[3.5] About the Far Realm.

[Yael]

What can the playgrounders tell me about this place? I'm afb and not sure of where its information is from. I would like to know more about this place. I only know that from this place (or beyond) is from where the Illithids became Mind Flayers of Thoon.

[nedz]

Banana Cockatrice turns you into a Pyjama.

Seriously, all we know is that it's madness.

[Deophaun]

There was an excellent book on the Far Realm written back in 2006, but for some reason WotC didn't publish it. If you search the national sanatoriums, you might be able to find the author; the scrawlings on the walls of his room are said to contain the manuscript's location.

[123456789blaaa]

I strongly recommend also asking planar questions in this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317316) thread.

[Invader]

There was an excellent book on the Far Realm written back in 2006, but for some reason WotC didn't publish it. If you search the national sanatoriums, you might be able to find the author; the scrawlings on the walls of his room are said to contain the manuscript's location.

+1
I was half way through reading this before I realized it might not be true.

[Invader]

I strongly recommend also asking player questions in this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317316) thread.

Once general topic threads get over 10 pages it's pretty easy for new questions to get overlooked plus more individual readers will see it here so I'd say it's fine :smallwink:

[Thurbane]

Some basic info can be found in the Manual of the Planes.

The concept of The Far Realm in D&D was introduced in the 2E module Gates of Firestorm Peak.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Manual of the Planes has a brief entry. There's some minor details in both the epic level handbook and lords of madness. There's a touch of information in the fiend folio. There's also a bit in Tome of Magic, I understand, though I honestly don't remember it. There's a bit in elder evils.

I'm sure there are other sources but those are all the official 3.X materials I can remember.

[Slipperychicken]

Lords of Madness also has fluff for the Far Realms, in addition to the Half-Farspawn template, representing the foul spawn of far realms denizens and material plane creatures, and a toned-down version of the Pseudonatural Creature Template.

[Coidzor]

You don't wanna go there, and about half the stuff that comes from there doesn't really wanna be here, and what is seen/perceived when they are in the Multiverse aren't very good representations of what they are or are not.

Afroakuma had a little bit of fiction about an expedition to the Far Realm in his planar questions thread which was pretty good and really conveyed a good sense of it, I thought, though I can't remember when it came up, though someone did handily collect most of his posts on the subject into one reference post at one point, so working backwards one could find that faster than one could read from the very first thread, I think.

[Thurbane]

I think the Eberron Campaign Setting might also have some info, but it may be specifically adapted for the Eberron cosmology.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I think the Eberron Campaign Setting might also have some info, but it may be specifically adapted for the Eberron cosmology.

It is. That's Xoriat and while it's pretty similar it's not the far realm. The daelkyr could very easily be far realm denizens though.

[Gemini476]

There's also an issue of Dragon that has a fairly detailed article on the Far Realm, Far Realm entities, and what happens when someone happens to open a portal between the Far Realm and reality. It's a pretty good article, from what I remember.

[phlidwsn]

A couple of quotes from a previous Far Realm thread that I saved as perfect descriptions of it: (Sadly I did not save poster names, but these are not written by me)


Far Realms entities have Banana hit points and purple AC, attack at +hysterical for fish/zero damage, and add maybe to all their saving throws.


To adjudicate adventures in the Far Realms:

Start by showing the players a cubist painting.

Have the players state their actions in writing.

Cut up the sentences and piece together the words in random order to determine what they actually do.

Slowly push your head through the cubist painting while singing nursery rhymes in Farsi

[druid91]

I had a character who had visited the Far Realms once.

It was accepted lore in that campaign that the far realms smell like antidisestablishmentarianism.

[Lucid]

I had a character who had visited the Far Realms once.

It was accepted lore in that campaign that the far realms smell like antidisestablishmentarianism.That's odd, I would've expected it to sound more like purple oranges.

[Slipperychicken]

That's odd, I would've expected it to sound more like purple oranges.

Sounds more like one hand clapping.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Whole place tastes like a whip greening.

I think I one wrote a short module where someone fell in love with a uvuudaum. It ended very well for him actually (modified half-farspawn template). Players had to clean up the mess he and the uvvudaum were making.

[Phelix-Mu]

The only requirement about what the Far Realm is like is that, two minutes after the DM starts describing it, the characters want to leave.

