Chapter 6: Cosmology
Livia Prima
The Lady of Pain appears without warning in the bustling
streets of Sigil, and the city’s residents get out of her way
The worlds of D&D are part of an immense cosmos. Most campaigns and adventures play out on worlds on the Material Plane. The rest of the multiverse consists of different planes of existence defined in relation to the Material Plane.
The planes of existence are strange and often dangerous environments undreamed of in the natural world. Adventurers can stroll along streets of fire, test their mettle on battlefields where the fallen are resurrected with each dawn, and behold the terrifying majesty of the Lady of Pain as she floats above the streets of the ring-shaped city at the center of the multiverse.
The Planes
The planes of existence are realms of myth and mystery. They’re not simply other worlds, but dimensions formed and governed by spiritual and elemental principles. They fall into the following categories:
Material Realms. Most D&D worlds are located on the Material Plane, which has two planar echoes: the Feywild and the Shadowfell.
Transitive Planes. The Ethereal Plane and the Astral Plane are boundless realms that provide passage between other planes of existence.
Inner Planes. The four Elemental Planes (Air, Earth, Fire, and Water), plus the Para-elemental Planes between them, are the Inner Planes.
Outer Planes. Seventeen Outer Planes correspond to the nine alignments and shades of philosophical difference between them.
Positive and Negative Planes. These two planes enfold the rest of the cosmology, providing the raw forces of life and death that underlie all existence in the multiverse.
The Great Wheel
The default D&D cosmology includes more than two dozen planes, detailed in this chapter. The most common understanding of these planes visualizes them as a group of concentric wheels, with the Material realms at the center. The Inner Planes form a wheel around the Material Plane, enveloped in the Ethereal Plane. Then the Outer Planes form another wheel around and behind (or above or below) that one, arranged according to alignment, with the Outlands linking them all.
Since the primary way of traveling from plane to plane is through magical portals, the spatial relationship between different planes is largely theoretical. No being in the multiverse can look down and see the planes arranged like a diagram in a book. No mortal can verify whether Mount Celestia is sandwiched between Bytopia and Arcadia; rather, this theoretical positioning is based on the philosophical shading among the three planes and the relative importance they give to law and good.
Other Configurations
For your campaign, you can use a different model of the planes. Here are several examples:
- Planes situated among the roots and branches of a great cosmic tree (literally or figuratively)
- Material Realms suspended between two other realities: the Astral Realms (the Astral Plane and the Outer Planes) above and the Elemental Realms (the Inner Planes) below
- A cosmology with fewer planes: a Material Plane; the Transitive Planes; a single undifferentiated Elemental Plane, where all four elements churn in chaos; an Overheaven, where good deities and Celestials dwell; and an Underworld, where evil deities and Fiends reside
- Planes arranged in a complex system of orbits, with planes exerting greater influence on the Material Plane the closer they draw to it
Material Realms
The Material Plane is where the philosophical and elemental forces of the other planes of existence collide in the jumbled existence of mortal life and matter. It is a thoroughly magical place, reflected in the two planes that share its central place in the multiverse.
The Feywild and the Shadowfell are parallel dimensions occupying the same cosmological space as the Material Plane. The landscapes of these three planes are similar, but those of the Feywild are more marvelous and whimsical, while those of the Shadowfell are more bleak and ominous. Passage between the Material Plane and these other realms is sometimes effortless, even accidental. Adventurers might enter a grove of trees on the Material Plane and suddenly find themselves in a lush, colorful forest on the Feywild or a grim wood of dead trees on the Shadowfell.
Inner Planes
The Inner Planes surround the Material Plane and its echoes, providing the raw elemental substance from which all worlds were made. The four Elemental Planes—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water—form a ring around the Material Plane. The border regions between these planes are sometimes described as distinct planes in their own right: the Para-elemental Planes.
These realms exemplify the physical essence and elemental nature of air, earth, fire, and water. The entire substance of the Elemental Plane of Fire, for example, is suffused with the fundamental nature of fire: energy, passion, transformation, and destruction. Even objects of solid brass or basalt seem to dance with flame in a manifestation of the vibrancy of fire’s dominion.
At their innermost edges, where they are conceptually closest to the Material Plane, the four Elemental Planes and the four Para-elemental Planes resemble places on the Material Plane. The four elements mingle together as they do on the Material Plane, forming land, sea, and sky. But the dominant element strongly influences the environment, altering those locations’ fundamental qualities.
The inhabitants of this inner ring include aarakocra, azers, dragon turtles, gargoyles, genies, lizardfolk, mephits, salamanders, and xorn. Some originated on the Material Plane, and all can travel to the Material Plane (if they have access to the magic required) and survive there.
As the Elemental Planes extend farther from the Material Plane, they become increasingly unstable and hostile. In the outer regions, the elements exist in their purest form: great expanses of solid earth, blazing fire, crystal-clear water, and unsullied air. Any foreign substance is extremely rare; little air can be found in the outer reaches of the Plane of Earth, and earth is all but impossible to find in the outer reaches of the Plane of Fire. These areas are much less hospitable to travelers from the Material Plane than the border regions are. Such regions are little known, so one who mentions the Plane of Fire, for example, usually means the border region.
The outer regions are the domains of creatures formed of the pure elements, including air, earth, fire, and water elementals. These are also the domains of the Elemental Princes of Evil—primordial beings of pure elemental fury.
At the outermost extents of the Elemental Planes, the pure elements dissolve and bleed together into an unending tumult of clashing energies and colliding substance called the Elemental Chaos. Elementals can be found here as well, but they usually don’t stay long, preferring the comfort of their native planes.
Outer Planes
If the Inner Planes are the raw matter and energy that make up the multiverse, the Outer Planes provide the direction, thought, and purpose for its construction. These are realms of spirituality and thought, the spheres where Celestials, Fiends, and deities dwell. The plane of Elysium, for example, isn’t merely a home for good creatures or where spirits of good creatures go when they die. It is the embodiment of goodness, a spiritual realm where evil can’t abide. It is as much a state of being and of mind as it is a physical location.
When discussing anything to do with deities and their realms, the language used must be highly metaphorical. Their actual homes aren’t literally places at all but exemplify the idea that the Outer Planes are realms of thought and spirit.
The planes with an element of good in their nature are called the Upper Planes, while those with an element of evil are the Lower Planes. A plane’s alignment (as shown in the Outer Planes table) is its essence, and a creature whose alignment doesn’t match the plane’s alignment experiences a sense of dissonance there. When a good creature visits Elysium, for example, it feels in tune with the plane, but an evil creature feels uncomfortable.
Outer Planes
| Outer Plane | Alignment |
|---|---|
| Abyss | Chaotic Evil |
| Acheron | Lawful Evil, Lawful Neutral |
| Arborea | Chaotic Good |
| Arcadia | Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral |
| Beastlands | Chaotic Good, Neutral Good |
| Bytopia | Lawful Good, Neutral Good |
| Carceri | Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil |
| Elysium | Neutral Good |
| Gehenna | Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil |
| Hades | Neutral Evil |
| Limbo | Chaotic Neutral |
| Mechanus | Lawful Neutral |
| Mount Celestia | Lawful Good |
| Nine Hells | Lawful Evil |
| Outlands | Neutral |
| Pandemonium | Chaotic Evil, Chaotic Neutral |
| Ysgard | Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral |
The Upper Planes are the home of Celestials. The Lower Planes are the home of Fiends. The planes in between host their own unique denizens: for example, modrons are Constructs that inhabit Mechanus, and slaadi are Aberrations that thrive in Limbo.
