A new Cosmology (PEACH)

[CowardlyPaladin]

I made this thread on the Roleplaying Forum but some people told me I should move it here, so here you go.

I love many things about D&D editions 1-Pathfinder and one of the things I love the most are the planes. Me and some friends are planning to write our Pathfinder own our 5th edition, and in order to do this we are going to be rewriting the Outer Planes, which are possibly one of my favorite aspects of the game because I love the philosophical aspect of creatures and worlds defined by aspects of morality. However, I thought the existing system was a little simplistic. So here is my new system, I'm looking for suggestions in expansions and criticisms. Warning, this is a very complicated system, side effect of gaming with a Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, and Psychology Major . Also one last thing, I am under the assumption that AL is not a personality system, but instead only a morality system. Also I have Unaligned as a category which describes animals, constructs and creatures too inhuman to have alignments.


The journey of the Soul

In my world, when a soul dies, the journey to the afterlife takes 14 days. Most Resurrection magic ceases to work after the 14th day. First they spend three days clinging to the mortal plane, then is the best time to raise the dead (in my game resurrection magic has been split into about 5 more spells). THen the soul has the "10 days of judgment". First they go to see if the soul has done the proper rituals to be reincarnated, which must be done before death. If they haven't, then they go to the City of the Dead on the Fugue Plane (IE Forgotten Realms) to see if they had a patron deity. If they have a patron, then they go to that god's plane, and are judged by their standards. So if Bob and Sally are both worshipers of Hextor, Bob who has been a loyal tyrant all his life will be rewarded in Hextor's realm, while Sally who worshiped him thinking he was a nice god when he wasn't, is punished for being a good persons. THe Souls have the option of forsaking their gods and going to their AL plane instead. The Final Judgement is in the Boneyard (IE from Pathfinder) where which AL plane they go too is chosen. They are judged accordingly and sent there way. The final journey takes about a day.



Petitioners and souls


When a soul arrives at there new realm they become a Petitioner, a sort of copy of themselves in life (think Roy from OOTS). Depending on what plane they go too depends upon how they are treated, however one universal rule is this. All Petitioners eventually become the "Native Outsiders" of the plane. In the Seven Heavens, after the Petitioner reaches the final level of the mountain, they become an Archon of appropriate strength to their character level and moral fiber. In the Nine Hells, the Petitioners are all turned into Lemures, there evolution goes on from there. In the Abyss, the Petitioners are torn apart, with each one making a random number of demons. As a rule, planes taht do the 1 Petitioner=1 Native tend to have more powerful natives, but far less of them. Good planes universally let the natives choose when they wish to "Evolve" at there own time and place, while evil forces the transformation. Neutral Law and Chaos vary.




Unaligned realms


Once upon a time, the 9 alignment planes were determined not by people's souls, but instead by actions, each good or evil action would instead produce energy to power the planes, that energy could be harnessed to create natives, magic items, or great spells. However, in the Great Contract, mortal souls (Which until that point had all gone to the same realm) instead went to the Outer Planes, and new planes were designed to suit those purposes. However the Old 9 Planes still exist, somewhat obsolute but still powerful and fighting their own war. The natives of these planes are far more alien, and care not about saving people's souls, but instead simply about obtaining more actions. Thus a native from the LG/Unaligned realm doesn't actually want people to be LG, it just wants them to do some LG actions on the way. If people are still evil but will do some good actions, its all ok right? These creatures are almost unknowable, and must be treated with caution.



The Battles of Good Evil, Law Chaos and Neutral


People say that the five great forces are balanced. They are wrong. In reality, one of the forces outnumbers all of the rest. Evil is by FAR the strongest and most powerful of the 5 facitons, because most people are evil. The reasons for this is 1) In my game most of my societies are based upon real life societies, where slavery, genocide, rape, murder, and child abuse are normal 2) The vast majority of D&D mortal races are evil, by virtue of having evil gods and evil cultures. The Drow are not a fantasy counterpart culture (at least I hope not) and yet due to their faith, most of them (If not all) are evil. 3) The world of D&D if you accept all of the information and worlds as true, is terrifying. It is full of MASSIVE amounts of monsters, evil spells, and dangers, and thus is a really bad environment for everybody. Nasty enviroment leads to people doing nasty things, I think the webcomic GOBLINS proves this very well. People will do very bad things when they are scared. 4) There are many evil gods who are preaching really nasty doctrines to promote their world view. In addition to active evil gods, you have the evil outsiders, you have monsters like Hags or Raksashas, you have Ghost and evil spirits. The fact is evil just has more inherent creatures to serve it and try to promote its cause 5) being Good is REALLY hard. The BOED sets a really high standard and it is not easy to keep up to it. Evil isn't a doctirne, you don't have to work hard to be evil, its in fact extremly easy to be evil. Remember, a well intended extremise like RedCloack and a psychopath like Xykon are still both evil, one might be a worst person, but they both produce a single soul for their respective afterlives.
That is the default setting for my game. The thing that keeps evil in check is the fact evil is not one big happy family, and will keep constantly fighting themselves more than any body else. And the PCs of course. After evil, the second largest faction is True Neutral, which I think everybody knows why they are popular. Then comes Law and Chaos, who are equally matched, and finally good, who are by far the weakest power, in part because they insist of having there souls take their sweet time before becoming natives.



On the psychology of Outsiders


There are three essential rules one must bear in mind when dealing with the psychology of outsiders
1) They lack free will. Unlike mortal creatures, Outsiders do not have any ability to NOT be LG, CN ect. They can have individual personalities but they are defined entirely by their AL. Mortals are who are defined by their personality with their AL supporting that, Outsiders are exactly the opposite. There are no fallen Archons, there are no risen demons. There has be a single exception to this rule, the forces of the Abyss once created a succubus Paladin by taking the soul of a Paladin and binding it in the essense of chaos, for the sole purpose of screwing with the forces of good, but other than that there has been no exceptions. The Unaligned/AL outsiders can fall or rise, but they operate under their own bizzaro world logic anyways

2) All outsiders have difficulty with empathy. Being creatures of cosmic morality, they have a very hard time understanding why other people don't think they way they do. For example, when demons come to our world, even if they can take human shape, they get caught almost instantly and killed if they don't have local cultists to help them out (or if they have been here before) becuase they sometimes don't understand things like A) why do people get upset when I murder/rape/torture people in public? B) why do people find these things ok sometimes, but not other times? C) Why do you they seem to care about each other and focus upon protecting these "loved ones" D) What are these "rules" people keep going on about? E) Why does this person who wants to commit murder and secretly desire too need me to rephrase it in a nicer way. The Demon is a being of Pure CE, they have a hard time not getting that. Likewise, low level Devas (CG in my world) will often immediately attack slavers and try to end slavery in say the Fantasy Counterpart Roman Empire at the word go, where they will be promptly killed and accomplish nothing. On the other hand however, more powerful demons are more acquainted with mortals, and some of them can interact with and even take advantage of mortal nature. Since they are immortal, those who do come to the mortal plane will eventually learn to be extremely subtle
3) That they are extremely long lived. The great contract was 1 Billion years ago, and some of them are even older than that.Those who get past the hurtle of point 2 are often running extremely long term plans involving changing the entire mortal plane. Of course, the leaders of all of the planes (and pretty much all of the gods as well) are also running equally complicated long term plans, and so they tend to overlap and often ruin each other, its like a Guy Richie film. So the players might encounter a supply of Lawful weapons being smuggled by an evil band of Devil worshipers to go to the blood war and discover that the Archons are responsible because they want to keep the war going. Or that the ruler of "Totally Not A Fantasy Stand In For The Mongolian Empirestan" is being advised by his consort, who is in fact a servant of Limbo, to try to encourage cultural diversity in order to support the cause of chaos. Or the Fantasy Roman Emperor's son's teddy bear is possesed by a Deva who can communicate only in dreams and is trying to subtly talk the Emperor to be to stop slavery.




On Gods and there realms



Deities in terms of homes are roughly divided into categories.