In one campaign that required a high-level trip there by a couple of the pcs, I described their entry point as being in one part of an infinite stack of semitransparent layers, like expensive pastry; trying to gauge distance made their heads hurt. Mobile clumps of gray plant-matter swim through the liquid air, freely moving from layer to layer, and a vague sound of ice cream truck music wafts in from nowhere in particular. Navigation was done by taste, and vaguely followed a series of crystalline discs that seemed to be munching on the plant-things. Eventually the psion tracked down the singing crystal monolith group mind in the midst of an infinite, multi-hued sky where the plot point happened, during which they needed to make Fortitude saves or take Con damage as the singing deteriorated their physical structure.

Basically, come up with something bizarre and go with it. Feel free to randomly change appearance between trips. It's strongly implied that the whole place changes a bunch, is beyond measuring, and otherwise beats Space/Time in straight sets.

[Mcdt2]

Here's (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/100_Far_Realm_Occurrences_(3.5e_Other)) a good list of things that might happen in the Far Realm. I know it's dnd-wiki, but it's actually good, I swear!

[Grod_The_Giant]

Basically, it's Cthulu: the Plane.

Scanning through my books, there appear to be a few constants:

It's made up of an infinite number of translucent layers, ranging from a few inches to more than a mile in thickness. You can see through quite a few adjacent layers before it gets too blurry. Visitors exist on only one layer, but most inhabitants exist on multiple layers simultaneously.
There are vast, unknowable beings floating through the joint, some as powerful as deities, though their sentience is "difficult to assess."
The plane is located at the very end of time, space, and the... planar arrangement...thingie. Whatever. The point is, you travel far enough in any direction and you'll eventually hit the Far Realm. Where you go mad.
Ia ia culuthu fthagn.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Entrance to it is blocked (sort of) by an entity called Blolothamogg, him who watches from beyond the stars. He keeps our reality from tainting the Far Realm.

[Slipperychicken]

Entrance to it is blocked (sort of) by an entity called Blolothamogg, him who watches from beyond the stars. He keeps our reality from tainting the Far Realm.

Which book is that from?

[Zweisteine]

I vaguely remember it being described in the Manual of the Planes, so that's probably a good place to start (and the Planar Handbook).

If you look up information about Xoriat (a plane in Eberron), it might be just as useful, as the two planens have very much in common.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Which book is that from?

He is mentioned in both Lords of Madness, under the section on Aboleths, and in Fiendish Codex I, in the section on the Wells of Darkness, Areex's entry.

And his name is Bolothamogg. I added an l by accident.

[Coidzor]

The Kaorti (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030916x) are just one example of the bad things that can happen to a creature that goes to the Far Realm or is exposed to the Far Realm while still in the multiverse. I've run into some examples of alternate takes on Mind Flayers as being the result of something similar, where a traveler to the Far Realm ended up accidentally superimposing themselves on top of some parasitic gribbly which began the process of cerebromorphosis once they returned to the multiverse.

The Orz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIbVYXHnaBU), while not from D&D, are also a fairish example of the sort of thing that can come (http://youtu.be/gIbVYXHnaBU?t=2m21s)from the Far Realm, though Orz (One with Many Fingers) likes being in reality a bit too much compared to most other Far Realms creatures, IIRC. I suppose it's possible that some would want to leave, though.

[Phelix-Mu]

I kind of like there being minimal canon on the Far Realm. Somehow, the more we can nail down about what it is and isn't, the less alien it seems, and the more it just sounds like another wizard field-tip candidate.

I like thinking of it like a holodeck of mindf&ck; every time you go there, you remember how you forgot the very special way it makes you feel, like someone cleaning out your Eustachian tubes with pipe cleaners.

Except the story about the elven wizards and the head full of spiders. Now that was cool. Seems to me that was from MotP as well.

[Coidzor]

I kind of like there being minimal canon on the Far Realm. Somehow, the more we can nail down about what it is and isn't, the less alien it seems, and the more it just sounds like another wizard field-tip candidate.

Indeed, best not to define the Far Realm itself too much, though when you encounter the creatures from there as altered by their (pseudo-?)existence in the multiverse you have to make certain concessions. XD

Whiskey Greening and Wombat Banana morality may or may not kitten.


I like thinking of it like a holodeck of mindf&ck; every time you go there, you remember how you forgot the very special way it makes you feel, like someone cleaning out your Eustachian tubes with pipe cleaners.

Yes, this!

Though that also reminds me of Carceri and how just *going* there marks you in a way...


Except the story about the elven wizards and the head full of spiders. Now that was cool. Seems to me that was from MotP as well.

Indeed, what's not to love about a head full of spiders? XD


Here's (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/100_Far_Realm_Occurrences_(3.5e_Other)) a good list of things that might happen in the Far Realm. I know it's dnd-wiki, but it's actually good, I swear!

1st entry? Discworld reference.

Awww Yeaaaah. :smallcool:

[afroakuma]

Once general topic threads get over 10 pages it's pretty easy for new questions to get overlooked plus more individual readers will see it here so I'd say it's fine :smallwink:

Not on my thread they don't. I catch everything. That's how I've gotten to four threads. :smalltongue:

Come on over, I'll take your questions.

[Clistenes]

There was an excellent book on the Far Realm written back in 2006, but for some reason WotC didn't publish it. If you search the national sanatoriums, you might be able to find the author; the scrawlings on the walls of his room are said to contain the manuscript's location.

Aaaaahh! The King in Yellow! Good book, good book. A pity its author killed himself after writing only the first book of the trilogy.

Most information comes from the Manual of the Planes and Dragon Magazine 330, and there are bits in Elder Evils and Lords of Madness too.

Here is a list borrowed from Afroakuma's thread. Seek the monsters for information:




Monster Manual
• Aboleth (tenuous connection)
• Cloaker (origin)
• Gibbering Mouther
• Skum (via aboleth)

Monster Manual II
• Moonbeast (possible)
• Mooncalf (possible)
• Psurlon (reprinted in Lords of Madness)
• Rukanyr (via kaorti)
• Skybleeder (via kaorti)
• Windghost (possible)
• Wyste

Monster Manual III
• Mindshredder (possible)
• Runehound (possible)

Monster Manual IV
• Zern (possible)

Monster Manual V
• Mind Flayers of Thoon

Draconomicon
• Squamous Spewer

Dragon
• Aleku (Dragon 348)
• Amoebic Crawler (Dragon 330)
• Cranial Encyster (Dragon 330)
• Kaortic Hulk (Dragon 330)
• Kyra (Dragon 348)
• Nightseed (Dragon 330)
• Urquirsh (Dragon 358)

Dungeon
• The Thing From the Lake (Dungeon 134)

Elder Evils
• Brood Spawn template

Epic Level Handbook
• Neh-Thalggu
• Pseudonatural Creature template (reprinted in Lords of Madness)
• Uvuudaum

Fiend Folio
• Kaorti (reprinted in Dragon 358)

Frostburn
• Snowcloak (origin)

Lords of Madness
• Cloaker, Shadowcloak Elder (origin)
• Half-Farspawn template
• Shaboath (via aboleth)

Monsters of Faerun
• Cloaker Lord (origin)

Planar Handbook
• Dharculus

You could always borrow some fluff from Call of Cthulhu and change the names of the Great Old Ones for those of the Elder Evils from the Lords of Madness and Elder Evils books.

Some evil deities and demon lords like the Beholder Great Mother, Illsensine, Tharidzun, Juiblex, Ghanadaur, Zuggtmoy, Dagon and Rovagug (from Pathfinder) can be easily refluffed as coming from the Far Realm or being related to it.

The Xoriat/Daelkyr material from Eberron can easily be refluffed as belonging to beings and cults tainted by the Far Realms. The Quori from Dal Quor, in their natural shapes, are ugly and creepy enough to be originated from the Far Realms.

[Rubik]

Sounds more like one hand clapping.So, like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tsCOkCoC8)?

[Thurbane]

So did the Event Horizon actually travel to Hell, or the Far Realm? :smalltongue:

Actually, from the quote, I'd say it was probably the Abyss:
"I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that. She tore a hole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension. A dimension of pure chaos. Pure... evil. When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was alive! Look at her, Miller. Isn't she beautiful?"

[The Glyphstone]

So did the Event Horizon actually travel to Hell, or the Far Realm? :smalltongue:

Actually, from the quote, I'd say it was probably the Abyss:
"I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that. She tore a hole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension. A dimension of pure chaos. Pure... evil. When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was alive! Look at her, Miller. Isn't she beautiful?"

It traveled into the Warp. Everyone knows Event Horizon is a 20th-century-set Warhammer 40K prequel.:smallcool:

[Phelix-Mu]

It traveled into the Warp. Everyone knows Event Horizon is a 20th-century-set Warhammer 40K prequel.:smallcool:

Aww, I just thought about Khorne in the Far Realm. Like normal Khorne, but more nuts cause of all the spiders in his head.

Somewhere Nurgle is having a good laugh.:smallsmile: