River Styx

[Matoskah]

Hi all,

Im trying to do some research into the lower planes (well all the planes but lower ones at the moment) The consistant element that occurs through all of them is the River Styx. Im struggling to find much more than a few paragraphs here and there on it though. Does anyone have any more knowledge of it or can give me names of books to refer to. I have looked at the small sections on it in Fiendish Codex I & II.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks all. :smallcool:

[Kefkafreak]

It basically links the top layers of the Lower Planes, and its water has memory-erasing properties. There's not much else to know about it.

[Keneth]

What information exactly are you looking for? It's icy cold, wipes your memories clean and filled with styx dragons (and a couple of nasty aquatic fiends iirc). Otherwise it's just a river that runs through the planes.

[Matoskah]

Was looking for perhaps names of ports or cities nearby the river. Is it ALL the lower planes or just a number of them? I got quite abit about the memory erasing properties. I guess it is quite the mystery behind it.:smallsmile:

#Edit# Thanks for the info so far, sorry its a bit of a broad question.

[Eldan]

Planewalker has a bit on it's course:


The dark, polluted waters of the River Styx touch every Lower Plane. Their headwaters are thought to be in Pandemonium, where the Styx flows in midair as small streams of only limited potency. Its tangled current flows erratically through the planes, going from Pandemonium to Stygia to all four layers of Acheron to Avernus to the first layers of Carceri and Gehenna to Oinos to the Underworld in Pluton, through many layers of the Abyss and in hidden places in many other hells. Most who attempt to navigate its course will quickly become hopelessly lost. The marraenoloths, the skeletal boatmen of the river, know it full extent instinctually, and can quickly travel from any lower plane to any other lower plane and even the Astral, all for a stiff price.

The worst thing about the Styx is its amnesiac properties. Even touching the water in most planes is enough to make you forget your entire life.

Note the "tangled" part. The river branches out into hundreds and thousands of arms, vanishes in banks of fog without re-emerging on the other side, goes through portals, flows underground and floats in mid air, depending on where you are.

[Matoskah]

Thanks Eldan, it kinda sums it up for me. Gives me a starting point at Pandemonium for investigation. Next Project, River Oceanus :smallwink:

[GrumpyWizard]

The Fiend Folio also has a type of devil that prowls the river side. Gone mad, they are rather too unpredictable for the tastes of the other denizens of Baator. Sorry, I forgot the name of the things.

Also, do you want to stick very strictly to all published sources? Otherwise you can always fill in the details yourself, right?

[Matoskah]

The plan is to get as much info as possible from publish resources then just fill in the gaps so it has some consistency with the published worlds atleast. I just tried doing a few searches but wasnt coming back with much, doesnt help that work limits the pages I can view lol. :smallbiggrin:

[LOTRfan]

A have an essay written about the D&D Styx somewhere, but I can't find it. :smallmad:

The Styx touches the upper most layers of all the Lower Planes. It is also found in some of the other layers of the Abyss and the Nine Hells.

In the Abyss, it also goes through Thanatos (Orcus's Realm), Shendilvari (Malcanthet's Realm), and Shedaklah (Juiblex's and Zuggtmoy's Realm). In Thanatos, the Undead crowd at the very edges of the river, gazing in hunger at passersby. They are afraid of the mind-wiping effects of the river, however, and do not enter to attack prey. It is unknown if the river effects undead, but they sure seem to believe it does. In Shendilvari, Malcanthet's capital is built along the river, and it has a thriving slave-trade with the rest of the Lower Planes. There are two strips of the river in Shadaklah.

The Styx mixes with Stygia in Baator.

Depending on which edition is being used, the Styx is either a planar pathway that connects the Lower Planes (sort of like a Plane that intersects with other planes), or a river that just happens to go through portals that lead to the other planes.

Common creatures inside the river include Styx wyrms, Laghathti (an octopus-like Obyrith demon), and Xerfilstyx (devils driven insane by the river's mind-wiping effects).

EDIT: This might help, too (http://mimir.net/pathways/styx.shtml). According to this, it also takes a quick detour into the Outlands.

[Matoskah]

You sir are a Foot! (Leg end, for those who dont get it :smallconfused: ) All really helping towards putting together an image of the river. Very glad that I asked on this forum about it. Shame you couldnt find that essay would have been really cool, but the link looks pretty in depth as it is.

[Socratov]

personally I wouldn't take the DnD description of the river Styx, but take the ancient Greece version (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades#Realm_of_Hades) and work it into the 9 hells.

[Talya]

Sorry, I forgot the name of the things.


Stop drinking the water!

[Eldan]

personally I wouldn't take the DnD description of the river Styx, but take the ancient Greece version (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades#Realm_of_Hades) and work it into the 9 hells.

That should really be in Hades, though, not in hell.

[peacenlove]

In manual of the planes it is stated that the river styx flows in Nessus, Asmodeus citadel. However whoever learns this detour is instantly swarmed by the million max HP pitfiend guards.

[Socratov]

That should really be in Hades, though, not in hell.

Hades' home was hell to the ancient greeks (Ofcourse, the greek afterlife wasn't all that great...)

