Planes

In this section a body will find:

- The Outer Planes

- The Inner Planes

- The Primal Planes

- The Transitive Planes

- The Planar Pathways

- The Meta Planes

The Outer Planes

Referred to as “The Great Wheel”, there are 16 Planes of Existence that are linked by their common connection to a central plane called the Outlands. Each Plane is strongly shaped by the beliefs of its inhabitants which follow the system of alignment (Law, Chaos, Good, Evil, and Neutrality).

Mechanus 
(Lawful Neutral): Mechanus is the plane of ultimate law and order. Mechanus operates on a strict schedule where every action is planned, measured and controlled perfectly. It is home to the construct-like geometric modrons and the law-enforcing inevitables. Throughout Mechanus exists a series of interlocking cogs that float in space, intersecting at all angles and directions. Many of the cogs are gigantic, stretching many miles across and turn so slowly that the rotation is nearly undetectable. Smaller cogs can move at much higher speeds, but no acceleration is experienced, except at the very edges. The gears are fiercely guarded by gear spirits that reside within them.

Arcadia 
(Lawful Neutral Good): Arcadia is a peaceful harmony between law and good and is noted for its tranquility and strict discipline. Everything on Arcadia has its specified place and everything functions as intended. Trees naturally form tight rows, in orchards and streams that snake across the perfectly flat plains in complex mathematical routes. Large geometric cities are perfectly laid out with efficient roads and beautiful architecture. The Orb of Day and Night is a huge sphere that sits atop the tallest mountain in Arcadia, one side is illuminated and the other dark. The orb rotates at a constant speed so that exactly half of the plane is in darkness while the other half is illuminated. There is no dawn or dusk on Arcadia, but a sudden sharp change. The weather on Arcadia is always pleasant and seasons are of exactly equal length, which like the days, change abruptly when it is time. The regimented giant ants called formians are native to this plane (not to be confused with fomorians!). 

  

Mount Celestia  
(Lawful Good): Celestia is the ultimate in law and good. All aspects of Celestia are beautiful and perfect; it is where the souls of many creatures of lawful good alignment go to after death. It is home to numerous celestial creatures including various types of archons, and Bahamut the Platinum Dragon. Celestia consists of seven layers that form a colossal (perhaps infinite) mountain that rises from an infinite sea of holy water on the bottommost layer, to the summit on the topmost layer. To climb the mountain, one must attain deeper levels of good and purity (“The Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia”).

Bytopia
 (Neutral Good Lawful): Bytopia is a spatially infinite plane, consisting of two layers or sub-planes. It is unique in the sense that the two layers are laid facing one another, each looking down (or up; the terms are relative here) at the other. A traveller can look up from one layer and see the other above him looking back down (or, from the other side's perspective, up), provided that the sky is clear. To get from one layer to the other, travellers must either climb tall mountains, or fly. Gravity reverses when someone reaches the middle point between the two layers. Bytopia shares its borders with the neighboring planes of Mt. Celestia and Elysium; travel is possible between these planes at certain locations. The souls of gnomes and halflings commonly come here.

Elysium 
 (Neutral Good): Elysium is a plane of idyllic good and the destination of the souls who sought always to further the cause of good without regard to law or chaos. Elysium is home to many celestial creatures, predominantly the guardinals, a race of aasimon native to the plane. Here colors become more vibrant, with the land itself working to remain as peaceful and alive as possible. Extended visits to Elysium causes one to lose interest in leaving, eventually turning one into a petitioner of that plane.  The appearance and conditions of Elysium differ between each layer of the plane between beautiful forests and lakes to rugged mountains and watery swamps. The River Oceanus, its side channels and contributories dominate many a reas of the plane with its headwaters located in the fourth layer of the plane. The river itself continually splits and recombines at many points throughout its course across Elysium.

Beastlands  
(Neutral Good Chaotic): The Beastlands is a plane of nature and animals. Peaceful alpine forests and groves of giant mushrooms can be found here. A varied climate exists across the plane, providing a suitable environment for many species of animals and plants. The number of traditional settlements is very small, with most inhabitants living beneath the trees out in the wilderness. The mortal souls that come to this plane after death take on animal traits soon after they arrive, developing pelts of fur and growing horns or pointed ears or other such features. Over the course of centuries they continue to slowly change, becoming celestial beasts.