As with the Elemental Planes, one can imagine the perceptible part of the Outer Planes as a border region, while extensive spiritual regions lie beyond ordinary sensory experience. Even in perceptible regions, appearances can be deceptive. Initially, an Outer Plane might appear hospitable and familiar to natives of the Material Plane. But the landscape can change at the whim of a deity or other powerful forces that dwell on the plane, which can remake the realm completely, erasing and rebuilding existence to better fulfill those forces’ needs.
Distance is a virtually meaningless concept on the Outer Planes. A perceptible region of a plane might seem quite small on one visit, and on another trip it can stretch on to what seems like infinity. Adventurers could take a guided tour of the Nine Hells, from the first layer to the ninth, in a single day—if the powers of the Nine Hells desire it. Or it could take weeks for travelers to make a grueling trek across a single layer.
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Layers of the Outer Planes
Most Outer Planes include a number of distinct realms. These environments are often imagined as a stack of related parts of the same plane, so travelers refer to them as layers. For example, Mount Celestia resembles a sacred mountain with seven great plateaus along its ascent, the Nine Hells is like a pit where the River Styx plunges down through nine tiers, and the Abyss has a seemingly endless number of layers.
Like the planes themselves, the description of layers is highly metaphorical and subject to varying interpretations. The plane of Carceri, for example, has been described as a long series of spherical worlds arranged like beads on a string, with each sphere consisting of six nested spheres—the layers of the plane. This fanciful description is but one attempt to make sense of the distorted geography of a place that isn’t even a place in the ordinary sense of the word, but an alternate state of reality.
Most portals from elsewhere reach the first layer of a multilayered plane. This layer is depicted as the top or bottom layer, depending on the plane. As the arrival point for most visitors, the first layer functions like an antechamber for that plane.
Alignment and the Outer Planes
The Outer Planes are realms of thought and morality more than merely physical reality, and they can affect visitors on a deeply personal level as well as a physical one.
At your discretion, a creature that spends a long time on an Outer Plane that is not its home plan can begin to take on aspects of that plane’s ethos. Visitors to the Upper Planes might feel strange urges to perform deeds of kindness or compassion, while visitors to the Lower Planes might find themselves drawn to acts of cruelty or betrayal. Those who spend time on Mechanus and other lawful planes might feel their ties of loyalty to each other growing stronger, while those who visit Limbo and other chaotic planes might become temporarily more independent or self-absorbed. These tendencies are best handled as DM suggestions and then roleplayed by the players, but you might award Heroic Inspiration to characters who bring these characteristics to life in their characters.
Planar Dissonance. Celestials who visit the Lower Planes and Fiends who visit the Upper Planes experience significant discomfort if their visits last more than a few hours. After finishing a Long Rest on a plane that is alien to its nature, a Celestial or Fiend makes a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, whenever the creature makes a D20 Test, the creature must subtract 1d4 from the roll. The effect is cumulative with each failed save and ends when the creature finishes a Long Rest on a plane that isn’t opposed to its nature.
Planar Travel
When adventurers travel to other planes of existence, they undertake a legendary journey in which they might face supernatural guardians and undergo many ordeals. The nature of that journey and the trials along the way depend in part on the means of travel, such as magical portals or spells.
Planar Portals
A portal is a stationary, interplanar connection that links a specific location on one plane of existence to a specific location on another. Some portals function like doorways, appearing as a clear window or a fog-shrouded passage, and interplanar travel is as simple as moving through the portal. Other portals are locations—circles of standing stones, soaring towers, sailing ships, or even whole towns—that exist on multiple planes at once or flicker from one plane to another. Some are vortices, joining an Elemental Plane with a very similar location on the Material Plane, such as a swirling pool of magma in the heart of a volcano (leading to the Plane of Fire) or a maelstrom in the depths of the ocean (leading to the Plane of Water).
Passing through a planar portal can be the simplest way to travel from the Material Plane to a desired location on another plane. Often, though, a portal presents an adventure in itself.
First, the adventurers must find a portal that leads where they want to go. Most portals exist in distant locations, and a portal’s location often has thematic similarities to the plane it leads to. For example, a portal to Mount Celestia might be located on a mountain peak.
Second, portals often have guardians charged with ensuring that certain creatures don’t pass through. A portal’s guardian is typically a powerful magical creature, such as a djinni, a sphinx, a titan, or an inhabitant of the portal’s destination plane.
Finally, most portals aren’t open all the time, but open only in particular situations or when a certain requirement is met. A portal can have any requirement, but the following are the most common:
Command. The portal functions only if a particular command is given. A command is usually a word that can be invoked in any language (including a signed language). Sometimes the command must be given as a character passes through the portal (which is otherwise a mundane doorway, window, or similar opening). Other portals open when the command is given within 15 feet of themselves, and they remain open for 1d12 minutes.
Key Item. The portal functions if the traveler carries a particular object; the item acts much like a key to a door. This item can be a common object or a particular one created for that portal. The city of Sigil above the Outlands is known as the City of Doors because it features an overwhelming number of such item-keyed portals.
Random. The portal functions for a random period, then shuts down for a similarly random duration. Typically, such a portal allows 1d6 + 6 travelers to pass through, then closes for 1d6 days.
Situation. The portal functions only if a particular condition is met. A situation-keyed portal might open on a clear night, when it rains, or when a certain spell is cast in its vicinity.
Time. The portal functions only at particular times on the Material Plane: during a full moon, during the spring equinox or winter solstice, or when the stars are in certain positions. Once it opens, such a portal remains open for a limited time, such as for 3 days following the full moon, for 1 hour, or for 10 minutes.
Learning and meeting a portal’s requirements can draw characters into further adventures as they chase down a key item, scour old libraries for commands, or consult sages to find the right time to visit the portal.
Spells
A number of spells allow direct or indirect access to different planes of existence. Gate and Plane Shift can directly transport adventurers to any other plane, with different degrees of precision. Etherealness allows adventurers to enter the Ethereal Plane. And Astral Projection lets adventurers project themselves into the Astral Plane and from there travel to the Outer Planes.
Traveling the Outer Planes
Described in the sections that follow are four planar features that connect multiple Outer Planes:
Other planar crossings might exist in your campaign, or it might be possible to walk (or journey aboard a wondrous train or similar vehicle) from one plane to another in your cosmology.
Infinite Staircase
The Infinite Staircase is an extradimensional staircase that connects the planes. An entrance to the Infinite Staircase usually appears as a nondescript door. Beyond the portal lies a small landing with a stairway leading up and down. The Infinite Staircase changes appearance as it climbs and descends, going from simple stairs of wood or stone to a chaotic jumble of stairs hanging in radiant space, where no two steps share the same gravitational orientation. It includes ramps, hovering platforms, and clockwork conveyor belts along its endless construction. The adventure anthology Quests from the Infinite Staircase provides more details about this planar pathway.