1) The Divine tree: The Divine Tree is a massive planar "tree" of 27 realms for some of the major pantheons. If a god is a member of one of these pantheons, they are welcome to dwell within a these realms provided they are members of the Pantheon and agree to the rules set by the Pantheon Overdeity. They also must share the worship they get with the entire Panthon. For example, Clannigan is a member of the Dwarf Pantheon, but he shares some of the personal worship he gets with the rest of the pantheon.
2) Dwell on another plane. Gods normally have there own domain within the larger scheme of a greater plane, and have absolute control within that domain. However, they are far more likely to be caught up in planar politics and are often required to send forces to defend the locals in case of invasion, so Gods often try to avoid this if they can help it
3) A personal realm, some gods are powerful enough that they can forge there own personal plane, however they almost always leaves them isolated and requires a tremendous amount of personal power
4) The material Plane, only the weakest gods dwell here, as it makes them extremely easy to kill

[CowardlyPaladin]

The Outer PLanes


The 9 Main Planes: These are the 9 Core AL Planes of them all, and thus are by far the most powerful of the Outer PLanes


The Blessed Field of Elysium



Description: The Key part of this realm is peace, and idyllic goodness. This is very much just a realm of happiness and personal freedom, where people come to enjoy life for its own sake. Everything here seems brighter and more colorful and things seem happier and more lively. The idea of this plane is trying to please everybody, and trying to make everybody around you happy. The idea of “you can’t please everybody” doesn’t exist here, its all about trying to improve ones self and make the world a better place for everybody. Here sensations are increased, food tastes better, the sun is nicer, sex is better, and the landscape is totally idealistic. This is the most paradise focused of all of the realms, people here mostly just live with joy, happyness, and love. Many of the most pleasure focused gods live here, along with the Aasimons, while mortals here often are very happy but often cannot bring themselves to leave. Souls here appear as they did when they were happiest, and simply enjoy the love of the realm. When they get tried of the joy, or become more interesting in helping others find love than themselves, they have one final massive party before joining with the love and becoming an Aasimon.

Petitioners: Petitioners appear as they were when they are the most happy, but are able to easily move between form. When they arrive here, they come to a massive feast where everybody at the plane meets at Noon, to welcome the new comers. In a plane where no time passes, it happens once a day because Planescape=Paradox. The souls then simply mingle, the plane is based upon the idea that events are not as much fun as people, and souls are naturally drawn to those who they would be naturally compatible with. Unlike in LG realm, the PEtitioners still feel hungry, because of the attitude that "too much of a good thing will make you unhappy" and so they rarely do a single tasks obsessively.

Levels: The plane is divided into four levels. All of them are based upon the idea of nice place to visit and make your own fun. Amoria is the top level,and is basically defined by Ghebi hills. Small villages of like minded people are located all over the place, the land is extremely temperate and nice. Eronia is a land of extreme weather, and is designed for those who like to challenge themselves and improve their own lot. Nobody ever gets hurt (Unless there is a foreigner involved) however mountain climbers are constantly defeated by the mountains, in order to motivate the soul to try harder. Belierin is based upon the concept of personal contemplation and solitude, the realm is very much like the Scottish Highlands, a misty realm where one can be along with their thoughts. It is however an extremely dangerous realm if you are not a petitioner, as many evil creatures are kept prisoner here, who constantly attempt to escape. Thus, PCs might encounter a disturbing number of evil races running around trying to kill them, either to free their masters, or are the masters themselves. Thalasia is a massive ocean with many islands spread throughout its shores. Each islands here contains some form of knowledge, from libraries, to laboratories and portrait galleries, and the souls here must swim or travel to get to island or another. For mortals this place can be dangerous, as Daemons often emerge in this realm to try to raid the knowledge catches, and PCs can be useful in bringing them down.

The Natives: The Aasimon are the most human looking of all of the Good Outsiders, and appear as "sterotypical" angels, IE extremely human with wings and all that. Unlike most outsiders they remember their experiences as mortals, and the most relatable of outsiders. Aasimon rarely concern themselves with grand goals of fighting evil or wiping out slavery, instead they focus upon trying the help people on a small level. Aasimon will often provide food for poor areas, they try to make the crops grow, they protect people's homes from the terrors of the night, they help victims of abuse, protect villages from war, and protect people from muggings. Many of them disguise themselves as local fortune tellers to serve as pseudo psychologists, trying to help those who have suffered learn to deal with there pain. The vast majority of them try to focus upon education the poor, serving as traveling teachers trying to encourage learning and keep people from becoming evil. Souls become Aasimon when they tire of the joy and wish to instead to spread it around



Does anybody have any suggestions. Guardinals never seemed very NG to me, I had them be something else, I never got how the whole naturalism imagery serves NG. Any advice in making this more interesting for adventurers to travel in? Suggestions in adventuring hooks would be welcome


The 9 Hells



I think this plane has been thoroughly covered more than any other plane, so I don't have to go into more detail. Just know that Dicefreaks hell is not this plane because I think that is different enough to be its own thing, and the plane dedicated 90% of its efforts to fighting the blood wars. The themes of this world is loss of identity, Kafkaesque government, and of a cold uncaring society that doesn't care about you in the least, as well as a total lack of optimisms. I don't define Asmodues as the endless master schemer in my game, instead he is more of a master of the Xanators speed gambit, he is but one player in a massively complex game of planar politics, what he is good at is turning his enemies against each other. Secretly, he has already given up at emerging victorious, as a being of pure LE, he has long since given up on such concepts as hope, optimism, and luck. He has calculated that according to the odds, he will die, either by his own minions, one of the many other great powers in the world (PLanar creatures, Gods, Pridmortials ect) or be killed by a small band of adventures. He knows secretly that his life has already ended, the question is when. However, he is determined that if he must die, he will die as benefits the lord of the Hells, he will ensure that anybody who wishes to topple him from his throne better be ready to fight for it.

Petitioners: All LE souls appear as sort of clay vaugly humanoid shapes (think the school children in Pink Floyd's "The Wall" who are instantly used as a form of energy. They are divided between the 9 dukes according to who has the proper rights, and command over them. They are then put into hellish factories where they are process and turn into ether new Devils, magic items, or magic as the Dukes requires. None of them remember there former life

Natives: The Devils are the natives, hyper lawful and lovers of corruption. There main focus in the world is to make Faustian bargins, and try to corrupt mortality into following their path of evil and deceit.
Other than that, it is pretty much the same as in the guide to hell book.




Adaddon, The Realm of Neutral Evil
I'm not cutting Gehenna or Yugloths, but i love the Daemons for NE and the pathfinder take of them a great deal. I am posting all of the information I can without going into copyright territory, or is my own information.

This is the realm of the Daemons, who are not interested in war so much as the total destruction of all existence, in a Kefka nihilistic destruction. They are kinda bad people. Those who come here are those who are those who commit evil due to a disbelief in morality or thinking it doesn’t apply to them. Possible the most openly hostile realm on the Outer Planes, Abaddon is a cold realm, with cloying black mist covering much of the terrain while the sky provides only enough illumination to reveal the surrounding lands in darkened silhouette and the poisoned surface of the River Styx. The memory-devouring river originates in Adabbon and meanders its way across the plane and to the realms beyond like a twisted serpent, but it and other environmental hazards teh the least of any traveler’s concerns. The Daemons, Adabbon’s native fiends, embody not the tyranny of devils nor the savage destruction of demons, nor anything in the middle. Instead, they personify the very concept of death, ruin, loss, and oblivion. Feared across the multiverse as soul-devouring horrors, the daemons are ruled by a quartet of godlike archdaemons known as the Four Horsemen. They view the mortal realm as nothing more than a waiting feast, and themselves as the universe’s chosen tools of a coming apocalypse. The Entire realm is in darkness, no matter hoe much light is used, and in fact, light, magic, and reading are constantly being drained while people stay on the realm. The torment of this realm is the fear of the unknown and the oblivion of existence, souls chosen to go here remain in the darkness trying desperately to find something, anything other than the native Daemons, until they finally resign themselves to their fate as the darkness closes in, until they finally join the chorus of damned souls, screaming for something, anything, before they are forcibly made into a Daemon.

There are four levels here, each embodying a different conception of the "aftermath" of ruin, there are no wars here just an empty battlefiedl The first level is the Throne of Flies, under the rule of Apollyon, Horseman of Pestilence, and it streches out to the surface area of several planets, though the vast majority of the archfiend’s domain is a thinly populated, plague-ridden morass of swamps and flooded forest, the largest of which is known as the Plaguemere. Scattered through Apollyon’s domain, ruined cities and citadels rise out of the muck like boils or scabs cresting above raw flesh, many of them built upon the sunken remaints of their predecessors. Everything here is rotting, rot is everything, and unprotected mortals will themselves start to rot, feeling the graveworms take up resisdence in their flesh


The Second Level is that of the Cinder Furnace, the realm of Szuriel, the Horsemen of War. This is the largest layer, a desolate region of dead volcanoes, lifeless baslat plains, fields of razor-sharp obsidian and the fortress citadels of her ever-marching armies. The key to this realm is not actually battle, but instead the aftermath of battle, as one of the key places of the Blood War (It was here the conflict started), the realm is full of half rotten corpses, broken buildings, ruined weapons and lost stragglers. The few mortals who dwell here are mostly scavengers, trying to pick up the leftovers of the wars in order to better themselves. However they have to be careful, for the very air here is a threat, for exposure to the air for more than a hour can cause interal bleeding, resulting in the victims literally drowning in their own body fluids. The entirep lane is nothing more than the remains of a great war, blood soaking into the ground, corpses being picked over, and great machines of war in ruin.

