wildspaces instead the solar light for the vegetation is from a mesh of energy lines covered by storm clouds. These lightmesh not only give solar light and electric energy but also they create some type of anti-gravity effect, and with this they are in the centre of tunnels of ten kilometer radius. When these lines convergen into a point they create a node and this a spheric field.

This is maybe the place from the known multiverse with the hightest porcentage of sentient vernims and plants, and highest number of giant vernims (sorry if you suffer entomophobia). The hunt for meat is not very interesting because most of "normal" humanoids can't assimilate the chitin, but the dwarves, goblins, gnolls and others. But the farms of giant rive crabs are a great industry. There are also giant vertebrate predators but species used to a insectivore diet, for example giant toads or birds. Feys with insectile traits can be found here, but also the ant-like vrusks (despite their look they are friendly and the most advance civilitation in the zone), the reptilian hiper-active T'sa and the primitive Sesheyan.

The most used vehicle to travel for trade are ships over giant "turtle-snails", giant snails with a falt shell like the turtles, and whose "feets" are like water elementals. Rocs are used for faster travels but it is more expensive because they are more difficult to be trained and food.

It is hard to find a place with taller trees (although some sages suspect their origin is artificial). These receive the stormblots from the storms covering the lightmesh but not only they survive but even it is as if they fed by that energy in a way close to the vegetal photosynthesis. Other interesting detail is the branches of different trees intertwine giving more stability against the strong winds from the highest zones.

The soil is too poor for traditional agriculture, but thanks to certain cutting techniques the fruit trees produce a lot, and there is a large olive oil industry.

Druids don't feel confortable but these allow the building of stone+concrete walls for firewalls (here the formians are very good builders, thanks their biorganic concrete). Lots of towns are built on the trees, but the dwaves and others, but this architecture is designed not only for the numerous earthquakes but the periodic floods, and then they are practically submarine, with vault gates that don't allow the passage of water that is not in contact with solid bodies.

Old legends tell about spider-dragons, and even some statues are found in ancient ruins of temples, but there are no evidence in the last five centuries. But there are reports of vegetation destroyed by some necrotic magic.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Cryptpath.

Some old legends tell about heroes or trickers who got the secret to create demiplanes. Some times these were traps and when the stealer entered her creation she turned its prison for the eternity. Other times these demiplanes were created for penance of demipowers, and they could recover the freedom when they understood the lesson. Or they were created to test in the afterlife some noble rulers, and when they got enough experience, they could ascend to the next level, with their minions. And someones were created because demipowers anticipated some disaster about to occur and the worshippers need some refugee to can survive.

And the most amazing of the demipowers who create these demiplanes are.... the sentient uchronies (= alternate timelines). The uchrony lords are really misterious, and even those who look friendly and hospitaler can hide dangerous secrets. One of them seems a true Utopia but secretly it was ruled by lodges of vampires with blood farms in underground bases. Other uchronies are born by the hipotetical merger of two different realms, creating a new kingdom or realm.

Some times the relations between uchronies is really troubled, for example one would be where certain realm is a monarchy, but in other this is a tiranny, or a democratic republic. Other uchronies are "half-slibing" because certain realm merged with one instead other thanks some marriage alliance. Some uchronies are allied because they hoped to share the same fate, for example several nations creating a confederation.

Certain chronomancers speculate the lord uchronies could be some side effect of possible time paradoxes.

Of course some demiplanes are really dangerous, but they are magnets for adventures for the promises of hidden treasures, and some times, it is true.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Crimsonharvest.

Some old legends tell about a titan dies and then the corpse become a new world. Maybe that happened here. This land is very interesting for the masters of medicinal arts, and the reputation to be the fame of being the largest producer of medicinal herbs is fair and deserved, also several native plants(?) are cultivated to craft poisons against undeads but it is not a beatiful place to be visited by tourists when the landscape seems the surrelist bowels of some plant monster.

According the investigations the zone was totally dead and sterile until the "day of the miracle", when a green ston fall from the sky, and life emerged from the impact zone. Later a brotherhood of harupex, masters of the magic ove the living tissues (usually for healing intentions) arrived and they studied the native plant-ooze creating new species.