The staircase is home to Nafas, a noble genie created by the planar winds that blow into the expanse through its myriad doors. A distant and benevolent observer, Nafas hears wishes spoken throughout the multiverse—wishes he fulfills with the help of adventurers who happen upon his aeolian palace.
Doors to the Infinite Staircase are often tucked away in dusty, half-forgotten places that no one frequents or pays any attention to. On any given plane, multiple doors might lead to the Infinite Staircase, though entrances aren’t common knowledge and are occasionally guarded by devas, sphinxes, yugoloths, and other powerful monsters.
River Oceanus
The water of the Oceanus is sweet and fragrant, as befits its headwaters in the Blessed Fields of Elysium. This plane-spanning waterway provides a path through some of the Upper Planes. It flows through each of Elysium’s layers, passes through the top layer of the Beastlands, streams across the top layer of Arborea, and finally drains away somewhere in Arborea’s second layer.
Though it isn’t as far-reaching as the Styx, the Oceanus is still a commonly used path between planes and layers. Trading vessels sail up and down its length, and small towns line its banks. Travelers can usually find a boat to hire somewhere along its shores.
River Styx
The River Styx bubbles with grease, foul flotsam, and the putrid remains of battles along its banks. The ill effects of the Styx are described under “Hazards” in chapter 3.
The Styx churns through the top layers of Acheron, the Nine Hells, Gehenna, Hades, Carceri, the Abyss, and Pandemonium. Tributaries of the Styx snake through lower layers of these planes. For example, a tendril of the Styx winds through every layer of the Nine Hells, allowing passage from one layer of that plane to the next.
Sinister ferries float on the waters of the Styx, crewed by pilots skilled in negotiating the unpredictable currents and eddies of the river. For a price, these pilots carry passengers from plane to plane. Some pilots are Fiends, while others are the souls of dead creatures from the Material Plane.
Yggdrasil, the World Tree
The World Tree, Yggdrasil, is a cosmic ash tree that spans the Outer Planes and links them to many worlds of the Material Plane. Its roots stretch into the Lower Planes, touching Hades, Pandemonium, and possibly other Lower Planes. Most of its massive trunk rises through the plane of Ysgard, and its branches stretch through the Upper Planes and across the Astral to the Material Plane.
Some legends describe a great tree, a seedling of Yggdrasil, that the god Corellon planted and tended on the First World at the dawn of time. When the First World was destroyed, seeds from this tree scattered into the void and took root to form the worlds of the Material Plane. Thus, many philosophers and naturalists view all trees or even all plants as descendants of Yggdrasil, part of a vast network of plant life across the multiverse.
Planar travelers can climb among the roots and branches of Yggdrasil to travel from plane to plane or world to world. Some creatures position themselves as expert guides to this vast cosmic network of branching pathways, constantly studying the ever-changing paths as the tree continues its eternal growth.
Axel Defois
A portal to the Beastlands opens amid the branches of the World Tree
Planar Adventuring
In real-world myths, legends, and literature, venturing onto other planes of existence isn’t simply a matter of visiting an unusual environment inhabited by strange creatures; it’s a journey with meaning expressed through layers of symbol and metaphor. Adventuring on the planes of the D&D cosmology is an opportunity to craft similarly meaningful and profound journeys.
Planar adventures ought to be extraordinary. As adventurers reach the medium to high levels of your campaign, they find more cause to venture beyond the confines of the world they call home and explore the planes. If you are ready for the party to undertake a truly mythic quest, such as to find a lost Artifact or an elusive extraplanar entity, the vast multiverse is yours to explore. As their physical and magical abilities are put to the test, the characters might find their emotions, values, and spirits challenged as well.
The Blood War
Throughout history, the teeming demon hordes of the Abyss and the regimented legions of devils from the Nine Hells have battled for supremacy in the cosmos. On worlds of the Material Plane, those who know of the conflict refer to it as the Blood War—a conflict that has raged for millennia, ravaging the Lower Planes.
The battlefields of the Blood War are concentrated in the Nine Hells and the Abyss, though fighting also takes place on the Material Plane, on the planes between those realms on the Great Wheel, and anywhere else demons and devils congregate. Although the intensity of the conflict waxes and wanes, and the front lines of the war can shift drastically, a moment never goes by when demons and devils aren’t battling each other somewhere in the multiverse.
Many demons and devils are obsessed with finding some advantage for their side in the Blood War, and powerful mortal adventurers are sometimes drawn into tangled schemes to that end. Additionally, open conflict between Fiends is a constant threat on most of the Lower Planes, even when it is incidental to the missions that bring characters to those planes. A simple quest to find a treasure lost in Hades becomes much less simple when the treasure is located in the midst of a raging battle!
Natives of the Upper Planes also have roles to play in the Blood War. While most of them are content to watch evil feed on itself, they still take steps to minimize the threat to the rest of the multiverse. Whenever the Blood War spills into a location outside the Abyss and the Nine Hells, angels and other emissaries of the gods—including mortals of exceptional valor—stand ready to intervene.
Planar Adventure Situations
You can use the Planar Adventure Situations table instead of the tables in the “Adventure Situations by Level” section in chapter 4 to inspire adventures that draw characters into the planes of existence. These adventure ideas are most appropriate for characters of level 11+.
Planar Adventure Situations
| 1d10 | Situation |
|---|---|
| 1 | When magic fails to revive a dead person, the only solution is to venture to the Outer Planes to find the person’s spirit and either release it from some prison or convince the person to return to life. |
| 2 | People who venture into the woods keep accidentally wandering into the Feywild or the Shadowfell. They might never return, return with no sense of how much time has passed, or return dramatically changed. |
| 3 | A long-dead oracle is the only one who knows how a terrible prophecy might be averted, but the cataclysmic fulfillment of the prophecy has already begun. |
| 4 | A god has stopped answering prayers and won’t respond to any Commune spell. |
| 5 | A devil has tricked an angel into meddling in the Blood War, and the angel seeks mortal aid. |
| 6 | A ancestor of one of the characters must be convinced to bless the character before the full power of the character’s bloodline can be unleashed. |
| 7 | A foolhardy knight carried a holy weapon on a doomed mission into the Nine Hells, and the powers of Mount Celestia want the weapon and the knight’s remains retrieved. |
| 8 | A titan is imprisoned on an Outer Plane. The characters might be trying to stop those who seek to release it, or they might want to release it to help defend the world from a greater threat. |
| 9 | To prove themselves worthy of an even greater quest, the characters are sent to slay a horrible monster, win the favor of a powerful planar being, negotiate peace between two warring planar factions, or retrieve a long-lost item on another plane. |
| 10 | An item of legend is being sold at auction in Sigil, the City of Brass, or some other planar metropolis. |
Tour of the Multiverse
Each plane in the multiverse is described below. The planes are presented in alphabetical order.
Abyss
The Abyss embodies all that is perverse, gruesome, and chaotic. Its virtually endless layers spiral downward into ever more appalling forms.
Each layer of the Abyss boasts a horrific environment that is harsh and inhospitable to mortals. Each layer also reflects the entropic nature of the Abyss. Much of the plane seems to be in a decaying, crumbling, or corroded state, and its corruption affects visitors (see “Curses and Magical Contagions” in chapter 3).