The Third level is the Weeping Tower, home of Trelmarixian, the Horseman of Famine. This is a realm of bizzare organic construction, dotted by lakes and rivers of chemical and bodily fluids. Obsessed with experimentation upon mortal souls, Outsiders, Elementals, and Trelmarixian fills his realm with the resuilts of those trials, buth successful miscegenations and the grotesques failures alike. The Daemons here have an almost ritualistic view towards souls, taking them apart, putting them back together, and finally devouring them for their own personal amusement. Those who dwell here slowly loose feeling in themselves, until they are simply purely numb, almost like from painkillers. The mortals who live here are mostly Wizards hoping to gain the results of the experiments without becoming one themselves. I.....need more ideas with this one

The Final Level the Drowning Court belongs to Charon, lord of death, and this is simply a misty recluse of small “islands” connected by bridges made out of lost dreams and flesh. With the exception of Charon himself (and the occasional scream) this entire realm is silent, human voices cannot make noise and all sound effects are very muted, sometimes going away completely. The River of Styx flows everywhere here, with boats of souls being constantly moved up and down the river. The source of the River is in this realm, where Charon himself lives. The Whirlpool which is the source of the river is the source of all of the lost memories of the River, and those who dwell in this realm too long will slowly lose their memories as well.


Petitioners: Those who arrive here come as ghostly version of themselves, and retain all class and racial levels just with the ghost template. However, they don't last long as the local Daemons hunt them across the level, in order to consume there essence

Daemons: Basically the pathfinder daemons, horrifying creatures of Nether and loss, they resemble more light concepts than actual creatures. They hope to destroy everything in the world, including themselves, but
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before that they wish to encourage evil to grow. Evil is self destructive after all, and if all the world is evil, then the world will will take that much less effort to burn.



The Abyss
is there really anything more to say, its the abyss?


The Maelstrom, pure CN

I never thought giant frog screamed "chaotic neutral" to me, so much as it screamed "random". I like the pathfinder version, much better, but since i'm Lawfuli to the extreme, can somebody find a way to make it more....i don't know, fun? Because random stuff happens doesn't seem very fun to me, maybe something a bit more Blake like?


The realm: This is true chaos, in that it is totally and utterly random and lacking any cohesive form. Their is no rule other than your own understanding of randomness. While limbo is the more typical version of chaos, IE ever changing, this world is even more chaotic than that, because ever changing is a constant in itself. This realm is the realm of individualism, personal fulfillment, you find your own world. This is the plane of unformed and ever-changing potential a plane of chaos that surrounds the other planes like a vast, unplumbed ocean, a swirling sea lapping at tiny islands of stability. The Maelstrom is also perhaps the only plane that can truly be called infinite. while others may encompass massive, virtually unimaginable space, or bend the constraints of geometry and encompass a limited but unbound region, the Maelstrom is beautiful, deadly, and without end, it is an infinate plane large enough to surround and contain multiple infinite planes. Beyond the Unstable and fantastical (But ultimately ration and familiar, remember chaos isn’t irrational) borderlands, the Maelstrom’s depths grow more and more detached from the familiar tropes of reality as most mortals and immortals understand it. As the borderland shallows gradually transition into deeper realms, the environment grows prone to greater and more whimsical changes, and the distant sky takes on a blue sheen until ultimately the region called the Deep Maelstrom reveals itself as a formless cerulean void. Walking transitions to something between flying and swimming, with the air possessing an almost liquid viscosity. As the physical manifestations of creative and destructive potential, the Maelstrom continually generates new and bizarre forms of life. the vast majority of such creatures live transient, mayfly existences before the Cerulean void subsumes them once again, but in a land manifest its own inconsistency, their exist some paradoxical constants. the Maelstrom’s borderlands, adjacent to other, more stable planes, harbor their own bizarre ecologies fill with creatures native to those neighboring planes and their chaos-touched descendants. Additionally, the maelstrom’s shallow harbor transient groups of celestrials, fiends, and even axiomite and inevitable armies crusading against the chaos. The Cerulean Void harbors such beings as chaos beasts and the plane’s most populous (and perhaps original) natives, the serpentine proteans. Enigmatic creatures of chaos, three protean races are creatures of creation and destruction in equal measure. The bestial naunet proteans emerge from the borderlands like a living, seething tide, seeking to break down the infection of more stable realities. The Imentesh proteans seek the same, but through subtlety and persausion, like wandering prophets of chaos infecting minds, philosophies, and even religions. Everything changes, their are no absolutes. This isn’t the realm of randomness as Limbo is, this is the realm of reality. scholars describe the proteans as living embodiments of the Maelstrom, crafting the chaos like artists before tearing it down again in a natural cycle of instability. Others say the creatures behave not unlike the Maelstrom’s immune system, viewing the chaos like a living thing seeking to reabsorb the reality that it spawned or which was carved out of it and stolen by the gods and other powers- and the proteans indeed view their plane as a living thing, worshiping it as a dualistic king. This is just pure chaos in its own form. Have fun.

Petitioners: Um....any ideas? Anybody? Please


Natives: The Proteans are horrifying snake/reptile...things. They are like dragon snakes combined with cell organisms, ever changing, even internally. Their ultimate goal is to destroy the whole structure of the planes, bring an end to the carefully maintained balance between the 5 forces, instead let there be freedom, let the planes merge into a single clamorous whole, a realm of possibilities, or change, and of unstructured emotions unrefined by the foolish mortal "rules" and liminitations upon emotions. They also are teh enemy of reason, down with logic, down with formalism, and lets emotions rise




The Outlands


I thought the RIlmani were never the good "Core N race" I love the Aeons from Pathfinder for that purpose.

The World This is the neutral ground between the planes, where magic doesn’t work and people are leveled fairly equally. Its basically exactly the same as in Planescape I see no reason to change it, unless people have really cool suggestions.




Natives: The Aeons focus upon trying to maintain the balance. At first glance this makes them seem almost like the Rilmani, but while the Rilmani are militaristically trying to keep all of the planes politics in line, the Aeons instead focus upon maintaining the working of the world itself, and are less concerned with the specific details of birth and death. Thus their balance s that of a cosmic nature, not that of a political one, through in the Cosmic Planes they are often the same thing. The Aeons try to ensure three basic goals 1) The protection of Free Will 2) that the Elaborate system of Planes remain intact 3) Magic continues to function properly. They look really cosmic and magical https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C...K5Sl4AO74oDwCQ icnore the cthulu picture of course.

Petitioners: They appear as they did in life, and everybody here simple does the activities that they enjoyed the most. Neutrality is based upon contentment, and so everybody here simply lives life much like they did in real life, just without major disasters happening (unless a fiend gets involved of course) . Normally they travel from gate town to gate town interacting with people and seeing how everybody is before moving on. It is almost impossible to harm an Outlands Petitioner, they have the strongest magical protection of any PEtitioner and can normally overcome anything you have to throw at them.


The 7 Heavens

I think everybody already knows this one already.

[CowardlyPaladin]

The Connecting PLanes.
In addition to the core and mixed realms, there are the any realms, these are the worlds that connect the various planes together. There are five such planes, and the natives of these planes can be any of one alignment, for example Angles can be any good. They are mostly used for communication and transport between the various realms

Limbo Any Chaos


This is the realm of randomness and insanity. This at first glance seems like a total realm of chaos. However it is in reality a realm of ego, the world around you reacts to your own mind and thus can be manipulated and used by visitors/natives. It is about how banal pure chaos really is, because it’s the appearance of chaos, not true chaos. The way this realm works is almost like surrealism, from a distance its just an everchanging chaos soup, a morass of randomness and pure chaos, however when you get up close, it alters in response to people’s mood. To use the worst possible metaphor possible, this is like the hell of Jack Sparrow in the Third movie (though seeing that movie is itself a hell). Its sort of like your subconscious come to life. The God’s realms are little islands of stability in this realm, as are the realms of the Sladdi and the Gith. People who come here are able to form the realm around them with their mind, though this can easily backfire. Souls here are always in their own subconcious, until they lose control and are consumed by the chaos, randomly changing until they become a giant frog…..you see it from there. Basically the world was like “RANDOMNESS” and the first thing that came up was…giant frog. Anybody know any way to make Limbo more interesting it would be much appreciated.