Arborea
(Chaotic Good): Arborea is stylised as a peaceful plane of natural beauty with a multitude of thriving environments. Much of the plane is dominated by vast tall forests, but also includes glades of wildflowers and fields of grain. As a plane that also embodies chaos, it has a wild and often sudden nature. Arborea is home to Arvandor, the realm of the elven pantheon, and also Agathos, home to the Concilium Aretos, a council of deities who meet to discuss the plans of the Multiverse.

Ysgard  
(Chaotic Good Neutral): The theme of Ysgard is the glory of heroic, individual struggle. Ysgard is also a plane of inspiration and creativity. It is place of raw elements, where rivers of earth, ice, and fire crash together in the howling sky; a place where waves burst  in wild oceans. It’s the homeland of bariaur, giants, and hardy races of dwarves, elves, and gnomes. Ysgard is well known for its heavy connections to the plane-spanning tree Yggdrasil, the World Ash, which touches many other Planes. The entrance the Infinite Staircase is also on Ysgard, guarded by the mystical lillend at the Gate of the Moon. The first layer of Ysgard, also known as Ysgard or Gladsheim, takes the form of islands of earth (or "earthbergs") stretching across the sky.

Limbo 
(Chaotic Neutral): Limbo is a place of pure chaos where everything is in constant motion and change, especially the landscape, which can shift unpredictably and randomly rolls over upon itself like liquid. Very few places in Limbo are stable enough for normal travel. Limbo is home to the slaadi, and to the githzerai, the latter whom use their craft at shaping chaos to sustain several cities. Both species are rivals for dominance of this Plane.

Pandemonium 
 (Chaotic Neutral Evil): Pandemonium is a large, complex cavern that never ends. Compounding this problem, howling winds race through these tunnels, driving most of its residents mad. There are few creatures that are native to this plane; those individuals who do live here usually have no choice in the matter. Pandesmos is the largest and (relatively) most hospitable of the layers. The headwaters for the River Styx are found here.

The Abyss 
(Chaotic Evil): The Abyss presents itself as a region of intense, extreme, and unforgiving climates, with layers consisting of overwhelmingly fierce desert sandstorms, explosively unstable volcanic activity, boiling lava, and molten rock, blinding, sub-zero Arctic glaciers, bottomless oceans filled with enormous leviathans, nauseatingly putrid environments saturated with disease-causing fungi, and the endless, existential void of infinite space. Some sages suggest that the Abyss may be alive, and that it spawns demons out of itself to spread chaos and destruction. These demons are more properly called the tanar’ri and are the Plane’s primary inhabitants.

Carceri  
(Chaotic Evil Neutral): It is a plane of exile, the prison of the multiverse, a place for exiles, traitors, and the defeated. Almost nothing lives here voluntarily. Carceri seems the least overtly dangerous of the lower planes, but that first impression quickly disappears. The danger of Carceri is a subtler thing; this plane is a place of darkness and despair, of passions and poisons, and of kingdom-shattering betrayals. The fiends known as gehreleths are the only known native species. The orb-shaped  layers of Carceri range from swamp-lands to fierce deserts, to treacherous mountains, to frigid wastelands. Some suggest one of these layers, the cruel desert of Athas was once a Prime world that destroyed itself with vile magic and pulled itself into the Lower Planes.

The Gray Waste  
(Neutral Evil): Here, all emotion and compassion is drained away, until only hopelessness, selfishness and apathy remain as baatezu and tanar'ri meet and clash in a colorless expanse, fighting in their never ending Blood War. In the Gray Waste, colors fade to muted shades of gray and the land itself works to remain as soulless as possible. The Gray Waste is a spatially infinite plane, consisting of three layers or sub-planes, sometimes referred to as the Three Glooms. The River Styx flows through the first layer, Oinos, connecting it with the other evil-aligned Lower Planes.

Gehenna
(Neutral Evil Lawful) : Gehenna consists of four planar layers; each layer made up of a pair of huge volcanos floating in space, joined at the bottom to form massive “earthbergs”, hundreds of thousands of miles tall. Smaller mountain-shaped chunks of earth also float through Gehenna, occasionally colliding with the primary earthbergs. The first layer, Khalas, is a hot and fiery place, but the volcanos gradually grow colder as one passes through the layers; the third layer, Mungoth, is a cool place, while the fourth, Krangath, is icy and dead. The fiends known as yugoloths call Gehenna home, and are its primary natives, though they originally hail from the Gray Waste. The dreaded Yama Kings, are said to reside in this Plane.

Baator  
(Lawful Evil): Baator, also known as the Nine Hells, is as a plane of sinister evil and cruelty. The different types of devils – or more properly, baatezu – that dwell here obey a strict hierarchical caste-like social structure. Each continually plots to advance their position through treachery and deception. Unlike the tanar’ri of the Abyss, the baatezu are highly organized, with a logical and calculating nature. The plane itself is composed of nine different layers, each of which models a differing but no less inhospitable and dreadful environment, including barren plains of ash and rock to frozen wastes of endless ice.

Acheron 
(Lawful Evil Neutral): Acheron is an eternal battlefield of endless conflict. It is a plane of law where conformity takes precedence over any thoughts of good. Unending battles take place across the entire plane between huge armies, with no chance of victory or cease-fire. Each layer of the plane consists of a huge number of iron cubes of varying size, from continents to small islands; not all of these are actually cube-shaped, but they are generally called cubes nonetheless. The cubes float in an air-filled, infinite space, occasionally colliding with each other.

Outlands  
(True Neutral): The Outlands is the Outer Plane of neutrality. It is popular meeting place for treaties between the powers. The Outlands are also home to the gate-towns, each which connects to one of the Outer Planes. At the center of the Outlands is the Spire, an infinite column of rock, atop which Sigil impossibly sits. The Outlands are the home plane of the neutral-minded rilmani. Numerous small townships called “Burgs” and various realms connected to various races or gods can also be found scattered about the Outlands. The Hinterlands are the misty, mysterious plain surrounding the Ringlands and the gate-towns into infinity. They are difficult to explore, as it takes a long time to get any distance into them, but it is very quick to travel back. The Hinterlands seem to actually resist incursion. As belief holds power in the Outer Planes, the gate-towns have been known to periodically shift into their connected planes. This occurs when the collective beliefs of their inhabitants begin to mirror the alignment of their associated planes too closely.

The Inner Planes:

The Inner Planes, sometimes referred to the Elemental Planes, are comprised of the material building blocks of reality and the realms of energy and matter. They stand in contrast to the intangible and esoteric Outer Planes. The Inner Planes don't care one shred about your Beliefs, berk!

The Four Primary Elemental Planes  are Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.

In addition to Planes related to their respective elements, the “poles” of the Inner Planes are known as the Energy Planes. They are unique in that they are not composed of matter but rather tangible form of creation and destruction. All life (or unlife) depends on them. 

The Para-Elemental Planes are produced where the Elemental Planes come into contact with each other: Smoke (Air and Fire), Ice (Air and Water), Ooze (Earth and Water), and Magma (Fire and Earth).

The Quasi-Elemental Planes are produced where the Elemental Planes touch the Energy Planes: At the intersection of the Positive Energy Plane and the planes of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water are Lightning, Mineral, Radiance, and Steam respectively. Around the Negative Energy Planes are Vacuum, Dust, Ash, and Salt.

The native life forms of these planes are known as elementals (naturally). Most of the Inner Planes are inhospitable to mortal life, though it possible to navigate them with proper protection. Furthermore, several fortresses and even cities do exist as habitable islands within the seas of their respective elements. Many of these cities are the homes of the genies, powerful elementals that possess a humanoid appearances.  Most of the trade and business conducted by the Inner Planes is done through the genies and their servants.

The Primal Planes:

Prime Material Plane
The Prime Material Plane (or simply "the Prime")  is the home of most mortal life in the Multiverse. It is said that only in the Prime do all the elements of the Inner Planes mix in equal proportion. Every familiar place, from Faerun, Krynn, Flaeness, Eberron, Mystara, etc. are all parts of the Prime Material. When they’re referred to at all by planar beings, these respective places are known as Prime Realms. Most don’t bother with making such granular distinctions, collectively calling them all simply “The Prime” and the beings from it “Primes” (or “The Clueless” when one is being unflattering).

Oerth-Toril, or simply Toril is the most famous of the Prime worlds, containing the famous famous of the Great Realms. To the amusement of most Planars, these Great Realms are all fairly isolated from one another and most Clueless are unaware that the other Realms even exist!

Oerth-Toril

In many ways, the Prime is more “real” than the rest of the Multiverse. While it can still be affected by magicks and the labors of mortals, the Prime is a more “solid” place than most, usually changing only over great periods of time and in much smaller ways. Belief and philosophy have a much less tangible (if any) impact on the Prime’s continued existence.

The Prime is bordered by two of the Transitive Planes (see below). The Ethereal Plane joins it to the Inner Planes, and the Astral Plane joins it to the Outer Planes. This makes the Prime a hub between both the Inner and Outer Planes, and one of the few places where a traveler can go directly between them. This fact and the Prime’s “tangibility” can make it a choice target for meddling powers, or even planar conquests, despite the fact that it is largely viewed as an “inferior” place.

Mirror Planes

Within the boundaries of the Prime and Transitive Planes, called by some the Crystal Sphere, exist the two Mirror Planes: the Feywild and the Shadowfell. Unlike many other Planes, which are infinite in size, these Mirror Planes are worlds of a defined sized. They exist as “echos” of the Prime and as such are considered to be “demiplanes” by some scholars.

Feywild:  
The Feywild, sometimes called Faerie, and Thelanis in the language of its natives, sits on the border of the Prime and the Astral Plane. As an ‘echo’ of the Prime, the Feywild's geography is similar, though not identical to that of the Prime.  It is a place more vibrant and alive, with thicker forests that teem with life, deeper jungles, and places more extreme and fantastic than those one would normally find on the Prime. Fed by the Astral Plane, magic and arcane power flow more freely here, and often it can take on life and form all on its own. The natives of the Feywild are the fey, with the eladrin race being the self-proclaimed rulers of the land, having created numerous kingdoms they call the Courts of Stars. Parts of the Feywild co-exist in locations on the Prime both temporarily and permanently. One realm even co-exists on the Outlands, in a place called Tir Na nOg, making travel to the Outer Planes possible. Travelers should note that the Feywild is not at all a tame or necessarily friendly place, the fey can become easily provoked, and much more violent creatures, like goblins and the formorian giants also dwell here.

Shadowfell:  
The Shadowfell, called sometimes The Endless Night, the Demiplane of Dread, the Plane of Shadow, Mabar, and Dolurrh, exists on the border of the Ethereal and the Prime. It is very much the opposite of the lush, living Feywild: it is a bleak, desolate place full of decay and death. Its proximity to the Ethereal amplifies the effects of nightmares, gloom, and fear (even giving them tangible form), and a connection to the Negative Energy Plane feeds it full of necrotic energy. Undead, both mindless and cunning, are rampant throughout the Shadowfell. Despite these obstacles, humans have still managed to carve out various townships (most notably Ravenloft and Gloomwrought). The natives are planetouched beings called the Shadar-Kai, whose ancestors long ago embraced the power of Shadow.

The Transitive Planes:

The two major transitive planes are the Astral and Ethereal Planes. The transitive planes connect the other planes, and comparative to the Outer, Inner, and Primal Planes, contain little, if any, solid matter or native life. They can be thought of as the space between Planes, or perhaps the glue in which the other Planes reside.

Astral Plane: 
The Astral Plane is the plane of thought, memory, and psychic energy; it is where gods go when they die or are forgotten (or, most likely, both). It is a barren place with only rare bits of solid matter (and most of that brought in from other Planes). The Astral Plane is unique in that there is no real space or time here, though both catch up with you when you leave. The souls of the newly dead from the Prime Material Plane pass through here on their way to the afterlife or Outer Planes.

A common feature of the Astral Plane is the silver cords of travelers using an astral projection spell. These cords are the lifelines that keep travelers of the plane from becoming lost, stretching all the way back to the traveler's point of origin.

A god-isle is the immense petrified remains of a dead god that floats on the Astral Plane. The race of the githyanki often convert them to towns and mine them for minerals on their stony surfaces. Tu'narath, the capital city of the githyanki, is built on the petrified corpse of a dead god known only as "The One in the Void." God-isles often have unusual effects on those nearby, including causing strange dreams of things that happened to the god when it was alive.

Near the “border” of the Prime Material Plane exists the “Crystal Sphere”, named for the huge formations of free-floating crystalline structures that exist here. One of the few native beings of the Astral Plane originate from the Sphere, known as shardminds. 

To traverse this strange void, inhabitants of the Astral Plane have constructed Astral Ships, known colloquially as “voidjammers.” These brave sailors often refer to the Astral as the “Astral Sea”, and more rarely as “wildspace.”

Ethereal Plane:

The Ethereal is often likened to an ocean, but rather than water it is a sea of boundless possibility. It consists of two parts: the Border Ethereal which connects to the Inner and Prime Material planes, and the Deep Ethereal plane which acts as the incubator to many potential demiplanes and other proto-magical realms. From the Border Ethereal plane a traveler can see a misty grey version of the plane from which they are traveling from. From the Border Ethereal one can move into the cloudy Deep Ethereal, where only dreams and illusions have substance.

Many demiplanes can be found in the Deep Ethereal plane; most demiplanes are born here, and many fade back into nothingness here. Unlike the Astral Plane, in which solid objects can exist anything and everything that goes to the Ethereal Plane becomes Ethereal. Illusions, on the other hand, become more “real” here in the Ethereal.

Native beings to the Ethereal are rare, though lost souls (such as ghosts, specters, wraiths) are often encountered here. Noteworthy natives are the nathri (goblin-like raiders), and the xill (an aggressive four-armed race).

The masters of illusion, the rakshasa, are sometimes thought of an Ethereal race, as they have created a major demiplane within it. Given that illusions take on tangibility in the Ethereal, the rakshasa are even more dangerous in this realm than elsewhere.

DemiPlanes:

Demiplanes are minor planes, most of which are artificial. Demiplanes are commonly created by demigods and extremely powerful wizards. Naturally occurring demiplanes are rare; most such demiplanes are actually fragments of other planes that have somehow split off from their parent plane. Demiplanes are often constructed to resemble the Material Plane, though a few — mostly those created by non-humans — are quite alien. Nearly all Demiplanes exist in the Ethereal, but a few also exist in the Astral.

Planar Pathways
Now, the planar pathways, they see much more travel than about anything else. Why? ’Cause they’re pretty easy to walk or ride down. They got well-mapped routes and trails and lots o’ connections to different planes. They ain’t the quickest, but they’re great if a body likes the scenic route. See, unlike the instant travel offered by portals and the like, the great planar paths are roads, staircases, waterways or such that a basher needs to actually travel to get from plane to plane. On some of ’em, the change from plane to plane is so gradual ye might not even notice, while on others, there be portals an’ doorways that connect the path to other planes. ’Cause the pathways are actual physical locations, they each have their own hazards, inhabitants, and special laws required for traversal. The generally recognized planar pathways are the Great Road, the River Styx, the River Oceanus, Mount Olympus, and Yggdrassil.

The Great Road

As most anyone knows, the Outer Planes form a ring. Now, if a body is of a mind to, she can go from plane to plane, following the ring. This is known as walkin’ the Great Road, and every planewalker should do it at least once. Imagine there’s an end to the planes, otherwise ye’ll never get anywheres. At these ends a basher will find archways, cracks, or other breaches that'll take them to the next plane on. 

The River Styx

The River Styx connects to the top layer of every Lower Plane and its tributaries connect to lower layers. Its putrid, blood-colored waters steal away a body’s memories if ye so much as stick the tip of yer littlest finger in the sludge. If ye’re so unlucky as to fall in completely, ye’ll find yer very sense of self slippin’ away like smoke in the Foundry. 

Best way to go down the river is to get a ferrymen. Some of ’em are fiends, others are the spirits of the dead, and a rare few are livin’ beings putting their sailin’ skills to use. Without a ferryman who knows the way around, yer’e liable to get very lost indeed. 

Since it connects all o’ the Lower Planes, the Styx is used as the main method of movin’ troops about for the Blood War. Other travelers make use o’ it, too, ’specially merchants, since portals on the Lower Planes are even more treacherous than the Styx at times. And it never takes a body more than a day to get somewheres.
The River Oceanus
The bright, cheery mirror o’ the foul, depressin’ Styx, the River Oceanus winds through the Upper Planes of Elysium, the Beastlands, and Arborea. Its waters are fragrant an’ sweet, always carryin’ the tranquil nature of its headwaters in Elysium. Oceanus is a well-used trade route between the layers of those planes; ports have been set up all along its banks and trader’s boats are always going up an’ down it, and travelers can usually find safe passage.

The Oceanus is deeper than any cutter can figure, and within it, strange and fantastic creatures live. There’s all manner of beasts like ye’d see on the Prime, like dolphins, fish, and turtles, but it’s also home to all kinds of intelligent beasts. 

Mount Olympus
On Arborea, in the realm of Agathos, there is a towering mountain where a group of gods naming themselves the Concilium Aretos meet and call kip. Mount Olympus connects to Arborea, the Gray Waste, Carceri, Gehenna, and even parts of the Prime and the Feywild. 

Traveling Olympus is like traveling any other mountain, a body gets where he wants by climbing. Some places, the slope o’ the mount is gentle and the climb easy, at others its rocky and treacherous. The gateways to the other planes look like colorful, freestanding disks, hidden behind rocks an’ woods or in deep caverns. A body can’t see through ’em, so a basher has to step through to find out where they go. They’re usually two-way, so a basher can get back out if ’tis not a plane they’re lookin’ for. Well, unless they end up in Carceri; that plane’s never been one to let berks leave easy. 

Areas that see lots o’ travel have paths carved into them by merchants and caravans to make the trek easier. Great monuments and temples built by mortal and immortal beings alike also dot the landscape, providing a welcome resting spot for weary travelers, though usually only the faithful to the Concilium gods get any free hospitality. 

Yggdrassil, the Great Tree

Yggdrassil’s a lot like Mount Olympus; ’tis really, really big and connects up with many Planes. It looks like a massive tree with branches that can be miles around, its bark be silver and flaky, like gray clay, and its leaves’re shimmering blue-black ovals.

It can be said the main trunk of the tree lies in Ysgard, which connects to the Gray Waste, Pandemonium, the Beastlands, scattered points in the Outlands, and one branch even lands in Limbo, creating an exotic, stable point in the Plane of Chaos.

To get where ye’re goin’, just walk along the tree and find the right colorful, disk-shaped portals. Lots o’ merchants an’ planewalkers climb the branches, and ’tis also home to the squirrel-like ratatosk, friendly cutters who can be hired as guides. 


The Meta Planes:

The Meta Planes seem to exist “outside” or “above” the normal cosmology. These places can be thought of as “cheating” in that they can potentially touch many or even all other Planes, even at once.

Sigil 

The most famous of these locales is Sigil, the City of Doors. It is a ring-shaped city that hovers (presumably) above the infinite Spire in the center of the Outlands. It is ruled over by the Lady of Pain, a frighteningly powerful and mysterious figure capable of controlling the city's portals and preventing even deities from entering. The city is said to be the fulcrum point for all of the planes, and as a result whoever can control the city controls the multiverse. This is why the city is run by competing Factions. Each Faction believes that if it controls Sigil, the Center of All, it would be able to control everything there is. As a result, the Lady of Pain keeps the Factions (and many other power brokers in the city) in balance.

The World Serpent Inn 

The World Serpent Inn seems like an ordinary tavern, but the location of the Inn shifts and even exists simultaneously in numerous places at once (a permanent portal to it exists in Sigil and in Ecstasy in the Outlands. There even places on several Prime Realms where it also regularly manifests). The World Serpent Inn consists of a common room built around a central bar and surrounded by a maze of shifting, ever-changing back passages and rooms, which extend into infinity, often looping back to the main room. Countless other portals exist in the World Serpent's many back rooms and passageways, most of them temporary. The magic of this place makes it difficult (if not impossible) to harm another being here, so is not uncommon for denizens from all across the Multiverse to come here to drink or make treaties and conduct business, including even the Avatars of Powers.

The Infinite Staircase
A massive system of stairways and landings, with doors connecting to every place in the multiverse. Home to the Planewalker’s Guild, who moved from Sigil several hundred years ago to avoid becoming embroiled in faction politics, The Staircase is guarded by the celestial, but chaotic lillendi. The entrance to the Infinite Staircase is located in the Gates of the Moon in Ysgard, the domain of the goddess Selune.