Some sentient undeads arrive here searching a cure for their supernatural hunger, and they are relatively healed, or at least most of them would rather the new condition. Some plants can be altered by magic to become animal anatomy organs suitable for transplantation into humanoids, or plant-like simbionts.

The "native" fauna are like animated living wood skeletons, and almost all of them aren't predators, or at least they don't attack humanoid visitors.

Most of the know land is used for cultivation, and the main producers are a colony of giant living constructs nicknamed "cybertronians". These can transform their bodies into machines designed for agriculture, for example mechanical haversters. They sell their own biofuel or energy produced by their eolic towers (like windmills but without blades to not hurt birds). There are several settlers of halflings and gnomes, and these are using the "fleshwood" to craft biopunk constructs, or motors (they have invented a fleshwood muscle what can reload crossbows). There are groups of vampires, but these don't show signs of menace, because they get enough food thanks plasma fruits. (and they produce and sell their own plasma wine). Several circles of druids have reclaimed some zones, and they haven't could find signs of any spirit before "the day of the miracle".

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The land of the endless hunger.

In the chaos of the elemental limbo there is a cluster of demiplanes, the Io's blood islands, ruled by dragon overlords. Time dragons also were wellcome here, and these created their own domains... and when other tried to conquer them.. it was their worst of existence. Legends tell the punisment for certain dragon overlords is to be sent with their threasures to a far realm, Tamara's Tears. These forsaken dragons could escape toward other plane, but not without their treasures. Other punishment is if they didn't take care the ecosystem of the domains they will suffer hunger and they would need to eat their own threasures. Some dragons have found the solution: eating megafaun (not only dinosaurs but also mammoths or paraceratheriums) or... eating sentiant giant humanoids.

The main humanoid civilitations are small humanoids (halflings, gnomes, goblins) or with fly movement (fairies, aarokras, avariels/winged elves, raptorants, owlings) because the towns are atacked by kaijus and maneater mindless giants, no undeads, but infected by some strange plant parasite with elemental traits. There are several giant colonies, but they are too busy defending themself against the dragons and the other meneater infected giants.

The sad fact is the infection most of times is intentional by the infected themself, when they eats flesh of powerful enemies to become strongers, and then infected by the hunger for a higher power. Somebody tells the possible healing would be the simple humildity.

Planescape - Sigil's Backroom (Planescape Spin-off)

https://backrooms.fandom.com/wiki/Backrooms_Wiki I have thought about a retelling of the creepypasta about the "backrooms" (The SCP Fundation is more about one place to keep the menaces or hunting the monster of the week, without enough exploration). It would start as a special place found in...

www.enworld.org

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Elemental Lattice.

Time ago Tharizdum, the elder elemental eye tried to destroy all one plane and he almost got it. He could because the primal and divine powers were too busy fighting each other until they notice almost too late there were a higher menace.

To survive the attempet of deletion in the space-time continium they had to forget the different, at least for a time, and cooperate to recreate a new plane mixing the previous elemental planes. Now these powers are weaker, becoming genies, but rulers of this new domain.

The domains are like "bubles" or buble-shape islands floating in the air, and lots of times there are "bridges" among these island, some times only collumns of water, but allowing travel by ship to trade. In the space betwen the islands there are traveling "comets" working as suns giving heat and light for the botanic life. Some plants are affected by the elementals, or the para- and quasilementals. Interesting for the sages, but someones are potentially dangerous because they could cause epidemic of elemental-touched fungus.

Some times the punishment for high genies because certain criminal actions is to be linked to some magic item and working as slave to the owner. This could be the origin of the legends about genies grating wishes but with a tendency to twist it thanks to the "small print" (the rage of work as slaves of simple mortals).

Other punishment is to become a "genius loci", to be linked to some underground dungeon. Then these "genius loci" build and keep the dungeons to atrack possible victims (most of time simple animals) and these become elemental slaves (not true undead but something more like a mind-controlled drone by a elemental parasite). If the arrival of new visitors stop, then they are softer and even allow adventures to get the threasure, allowing new ones try to follow the same steps. The key is a right balance between succes and failure.

Some genies become genius loci willing to hide against possible rival or enemis, or "escape to the justice". Then they are linked to town or farms, working as "living idols" or "quasideities". Some times the souls of the people who lived there willing go to the demiplanes created by these genius loci where they keep working, but it is not too hard. But if these genius loci are discovered by some enemy power then they are cursed, and then nobody can live there for a long time, or the genious loci is sent to a "mirror zone", a demiplane imitating the original zone, but in complete loliness. The visitors are wellcome, but the things are different when these want to return. Ironically this can be used by the justice sending criminals as "forever guests". Other guests go willing to hide or flee.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Hopebeam.

A little touch of "Sword & Sandals" and "Ghostwalk meets Duskmourn"

"The tyrant demands obedience but the true leader deserves loyalty". This lesson has to be learnt by the divine powers in the hard way. In a far wildspace there was a cosmic war between the primal titans and the first generation of deities. The deities won, and after the different pantheon started to fight each other. They were too busy and distracted to realise the seed of the rebellion by the minions, the lord giants and lord feys. A nightmare ended... but other started later. The new divine powers didn't worry enoughly to discover the rifts toward the Far Realm and other planes..

In this chaos the ordinary mortals suffering, hoping rest in the afterlife. Then a new faith, the Mekaddeism, arrived, and this offerin hopes for a better future. They built free orphanages, schools and hospitals for people in need. They healed with no-magic medicines instead the expensive divine spellcasters. Of course they weren't wellcome by the divine powers and a sad and painful age of martyrs arrived... and it was their worst mistake.

Hundreds, or even thousands of believers of Mekaddeism faith suffering persecution and martyrdom, but this only caused the new faith to become stronger. The pagan clerics realised amazed and even horrified the zone where martyres suffered their cruel fate were sanctified, and no undead or unholy creature could set foot there. If Mekaddeist were attacked and eaten by undeads as "punishmet" by the pagans they didn't turn undead, and eater monster were destroyed as if they had drunk holy water or killed by sacred relics.

A century after the Mekadeist faith was even stronger. Then they chose a different strategy, the believers would be exiled toward the Shadowfell. The idea worked for a long time in the sense the exiled weren't seen again.. until the day of the Fall.

The pagan powers didn't worry enough to fix the troubles among the mortals, and these lost their faith. These believed but there isn't love or loyalty, why? The divine powers were too busy with their own troubles to worry about them.

The plague of the walking dead and the giant freaks was only the first wave. After planar rifts appeared in everywhere, wildspaces or cities, and when the Fall ended the survivors realised the world they knewn not only had changed but also this was in a different space or sky.

The light of hope came from the most unexpected place. The Mekaddeists who were exiled toward the Shadowfell not only had survived but rebuilt the civilitation. When the previous deities had failed, the Mekaddeist faith was wellcome this time, al least for several generations, but after new troubles appeared.

New neopagan groups appeared, acussing of causing the Fall to eliminate competing religions. But it was worse when some kings self-proclaimed prophets of the "egregore", the collective mind of the ancestors, and thanks egregorism the "monopoly" of the "lightpaths", the ways between the sacredbeams (realms within the Shadowfeel enjoying the sacred light) and the sacred vineyard used for sacred medicines. But the worst damage was caused by the propaganda.

This second age of religious persecutions and martyrdoms ended in the worst way. The Mekaddeist church had survived, but it was too small and weak, and they couldn't avoid the disaster, the second Fall. This happened differently.

The known world was absorbed toward other plane, not the Shadowfell, the Feywild or the Far Realm. It wasn't not an infernal plane, but bizarre, for example amalgam of broken statues with multiple arms and legs, or wood cabins walking with crow's legs, like the product from the a mad deity's dream.

The irony is the Mekaddeist clerics are the most powerful defenders against supernatural menaces, but too vulnerable against mortal enemies.