The Halls of Order (Any Law, Formian)


At first glance this seems to be a realm of chaos, everything here is changing in constant flux, remaking itself in order to become a new form. All non magical objects that come here are instantly remade. However in reality, this is the realm of fundamental laws, not mortal ideas, but critical never changing laws such as patterns or complexity. Every object or creature is being refined and resolved, moving towards a higher order of perfection. While it looks like pure chaos, in reality the entire world is becoming like a snowflake, a massively powerful perfect pattern that looks like something mundane. Planning and improvement are the ideas of this realm, and its like evolution taking off on a course that is more wild than any before it. There are six layers of this plane, each on more confusing and terrifying than the last. The machine realm, the model city, the great library, the circle of judgement, the Dominon of order, and the Eutaxy. The realm actively tries to remake the people who come here into more “perfect” version of its ideals, often resulting in horrific trauma and feelings of sadness.
The Halls of Order are divided into six Halls, the six layers of the plane. A character can travel between these layers using spells – all six layers are coexistent with each other, and numerous portals exist between them. Furthermore, at the ‘edges’ of the plane are many little ledges. The six Halls are located on the faces of a rotating cube, but the ledges are outside the cube. A character can walk to the edge of the plane along one Hall, wait for the cube to rotate, then walk back the way he came onto a different face.
The Machine Realm
The lowest level of the Halls of Order is a vast engine; furnace-hot and oil-dark, the air choked with chemical fumes and the smoke of a billion forges. Dwarves and azer scurry through dim access-ways and along slowly rotating cogs and gears, overseeing the workings of the Great Machine. In one part of this device, inevitables are forged by other machines, metal and crystal folding in accordance with inevitable law. In another region, mighty clockworks tick on, regulating the forward flow of time across the cosmos.
The Machine Realm is not yet conscious. The great intellect of Law that exists on the upper layers has not yet downstepped itself into unliving metal and stone. One day, the Machine will have rebuilt and refined itself sufficiently to become self-aware, vastly increasing the ability of Law to bring Order to all that exists. At the heart of the Machine Realm is the seat of this nascent intellect, a machine-mind guarded by hosts of inevitables. If a single whisper were to be spoken inside this great sealed chamber, or even a stray thought were to disturb the mind as it grows, it could conceivably drive the Great Machine insane even as it slowly becomes aware. Many have tried to subvert the unborn machine-mind – their corpses litter the metal corridors outside the sealed chamber.
The Model City
The second layer of the Halls of Order is the Model City, a plane-spanning metropolis where Law is paramount. The citizens thread their way between massive edifices of stone. A tunnel system filled with mechanical worms carries the common folk to their assigned duties, all watched over by a billion sleepless eyes of crystal. Law is enforced by agents of order; some are constructed inevitables, others are mortal beings so strongly aligned to order that their actions are utterly dominated and circumscribed by Law.
The Model City is an experiment; how can the various races and civilisations of the multiverse be brought under the beneficial rule of Law? Therefore, towering tri-legged gate-machines are dispatched to dredge whole villages or city-quarters from other planes into the Model City, where the reactions of the new additions can be observed and the universal law adjusted to bring the greatest degree oforder to the masses.
The sheer size of the Model City is mind-boggling, and it is much more peaceful than other cities a tenth its size. Jealous scions of chaos sometimes launch sudden raids or spawn criminal syndicates within the Model City, but the agents of Law are ever-vigilant.
The Library of All-That-Is
The third layer of the Halls of Order is referred to as the library. Almost every book ever written is here, transcribed by diligent clerks who scry over the reader’s shoulder. Any creative act increases order, so books are sacred here. The Halls of Order are haunted by thousands of sagely ghosts, the souls of wizards and philosophers who linger here to study. The librarians are spider-things, indistinct clouds of silence, shadow, eyes, legs and quills; they do not take kindly to borrowers.
Finding anything in the library is exceedingly difficult; almost all the books are physically identical, and most have been translated into a curious language used only in the library. Learning this script of order is difficult; the language was designed to process and order concepts and lore from thousands of different races, so it is most complex and encompassing.
The Language of Law
This script is used only in the Library of All- That-Is. Only a character with Intelligence 16 or more can learn it; furthermore, it takes three ‘language slots’ – a character must allocate three bonus languages or spend three skill points to learn the language. It can only be written; it cannot be spoken aloud. Chaotic
creatures cannot learn this language.
Circle of Judgement
Souls are formed in Tarassein and pass through life, either following a neutral path through the Vault of Stars or else making a moral choice and coming under the auspices of the Firmament or the Infernum. No matter how the soul behaved in life, however, it shall end up here, in the Circle of Judgement. The Grey Judges review each soul in turn, determining exactly what proportions of good and evil, law and chaos hold sway over it. Particularly exalted or potent souls attract the attention of advocates, powerful outsiders from one plane or another. A paladin’s soul might be defended by a guardian angel; a demonologist might be claimed by a dozen fiends, each of whom have the necessary paperwork to demand ownership.
The Circle of Judgement itself only takes up a fraction of this layer. Nine great gates, each corresponding to a particular death, bring in the souls, who then wait in endless queues until the Circle is ready to judge them. The gates are accounted as follows: Death by War, by Sickness, by Famine, by Spell, by Beast, by Murder, by Suicide, by Age and by Fate.
Souls judged evil are hurled into Chasm; those worthy of rest are carried on silver barges to the Afterworld. The brightest souls are carried into the Firmament, while those souls too chaotic and free to accept rest are usually sent back to Chaos to be reincarnated once more.
A potent soul (Character level 10+) may request a trial by the Grey Judges instead of judgement in certain cases. Inevitables are dispatched to the Dream Plane to retrieve suitable witnesses and jurors.
The Grey Judges
These entities are lesser Lords of Order; their power stems mainly from their grey robes of office, which empower them to judge the fate of souls. These minor artefacts empower the wearer to act as a talisman of pure good or talisman of ultimate evil once per day. Furthermore, the wearer’s judgements hold; a damned soul can be removed from the Infernum and sent to the Afterworld if the wearer so decrees.
The Grey Judges are all Lawful creatures with similar statistics to Titans. They have little patience for the living, and tend to issue summary judgement against those they find to be interfering with the judicial process.
Dominions of Order
These are the holdings of the greater Lords of Order. These entities are not gods per se; they are the expression of the natural forces of order. Their domains are primarily abstract; the only solid terrain are growths of crystal, while all around fly equations and the manifestations of process. The Lords of Order sometimes manifest in this midst of this incomprehensible order. They resemble whatever they hold authority over, so the Lord of Building looks like an animated castle, speaking through his drawbridge-mouth and peering through arrow-slit eyes. The Lady of Intellect is a cold being of blue crystal and lightning-quick thought. The Lord of Constellations is a shape made of dots and lines that form fate-governing patterns as he moves.
The Lords of Order are exceedingly potent on this layer – it has the Divinely Morphic trait, and they are divine here. It is here that the forces of Order are marshalled and dispatched against the spawn of Chaos and where that great minds reach out over the cosmos to draw it back from the pit of barbarism and madness.
Eutaxy
The layer of Eutaxy is the highest manifestation of Order. No being has ever passed into this face of the cube and returned. It is a field of constantly moving light, a single thought constantly expanding. Eutaxy attempts to replicate itself; the other five layers are merely echoes or approximations of Eutaxy in different respects (the Machine Realm in base matter; the Model City in civilisations; the Library in individual minds; the Circle of Judgement on a universal scale, and the Dominions mediate the flow of Order from Eutaxy to the other four aspects).
Eutaxy has the Law/Chaos trait of –10 (Uttermost Law).
From here http://www.purpleduckgames.com/cpbop20



The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna, Any Evil (Yugoloths)