Layers of the Abyss
The layers of the Abyss are numbered based on the sequence of their discovery and cataloging by explorers from Sigil. Thus, the Plain of Infinite Portals is identified as the first layer, Azzagrat encompasses the 45th, 46th, and 47th layers; the Demonweb is the 66th layer; and so on. The Layers of the Abyss table presents several infamous layers; detailed descriptions of these layers follow the table.
Layers of the Abyss
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| The Plain of Infinite Portals | On layer 1, corroded iron fortresses defend routes to lower layers. |
| Azzagrat | Graz’zt’s corrupt, decadent city is split across layers 45, 46, and 47. |
| The Demonweb | On layer 66, Lolth’s web snares all and hides portals to other planes. |
| Gaping Maw | Layer 88 is a malevolent wilderness surrounding Demogorgon’s ocean fortress. |
| Thanatos | On layer 113, an endless graveyard hosts Orcus and the sleepless dead. |
| The Slime Pits (Shedaklah) | Layer 222, a fetid realm of ooze and fungi, obeys the whims of Juiblex and Zuggtmoy. |
| The Death Dells | Yeenoghu and his gnoll servants prowl layer 422—a cruel, desolate realm. |
| The Endless Maze | Layer 600’s endless labyrinth turns visitors into Baphomet’s prey. |
Layer 1: The Plain of Infinite Portals
This layer is the miserable gateway to the infinite layers of the Abyss. Under a glaring red sun, the rocky ground contains gaping craters that are portals to the other layers of the Abyss. Other portals lead to Pandemonium, Sigil, the gate-town of Plague-Mort in the Outlands, and the Astral Plane, making this layer the best way to escape the horrors of the Abyss. Iron fortresses dot the landscape, homes to petty lords and upstart demons that are as changeable as the Abyss itself.
The portal leading to Plague-Mort is tucked within a fortress called the Broken Reach, ruled by a succubus named Red Shroud. In the Broken Reach, those who can prove their strength and mettle can stay unharmed for a few days at least.
Layers 45–47: Azzagrat
The demon lord Graz’zt embodies manipulation and cruelty, tempting mortals with the promise of appalling delights and decadent luxuries. He rules over the realm of Azzagrat, which encompasses three interconnected layers of the Abyss. His seat of power is the fantastic Argent Palace in the city of Zelatar, whose bustling markets and pleasure palaces draw visitors from across the multiverse in search of obscure magical lore and perverse delights. By Graz’zt’s command, the demons of Azzagrat present a veneer of civility and courtly comity. However, the so-called Triple Realm holds as much danger as any other part of the Abyss, and planar visitors can vanish without a trace in its mazelike cities and in forests whose trees have serpents for branches.
Layer 66: The Demonweb
Lolth is the Demon Queen of Spiders, whose schemes entangle entire civilizations on worlds across the multiverse. Of all demon lords, she might have the most active interest in the worlds of the Material Plane and in the cultists who do her bidding on those worlds, but her interest lies only in domination.
Lolth’s layer is an immense network of thick, magical webbing that forms passageways and cocoonlike chambers. Structures, ships, and other objects are caught in the webbing. The webs conceal random portals that snare objects from demiplanes and Material Plane worlds that figure into the schemes of the Spider Queen. Lolth’s servants also build dungeons amid the webbing, trapping and hunting Lolth’s hated enemies within crisscrossing corridors of web-mortared stone. Far beneath these dungeons lie the bottomless Demonweb Pits where the Spider Queen dwells with her most loyal servants—yochlol demons created to serve her that outrank mightier demons while in the Spider Queen’s realm.
Layer 88: The Gaping Maw
The Sibilant Beast and the self-styled Prince of Demons, Demogorgon yearns for nothing less than undoing the order of the multiverse. A two-headed monster who seems as much in conflict with himself as with other beings, the Prince of Demons inspires fear and hatred among other demons and demon lords.
Demogorgon’s layer is a vast wilderness of brutality and horror known as the Gaping Maw, where even powerful demons are overcome by fear. Reflecting Demogorgon’s dual nature, the Gaping Maw consists of a massive primeval continent covered in dense jungle, surrounded by a seemingly endless expanse of ocean and brine flats. The Prince of Demons rules his layer from two serpentine towers, which emerge from a turbid sea. Each tower is topped with an enormous fanged skull. The spires constitute the fortress of Abysm, where echoes of Demogorgon’s turbulent thoughts resound through the halls, tearing at the minds of creatures who dare to enter.
Layer 113: Thanatos
Known as the Demon Prince of Undeath and the Blood Lord, the demon lord Orcus is worshiped by Undead and by living creatures that channel the power of undeath. A brooding and nihilistic entity, Orcus yearns to make the multiverse a place of death and despair, forever unchanging except by his will, and to turn all creatures into Undead under his control.
Orcus’s realm of Thanatos is a land of bleak mountains, barren moors, ruined cities, and forests of twisted black trees under a black sky. Tombs, mausoleums, gravestones, and sarcophagi litter the landscape. Undead swarm across the plane, bursting from their tombs and graves to tear apart any creatures foolish enough to journey here.
Orcus rules Thanatos from a vast palace known as Everlost, crafted of obsidian and bone. Set in a howling wasteland called Oblivion’s End, the palace is surrounded by tombs and graves dug into the sheer slopes of narrow valleys, creating a tiered necropolis.
Layer 222: The Slime Pits
Also known as Shedaklah, this layer is ruled by two separate yet equally repugnant demon lords—Juiblex and Zuggtmoy—who coexist with little conflict.
Juiblex, the Demon Lord of Slimes and Oozes, is an amorphous mass that lurks in the abyssal depths. The wretched Faceless Lord cares nothing for cultists or mortal servants, and its sole desire is to turn all creatures into formless copies of its horrid self. Zuggtmoy is the Demon Queen of Fungi and the Lady of Rot and Decay. Her primary desire is to infect the living with spores, transforming them into her servants and, eventually, into decomposing hosts for the mushrooms, molds, and other fungi that she spawns.
As the name suggests, the Slime Pits is a bubbling morass of fetid sludge. The landscape is covered in vast expanses of caustic slimes, and strange organic forms rise from the oceans of ooze at Juiblex’s command. Zuggtmoy’s palace consists of two dozen immense mushrooms, among the largest in existence, hollowed into grand chambers and twisting corridors. The palace is surrounded by a field of acidic puffballs and poisonous vapors.
Layer 422: The Death Dells
The demon lord Yeenoghu hungers for slaughter and senseless destruction. Gnolls are his instruments on the Material Plane, and he drives them to ever-greater atrocities in his name. Delighting in sorrow and hopelessness, the Gnoll Lord yearns to turn the cosmos into a wasteland in which the last surviving gnolls tear one another apart for the right to feast upon the dead.
Yeenoghu rules a layer of ravines and badlands known as the Death Dells. Here, creatures must hunt to survive. Even plants try to snare the unwary to bathe their roots in blood. Yeenoghu’s servants, helping to sate their master’s hunger as he prowls his kingdom, capture creatures from the Material Plane for release in the Gnoll Lord’s realm.
Layer 600: The Endless Maze
The demon lord Baphomet, also known as the Horned King and the Prince of Beasts, embodies bestial bloodlust. If he had his way, civilization would crumble and all mortals would embrace their predatory instincts.
Baphomet’s layer is a never-ending dungeon with the Horned King’s enormous palace at its center. A confusing jumble of crooked hallways and myriad chambers, the palace is surrounded by a mile-wide moat concealing a confounding series of submerged stairs and tunnels leading deeper into the fortress.
Abyss Adventures
The Abyss embodies the loathsome corruption of chaos and evil. A descent into the Abyss is a journey into a hostile and uncharted environment. It’s also an opportunity to confront the evil in one’s own heart and to resist the temptation to turn against allies in order to survive. Heroic characters might make a desperate last stand against endless hordes of demons here, or they might try to avoid detection while seeking a holy relic left behind by some lost hero who dared to venture here.
It’s the nature of the Abyss to contaminate the other planes it touches. Opening a portal to the Abyss from any other plane allows the Abyss to create tiny pockets of Abyssal evil that can eventually become so corrupted that they’re drawn into the Abyss. Thus, adventurers exploring a desecrated temple or fetid swamp on the Material Plane can unexpectedly find themselves in a demon-infested environment very much like the Abyss without ever leaving their home plane.
Andrew Mar
The detritus of the Planes is tangled in the Demonweb Pits
Acheron
Acheron is made of immense iron blocks whose metallic surfaces ring beneath the marching feet of endless armies. These blocks drift through an airy void, sometimes colliding with a fearsome clang, crushing all between them and sending shudders through the plane.
Acheron has four layers, with the largest blocks gravitating to the top layer. Some scholars have theorized that the crashing blocks of the upper layers are eventually broken down into smaller chunks of matter that sink to the lower layers. The truth is actually the opposite: the tiny shards of Ocanthus, the lowest layer, break off from an icy mire in its deepest recesses and are gradually assembled and organized, perhaps under the influence of nearby Mechanus, into the perfect cubes of Avalas.
The nature of Acheron instills bloodlust in those who visit the plane (see “Environmental Effects” in chapter 3).
Layers of Acheron
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Avalas | Spirit soldiers wage endless wars across debris-strewn battlefields. |
| Thuldanin | Pitted, hollow cubes are filled with the cast-off machinery of war. |
| Tintibulus | Jagged blocks tumble in darkness, holding frozen memories sapped by the River Styx and crystallized into fleeting images. |
| Ocanthus | Maelstroms of razor-sharp debris swirl above a mire of black ice. |
Acheron Adventures
Acheron is a plane of enforced order, where rigid conformity leads to crushed spirits and broken hopes. The spirits here can’t conceive of anyone refusing to obey the will of their commanders. They are dedicated soldiers, forever lacking a cause.
A journey into Acheron is a confrontation with the bleak nihilism of unending conflict, the harsh reality of authoritarian rule, and the uncaring pressures of social conformity. It’s also an opportunity for characters to grapple with the question of what they are fighting for, among armies that have forgotten how to even ask the question.
On a more literal level, an adventure in Acheron can involve preventing a villain from scavenging Thuldanin for some new horror of warfare to be unleashed on the battlefield. Or it might require retrieving a secret from the imprisoned thoughts or memories found in the blocks of Tintibulus.
Arborea
Arborea is a plane of extremes: stupendously craggy mountains; unbelievably deep gorges; forests of monstrously huge trees; and vast stretches of wheat fields, orchards, and arbors. Wild-hearted nature spirits dwell in every glade and stream, brooking no infringement. Travelers must tread lightly.
The air of Arborea seems charged with excitement. Sudden squalls brew up out of nowhere, beating the tree-lined paths with heavy winds. The storms pass within minutes and leave behind warm arcs of sunlight filtering through the forest canopy. Music always seems to be playing in the distance; sometimes it originates from groups of elf musicians, but just as often the faint tune is merely the wind curling through the boles of the great trees.
Layers of Arborea
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Arvandor | Towering trees, colorful wildflowers, abundant grain, and delicious fruit create a lush environment. |
| Aquallor | An eternal ocean fed by the River Oceanus is home to teeming sea life and mighty storms. |
| Mithardir | A desert of white sand is abandoned by whatever powers once lived there. |
Arborea Adventures
Arborea is a larger-than-life place of violent moods and deep affections, of whim backed by steel, and of passions that blaze brightly until they burn out. Its good-natured inhabitants are dedicated to fighting evil, but their reckless emotions sometimes break free with devastating consequences. Rage is as common and as honored as joy in Arborea.
An adventure in Arborea can be an opportunity for characters to discover who they are when masks fall away and the honesty of unfettered emotion is revealed. The inhabitants of the plane are accustomed to this emotional honesty. Lifelong friends might share a laugh over food and wine, cross blades over a mutual lover, and write songs celebrating each other’s courage and integrity, all in a single evening. For those who aren’t accustomed to this candor, though, it can lead to hurt feelings and lingering resentment.
Creatures that visit Arborea and then leave sometimes experience a desperate desire to return—a yearning so intense that it can interfere with day-to-day life.
What secrets lie buried in the sands of Mithardir? An expedition might involve investigating whatever gods or Celestials once inhabited the silver desert or find some knowledge they possessed.
Arcadia
Arcadia thrives with orchards of perfectly lined trees, ruler-straight streams, orderly fields, immaculate roads, and cities laid out in geometrically pleasing shapes. The mountains bear no trace of erosion.
Olga Drebas
Night and day are determined by an orb that floats in the sky above both of Arcadia’s layers. Half of the orb radiates sunlight and brings about the day; the other half sheds moonlight and brings on the starry night. The orb rotates evenly without fail, spreading day and night across the entire plane.
The weather in Arcadia is governed by four allied demigods called the Storm Kings: the Cloud King, the Wind Queen, the Lightning King, and the Rain Queen. Each one lives in a castle surrounded by the type of weather that ruler controls.
Arcadia is suffused with a vigorous life energy that bestows great vitality on visitors (see “Environmental Effects” in chapter 3).
Layers of Arcadia
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Abellio | Everything in these fields of plenty is dedicated to the good of all. |
| Buxenus | Military forces gather their strength, amid pleasant valleys and orchards, to reclaim the lost layer of Menausus—now part of Mechanus. |
Arcadia Adventures
Everything on Arcadia works toward the common good and a flawless existence. Here, purity is eternal, and nothing intrudes on harmony. Individuality is subsumed to peaceful life in community, and military might can be brought to bear on those who disrupt that peace.
An adventure in Arcadia can be an opportunity to explore the tension between individual freedom and societal responsibility for the common good. Even lawfully inclined adventurers rarely conform neatly to social expectations, and a visit to this plane can highlight that conflict.
Astral Plane
The Astral Plane is a realm of thought and dream, where visitors travel as disembodied souls to reach the Outer Planes. It is a great silvery sea, the same above and below, with swirling wisps of white and gray streaking among motes of light—the distant stars of far-flung Wildspace systems. Most of the Astral Sea is a vast, empty expanse. Visitors occasionally stumble upon the petrified corpse of a dead god or other chunks of rock drifting forever in the silvery void. Much more commonplace are color pools—magical pools of colored light that flicker like radiant, spinning coins.
Creatures on the Astral Plane don’t age or suffer from hunger or thirst. For this reason, creatures that live on the Astral Plane (such as githyanki) establish outposts on other planes, often the Material Plane, so their children can grow to maturity.
Navigating the Astral Plane
A traveler in the Astral Plane can move by simply thinking about moving, but distance has little meaning. In combat, though, a creature has a Fly Speed (in feet) equal to 5 times its Intelligence score and can hover.
Just as movement is accomplished by the power of thought, all that is required to find one’s destination is to think about it. As long as the destination is somewhere in the Astral Plane (or in Wildspace, as described below)—such as “the nearest githyanki outpost,” “the nearest color pool leading to the Abyss,” or “the Wildspace system of Realmspace”—thinking about a place makes the creature aware of the most direct route to that location. The creature doesn’t know how long the journey will take or how perilous it will be, just which direction to go in.
The DM decides how long it takes to get to a desired destination. A trek to a specific location—a particular Wildspace system or Astral outpost, for example—might take 4d6 days. For a more general location, such as a color pool leading to a specified plane, the journey might take 1d4 × 10 hours.
Dead Gods
The Astral Plane is where the petrified remains of dead gods end up—gods who were slain by more powerful entities or who lost all their mortal worshipers and perished as a result. A dead god looks like a gigantic, nondescript stone statue that bears little resemblance to the divine entity it once was. Githyanki, mind flayers, and other residents of the Astral Plane sometimes turn these drifting hulks into outposts and cities, many of which are hollowed out beneath the surface. The githyanki city of Tu’narath is perhaps the most infamous such place.
Color Pools
Gateways leading from the Astral Plane to other planes appear as two-dimensional pools of rippling colors, 1d6 × 10 feet in diameter. (“Color,” as with everything in the Astral Plane, is a matter of metaphor; since these portals are perceived by the Astral self and not by physical eyes, their colors are understood rather than seen.) Traveling to another plane requires locating a color pool that leads to the desired plane. These gateways can be identified by color, as shown on the Astral Color Pools table.
Astral Color Pools
| 1d20 | Plane | Pool Color |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abyss | Amethyst |
| 2 | Acheron | Flame red |
| 3 | Arborea | Sapphire blue |
| 4 | Arcadia | Saffron |
| 5 | Beastlands | Emerald green |
| 6 | Bytopia | Amber |
| 7 | Carceri | Olive |
| 8 | Elysium | Orange |
| 9 | Ethereal Plane | Spiraling white |
| 10 | Gehenna | Russet |
| 11 | Hades | Rust |
| 12 | Limbo | Jet black |
| 13–14 | Material Plane | Silver |
| 15 | Mechanus | Diamond blue |
| 16 | Mount Celestia | Gold |
| 17 | Nine Hells | Ruby |
| 18 | Outlands | Leather brown |
| 19 | Pandemonium | Magenta |
| 20 | Ysgard | Indigo |
Wildspace
Bobbing in the Astral Plane like corks in an ocean are vast, airless expanses called Wildspace systems. In these systems, the Astral Plane overlaps with the Material Plane, and the stars and planets of the Material Plane are accessible from the Astral Plane. Every world of the Material Plane is situated in a Wildspace system.
As an Astral traveler approaches a Wildspace system, the silver fog of the Astral Plane gradually thins until it falls away in Wildspace. Then the sun of the Wildspace system comes into view—often millions of miles away—along with colorful gas clouds, planets, moons, and other cosmic bodies.
A Wildspace system teems with space-dwelling life-forms, including spores, plankton, and larger creatures that resemble fish and aquatic mammals. Creatures and objects in Wildspace age normally and exist on both the Astral Plane and Material Plane simultaneously. This overlap enables creatures to use spells such as Teleport to travel from Wildspace to a nearby world, or vice versa. A creature or ship traveling from one Wildspace system to another must cross the Astral Plane unless it has some other magical means of traveling from one world to another. (See “Material Plane” in this chapter.) Spelljammer: Adventures in Space contains extensive information about Wildspace and Astral travel.
Bruce Brenneise
A spelljamming wasp ship approaches the githyanki city of Tu’Narath
Psychic Wind
A psychic wind is a storm of thought that batters travelers’ minds rather than their bodies. The storm is made of lost memories, forgotten ideas, and subconscious fears that went astray in the Astral Plane and conglomerated into this powerful force.
A psychic wind is first sensed as a rapid darkening of the silver-gray sky. After 1d4 minutes, the area becomes as dark as a moonless night. As the sky darkens, the traveler feels buffeting and shaking, as if the plane were rebelling against the storm. As quickly as it comes, the psychic wind passes, and the sky returns to normal in 1 minute.
A group of travelers journeying together is subjected to one location effect, determined by consulting the Psychic Wind Locations Effects table.
Psychic Wind Location Effects
| 1d20 | Location Effect |
|---|---|
| 1–8 | Diverted; add 1d6 days to travel time |
| 9–12 | Blown astray; add 3d10 days to travel time |
| 13–16 | Lost; at the end of the travel time, the characters arrive at a location other than the intended destination |
| 17–20 | Sent through a random color pool (roll on the Astral Color Pools table) |
Each traveler caught in a psychic wind makes a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, the traveler suffers a random effect from the Psychic Wind Psychic Effects table as well.
Psychic Wind Psychic Effects
| 1d20 | Psychic Effect |
|---|---|
| 1–8 | You have the Stunned condition for 1 minute; you repeat the saving throw at the end of each of your turns, ending the effect on yourself on a success. |
| 9–12 | You take 11 (2d10) Psychic damage. |
| 13–17 | You take 22 (4d10) Psychic damage. |
| 18–20 | You have the Unconscious condition for 5 (1d10) hours; the effect on you ends if you take damage or if another creature takes an action to shake you awake. |
Astral Plane Adventures
Characters most often visit the Astral Plane as a way of getting somewhere else—either to one of the Outer Planes or to different worlds of the Material Plane via Wildspace. En route, they might encounter fellow travelers, such as Celestials, Fiends, slaadi, modrons, or githyanki.
As a realm of thought, memory, and dream, the Astral Plane can also be an adventure destination. Characters might try to plumb the crystallized thoughts of dead gods or sift information from the torrent of a psychic wind. Or they could face Astral manifestations of their own memories, fears, and dreams.
Beastlands
The Beastlands is a plane of nature unbound, of forests ranging from moss-hung mangroves to snow-laden pines, of thick jungles where the branches are woven so tight that no light penetrates, of vast plains where grains and wildflowers wave in the wind with vibrant life. The plane embodies nature’s wildness and beauty, but it also speaks to the animal within all living creatures—not necessarily in a fierce, predatory way but with respect to their physical substance and fundamental needs. The spirits of the dead on the Beastlands typically take animal forms or part-animal forms (such as centaurs). Among the greatest inhabitants of this plane are the primal spirits called animal lords.