On topic: I'd actually only change the DnD river styx with the 5 rives in Hades' home, so styx for hate, lethe for oblivion, Archeron for anger, etc. It would geratly enhance the roleplay option for the players in the nine hells. for example: you have the pools of memnosyne, and if the layers will drink of this they will remember everything, including (and especially) everything the players tried to forget :smallyuk: the river Styx would entice the players into strife amongst each other, the river archeron would make the players regret every mistake they made. While Cocytus would make them sad...

ona side note: this setting might present itself as a "engage into torture free" card for the DM. In the wikipedia article I linked it is also said that the rivers flow into each other, so you could set a path through the nine hells, and have the river change it's effect according to the main theme of the layer of Hell in question.

[Eldan]

No, I mean, why put the Rivers in Hell, if the Greek afterlife is already included in D&D? D&D hell is relatively close to Dante's, which doesn't share much in common with Greek ideas of Hades. Parts of the Grey Waste, viz. Pluton and Hades' realm, are much closer.

[GrumpyWizard]

Stop drinking the water!

:smalleek: *stares at your harsh words while drooling over yet another cup*

[Socratov]

No, I mean, why put the Rivers in Hell, if the Greek afterlife is already included in D&D? D&D hell is relatively close to Dante's, which doesn't share much in common with Greek ideas of Hades. Parts of the Grey Waste, viz. Pluton and Hades' realm, are much closer.

true, but I like the flavor of the nine hells, except for that darned river styx. You could see it as the merger of the elements from both.

On a whole other note though, the Divina Commedia (or in plain English: Dante's version of hell etc.) has had some pointers from ancient greek mythology. Hades had a few areas for certain perpetrators (often ironic "Final destination" style), though this was fairly generic. Dante just converted it into something adapted to the renaissance (where ironically the classics, i.e. myths and legends from classical rome and Greece, got popular again. This involved a lot of chistian beliefs, morals and themes, as well as diversification (as an effect generated by the newfound individualism). in ancient Greece people believed Hades dwelled beneath the surface of the earth (hence the term underworld), and that is just 1 of the many examples.

[Eldan]

Most of those cases, however, would take place in Tartaros, not Hades...

Anyway, that's beside the point. These rivers can certainly fit into hell, if you want them there. YOu should however note that generically, Cocythus and Acheron are already places in the nine hells, though not sharing much in common with their mythological origins, in Acheron's case.

[Socratov]

Most of those cases, however, would take place in Tartaros, not Hades...

Anyway, that's beside the point. These rivers can certainly fit into hell, if you want them there. YOu should however note that generically, Cocythus and Acheron are already places in the nine hells, though not sharing much in common with their mythological origins, in Acheron's case.

as long as you are allready adjusting the world, why not finish the adjustments :smalltongue:

not that much work i gather...

ofcourse, this is still in the concept phase, I haven't done anything for it yet. If i get done i maybe publish it in the worldbuilding section :smallcool:

[noparlpf]

I can't remember anything about it.

...

Hehe, get it?
Yeah, it's cold, wet, and wipes your memory. Depending on how long you're in it and whether you fail Will saves, if I'm remembering properly. I think there's some kind of sea serpent-dragon-thing in it. It connects various planes.

[Socratov]

I can't remember anything about it.

...

Hehe, get it?
Yeah, it's cold, wet, and wipes your memory. Depending on how long you're in it and whether you fail Will saves, if I'm remembering properly. I think there's some kind of sea serpent-dragon-thing in it. It connects various planes.

according to greek myth the river lethe robs you of your memories by washing away the memories of your soul. the river ends in teh pools of Mnemosyne, where you can regain your memories, however, remembering everything in an instant might not be that beneficial to your brain... :smallamused:

[noparlpf]

according to greek myth the river lethe robs you of your memories by washing away the memories of your soul. the river ends in teh pools of Mnemosyne, where you can regain your memories, however, remembering everything in an instant might not be that beneficial to your brain... :smallamused:

Yeah, I brought up the River Lethe OOC when a DM used the D&D River Styx in a game. In D&D the River Styx does that. I don't remember how regaining memories worked, though.

[Socratov]

yeah, i guess WotC wanted to torture you for losing memories forever. However, they didn't count on the reverse to be equally worse :smallsmile:

also, while not the pools of mnemosyne, still funny (http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3886)

[noparlpf]

yeah, i guess WotC wanted to torture you for losing memories forever. However, they didn't count on the reverse to be equally worse :smallsmile:

also, while not the pools of mnemosyne, still funny (http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3886)

"Bride of Portable Hole", a third-party book, has the Self-Aware Player Character PrC. The book is a mix of funny and horrible.

[Arcane_Secrets]

Was looking for perhaps names of ports or cities nearby the river. Is it ALL the lower planes or just a number of them? I got quite abit about the memory erasing properties. I guess it is quite the mystery behind it.:smallsmile:

#Edit# Thanks for the info so far, sorry its a bit of a broad question.

All of them, but not always in the same ways and in the same strengths. In Pandemonium, given its geography, it tends to aerosolize (which is unpleasant for creatures that need to breathe), while in other places, like Stygia, it can pool and form vast oceans.

Expanding on the aquatic fiends element, the daemons/yugoloths and the devils both have specific demon types that are affiliated with it (marraenoloths and piscoloths-with the first being Charon-affiliated and the latter being able to swim in it), and the devils have the amnizu. I've always thought of wastriliths, as aquatic demons, as being adaptable to the Styx, although not necessarily immune to it in the general case.

You might want to further examine Planes of Chaos from Planescape, and the Planewalker's Handbook from 3rd ed.