The Idea of this place is the theme of desperation. This wasteland has been ravaged, ruined, totally destroyed by the incursions of other races, which has left the plane with the feeling of life being only one misstep away. The Yugoloths are mercenaries, fighting on every lower plane and many of the middle ones, not to mention fighting each other. Gehenna is also used as a secondary battleground for the various lower plane clashes, most notably he Blood War, but other wars as well such as the Yugoloth civil wars, the war between the Yugoloths and the Demodands, the War between the Yugoloths and the Gehreleths, the war between the Yugoloths and the Daemons, the war between the Fiends and the Yugoloths, the war between the Demodands and the Gehreleths, the war between the forces of Good and the Fiends, the war between the Yugoloths and the Fiends, the war between the gods, the war between the Fallen and the Spawn, the War between the Spawn and everybody else, the war of the Devils/Demons/Yugoloths vs. Daemons, the war between the Daemons and the Fiends, and finally the war between the Devils/Demons/Fiends/Daemons/Yugoloths, not to mention the internal struggles of non outsider natives like Night Hags and Rakshasas. The world here is in a constant state of chaos and despair, much like Rome or Africa during their civil wars. However the essential core of this plane is hypocrisy. The locals claim that this builds character and is encouraging to the good of everybody, but in fact its nothing more than just a terrible experience for everybody involved. This is a realm of gangs and warlords, and petty crimes. It is ruled by the Yugoloths, self serving Evil Mercenaries, always looking out for their own interest. According to legend, it was they who sparked the Blood War, and it is they who keep it going in order to further their own goals. They fight among themselves constantly, and are always hiring themselves out to various factions. So while they rule Gehenna, many of them can be found in the Grey Wastes, Hades, or Tartarous, where they set up colonies of self serving mercenaries. Large armies can be found in the Nine Hells, The Abyss, Perdition, and The Blood Rift, and some of them even find their way into The Pit. The theme of desperation is enforced not only by the constant wars, but also by the realm itself, 4 massive volcanoes on a huge slop full of razor sharp rocks. There are some small “safe spots” which are little more than gambling dens, or mercenary camps, or refugee realms. The best casinos in the world are here with every game of chance imaginable, however do not get into debt here, as the Yugloths are not kind to those who don’t pay. Black markets exist all through out the realm, where creatures from all over the multiverse come to try to make a profit, buy what cannot be bought, or hide from prying eyes. Its everyman for themself and this is the realm for those who turned evil due to desperation. They appear as they did in life, but only level one (soul template aside) and have to struggle to simply live in this harsh landscape. The Yugoloth are mercenaries, constantly infighting, They are thoroughly evil and hope to maintain the conflict between the many forces of evil, through they in particular hate the Daemons with a massive passion, and refuse to work with them. There are skeroloth, Canoloth, mezzoloth, dergholoth, piscoloth, hydroloth, gacholoth, yagnaloth, marraenoloth, altraloth, battleloth, corruptors of fate, echinoloths, guardian Yugoloths, Voors, Nycaloth, arcanoloth, Ultroloth, and finally the dreaded baernaloths, who rule mysteriously over the race.


The Concordant Opposition, Any Neutral (The Rilmani/Agents of Balance)

The Rilmani used to rule The Outlands, however in the Great Reordering it was realized that they were far too militant to serve as proper guardians of Neutrality, as they were far too willing to indulge in acts of both Goodness and Evil in order to further their ends. Thus this plane was born, out of the very opposition of the various Outer Planes, and from this came The Concordant Opposition. The Rilmani, while at first annoyed at their loss of power, have realized that this realm services their purpose far more than The Outlands, as they are less restricted by their own dedication to neutrality. Despite the fact that literally nobody likes them, they are still a force to be reckoned with because of their ability to harness the powers of a full five alignments, which makes up for their comparative lack of numbers or allies. The Rilmani basically want to prevent any faction from gaining too much control or power, through they focus mostly upon limited Good and Evil, much to the annoyance of both. They are too much of a pain for either faction to take the time to destroy them however, despite their comparative little strength. Their goal basically is to prevent any faction to gain too much strength, this isn’t just outsiders, it includes elementals, Gods, Titans and even mortals. Obviously, they have a lot to work with, but their wide diversity, and the fact that nobody pays much attention to them allows them to maintain this complicated system. The Types of Rilmani are the Plumach (Lead), Ferrumach (Iron), Cuprilach (copper) Argenach (silver), Abiorach (Mercury), Aurumach (Gold), Stanach (Tin) and the Fulcrum


The Radiant Throne (Any Good, Angels)

Ruled over by the Nine Arch Angels. The first Layer is nothing but stars, almost like wandering through space. The angel guardians dwell here, and the floating nature of this plane makes attackers easy prey for natives. Despite this, it is by far the most dangerous realm, as millions of fiendish outsiders dwell here trying to consume and attack the angels, or any traveler who comes through here. The Second realm is a mass of floating celestial spheres, planets and breathtaking imagery. It is directly below the First realm, and is debris. made up of floating debris. If you aren’t on the debris, you are steadly moved towards the Third heaven, which is below this realm. The debris are also guarded by angels, but also many fiendish creatures make there homes here, hoping to use the floating chunks of land as a staging point for war. The Third heaven is a massive garden full of paths, where the good souls travel, while the forests are where the angels prepare for raiding the forces of evil. Of course, many evil races hide in the forest trying make there way to fight the angels. The 4th Heaven is known as the Gilded City, and is a massive city in the center of the garden, and is a main trading hub between the various good realms, and it is here that people can go visit family and friends from other good realms. The Fifth is a massive Forest, which is used by visiting Good forces to travel and relax if they want to enjoy themselves and spend time with friends of different AL. The Sixth Heaven is a massive Palace, which serves as the headquarters of many good organizations, constantly trying to prepare various good forces in there war against evil. Good adventurers are common here, with a great deal of resources and quests to be found here. The Seventh Heaven is a massive Ocean, and it is here that souls go for Baptism when they wish to become Angels. It also serves as a dividing line between where mortals are expected to be allowed to go and where only souls and angels can go. The 8th is a massive fields where the Forces of Good train and house there armies, with many palaces of good deities being here. Finally there is the 9th Heaven, located in the clouds, where the research facilities of Good dwell and are maintained.

[CowardlyPaladin]

The mixed realms

Ok, now that i've done the core planes, time to do the fun part, the mixed planes, which is always my favorite part.


Avalon, NG/LG




The Triple themes to this world are redemption, personal projects, and ideal living, ergo the overall theme is the feeling of personal love and respect. Basically the theme of this realm is contentment, being happy with yourself and your ideals. People who had always wanted to engage in (Good) pet projects, such as science or reading or enjoying nature. There is no age, misery or sickness in this realm (unless others bring it here) and people are happy doing what they want. The native Planetar are more concerned with working with the souls at the various good actions instead of trying to have them contemplate their nature, and try to protect the souls rather than kill evil. Of all the Upper planes however, Avalon is the most well protected, as its unique feature is that evil beings who enter this realm are overwhelmed by the power of good to the point where they either must flee or actually turn good. Evil Mortals are confronted with their past sins, and while they aren’t forced to repent, the plane makes a very good argument (In fact many of the most evil mortals in the world have redeemed themselves here and hide from the world on this plane). Purely Evil Creatures have an even “worst” fate, confronted with the sheer overwhelming goodness of this plane, they for the first time in their lives (normally) are confronted with the pain of evil, and often are remade as Plantars, actually many of the native Plantars are in fact invaders who stayed too long. If any evil realm wanted to destroy Avalon, they would have to send an elite strike team with power magic that could slow (but not stop) the plane’s influence, and destroy all of the Plantars in a single quick attack, but as that is almost impossible, they settle for raids. Devils and Fallen Angels fear this realm the most, for they know full well the sins that they will be confronted with, most already miserable with their pain. The only two evil outsiders immune to this influence are Demodands, who instead are simply destroyed by the unbridled optimism of the realms, and Daemons, who are in so much pain already by existence that the plane simply enrages them (through this can make them a bit easier to fight). This nature defense makes up for the comparable small number of Planetars (as most souls who go to Avalon choose to remain in mortal shells rather than ascend) and their relative lack of power compared to the greater outer plane races. As of such, many angels and Archons will hide powerful magics in Avalon knowing that the other races won’t interfere. Souls here are like themselves in life, but are allowed as much time as they want to indulge in their own personal past times. If at any point they want to focus on helping other people with their pet projects instead, they will ascend and become Planetars. Unless the Blessed Islands, these souls do not gain in levels, they just enjoy themselves. The Planetars themselves focus most of their energy upon aiding other planes in fighting evil, as their own realms natural defenses mean that they need only a few armies to defend it from attack. The philosophy here is that of Social Morality: The Justice of Unity. Good is the accomplishment of society. This means that the individual only matters insomuch what they can contribute to the overall goodness of the world.

