afroakuma's Planar Questions Thread! (You ask, I'll answer)

[Shalist]

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for screen-scroller; I've always loved the Planescape setting, and 3.5 cosmology in general, and wish novels went outside their prime worlds more often.

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You won't get back a mortal spirit that has become a true native of its receiving plane, but a petitioner can be revived...

So...someone shows up in Baator, has their humanity brutally stripped away...their quivering, insensate husk is tossed aside, drowns and is devoured by maggots, whose foul excrement congeals into a lemure.

Up until that last bit, where they're actually slain and reborn as a (native) lemure, they can rez'd without any...complications? (I know, I know, resurrection RAWs could care less about the afterlife, or else there'd be no reoccuring BBEGs :P).

If you just dragged a soul to hell and chucked it into the maggot pit without any, err, prep work, would it still become a mindless, unresurrectable lemure? Would it matter if it were a righteous soul?

As for other monsters, see above.

Lets say that an epic caster sneezes, and an alliance of dozens of ancient, knowledgeable, LE, dragons of various hues arrive at the Shelves of Despond in Baator at the same time...Could they cause some major trouble, or escape Baator completely, or possibly even dig in and carve out a slice of territory? Or would they simply be too powerless, up against too fierce and persistent of opposition?

It's not dirt and water... it's flesh and blood.

That makes a lot more sense than what I've read in some places ("they jealously guard their wealth...because they're greedy!")...but...but...rivers of molten gold and platinum though...are the natural hazards and proximity to the positive energy plane enough to stave off hordes of greedy Tanar'ri? Who would likely notice a group of adventurers, with their fancy magic scuba gear, some magic for surviving the plane and for stealth, and bunches of portable holes, skulking about?

That question doesn't really help me here. You'll need to clarify.

Hmm...

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-How wealthy are the Golden Lords of Sigil compared to, say, deities (ie Tiamat), demon lords, or the Archdukes of Baator? Who is the wealthiest person / group in the planes, and are they associated with Sigil?
-Is Sigil the 'richest' city / marketplace in the planes? What other major markets are there in the inner/outer planes that're actually safe for a prime to set up shop? (I can think of a couple from the lower planes, but that's about it).
-How do outsiders and/or residents of Sigil view powerful casters from prime worlds (who have 9th level spells)? (ie rare/powerful, fresh meat, or just trivial annoyances).
-Aside from exploration/transportation and diplomatic considerations, are there any notable obstacles (or opposition) to forging a multi-sphere trade empire? ie, would the gods of different spheres be overly concerned about exposure to foreign deities, or is this already a common place thing?

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Unrelated...

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-Would anyone upstairs even notice someone opening a portal to the depths of Celestia's limitless oceans, to create a lake of holy water on some prime world?
-Given that deities prefer living worshipers, how do they view outsiders, or elementals, who worship them? For instance, those legions of succubi paladins one's always reading about.
-Do outsider and elemental 'souls' have value comparable to petitioners of similar HD? Could a demon sell its 'soul' to Baator?
-Would something like 'trap the soul' or 'sanctify the wicked' need to be cast twice on Demogorgon?
-Regarding lowly Genesis demiplanes (as opposed to Ravenloft):
--Can souls merge with a demiplane instead of outer plane?
--Can outsiders (or elementals) be made to merge with a plane they're not native to?
--How might a demiplane be enriched by such 'deposits'?
--How does one ('prime' or outsiders) become native to a demiplane?

[123456789blaaa]

I'm thorry, you thaid you wanted to hear about thomething Thoon? What would you like to dithcuth right now?

Pause for mood change.

Thoon is a... something... that the mind flayers of the lost nautiloid hold to be their ideal, something that the multiverse had never heard of before the lost nautiloid returned. Thoon might be a philosophy; it might be an abomination of the Far Realm, or a vestige, or a god of the lost void between what is and what should never be. It might be no more than a manifestation of a collective insanity.

Whatever Thoon is, it is inarguable that it is somehow linked to quintessence, a magical material found randomly in living things. Those who are "of Thoon" are the only ones capable of discovering this quintessence, which appears to their searches as a dark nebula around the life-form containing it. When extracted, using means devised in that place of horror beyond reality, quintessence is a potent magical liquid, green in color, that is used by the illithids and the thrallcreatures they command to experiment on other life forms and with inchoate magics.

The nature of Thoon may never be known, for to those who returned and those who come after, Thoon is. No method yet attempted has been able to prompt any of the mind flayers of Thoon to speak more of their strange worship, and even under powerful compulsions and charms they react with genuine confusion to being asked to define Thoon.

It may be that "Thoon" is an attempt by the creatures before their strange metamorphosis to name what they experienced... although the illithid language is not spoken and rarely written, the terminal "hoon" indicates "an abomination, one who is an outsider," and the lemma "th" indicates action and power. If this is the case, "Thoon" may be a constructed term indicating "that which creates abomination" or "that which casts out."

Admit it, you just wanted me to be creepy again.

Maaaaayyybe .

Can you get me a citation on that? It's not showing up in my book.

Off the cuff, I'd say it has to do with the malefic properties of elder evils; specifically as relate to casting off, abjuring and repudiating the divine. Belief does not touch them, and the qualities of belief will not manifest of them.

Sure thing! It's under the "Serving Elder Evils" heading on page 10:

Any intelligent and evil creature can swear service to an elder evil if the creature knows of its existence. Doing so grants the creature one bonus feat, plus an extra bonus feat for every fi ve character levels or Hit Dice. These bonus feats must be selected from among the vile feats given in the accompanying table. Elder evils do not grant spells.

Although looking at it I do wonder why worshipping them grants bonus feats...

[willpell]

Is there a "corrupt negative energy" thing out there like Ragnorra's Corrupt Positive Energy Wumbo?

Presumably if there was such a thing, it would do nasty stuff to undead much as Ragnorra does nasty stuff to the living. Imagine if it starts giving the undead back all the weaknesses of their living flesh, or else just starts making them start aging and rotting and crumbling to dust, exactly what the liches and vampires and such desperately sought to avoid.

Are there any celestials that are sufficently equine-like for this to be any anything but squick?

Equinal Guardinals for sure. Possibly bariaurs, your mileage may vary (it requires two stretches, that you're half-sheep and that your "special friend" isn't half-human, but at least you're a quadruped). Or just anything with the Celestial Template (horses, centaurs, other-half-also-celestial unicorns). Plus a Lantern Archon might be able to knock up anything without any possibility of squick. They're angels in all but name and game mechanics, after all.

[afroakuma]

Okay Shalist, you seriously need to space out your questions more. And stop using spoilers to hide the length of the list from me.

Big Giant Answer List

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So...someone shows up in Baator, has their humanity brutally stripped away...their quivering, insensate husk is tossed aside, drowns and is devoured by maggots, whose foul excrement congeals into a lemure.

Up until that last bit, where they're actually slain and reborn as a (native) lemure, they can rez'd without any...complications? (I know, I know, resurrection RAWs could care less about the afterlife, or else there'd be no reoccuring BBEGs :P).

Typically. Depends on a few other factors - imprisonment is a big one of those, though very few souls have that happen to them and it's usually for a predictable reason (deck of many things, for instance). Some souls are offered higher promotion and may not go through the lemure stage.

If you just dragged a soul to hell and chucked it into the maggot pit without any, err, prep work, would it still become a mindless, unresurrectable lemure? Would it matter if it were a righteous soul?

"Prep work?"

A specific kind of soul is required; there is a characteristic of the lawful evil soul that is central to the creation of a lemure (or nupperibo).

Lets say that an epic caster sneezes, and an alliance of dozens of ancient, knowledgeable, LE, dragons of various hues arrive at the Shelves of Despond in Baator at the same time...Could they cause some major trouble, or escape Baator completely, or possibly even dig in and carve out a slice of territory? Or would they simply be too powerless, up against too fierce and persistent of opposition?

Well, they'd be dead, so it wouldn't really matter what they had been. I don't know why they wouldn't end up in the realm of Tiamat, but I suppose that's their business. Dragons, like every other dead thing, become petitioners of their gods (or their plane) after the fact, save that they do something else with themselves. The spirits of dragons are very powerful, and tend to be fiercely protected by the draconic pantheon. That draconic souls are not pressed into service in diabolic or demonic armies suggests that either the pantheon is exceptionally successful in its mandate, or that dragon souls travel to unique realms in death that other mortals may never know.

That makes a lot more sense than what I've read in some places ("they jealously guard their wealth...because they're greedy!")...but...but...rivers of molten gold and platinum though...

Infinite plane, infinite crap to wade through. Do you need some bauxite? No? I thought not. Where such rivers or other massive deposits of great value are found, they are jealously controlled and defended by their discoverers. The Elemental Planes are pretty top-shelf at guarding their valuable properties, too; it took an atropal to make a dent in a dao force guarding the Valley of Light, the disposal of which is actually the subject of a Dungeon adventure called "Diplomacy."

And to stave off questions, the Valley of Light is a massive vein of diamonds on the Elemental Plane of Earth, that's all it is, and yes, the Dungeon adventure in question is the only mention thereof.

Who would likely notice a group of adventurers, with their fancy magic scuba gear, some magic for surviving the plane and for stealth, and bunches of portable holes, skulking about?

Valuable property? You will be found. Remember, you're not even the primary concern for these people. These are planes where entities such as xorn and xaren exist, entities whose diets consist specifically of metals and gems. They need to securitize against the intrusion of creatures like that. I might add that such creatures will also be annoyed with competition.

-How wealthy are the Golden Lords of Sigil compared to, say, deities (ie Tiamat), demon lords, or the Archdukes of Baator?

Numbers don't matter at the levels of wealth you're talking about. The very idea of ranking loses all meaning. There's a point at which you have to start counting in worlds worth of wealth, and the Golden Lords are all past it.

-Is Sigil the 'richest' city / marketplace in the planes? What other major markets are there in the inner/outer planes that're actually safe for a prime to set up shop? (I can think of a couple from the lower planes, but that's about it).

Taking the Golden Lords out of the equation (and you need to, as most of their wealth does not flow), Sigil is not the richest city. Dis, Grenpoli and Zelatar are all major Lower Planar cities with a lot of wealth in them, though Grenpoli is not chiefly a trade city and neither Dis nor Zelatar is particularly safe. The Crawling City is difficult to access and perversely hostile; avoid it. Tantlin is prosperous, but not for mortals.

Two from beyond the Outer Planes are of relevance: the efreet City of Brass, located on the Plane of Fire, and the githyanki city Tu'narath, built on a god-corpse in the Astral Plane.

The largest githzerai city, Shra'kt'lor, is a spartan affair with an open market. Yetsira, on the sixth layer of Mount Celestia, is very difficult to get to or stand for long without being of strong moral character, but for celestials may well be the crowning jewel of the Upper Planes.

The safest, and certainly the busiest, of all the planar marketplaces is the Marketplace Eternal, a shared divine realm of the Outlands hosting Waukeen (of Toril), Shinare (of Krynn) and Zilchus (of Oerth). The powers of these three deities combine to forge a massive bustle of commerce and trade.

How do outsiders and/or residents of Sigil view powerful casters from prime worlds (who have 9th level spells)? (ie rare/powerful, fresh meat, or just trivial annoyances).

Oh, they're not trivial, but they are certainly annoying. They're also rare and (often enough) arrogant. You pretty much just wait for the pratfall.

-Aside from exploration/transportation and diplomatic considerations, are there any notable obstacles (or opposition) to forging a multi-sphere trade empire? ie, would the gods of different spheres be overly concerned about exposure to foreign deities, or is this already a common place thing?

It happens in a few places (space) but on a planar level, there are complications, largely involving powerful magic and other such costs of doing business on that scale. Commerce of any real scope on the planes tends to stay on the planes, much as commerce in space tends to stay in space.

Unrelated...

Oh cripes, more?

-Would anyone upstairs even notice someone opening a portal to the depths of Celestia's limitless oceans, to create a lake of holy water on some prime world?

Yes.

Given that deities prefer living worshipers, how do they view outsiders, or elementals, who worship them?

It's always nice to have capable worshipers.

Do outsider and elemental 'souls' have value comparable to petitioners of similar HD? Could a demon sell its 'soul' to Baator?

Petitioners have 2 HD.

Outsiders and elementals are very difficult to store in soul form, since they are embodiments of their own essences. If you can do it though, they are decently valuable; outsiders more than elementals. A demon could not sell its soul to Baator, as Baator is a plane and does not enter into trade negotiations. Selling its "soul" to a devil would be akin to selling itself into slavery (well, death really, they don't get along).

Would something like 'trap the soul' or 'sanctify the wicked' need to be cast twice on Demogorgon?

Wouldn't work. Planar mechanics protect entities such as Demogorgon from sanctify the crappy spell. Trapping Demogorgon's soul is also a matter for things more epic than a rock and a mumble. Demogorgon's fused essence is a package deal, though; such trivial methods would never work to divide him.

Can souls merge with a demiplane instead of outer plane?

No.

Can outsiders (or elementals) be made to merge with a plane they're not native to?

No.

How does one ('prime' or outsiders) become native to a demiplane?

One does not. You're native to where you're native to. If you were somehow to originate in an artificial demiplane, you would be native to the Ethereal Plane.

[Chilingsworth]

(Inspired by the question about demiplane naturalization above)

Is it true that some types of outsiders (example Erinyes) can reproduce?

If so, if one were born away from their kind's home plane (Baator), what would his/her native plane be? Does this differ for any other kind of outsiders that are born in the normal sense rather than "born" of their planes? (Assuming there are any other kinds, or any kinds at all.)

[afroakuma]

If you were running a game, and wanted to evoke the following emotions, which planes would you use?

• Raw terror.
• Nausea.
• A looming discomfort, a sense of the eerie.
• Peace.
• The ultimate futility of one's existence.

EDIT: Throw sadness and anger into the mix, though I imagine they're more difficult to get from environments.

• Demiplane of Nightmares/Abyss/Negative Energy Plane/Far Realm
• Far Realm/Abyss/Demiplane of Moil/Baator
• The Boundless/Plane of Shadow/Ethereal Plane/Neth
• Elysium/Bytopia/Arcadia/Plane of Air
• Hades/Carceri/Gehenna/Pandemonium/Plane of Vacuum/Far Realm or Mechanus, depending on your brand of "futility"
• Hades/Celestia/Carceri
• Ysgard/Beastlands, if any

What more can you tell me about the Vasharan ranging from Culture, to average life, to belief structure, to common alignments. Pretty much anything you can possibly think of on the subject.

Nothing that's not in the book; they're evil, deicidal psychopaths with a bent for corrupted arcane magic and a cultural taste for the sorts of deeds and personal practices that would make normal people shudder. These are the kinds of people who summon giant cockroaches and implant themselves with parasitic whipworms; they're pretty dark. They don't look to have been attested outside the Book of Vile Darkness.

Why is Fell not Mazed, dead or both?

Only the Lady knows. He might be a warning. He's definitely a message of some kind.

Is it true that some types of outsiders (example Erinyes) can reproduce?

Whyyyyy are there still sex questions.

Yes, it's rare below unique level for most exemplars (other kinds of outsiders have different rules), but there are a few types (arcanaloths, brachina and erinyes, chiefly) who can become pregnant.

If so, if one were born away from their kind's home plane (Baator), what would his/her native plane be?

Baator. Exemplars are easy that way.

Does this differ for any other kind of outsiders that are born in the normal sense rather than "born" of their planes? (Assuming there are any other kinds, or any kinds at all.)

There are types of non-exemplar outsider who could theoretically become nativized to another plane by birth; exemplars cannot. Jann would be an example of this; their ancestors were of the Inner Planes, but jann are naturalized to the Material Plane.

[Gralamin]

Is there any evidence of Spell Weavers and Ethergaunts having any common history? Or are they from completely separate eras?

Are there any other "Ancient spell casters from the Prime" races? What do outer plane inhabitants think of such creatures?

Ethergaunt's possess "Technological" devices that mimic spells. Do these devices function on the Outlands near the Spire? If they do not, around what distance do they fail?

I know you are not an Eberron Person, but there is a type of aberration in Eberron known as a Daelkyr, who use symbiots and create other aberrations. Is there any place in Planescape where they would fit without obviously forcing it?

I recall hearing the term "Fading Land", as something like a Demiplane. What precisely is a Fading Land?

[Sgt. Cookie]

In general, what outsiders do evil gods use as divine servants?

[afroakuma]

Is there any evidence of Spell Weavers and Ethergaunts having any common history? Or are they from completely separate eras?

A fascinating question. While there is no evidence, and the two races are distinct enough that there should be no overlap, enough commonalities and mysteries exist that one could conflate the two. The figure for the collapse of the ethergaunt empire is given at ten thousand years, while the fall of the spell weavers is described as "millennia" or occasionally "centuries." You could certainly make a fine case for associating the two.

Are there any other "Ancient spell casters from the Prime" races?

Oi... that's going to take more time than I have at the moment. Ask me again later today.

What do outer plane inhabitants think of such creatures?

Outer Plane inhabitants mostly know little to nothing of either race; neither has much presence on the Planes. Ethergaunts are considered a curiosity and a possible avenue of alliance, trade or conquest by some evil outsiders, and those other forces concerned with the Ethereal Plane do not like them. Spell weavers are very mysterious; given the nature of the Disjunction, it is likely that powerful planar forces collected information on their work and locked it away to look over carefully at some future date.

Ethergaunt's possess "Technological" devices that mimic spells. Do these devices function on the Outlands near the Spire? If they do not, around what distance do they fail?

Tough call. There's no canonical answer. The Spire should distort anything that mimics a spell, at the same radius as the associated spell effect fails. On the other hand, the doubt bomb is a chemical weapon, and alchemical substances without a supernatural component are known to work near the Spire. I'd probably need to rule on a case-by-case basis, but of the two printed ethergaunt devices, both should function.

I know you are not an Eberron Person, but there is a type of aberration in Eberron known as a Daelkyr, who use symbiots and create other aberrations. Is there any place in Planescape where they would fit without obviously forcing it?

I am familiar with daelkyr. The obvious place for the shapers of flesh to hail from (along with their creations) is of course the Far Realm, but a case could be made for the Abyss, Carceri or Pandemonium without much effort. They could also function as entities of the Demiplane of Nightmares, horrific masters of the Deep Ethereal who collect victims to experiment on through the Border, or eldritch lords of the obscure, forsaken reaches of the Astral Plane.

I recall hearing the term "Fading Land", as something like a Demiplane. What precisely is a Fading Land?

A Fading Land is a mysterious phenomenon chiefly associated with the world of Oerth; a type of demiplane which intersects the Prime Material, in which the rules of magic may function very differently. Some of these appear to be divine realms, though whether they are actually annexes of the realms of the gods or hidden "secondary" realms is hard to pin down. Fading Lands are associated with powerful magic-users, though their rarity and obscure nature suggest that they are harder to work with/less stable than demiplanes shaped on the Ethereal Plane.

In general, what outsiders do evil gods use as divine servants?

Whatever is available to them*. Devils, yugoloths, demons, even gehreleths sometimes, along with all the rabble between. Some deities, such as Lolth and Tiamat, have their own specialized breeds of baatezu or tanar'ri as servants (yochlol and abishai, respectively).

*in afro-canon, there is a race of evil angel counterparts known as anathemas who serve the evil deities in a similar way, but they are rare and most have sequestered themselves until the Blood War ends.

[Lord_Gareth]

It's a sex question!

Well, not that kind of sex question. I've noticed that with the exception of (some) Archons and (most) Modrons, Exemplars have genders that are very clear and also very similar to human genders - Grazz't, for example, is extremely male, while no one would argue that Morwel is anything but a Queen. Why do Exemplars seem to follow these patterns of sex/gender identity, and what leads Archons to be the only corner-alignment example that doesn't?

[afroakuma]

I've noticed that with the exception of (some) Archons and (most) Modrons, Exemplars have genders that are very clear and also very similar to human genders - Grazz't, for example, is extremely male, while no one would argue that Morwel is anything but a Queen. Why do Exemplars seem to follow these patterns of sex/gender identity, and what leads Archons to be the only corner-alignment example that doesn't?

Well, Graz'zt is a... unique example himself... but gender's a pretty subdued thing among most exemplars anyway. Exemplars have their origins in mortal souls, however, which contributes to their trend toward mortal genders (except slaad... oh those slaad ) as an echo of their former "selves." Archons, as embodiments of "perfection," cast off many of the physical trappings of gender in their form (though the Hebdomad, to honor their original members, mirror a more mortal state) and as such appear largely androgynous. Archons do have genders, mind you, they just don't give it much thought.

[Chilingsworth]

Do any types of slaadi retain memories from the mortals that hosted the infection/egg they were born from?

Also, why do slaadi form that way instead of coalesing from their plane?

[123456789blaaa]

I seem to remember a theory that put humans as the descendants of changelings who were themselves the descendants of doppelgangers. Their was one more shapeshifter before doppelganger but I can't remember what it was. I can only remember that it's name started with P. Do you have any idea what it could be? (it would have to be an even better shapeshifter than a doppelganger)

In response to a question that asked why the daelkyr look like humans, Keith Baker said that the real question was...why do humans look so much like the daelkyr . Would you care to speculate on the answer?

[LeshLush]

As a side note, I seem to remember something about a branch being used to sprinkle some stygian water on King Minos' daugher to make her forget Theseus' abandonment of her. I know that has nothing in particular to do with D&D as such, but it is from the mythology that inspired the material.

In actual Greek mythology, it was the river Lethe that caused memory loss, not the river Styx. There were five rivers in the Underworld, the two mentioned above, plus Acheron, Phlegethon, and Cocytus. Several of these rivers found themselves the names of planes or layers of of planes, and the Styx took on aspects of the other rivers.

[afroakuma]

Do any types of slaadi retain memories from the mortals that hosted the infection/egg they were born from?

Who knows? Slaad are weird. It's been my understanding that disease is transformative (so yes) and eggs are hatchy badness (so no).

Also, why do slaadi form that way instead of coalesing from their plane?

They do both! Slaad form in all sorts of ways; it's the nature of chaos. As Ian Malcolm put it: "(Chaotic) life finds a way." They can form sexually or asexually or even just bubble right off the Spawning Stone.

I seem to remember a theory that put humans as the descendants of changelings who were themselves the descendants of doppelgangers. Their was one more shapeshifter before doppelganger but I can't remember what it was. I can only remember that it's name started with P. Do you have any idea what it could be? (it would have to be an even better shapeshifter than a doppelganger)

Phasm? Protean? I'm not familiar with this theory, but I'm inclined to treat it as a load of crap.

In response to a question that asked why the daelkyr look like humans, Keith Baker said that the real question was...why do humans look so much like the daelkyr . Would you care to speculate on the answer?

I'd speculate that Keith Baker's taking the easy route. I know it's what I would have done.

Daelkyr in that context are an Eberron thing, and I don't do Eberron as a general rule. The existence of daelkyr is not of relevance, let alone of that degree of possible significance, to the Great Wheel cosmology. Clearly, though, within the framework of Only Eberron Exists, the implication is that humanoids and their ilk are some echo or strain of an earlier touch of Xoriat upon the land, one which remained separate and adapted to the world of dragonshards and Not!Insanity.

[ShadowFireLance]

What is the largest Planar Army to March upon any plane?
(For Each Planar Race, If you dont mind)

[afroakuma]

What is the largest Planar Army to March upon any plane?
(For Each Planar Race, If you dont mind)

Clarify what it is you're asking me, please.

[Sgt. Cookie]

I think he's asking what the largest full scale invasion of a plane was, and who did it.

[ShadowFireLance]

I think he's asking what the largest full scale invasion of a plane was, and who did it.

This, Exactly.

[afroakuma]

I think he's asking what the largest full scale invasion of a plane was, and who did it.

Oh well, that's easy. The yugoloths invaded Gehenna. Like mad.

[Chilingsworth]

Why did the yugoloths invade Gehenna?

What was Gehenna like before the yugoloth invasion?

How much of the Gehenna of old is left in the present day? (landmarks, creatures, etc?)

[afroakuma]

Why did the yugoloths invade Gehenna?

They've never admitted any reason. Perhaps they wanted it. Perhaps they wanted to get out of Hades. Perhaps they were annoyed by the Blood War being always on their doorstep. Could be that they liked the idea of holding a plane with limited terrain - Gehenna is physically the smallest of the Outer Planes, with surface area actually limited. It could also have to do with the depredations of the soul-sucking Gray Waste weakening the race and preventing them from achieving their full potential.

The real reason is likely linked to the Towers of the Yugoloths; three massive structures across three planes. With Khin-Oin established and under control of an idiot the Oinoloth, the yugoloths likely moved en masse to Gehenna to secure the raising of the Tower of the Arcanaloths and made it their redoubt when 1) the General of Gehenna took on that title and made the plane his home and/or 2) they realized that Hades sucks and the Oinoloth was an idiot not there to exert his dimwitted attempts at rule over them.

This move may have proved wise, as the smaller yugoloth presence on Carceri has led to problems in the completion of the Tower of Incarnate Pain. Having not invaded the Red Prison on anywhere near the same scale, the yugoloths have had a great deal of trouble finishing their grand work, and the natives aren't keen to let them. Tarterians are fun that way.

What was Gehenna like before the yugoloth invasion?

Impossible to say, really, it happened so long ago. It must have retained its essential character and shape, and the beasts of Gehenna aren't imports, but the yugoloths haven't established many permanent features either.

How much of the Gehenna of old is left in the present day? (landmarks, creatures, etc?)

Hard to say; it's fairly certain that the fires of the Fourfold Furnaces have always roared away at their current levels, and that the plane has always been a miserable hardscrabble to survive on, but Gehenna itself dumps so many things into the void that it may have long since cast off anything older than the yugoloth invasion.

The same mix of indigenous wildlife pervades Gehenna, though; barghests, slasraths, phiuhls, vaoprighu, nightmares, terlen, hook spiders... all the miserable predatory horrors that welcome visitors to pointless suffering.

[enderlord99]

Are the Demodands native Tarterians?

[afroakuma]

Are the Demodands native Tarterians?

Not really. They're Apomps's little side project.

[LOTRfan]

Do any natives of the Outer Planes use more advanced weapons/technologies than that of the typical medieval setting (i.e. modern fire arms or lasers?) in any of the official books?

I ask mostly because the idea of Balors wielding assault rifles to be very amusing.

[Gralamin]

Are there any other "Ancient spell casters from the Prime" races?

Reposting to Re-ask

[Lord_Gareth]

So, we've spoken before about how Grazz't is the son of Pale Night (the only son?) and how he still thinks quite well of/loves his mother. However, I'm unclear on if the two have an alliance. Is the affection mutual? Do they trust each other? And if so, does that mean that any being or coalition that wishes to wage war on one of them must inevitably face down the other as well?

[Chilingsworth]

Do they trust each other?

Demons. Intelligent demons at that... Trusting. Each. Other. ?

How much stygian water did you drink, again?

[afroakuma]

Do any natives of the Outer Planes use more advanced weapons/technologies than that of the typical medieval setting (i.e. modern fire arms or lasers?) in any of the official books?

I ask mostly because the idea of Balors wielding assault rifles to be very amusing.

Natives? Euh... not really. The Planes are generally highly resistant to technology, since it makes up such an infinitesimal part of the cosmos. Also, to be fair, balors wield abilities far, far stronger than bullets or even lasers. To put this in context, a balor's punch is about half as powerful as an antimatter rifle shot - more powerful than a laser rifle shot, and its sword is twice as lethal as automatic rifle fire, not factoring in the vorpal element.

Reposting to Re-ask

Right then, let's see. There are of course the strange ones, entities such as phaerimm that seem like they should not be natives of the Prime; there are also those nagas who have inborn spellcasting abilities. The bizarre ushemoi have a leader caste of unusual spellcasters.

There are also races such as the sarkrith who have a deep and abiding hatred of magic, or the ormyrr, who have a great fascination for magic but no ability to use it.

Don't know how much that cleaves to "ancient" (the phaerimm are rather old as such things are accounted, the rest are modern enough), but the combination of the two is a bit tricky. For instance, there was an ancient race known as the Juna who had mastered spelljamming eons and eons before anyone else (who had not come from the future). A successor race of sorts, the Reigar also became a powerful force in space, and presumably arcane might was involved.

[Lord_Gareth]

Demons. Intelligent demons at that... Trusting. Each. Other. ?

How much stygian water did you drink, again?

Grazz't and Pale Night have a rather exceptional relationship for demons, so don't dismiss it - oh, and UNLIKE Fierna and Belial, they're not basing it on incest either.