Whenever a visitor slays a Beast native to the plane, the slayer must succeed on a DC 10 Charisma saving throw or shape-shift into the type of Beast that was slain. The creature’s game statistics are replaced by the Beast’s stat block, but the creature retains its alignment, personality, creature type, Intelligence score, and ability to speak. At the end of each Long Rest, the shape-shifted creature repeats the save. On a successful save, the creature returns to its true form. After three failed saves, the transformation can be undone only by a Remove Curse spell or similar magic.
Layers of the Beastlands
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Krigala | The River Oceanus is a strong torrent flowing through this wilderness of eternal summer noon. |
| Brux | A red sun hovers forever on the horizon as mists and streams roil through the trees in eternal twilight. |
| Karasuthra | A pale moon provides the only light in this wilderness of eternal night. |
Beastlands Adventures
The Beastlands embodies wild, beautiful nature and the vibrant power of life thriving in the natural world. Visitors to the plane feel invigorated and more vital—their minds more alert, their reflexes sharpened, and their strides quickened. Hunger pangs are acute, but food and drink taste better than ever before. Sleep is always deep and restful, and sleepers always awaken alert.
Adventures in the Beastlands might explore the ways that good philosophies, while purporting to value life, actually devalue the physical nature of life in favor of abstract concepts of law and ethics. Characters might end up in conflict with those who dismiss animals as inferior and irrelevant forms of life.
Bytopia
The surfaces of Bytopia’s two layers face each other like the covers of a closed book. Looking up from Dothion, the “top” layer of the plane, a traveler can see Shurrock, its other layer, about a mile overhead. Both layers are idealized worlds that reflect the plane’s philosophy of personal achievement alongside social interdependence.
Layers of Bytopia
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Dothion | Farms nestled among well-tamed woods are hubs of pastoral activity and individual industry. |
| Shurrock | Small communities thrive around quarries and mills amid rough country and harsh weather. |
Bytopia Adventures
Bytopia is the heaven of productive work, the satisfaction of a job well done. The goodness flowing through the plane creates feelings of goodwill and happiness in creatures dwelling there. While Dothion rewards those who seek a quiet life, Shurrock is the paradise of those who continually challenge and better themselves.
The two layers of Bytopia are often referred to as the “Twin Paradises,” and it’s said that every action carried out on one layer has repercussions on the other—an equal and opposite reaction, though a more metaphorical than physical one. An adventure in Bytopia might challenge characters to recognize the impact their actions have on the world by witnessing the mirrored reactions to their deeds on the opposite layer.
Carceri
The grim inspiration for all other prisons in existence, Carceri is a plane of desolation and despair. Its six layers hold vast bogs, fetid jungles, windswept deserts, jagged mountains, frigid oceans, and black ice. All form a miserable home for the traitors and backstabbers trapped on this prison plane.
Layers of Carceri
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Orthrys | The River Styx meanders through a layer of vast bogs and quicksand. |
| Cathrys | The stench of decay hangs over fetid jungles and scarlet plains. |
| Minethys | Stinging sand blows in unending storms, hiding the ruins of the ancient city Payratheon. |
| Colothys | Deep chasms cut between cruel mountains make foot travel nearly impossible. |
| Porphatys | Cold, acidic oceans are fed by constant black snow. |
| Agathys | Black ice streaked with red covers this frigid realm. |
Prison Plane
Dawn Carlos
Unknown horrors are entrapped in the ice of Carceri
No one can leave Carceri easily. Magical efforts to leave the plane by any spell other than Wish simply fail. Portals and gates that open onto the plane become one-way only. Secret passages out of the plane exist, but they are hidden and well guarded by traps and deadly monsters. And though the River Styx flows between Carceri and its neighbors, the passage is extremely dangerous, and ferries leading out of Carceri are both rare and expensive.
Carceri Adventures
Carceri is a sunless plane of despair, of passions and poisons, and of realm-shattering betrayals. Hatreds run like a deep, slow-moving river, and there’s no telling what the flood of treachery will consume next. It is said that prisoners can escape Carceri only by becoming stronger than whatever force imprisoned them there, but that’s a difficult task on a plane whose very nature breeds despair and betrayal. The same tendency toward betrayal prevents those who are imprisoned here from working together for long toward the common goal of escape.
Adventures on Carceri might explore the forces—spiritual and psychological as well as physical and outright demonic—that keep characters trapped or imprisoned there. Characters might help a prisoner escape, from an unjustly held spirit to some primeval god banished to oblivion here.
Demiplanes
Demiplanes are extradimensional spaces that come into being by a variety of means and boast their own physical laws. Some are created by spells. Others are natural folds of reality pinched off from the rest of the multiverse. Theoretically, a Plane Shift spell can carry travelers to a demiplane, but the proper frequency required for the tuning fork can be extremely hard to acquire. The Gate spell is more reliable, assuming the caster knows of the demiplane.
A demiplane can be as small as a single chamber or large enough to contain an entire realm. For example, a Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion spell creates a demiplane consisting of a foyer with multiple adjoining rooms, while the land of Barovia exists entirely within a demiplane under the sway of its vampire lord, Strahd von Zarovich. When a demiplane is connected to the Material Plane or some other plane, entering the demiplane can be as simple as moving through a portal or passing through a wall of mist.
Demiplane Adventures
Demiplanes are limited realities shaped according to the will of whoever created them. Adventures in demiplanes might let characters explore how they would shape reality to suit their desires and ideals, or confront distortions of reality crafted by villains.
Elemental Plane of Air
Noor Rahman
Aarakocra scouts return home to a city on the Plane of Air
The Plane of Air is home to constant winds of varying strength. Here and there, chunks of earth drift in the openness, many covered with lush vegetation. These earth motes serve as homes for djinn and other natives of the plane. Other creatures live on cloud banks infused with magic to become solid surfaces, supporting towns and castles.
Drifting clouds can obscure visibility in any direction in the plane. Storms are frequent, ranging from strong thunderstorms to fierce tornadoes or mighty hurricanes. The air is mild, except near the Para-elemental Planes at either end of the plane, where the temperature is more extreme. Rain and snow fall only in the part of the plane nearest to the Para-elemental Plane of Ice.
Although few landmarks distinguish one area of the Plane of Air from any other, the following are notable features of the plane:
Aaqa
Here and there are hidden realms reachable only by following a particular sequence of flowing winds. Fabled Aaqa is one such realm, a shining domain of silver spires and verdant gardens atop a fertile earth mote. The Wind Dukes of Aaqa are dedicated to law and good, and they maintain a vigilant watch against the depredations of Elemental Evil. They are served by aarakocra.
Labyrinth Winds
Much of the Plane of Air is a complex web of air streams, currents, and winds called the Labyrinth Winds. These range from stiff breezes to howling gales that can rip a creature apart. Even the most skilled flying creatures must navigate these currents carefully, flying with the winds, not against them.
Mistral Reach
Located near the Para-elemental Plane of Ice, the Mistral Reach is a region of frigid winds and driving snowstorms. Earth motes in the reach are covered with snow and ice.
Sirocco Straits
The Sirocco Straits is the region of the plane nearest to the Para-elemental Plane of Ash, where hot, dry winds scour earth motes into barren chunks of rock.
Plane of Air Adventures
The essential nature of air is movement, animation, and inspiration. Air is the breath of life, the winds of change, the fresh breeze that clears away the fog of ignorance and the stuffiness of old ideas.
When turned toward wicked ideals by cultists of Elemental Evil, elemental air represents destructive power turned to vengeful ends. Cultists of Evil Air wield howling storms to forcefully express their personal freedom or lay claim to things they feel they have been wrongfully denied.
Elemental Plane of Earth
The Plane of Earth is a chain of mountains rising higher than any mountain range on the Material Plane. It has no sun of its own, and no air surrounds the peaks of its highest mountains. Most visitors to the plane arrive by way of vast caverns that honeycomb the mountains.
Important features of the Plane of Earth include the following:
City of Jewels
The plane’s largest cavern, called the Great Dismal Delve or the Sevenfold Mazework, is home to the City of Jewels—the capital city of the dao. The dao take great pride in their wealth and send teams across the plane in search of new veins of ore and gemstones. Thanks to these expeditions, every building and significant object in the city is made from precious stones and metals, including the slender gemstone-inlaid spires that top most buildings. The city is protected by a powerful spell that alerts the entire population if a visitor steals even a single stone.
Furnaces
The Furnaces are the mountains nearest the Para-elemental Plane of Magma. Lava seeps through their caverns, and the air reeks of sulfur. The dao have great forges and smelting furnaces here to process ores and shape precious metals.
Mud Hills
The Mud Hills abut the swampy Para-elemental Plane of Ooze. Landslides wear away the slopes of the hills, sending cascades of earth and stone into the bottomless swamp. The Plane of Earth constantly regenerates the land, pushing new hills up as the old ones erode to nothing.
Plane of Earth Adventures
Earth symbolizes stability, rigidity, stern resolve, and tradition. The plane’s position opposite the Plane of Air in the ring of the Elemental Planes reflects its opposition to almost everything air represents.
Elemental Evil views earth instead as an implacable force of destruction, perfectly willing to crush venerable institutions and respected traditions in its advance. Cultists of Evil Earth crave the power to destroy the works of civilization with landslides, sinkholes, or mighty earthquakes, and they believe the earth thirsts for the blood of those who don’t venerate it properly.
Elemental Plane of Fire
A blazing sun hangs at the zenith of a golden sky above the Plane of Fire, waxing and waning on a 24-hour cycle. It ranges from white hot at noon to deep red at midnight, so the darkest hours of the plane display a deep-red twilight. At noon, the light is intense. Most business in the City of Brass (see below) takes place during the darker hours.
The weather on the plane is marked by fierce winds and thick ash. Although the air is breathable, creatures not native to the plane must cover their mouths and eyes to avoid stinging cinders. The efreet use magic to keep the cinder storms away from the City of Brass, but elsewhere in the plane, the wind always blows, sometimes rising to hurricane force during the worst storms.
The heat on the Plane of Fire is comparable to a hot desert on the Material Plane and poses a similar threat to travelers (see “Environmental Effects” in chapter 3). Sources of water are rare, so travelers must carry their own supplies or produce water by magic.
Important features of the Plane of Fire include the following:
Cinder Wastes
The Plane of Fire is dominated by a great expanse of black cinders and embers crossed by rivers of lava. Roving bands of salamanders battle each other, raid azer outposts, and avoid patrols from the City of Brass. Obsidian ruins dot the desert—remnants of forgotten civilizations.
City of Brass
Perhaps the best-known location on the Inner Planes is the City of Brass, which stands on the shores of the Sea of Fire. This is the fabled city of the efreet, and its ornate spires and spiked walls reflect the efreet’s grandiose and cruel nature. True to the nature of the Plane of Fire, everything in the city seems alive with dancing flames, reflecting the vibrant energy of the place. The heart of the city is the formidable Charcoal Palace, where the tyrannical emperor of the efreet reigns supreme, surrounded by nobles and a host of servants, guardians, and sycophants.
Sea of Fire
Lava flows through the Fountains of Creation toward the Para-elemental Plane of Ash and pools into a great expanse of lava called the Sea of Fire, traversed by efreeti and azer sailors in great brass ships. Islands of obsidian and basalt jut up from the sea, dotted with ancient ruins and the lairs of powerful red dragons.
Torchy’s
Built atop a tall basalt crag in the middle of a lava river is an iron-walled tavern that is most easily reached by hot-air balloon. The proprietor is a sentient Flame Tongue (Mace) named Torchy, who sells a fine ale and seems to have a new wielder every few months. Torchy’s is a popular hangout for ballooning enthusiasts.
Elemental Fire Adventures
Fire represents vibrancy, passion, and change. At its best, fire reflects the light of inspiration, the warmth of compassion, and the flame of desire.
The cults of Elemental Evil represent fire at its worst: cruel and wantonly destructive. Cultists of Evil Fire seek the power to burn away the impurities of the world with volcanic eruptions, uncontrolled wildfires, heat waves, and droughts, transforming the Material Plane into a mirror of the Cinder Wastes.
Adventurers frequently come to the City of Brass on quests for legendary magic. If it’s possible to buy magic items in your campaign, the City of Brass is the most likely place to find any item for sale. The efreet are fond of trading in favors, especially when they have the upper hand in negotiations. Perhaps a magical contagion or poison can be cured only with something that must be purchased in the markets of the city.
Noor Rahman
The City of Brass is a hub for trade from across the multiverse
Elemental Plane of Water
The Plane of Water is an endless sea, called the Sea of Worlds, dotted with atolls and islands that rise up from enormous coral reefs that seem to stretch forever into the depths. The storms that move across the sea sometimes create temporary portals to the Material Plane and draw ships into the Plane of Water. Surviving vessels from countless worlds and navies ply these waters with little hope of ever returning home.
A warm sun arcs across the sky of the Plane of Water, seeming to rise and set from within the water at the horizon. Several times a day, the sky clouds over and releases a deluge of rain, often accompanied by spectacular shows of lightning, before clearing up again. At night, a glittering array of stars and auroras bedecks the sky.
The weather on the plane is a lesson in extremes. If the sea isn’t calm, it is battered by storms. On rare occasions, a tremor in the planar firmament sends a rogue wave sweeping across the plane, swamping entire islands and driving ships down to the reefs.
Any land that rises above the surface of the sea is hotly contested by the few air breathers that live on the plane. Fleets of rafts and ships lashed together serve as solid ground where nothing else is available, although most natives of the plane never break the surface of the sea and thus ignore these habitations.
The following are among the most important features of the Plane of Water:
Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls
The nominal emperor of the marids dwells in the Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls, an opulent palace made of coral and studded with pearls. The palace is the glittering centerpiece of the Sea of Light (see below). Visitors are welcome to ask favors of the emperor, whose mood is as changeable as the sea.
Darkened Depths
The deeper extents of the plane, where no sunlight reaches, are called the Darkened Depths. Horrid creatures dwell here, and the absolute cold and crushing pressure mean a swift end to creatures accustomed to the surface or the Sea of Light. Krakens and other mighty leviathans claim this realm.
Isle of Dread
One of the few islands on the plane is the Isle of Dread, which is connected to the Material Plane by means of a storm that regularly sweeps over the island. Ships from different worlds of the Material Plane end up wrecked on the rocks and reefs around the island, and settlements across the island are populated by the descendants of sailors who never found a way home. