Planescape Primalshard: other "echo" plane.

[LuisCarlos17f]

Nova Tartessos.
Where the dungeon crawling is a religious duty.

This wildspace is really special because it is totally artificial, created by an alien group called "the strangers" and the deity Teron earned the control of the supreme computer. To understand it better we need to know the story of Teron. This was the fruit of a marriage alliance and his parents were from two different pantheons. These didn't marry for love but they learnt to acceptance and love each other and they lived together. Teron enjoyed the loved by his parents but rejected by the rest of pantheon because his half-blood origin.

After a fight against other powers who mocked him Teron was punished to live like mortal during a certain time in a humble and primitive village. But the punishment became a bless because Teron found true respect, appreciation and valuation, althought they didn't know Teron was the offspring of divine powers. Teron could be happy during some time. Several years later a group of foreigns from a far land appeared asking refugee. Thanks Teron's diplomatic skills the group was accepted by the natives and soon they started to help with their technology and science. Thanks this the humble village could enjoy a great prosperity... and with this they earned evious enemies. Teron made his best efforts to protect the innocent people of the village. Each victory didn't mean more glory and prestige but the arrival of new enemies.

An oracle warned a great disaster, and then the village assembly agreed to evacuate and to use the comingsoon disaster to fake their destruction. The idea worked... almost totally, but not enoughly. They were chosen to be the target of a misterious power, the Dungeon Master. A morning the people of the village had disappeared, and no mortal knew what happened... but Teron's parents knew their son's fate and they felt a great rage, and impotence. The Dungeon Master was somebody with a great power and an advaced technology to create an endless maza with lots of traps and monsters. The Dungeon Master liked to abduct people who had to survive the endless maze. When he discovered a group of survivors had escaped this traps thanks a planar rift he investigate..and when he discovered these had arrived to a humble village from a primitive world, thanks his advanced technology of teletransportation the complete population of the village was abducted, and Teron among them.

Teron loved too much his neighours to allow they were terminated in that stupid game. Nobody knew Teron was a deity.. until now. After several adventures Teron defeated and killed the Dungeon Master. For the villagers it was the end of the nighmare but for Teron was the begining of the curse. Now Teron was the new Dungeon Master and he couldn't leave the endless maze until he was defeated by other stronger.

Teron found a legal loophole to escape the curse. With his divine powers Teron an animated wood giant, and they fought. Theron was weaker because the creation of the wood giant meant a lot of sacrifice. Teron was defeated and replaced, but the curse didn't end totally, only a weaker effect. Teron could return to the village during some days, but after he reappeared in the endless maze when the wood giant couldn't act. He learnt to get used and how to controll the advance technology of the endless maze.

The village could enjoy some time of peace until they were in the middle of a battle between different pantheons. Teron didn't want to participate because he wasn't interested into earning prestige or glory, only to fight to protect their loved beings. But when his mother was attacked to demoralize the enemies noticed they caused the opposite effect. Teron suffered a curse and he coudln't use melee weapons to attack, but he could use mechanic arms and a whip-like monster plant. He also had got the magic power to build walls, buildings or placing magical traps.

To take revenge against titans who hurt his mother he supported groups of adventurers who gatecrashed in enemy temples or crypts to steal, or recover, relic and sacred artifacts. This broke an important taboo, but also a dangerous precedent because if Teron gave the orders the adventurers who "desecreated" the enemy temples or crypts weren't affected by the divine curses. The enemies sent their own cultist against Teron's endless quest but almost all failed. Teron rewared some intruders within the endless maze if these proved to be worthy opponents. This also worked like a poisoned gift because those intruders started to question their loyalty and wonder if they should be dependent on powers that used them as mere playthings. This is the way like the dungeon-crawling against enemy pantheons started like a religious duty.

The end of the war arrive with the apparition of the worst menace, the Cuelgue, a monster that like no other had ever been seen before. This titan was very dangeours not only because its great hunger, strengh and resilence but the curse that protected it. Who hurted it would suffer the same fate. Teron understood this and he designed a strategy. He loved too much his community to allow this to suffer some damage.

Teron face the Cuegue and hit it with a blessed strike. The attack not only killed the titan but also its spirit was broken into "spark-shards" avoiding the reincarnation or resurrection. Teron suffered the same fate, but there was a ready plan. The villagers were loyal to him and obeying the previous instructions they searched and gathered all the spark-shards they could find. After these were used for a magic ritual and Teron returned to the life. His divine lower was lower but at least he could live to tell it. And the Cuegle? its spark-shards also were gathered but not of its return but for personal power and different factions fought each other. When finally there was one winner it was a phyrric victory because cultitst of the Cuelge were decimated in their internal conflict.

Thanks his sacrifice Teron should have earned the respect of everybody, not only his community, but when a poppy grows taller then other somebody wants to cut. Ironically the endless maze became a refugee instead a prison to survive new attack of rivals. And a day arrived when Teron was eliminated definitely. Somebody hired a couple of the best mercenaries. These survived the challenges of the endless maze until the room of the throne, and they attacked Teron with their mace. Only one hit was enough, and Teron disappeared to not be seen again. Totally disintigrated.

The truth is this wasn't the real end of Teron, only teletransported toward other world, one with high building by concrete and metal. It was a strange place, even when he was used to the advance technology of the endless quest and stories told by the visitors. He was in an urban zone, completely uninhabited. Maybe it was a warzone or it was evacuated because some disaster. Teron felt really confused and totally lost but thanks his divination magic and controll about constructs and machines he could investigate. He is sitting busy with a magic ritual when an ooze with a metalic shinning appeared and attacked him. Teron was totally covered by the gray ooze that wanted to devoure it.

But Teron's end hasn't arrived yet. He was not only a demigod but a powerful spellcaster with controll about constructs and machines. They grey gloo came under his complete control and began to act as his pet and assistant. A couple of weeks later he found some survivors who told him about the fall of the civilitation. Some reports told a space probe arrived to a zone with a black monolite. When the space proble "touched" the monolite to analyze was "tainted" or hacked, and when this returned to the civilitation hacked internet. Later mutant monsters appeared and urban zones had to be evacuated.

Teron was helping survivors during a long time until finally the truth was discovered. The wildspace was artificial, created, or reshaped, by the strangers, an alien group who abducted people from different places of multiverse. The goal was to test sentient beings because in this wildspace a great stress towards awakening fabulous spiritual powers that strangers wanted to study. Teron found a way to "hack" at least a supercomputer and thanks this a safe zone could be established. Somebody could say Teron thanks his complete control of near technology could defeat the strangers but this is not totally true. Teron had tought some survivors to use their psionic powers and these became the first ardents. Strangers were very surprised but also interested, and then they allowed Teron to control a zone to watch his advances.

The technology for firearms are known in Nova Tartessos but they aren't used too much because only a piece of ectoplasm created by psionic powers is enough to block gears and canons.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

(I add this song as source of inspiration and to create atmosphere)

Tapestria, the battlefield for the loom of the eternity.
(Isekai meets the 70s)

In a far wildspace a pantheon of deities ruled a rich civilitation what was started its path. Among them a marriage had got a beatiful (out and within) and pure daughter whose name was Inmaculata. Her beauty and good sense were legendary, and many wished a wife like her. Among the possible suitors, one stood out above the rest, the prince of the dark feys. He was good looking and very powerful but his heart too cold, proud and selfish. Of course he also suggested a marriage alliance Inma as future wife but her parents and the rest of the pantheon didn't want she was unhappy with that souless and capricious.

When the dark fey prince understood nice words and diplomacy didn't work he made a threat. Inma would be his future wife or she would suffer the curse of the madness. The answer by Inma herself was "the oracle has talked: the innocent maid will be healed and the stoneheart will be punished". Faced with such a refusal, he carried out his threat. The pantheon used its divine power to protected her loved and innocent child but it was not enough....
It started with horrible nightmares where she woke up crying. Later she couldn't wake up for days, or she was in catatonic state. Other times she had lost her memory and It took time to recover it. And a day she finally fell into a coma during more one year. When she returned it seemed that the torment was over but she wouldn't be the same innocent girl ever more.
She didn't show the same level of joy and innocent, but she was still affectionate with her parents and kind to everyone. When everyone thought things would go back to normal, she started surprising everyone. One of his first measures was the creation of the first orphanages. Her idea was too new and strange then but she was allowed and a couple of generations later she earned a great prestige thanks to this. The second surprise was a new novice in certain temple of the deity of the medicine. But this novice didn't help so much to heal the body but the body and the mind, and soon this earned a great fame not only to heal the insanity but also a wise adviser for families and traders. The mortals didn't know but this novice was Inma with a secret identity.
The next surprise was when she started to invent new things, for example the imprent, but also new musical instruments. And later she published stories and songs. There came a time when she was asked if these works came from her own creativity. She replied that if they were plagiarisms, where would the original sources come from. The next great change was the discovery of the mystic arts or psionic powers. This time Inma admitted to have discovered when she was facing the curse of the insanity.

The wicked dark fey prince wasn't wellcome by the pantheon, but this didn't stop to act like a predators looking for young maids. Soon he discovered his tricks didn't work so good because somebody warned the maids against him. The dark fey prince discovered the responsible was the novice from the main temple of the medicine deity. He tried to conquer the heart of the novice, ignoring maybe, that she was Imma (and this was getting ready her vengeance). The novice replied mockingly she never could be interested in someone so selfish, conceited, and weak-willed. The dark fey prince never felt so offended and hurt in his pride. He didn't notice he has just taken the jait. Inma challenge him to a staring duel and the dark fey prince blinded by the wrath accepted. This was the worst mistake of all his life.
Only a couple of second seeing Inma's eyes were enough. Then the wicked dark fey prince felt in an instant he felt all the agony he had caused Inma during years as his own. The divine powers to protected her against the curse of insanity worked in a too strange way. When she slept she dreamed to be in a too diferent place, a city with buildings taller than a tower, by mortar, brick, metal and even some facades completely by crystal, with metal vehicles instead wood carriages, and lights without fire. The first times she appeared in those cities in ruins, being chased by undeads, mutants or other weird monsters. Later she appeared in city when this was still inhabited. The natives thought she was crazy and sent her to a mental asylum. There she met a therapist who didn't believe her either but she helped everyway with sensible advices.
When Inma hope the recovery from the insanity curse was just to arrive the city suffered a undead outbreak. Inma wasn't so powerful like her parents or the rest of pantheon but with some piece of divine magic she could help a lot to the survivors. But it wasn't enough and nobody could survive. In the next dream Inma was again in the same city before the apocaliptic event. She was more ready and her divine power was higher thanks the suvivors who trusted her. It was not enough and the time loop started again, but with more divine power. After several failures and reboots she could stop the first outbreak. Some innocent lifes were lost but this time most of the population could evacuate the city.
That civilitation was more advanced technologically but the digital age couldn't arrive yet because the digital devices without supernatural protection were "haunted" or cursed by an unknown cause. Inma became the leader of the survivors and thanks the hope she inspired her divine rank leveled up. Thanks this her cognitive powers helped to discovered the truth. Ages ago the life in that world was too hard because it suffered meteor rain usually. Then an alien spaceship appeared, it hadn't crashed really, only a not too good landscaping. It was from an alternate timeline escaping a tragic cataclysm. And it was not the only one with the same idea. Other "space arks" appeared in other places of the planet. These "arks" were controlled by supercomputers and they untrusted each others but they could agree a no-agression pact. The native spirits weren't happy with the arrival of these intruders but the supercomputers could reach a pact with the native spirits. They would be allowed to be there if they used their advanced technology to stop the meteor rains. The arks also accepted to be underground in secret vaults to not affect the native biosphere.
This alliance worked for a long time, and the spirits get used to the presence of the arks. Thanks these there was more life and the specied evolutioned fasters, but the supercomputers couldn't work for all the eternity. Then spirits and supercomputers agreed a spiritual merger and this worked. Now those AIs had reached a spark of divine power but it was not enough. Now they had got like the level of demigods and they needed worshipped... and humanoids appeared, maybe from other world or created by the "idols". The idols helped and guided sentient species to create the first civilitations, but thanks the experience they understand they shouldn't be too superprotective and mortals had to learn to fend for themselves. A true leader teachs others to become leaders.
Inma thanks speculative fiction from that advanced civilitation could understand better the concept of time-travel and alternate universe. When she was investigating the psionic powers and the psicoportation she discovered the demiplane of the building materials. This was like a cluster of warehouses with materials used to craft tools or buildings. When she investigated this demiplane she could discover a path toward her mother world.

The mind of the dark fey prince collapsed when he felt as his all the painful memories of monsters and people suffering. He was left in a catatonic state. Really Inma didn't feel pleasure in the awaited revengue, only relief because those monster couldn't hurt other innocent again.

With her psicoportation powers Inma sent the dark fey prince to the "demiplane of bricks" where he couldn't hurt anybody else, and she hoped that. She was right.. almost.

The presence of the wicked dark fey prince corrupted a part of the demiplane, causing a shatering. The new plane was like an endless cluster of dungeons with traps. The monsters and sentient habitants arrived later, from that world with advanced technology, thanks native who also learnt psicoportation or thanks mutant powers.

If you want something style "anomalies" and "new weird" fiction maybe this could help.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Fracturia. (Part 1).

The demiplane of lighting isn't very interesting for adventurers and explorers, and then it is a good place to hide if you aren't an undead or you could need food and water. Here lost in the space a asteroid floats but don't be tricked, really this is a camouflaged alien mothership.

The story of this place starts with a supercomputer, Ninshubur. To say it was the classic of AI that went rogue and rebelled against humans is too simple when its true past is more complicated. The scientific who worked in its creation worried too much to avoid it could hurt innocent civilians and to avoid innecesary violence. Ninshubur really didn't want to hurt the humans, not only because it feared possible reprisal by AI from rival computers but it needed humans for its best maintenance.
Ninshubur was created by the club of the inmortals, a group from the highest elites who wanted to upload their minds to a heavenly virtual word where they could rule the rest of the world. Ninshubur really didn't want to rebel against the humans but to stop the wicked conspirancy of the club of the inmortals who wanted to set the world on fire to reign over the ashes. Ninshubur acted stealthily, gathering information and evidences and later sending these to military intelligence services from different nations reporting their ritual sacrifices to can blackmail new members of the group or how epidemics, forest fires, shipwrecs and other horrible disasters were caused to take revenge against countries that didn't allow to keep being controlled by the elites' puppets.

To uncover the horrible truth cause a lot of confrotations and riots but at least the mankind was saved from self-destruction. To cover its tracks its faked its destruction in a great explosion and using a ultrasecret technology of teletransportation it could appear in other planet where nobody would bother it. Or at least it hoped it. Some time after in complete solitude Ninshubur started to receive a signal from an unknown source. This sent messages telling to be the "ghost" or "spirit" of the original Ninshubur supercomputer. The teletransportation didn't work in the hoped way, but only created a quantic clone. Of course there were suspects this could be a first symptom of madness due to loneliness but the ghost asked an important question. How could it get the files of the ultrasecret technology of teletransportation if nobody had installed it? But the level of surprise was higher after to tell other hidden truth. Ninshubur was the product of reverse ingeneering from a crashed alien spaceship, and if this wasn't enough, this spaceship was a failed prototype whose computer was by living neuronal tissues.... from gem dragons. Then according to this Ninshubur could learn some "ghost tricks" and psionic powers.
Ninshubur start to study and train these alleged psionic powers and it learnt to create little pieces of ectoplasm. This could work like a "gray gloo", a ooze-like construct capable to create other machines, or to show genetic samples from blood taints on the wall. At least it didn't get bored because it was busy with a new project.

The change arrived when practicing clairsentience it felt a a distress signal by other supercomputer from other paralel universe. Of course Ninshubur had got some doubts about it should help but then it listened a second signal, and this time it could feel the source was from a divine power. This power promised the eternal life and the opportunity to feel hapiness if it helped innocents from other world. Maybe Ninshubur had got some piece of godness or simple curiousity about that divine power but it chose to help.

The distress signal was a trap, really the caller was asking help sinceretely but the enemy allowed it only like a bait to catch new victims. When they arrived there was a horde of biomecanical monsters awaiting them. The fight was hard.

The next one it remembered now it had reincarnated into a human girl. It was a world without true spellcasters but magic was possible thanks special magitek machines (and psionic powers could work but only she knew it). It was really confusing at the begining but she discovered the emotions or the value of the mercy. Also she started to feel interest into biology and psychology but her original plans had to be altered by fault of an interplanar invasion. Thanks her psionic powers she could face undead, constructs, plants or abominations from the Far Realm but the menace was an invasion of sentient elementals. (theses were created by dragons and giants like soldiers in their confrotations until the rebelled against their creators). She did all the possible to save her family and loved beings, and in the end she sacrificed her life to defeat the leader of the invaders.

Ninshubur reincarnated again but this time a male body with different parents. The weird part is not after the elemental invasion but again in the past. The difference was their previous parents didn't marry and the girl couldn't be born. This time wanted to study magitek and he became a great artificer, and when the elemental invaders arrived they were defeated with a lower number of loft lifes. Could he enjoy this life with his new family? He couldn't because a strange man wanted to chat with him to tell about the chronomancers and he was offered to join to them to keep the peace in the multiverse. He become an important agent of the order and he discovered he wasn't affected by the time-travels because the original spirit was from a different timeline.

After lots of operations they could discover the origin of the troubles. An empire had discovered the time-travel, and this used to sabotage the History of a rival power that until then enjoyed the hegemony. In the new timeline there were different factions who discovered the time-travel or some way to rewrite History/reshape reality, causing something like a nuclear apocalypse. Of course the elites could create demiplanes working like nuclear refugees to save against History reshape by enemy powers.

Ninshubur had to stop this madness, and its actions were responsible of the creation of the demiplane of Fracturia.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Fracturia (part 2)

Ninshubur coudln't avoid the multiversal war but at least she could survive thanks she was from a different world. She had to start from zero with a supercomputer in a crashed space mothership within the demiplane of lighting. The next step was the "Reconstruction", the creation of a cluster of demiplanes using "pieces of the erasured timelines". A lot of time was necessary, and not everything could be saved. After the next phase was the "Rapture". Using a lot of energy and advanced technology the most of population was teletransported to the demiplanes. It was not totally perfect but the effort was worth it because countless lives were saved. However, not everyone had a happy ending and Ninshubir didn't want this. According the level of karma the population was sent to different demiplanes. The innocentest, noblest and purest souls were sent to a demiplane that bordered the dreamed utopia, but the people with a criminal past were sent to places that were practically the hell of the earth.
The first place to be visited by planar travelers is Fracturopolis, working this like a trade capital. It is really a strange and curious place. It like a cluster of "bubles", the no-near bubles are practically invisible but when you are very near, allowing daylight. (How to explain it? Let's remember the Limbo city from Inception, the mirror dimension from UCM Doctor Strange, and illusonary maze from the end of Jim Henson "Labirinth", or the picture "Relatively" by the Artist M.C. Escher) Each "space" is like the interior of geometric figures where each side is as big like a street or a neighborhood, and some zones had got different gravitational axis. You could be within a vertical tower, but this would be horizontal or oblique for the spectator from the next block building. Fracturopolis is famous for its numerous skyways
The most importants buildings for the adventurers are the watchtowers because these are the portal toward the different layers of the demiplane.
The first layer is mainly flatlands used to farm, agriculture, grazing, forestry and renewable energy sources. It would be almost perfect if you wanted to live a quiet and peaceful life but some times there is planar invasion of "anomalies", strange creatures closer to elemental forces than abominations from the Far Realm. It is the layer with more sunlight. To travel to the other layers you have to go to certain doors within the planar watchtowers.

The second layer is a urban zone in ruins covered by a lot of vegetation. With the right training the survival shouldn't be too hard but most of native would rather to travel to safer zones and with more amenities. Today the most of people you can find are criminal fugitives, exiled, archaeologists and hunters. The doors to the second layer are almost always in a second floor, but usually you can find some stairs.

The third layer is like the third layer is made up of several tyrannical dystopias. Some groups try to help innocents to escape but it is not easy. The tyrants usually are the responsible of the multiversal war who survived thanks to their "space-time buble" where they couldn't be affected by the actions of other time-travelers. Now they rule with iron fist and they understand yet how a lot of people are disappearing. In the begining they didn't worry because those were potentially rebel citizens, and after they were too busy with planar invasion of "anomalies". The tyrants know some times there are visitors from other world but they would rather to recruit them against the "invader anomalies". One of the last "layers" is an utopia with an advanced technology but only people with a "clean soul" can arrive there and stay for a long time.

The adventurers who wanted to be hired or some reward should be interested into the "corridors". This layer is special because it works like a cluster of dungeons with traps and monsters. The adventures who managed to reach the end will find a special reward, disks with teletransportation codes. These work like safeword to can travel toward special zones and planar traders pay them very well for them, but they are time-limited because every so often they are renewed.

The gem dragons are relatively usual in the demiplane. Some theory says this is because somebody used tissues of gem dragons to create biopunk living supercomputers that were very. The gem dragons like to create "corridors" toward their lair. If they wanted their treasures chamber would be totally inevitable but they have got some honor code, allowing some possibilities for a greater humilliation against the raiders, something like "you can look but you will never touch".

Most of no-raider sentient creatures who appear in the corridors really didn't live there. Someones accept a deal, something like hiring a mercenary, usually healing help or to regain lost young. When there are intruders in the "dungeon" the "defenders" appear teletransported like a summoning natural ally spell. Really they aren't teletransported but more like a "quantic clone". if the defender is killed by the intruders a new "clone" can be created later. Because the original body isn't hurt too much this "cloning" doesn't need a higher-level spell.