The Natives: PLanetars appear like vaugley humanoid beings with extremely inhuman traits, likes whoels where there faces should be, eyes in the wrong place, and stuff like that.

Nirvanna NG/CG


Nirvanna follows the philosophy of the Flagellant’s morality, the Good in Essentials. The idea that Good is appreciating life, suffering and the denial of what are normally considered rights actually serve the cause you to appreciate things like air and the absence for pain. Empathy for others is important because its lets you appreciate what they have. Taking something away from someone is Good because they can better appreciating something like it. The Azata focus most of their energy upon testing and trying to improve mortals into something greater and more powerful. At first glance this realm doesn’t seem good at all, as it is all about mediation, however in reality it is about harnessing yourself into your greater good. The people here appear as they did during the worst moment of their life, however they slowly perfect themselves until they become an Azata and guide others. As the plane of benevolence untouched by either law or chaos, the paradise of Nirvana exists as a balance between the extremes. Curisously though its natives pursue a more interventionists and active role across the planes than their ideological neighbors while its blessed souls seek to acheive a personal enlightenment free of care and worry. Contrary to the opinion of some, Nirvana is not a plane of the elect, the enlightened, and the virtuous to the exclusion of all others; it is a place of respite, a sanctuary for the weary soul, and a place of redemption for any who would willingly seek it out-even the damned. Pastorals wilds of Nirvana support a myriad of native including petitioners, all manner of celestrial wildlife, mortals, gods, agathions, and angels. while the plane’s agathion celestrials frequently visit their favorite places in the mortal world, the plane itself- or some other force, seems to ensure that Nirvanas once mortal souls let go of their worldly shackles, perhaps worrying that their rest or enlightenment might be hindered by mortal influence. As for the petitioners, most spirits of the mortal dead that arrive on the plane do so with something of a clean slate. While on other planes the dead may retain their mortal memories in various states of completion and gods have full control over the memories various states of completion and gods have full control over their memories, either all at once, or slowly discarding their burden memory by memory. Free of the shackles of mortal concerns and worries they pursue a sheltered, idealistic afterlife, growing ever more attuned to their plane and its spiritual ideals before they vanish, ascending to a higher state of existence hidden deep with Nirvana’s core, or achieving a divine unity with the plane itself, after becoming a native of course.
Natives: The Azata physically resemble creatures out of Buhhidist scripture (or Tibetan pre Buddhist work), strange bizzare creatures with many faces. They constantly are trying to test and encourage mortals, though they sometimes have trouble understanding limitations in doing that, and can often accidently hurt the mortals they are just trying to "improve"




The Beastlands NG/N
I never really got how this plane worked in its Original context, and so i have this as the N plane. BTW, every single plane touches the Outland in some way, so every plane has some cross over with N.



This is sort of idealized nature, where the Guardinals live a life of blessed harmony, everybody enjoying their own personal place in the greater circle of life. The Guardinals are all animal like and try to help people come to harmony with the world around them. The Power of Friendship is very real here, and the bond between friends can make them accede to literal super human levels. Those who work together and find comradely with each other are able to do amazing things. On the other hand however, they are very much into the idea of “the Greater Good” and are fanatically interested in self sacrifice in order to help the group. . They follow the philosophy of Jungle Morality, the Contentment of Survival, The idea that Good is instinctual, that man is born good, its just that society corrupts them, good is part of the natural order and inherently part of our being. Everybody here appears as children, and grow up in the Beastlands, before “dying” and becoming Guardinals


Any advice on how to make it less.....well boring would be much appreciated.



The Blessed Isles, CG/N

This is where the Eladrin dwell, i've always liked them but not as the core CG race.


his is the realm of Happy endings, adventure and emotional jubilation. Basically this is the realm for HEROES (HELL YEAH). Darkness isn’t really counter to eladrinic nature. All emotions are part of the Blessed – love and hate, joy and grief, pride and guilt, boldness and terror, gallantry and cowardice. The Blessed Isles can be as nasty as the Abyss or as serene as Elysium; the difference is that in The Blessed, all emotions and passions, even the most uunpleasant ones, are necessary parts of a benevolent whole. Eladrins might fall by losing sight of that whole, wallowing in one emotion – any emotion, not just the “bad” ones – to the exclusion of others. The Blessed Isles is a plane of stories. Epics, in fact. Eladrins are guardians of those stories; they exist to make sure they are seen through to the end, and their code of subtlety is to make sure that they can interfere with mortal stories without ruining them. That’s why they meet others in disguise; an old wise man or fair lady may make sense in an epic, while a celestial may not. They feed on epics, on extreme experiences; these become part of them, knitting into their bones. Overall, this means that punishments, monsters, curses, midnight hags and dangerous minataurs all roam the good plane. It isn’t a safe place, any more than Aslan is a tame lion. The only rule is that if you yourself are good and true, you’ll get your chance to win out, and if you are wicked you’ll be appropriately punished in a redeeming and ironic manner. In play, this means heroes ahve good, clean monsters to fight, great tragedies to overcome, but they always end like Sinbad, the Sailor- atfer all the boatwrecks, they end up rich, married, successful, all that. This gives players their dream adventures in many ways, without compromising the general idea of the Eladrins.
Tying this in within the context of the above post, the plane as a collective ensures that nothing is ultimately destructive, nothing ultimately annihilated- everything comes full circle to where it is supposed to be without any overarching or enforcing legalistic moores. The souls here are actually more powerful than they where in life, but cannot leave the plane, but this does effectively mean that evil almost never raids the blessed Islands. This world follows the Aethetic Morality, the beauty of Art. The idea here is that good is beautiful. Making things beautiful makes you good. Only through goodness and morality can you create the greatest works of art and powerful inspirations to everybody. Nobody can deny the fact that the greatest works of art and beauty are those made by people who believe in what they truly love, thus this is the realm of perfect art and the greatest adventure. The Eladrin focus their energies upon people enjoying themselves and try to make people enjoy themselves. The Realm has 4 levels, Olympus, Ossa, Pelion which I haven't fleshed out, and the Court of the Stars, where their leaders dwells, which is more like a floating demi plane that moves between the three levels.
Natives: The Eladrin at first glance appear like extremely elaongated out of proportioned elves, but a closer glance reveals that this body is really nothing more than a shell. Underneath the flesh multi colored light shines through, and in there true form they are just a pure orb of light. Many of them are decked out with other qualities, like butterfly wings and unicorn horns. Most importantly, Eladrin don't need to be summoned into the Material plane, they can enter the material plane whenver they wish and work for the cause of good provided that nobody realizes taht they are Eladrin, once somebody discovers their identity they are instantly banished back home. The Eladrin serve as the scouts, sabatours and secret agents for the couse of good and can often be founding spying upon the forces of evil.


The Heroic Domain of Asgard CN/CG
I wanted to expand this place past simply endless battle.


Despite its realm, this is not the realm of eternal battle, but rather the realm of eternal passion/recreation. The battlefields are most noticeable, but all across the plane, people are indulging in their personal passions without regard for the world around them. It’s the realm of artists and warriors, poets and sports, these are more than mere games, these are true everlasting passions that define one’s life. The souls here appear as they imagined themselves to be in life, rather than how they actually looked, and while they are always the same level, they can change their class and design every day so they can experiment with other sensations. This realm use to simply be covered by Divine Servants, but eventually the final Fall came about, when a group of Archons gave up on law and decided to try to fight evil independently. They did not fall unto evil however, and were too focused to join the CG courts, so instead they took up residence in Asgard, where they work diligently to fight evil on their own terms, now called the Asuras. They are reluctantly accepted by the rest of the Forces of Good, through it is with a great deal of reluctance. Despite the fact that they occupy two separate alignments, the vast majority of Asuras are CG, with only a small minority slipping into CN, often for violating their good ideals in order to kill evil. Even these CN beings fight evil and are determined to take no part in allying with evil, they just use less nice methods. The Asuras are the most accepting of the good outsiders, through they are only barely tolerated by the other forces of Good, they tend to work with neutral forces and mortals more than any other. They also hate the Rilmani for constant interference, and actively try to dispose of neutral forces that wish to maintain the balance, as they are only interfering with the cause of goodness. They follow the Famous Morality, the Virtue of Glory, the diea is about people knowing and approving your actions, its about setting a positive example. The More people who want to act like you, the more good you are. Doing thigns that makes people happy is good because they will remember and emulate you for it. Asuras focus upon trying to destroy evil in that most public and in your face manner, hoping that people will follow their glorious example.
The Three Realms here are Gladsheim, Muselheim and NIdavallir. Gladsheim is a floating continent that everybody can see above, and is the realm of artist, singers, poets, and romantics. Muspelheim is the mountains and plains, and here dwell the storytellers, heros, partiers and dancers. Nidavellir is the ground and underground level, and here warriors and hero fight for glory and honor.


Asuras: They resemble creatures of Indian mythos, and are extremely bombastic. They also have done a great job of isolation themselves from every other good faction for their constant belligerence and cowboy cop attitude.

Any luck with fleshing this one out more, I never really "got" it

The way I always imagined Petitioners is that they are basically enjoying paradise in the traditinoal sense of the world, and when they get tried of it they give up there own personalities. Some people take a really long time before they choose to give themselves up, while some wait for a far longer time because they want to preserve their own personalities. It varies from person to person. Except in most of the evil planes, where people tend to wipe their personalities right away because there is little regard for mortal dignity in the world of evil.

Edit

Eldan what do you think about my changes/New planes? LIke this one

Taterus CE/N



Terrain: This is a massive plain full of suffering and pain. Resembling massive plain that is a patchwork of environments and pain, the entire realm is a torture cell for the damned. Since it is so diverse, here are a few attractions.

The Fortress of Wet Bone: This flying fortress gives a too late warning to those who travel here of what is going to happen to them. It is made entirely out of flesh and bone, with the latest victims hanging from the fortress to bleed unto the ground. Inside are the traditional instrements of torture, and it is here where new souls arrive to be tortured in all of the mortal styles, before being throw from the fortress to the world below. There.....they suffer on an immortal level

Adamnan's Barrens. This Platue is made up of red hock rock, where damned souls are forced to match. All along the PLatue are great pillars where those who laughed at executions and public tortures are lashed too. The pillars then melt and the damned are dragged by the run off to the Lake of Fire. It is here that the natives will often let prisoners go, and see how far they can run before being caught.

The Lake of Fire: The center of the realm, here the 12 Malabranche dwell in their fortresses. The Damned souls all eventually wind up here whey they remain up to their necks physically burning while reliving the torment of every one of their victims. It is here too that souls are eventually torn down and turned into natives.

Alberic's Valley: This valley is full of plants that grow out of soil of human filth, and it rains boiling oil. The plants are all barbed and intelligent whicy try to tear at anybody who comes through. At the center of this valley is the false valley, made out of white hot metal and barbed, with snakes moving down it constantly. People are told that if they can make it to the top they will be free of the Lower planes, but nobody has every been able to make it.

Aralu: This is a realm of mass graves, those who come here are dragged underneath the corpses and must pull or eat there way out

Drugaskan's SInkhole: This empty pit of darkness has no light in it, people suffer solitary confinement down here.

Gottschalk's Desert: This is a massive desert maze of thorns. Various items like shoes, clothes, food, and drink are araound, but the only way one can access them is by somebody to sacrifice themselves to the torment so there friends can access the food.

The Divine punishment: Here are where a few Titans and Gods dwell chained to the ground, constantly consumed by locals and regenerating the pain. If PCs can fight past the scavengers in the area they could gain great informaiton by questioning these beings.

The Pit of the Damned: This is where the damned are thrown and they bash endlessly against the walls for a long time before emerging in a random part of hell

Bridget's Ice Prison: This fortress is made entirely out of Sharp ice is extremely sharp, and anybody who scratch themselves start to get sick until they cannot move, and then they very slowly freeze into the fortress. As they freeze, they catch horrible diseases and rot from within

Drithelm's Gap: This narrow chasm is over a horrible river of pus and ooze with semicongealed evil souls trapped within. One end is extremely cold with the other being burning hot and many try to jump from one side to the other.


Furseus's Abyss: This canyon is made entirely out of sharpen class, those who fall in are steadily torn apart.


The Hellmouth: A massive pair of Jaws that consum anything that comes around, if this is just part of the realm or just a creature is unknown.

The Snake pits: You have three guesses.

Jacob's Ladder: This is the only bright spot in the realm, a tiny place of the Upper PLanes and if anybody can get here they are safe. various good outsiders guard the portal here to prevent any invasion into the Celestial Realms, evil souls are staked outside where they are forced to glimpse paradise. Adventurers are always needed to protect this small area from raids.

The main focus of this realm is torment, while in other worlds souls are tormented purely to extract power, here they are tormented and humilated. The Themes of this world is torture, ruin, and bulling, the souls who come here are petty bullies and thugs who mistreated others in order to feel better. Eventuall they are forced to torture each other and then become the natives, known as Ahirmans. The key theme here is submission, creatures want to be punished, they want to be dominated, and they want to be controlled. The Ahirmans are mostly interested in the “art” of evil, the artistic expression of evil and the twisted creativity that comes up from it. They will go to the mortal realms to try to find new and inventive ways to torture and ruin them, though they will often destroy their own plans by insisting on finding mortals to monologue to so they can understand their work. The people who go to this realm are those who committed evil because they felt like it, due to artistic expression or for some personal ideal

Souls: Serial killers, bullies, thugs, and those who delight in other's pain all come here. After enduring all forms of torture, they eventually join their tormentors to make the pain stop

Natives: I had them anmed the Ahirmans, but that is stupid, I want a new name for these people. If anybody has any ideas please let me know. Basically they are hoard of monstrous creatures who delight only in pain suffering and their "art" and are mostly vaguely humanoid twisted mockeries of mortals. Much like the demons from the Sandman or wierdly enough the devils from the South Park PSP episode, kinda twisted psudeo humans.



[B]Sheol LE/N/B]

inspired by this http://mimir.net/mapinfinity/cordance.html


This realm is the alternate tyranny to the Nine Hells, there is almost no crime, the people work together, and the laws are well maintained. However these communities are just as dictatorial as the Nine Hells, only instead of a single oppressive dictator, here the communities themselves are the oppressors, where the cultural and social rules are so extreme that it acts as a form of dictatorship themselves. The evil of communities and societies are empathized here. Freedom and mercy are rare in these locations, its just an oppressive society that doesn’t allow mercy. The Entire plane is at a 45% angle, with the only communities being on the few level spots, thus making the communities even more powerful as they are literally the only safe spots ever. Each communities is at war with the other and they try their best to conquer the plane, not realizing the futility of such a task. As one community "Does better" they go higher on the cliff face, before enviably declining. Thus the communities are constantly in a pointless competition, and are very hostile to outsiders who always seem to ruin there scores. They occasionally send independent forces to fight in the Blood War, but because they refuse to ally with either side, its just a mess. They always support the Lawful sides, but they never ally with them. Hell and Perdition have several times tried to expand into their land without success, resulting in even more chaos.
Petitioners: They always appear as they did when they were alive, but the longer they dwell here, the more universal they become, until everybody looks largely the same. The communties all have a body type for men and women, much like how in video games people will all have the same skeleton they will all look the same

Natives: Daimons (Pronounced De-eh-mons), every day in each community a single member must be sacrificed (or voted of the island if you will) where they will be thrown to their death. When they hit the ground, they transform into Daimons. These creatures are defined by spreading intolerance, bigotry, and close mindedness. They whisper to the nobiltiy to hate the commons, encourage the crowd to reject the outsider, fight to keep races divided, and ensure that women are oppressed. I don't have a visual theme for them yet.




Windswept Depths of Pandamonium CN/CE


A realm of Chaos and insanity, Pandemonium is where dreams go to die, and personal lusts run rampant without any direct control or people holding them in check The theme of this world is insanity and chaos, and beyond that resentment. This is the world of those who are bitter and angry at the world, but lack any real power or ability to do anything about it come to dwell, because they have no choice, they retreat into their own madness in order to avoid taking responsibility for their actions and as a cunch for their towering resentment. Thus this realm is the futility of evil, lament, resentment, mockery of good, and exhaustion. The world wants so hard to be a parody of the forces of good and to tear down everything that they create, but instead is only little more than a sad little scream, unable to do more than rent and tear at the supposed injustice suffered to them. Native Lamenti, but they try to encourage bitterness and resentment in the mortal world and are indirectly involved in the Blood War, ironically anti demons (They think themselves as lawful despite their chaotic plane). They rule over the Lamenti, who are drawn to their supernatural bitterness and resentment, through the Lamenti are in turn ruled over by Yd, the insane lord of dying. The souls here are nothing more than invisible ghost, voices of lamentation and grief. The realm is a mass of caverns with extremely constantly driven mad by the endlessly blowing winds of madness, as this is the realm for the insane who never tried to fix their problems, instead taking it out on other people. I am drawing a lot from this http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94009


Carceri: NE/CE (Gehreleths)

The Idea of this plane is that it is a massive prison, that you cannot get out and are trapped forever. The Gehreleths are prisoners as much as the locals are, just with some slight powers and they take out their frustration upon their captives to an almost ridiculous extent. You cannot escape from these realms, you will never escape. The souls here are all interchangeable unites, each one looking exactly like the other. They are given tiny bits of individuality the more they suck up to the guards, and are eventually allowed to look like a cruel parody of their former selves, only to totally mind controlled and dominated. Serving Apomps, their absolute lord and high warden, the Gehreleths focus most of their energy upon trying to prevent other Fiendish creatures from moving in upon their territory. Their evil is rather petty and confined, through the souls trapped in Carceri might beg to differ. The types of Gehreleths include Farastu, Kelubar, Shators, being the only species of Gehreleths who exist, going with the whole theme of Three. Thus not only are they physically imprisoned, they are spiritually imprisoned as well, as they can’t evolve beyond a certain point. The theme of this realm is humiliation, as this is the realm for bullies and others who put people down to cover for their own insecurities. The Gehreleths are certainly this, humiliated and impotent, they take out their rage on the prisoners in order to make themselves feel better, however briefly. I really want to play up the whole evil of a prison system, with infighting gangs, corrupt wardens, abusive guards, and cruel mockeries of justice.


The Grey Wastes, LE/NE, The 39 Inferno Dukes (Diakka)

This is basically a world without compassion, empathy, trust, or love. The everybody here are simply acting entirely upon self interest without any concern for others or any high cause. They tend to be rather lawful because there are no illusions of a good society or any higher cause but the entire plane is self serving without any moral compass or ethical considerations. The entire society is without any compassion and operates personal on self interest to the point where they cannot even consider acting to help others. The souls of this realm look exactly the same as they did in life, just without any positive emotions, and thus are the only evil souls who actually play an active role in interplanar politics. The lords of this realm mostly focus upon selling their services to various Evil Gods and Lower Plane lords, but unlike the Yugoloths they have no overarching goal other than pure mercenary greed. They constantly fight each other, but they do realize that it is important for them to maintain their independence, so they try to keep that to a mere cold war, to prevent any incrocement from Perdition, Baator, or Hades, and they all send a token force to hold off the forces of the Abyss. The Native Creatures here are the Diakka, who are creatures of pure selfish self interest, once from Gehenna before being driven by the Yugoloths into Hades, where they were further driven into the Barrens of Doom and Despair. The Yugoloths, determined to destroy an evil race who might undermine their balance, drove them further into the Grey wastes, but recent event have prevented them from finishing their final purge. The Diakka have thrived somewhat in the Grey Wastes, their personal selfishness has made them ideally suited to the Wastes, and thus they are the only native creatures. The realm was founded by another races of creatures, known as the Galchutt, however an elaborate plan by some good deities has trapped their leaders on a material plane world, so while MANY Galchutt roam this realm, they are leaderless and act as bandits and enforcers for others. They are semi nomadic and concern themselves with the affairs of the Wastes only to keep any one faction from becoming too strong. They come in five types, Tall Diakka, Broad Diakka, Varath, Carcene, and Noble. The natives of the Grey Wastes, unlike most native creatures, are fairly minor in the grand scehme of things, most likely because the Grey Wastes is a massive subtle battle ground between various evil Forces. Apart from the 39 Dukes, and loyalists of the 4 Galchutt Lords, the Night Hags, the Demodands, the Yugoloths, the Daemons, the Hordlings, the Gehreleths, and the Devils are all involved in complicated schemes to take power for themselves. The souls here are those committed evil simply for personal gain.


Infernal Battlefield of Acheron, LE/LN, Avalas, Thuldanin, Tintibulus, Ocanthus (Parai/hassitor)

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 plane consists of a huge numbers of iron cubes of varying size, from continent-sized to small islands;2 not all of these are actually cube-shaped, but they are generally called cubes nonetheless.2 The cubes float in an air-filled, infinite space,2 occasionally colliding with each other.3
Every cube face is habitable, with gravity always being directed towards the cube’s center;2 furthermore, the cubes are filled with caverns and tunnels.3.
The light on Acheron varies between that similar to bright moonlight to that of a dark and cloudy day. The sound of battle resonates around the plane and can always be heard in the distance.
Acheron is all about conformity, and this is included even in the creatures who dwell here. All of the souls here appear as copies of the exact same person, clones who serve as pawns in the endless wars fought here, either between different Parai lords, the many gods who dwell here, or the Blood War, which is often fought here (the Devils favor it because of the lawful advantage they gain. The Native creatures are called the Parai, and they resemble demons who have been bound to there armor, which is alive in a sense, making them a twisted combination of metal and monster. Not cybertech, more like armor grafted to the flesh of monsters. The Parai have long since forgotten why they are fighting, and simply fight both each other and the Blood War. Any ideas to make this more interesting?


Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia, LN/LG, layers are Albellio/Menausus/Buxenus/Nemausus (Agathion)

Here is the realm where law is the single most important aspect of society, mattering before anything else. Perfection is valued highly here, with everything being perfectly proportioned, ideally shaped, and in perfect order. The idea of this realm is protective morality, the Fear of pain. The idea is that Good is the Absence of Evil. Which sounds tautological until you realize that this means that nothing has any worth save its efficacy at preventing current or future distress. Feeding people is good because starvation brings pain and death and that is bad. While the Agathinons are not by any means creatures who resort to evil means, and they are against ANYform of pain and death, and so are only slightly utilitarian. However they can very cold and unsympathetic towards people even as they help them. Agathinons focus their energy upon trying to prevent evil from happening, not so much making good people happy. Law is what defines a society and is most important for the workings of society. Basically this is the realm of endless debate and rationality, where people discuss and experiment with the nature of society in order to better understand the world around them and perfect it. The first level is full of small scale wars which are never harmful, just interesting. As people go further down in the realm, they become older. The Second realm is nothing but study, the third is a realm of debate and discussion and finally the realm of government. The people here focus a massive amount of energy upon fighting and destroying evil. Visitors can find this realm very dangerous, as Agathinons tend to press gang people into being a defense force against fiendish raids.
The Twin Paradises of Bytopia, LG/N, Dothion and Shurrock (Empyreal)
If the chaotic plane is for people who enjoy art, this is for people who enjoy work. The plane is designed as two worlds directly across from each other, like an open book, you can look up and see the other realm of Goodness. People here like work, they like virtue, and they like work as their own reward. This is very much the puritan idea of work being its own reward as everybody works their own hours and does their own job, resulting ultimately in a more just and happyful society. The local Empyreals simply exist to maintain the two layers, and mostly spend their time constantly fighting evil and protecting the layer, thus making this world one of the less dangerous realms. They follow the philosophy of the Draconian Morality, the Greatness of Succes. The idea is that what is good is for the individual to accomplish as much as they can. This means that paradoxically that helping others is actually bad unless they were going to be killed or otherwise can’t accomplish anything. So it is good to tell somebody how to fish and it is good to feed somebody as they are learning or starving, but feeding somebody when they are capable of feeding themselves is wrong because it robs them of the joy of potential accomplishment. The Empyreals focus upon teaching humanity to be good on its own terms, and doesn’t involve itself so much in ruling or domination of mortals. They try to provide guidelines and protect them from unholy influences, but they aren’t interested in trying to make humanity obey good dogmatically, they should accomplish good acts on their own. Tehy are very much anti capitalism, despite many attempts of various traders to profit off of their hard working tendencies, which has lead to some awkward political situation. This is also the ultimate runaway realm for escaped slaves, leading to many slavers who are trying to regain lost property. The two realms sometimes switch small chunks, if an area gets too urbanized or too isolated.

[CowardlyPaladin]

Reserved for the "PURE" realms, and the Unaligned realms

[CowardlyPaladin]

Reserved for the Contradictory Realms and the transitive Realms

[CowardlyPaladin]

Reserved for other the Personality Planes and the Fundamental Planes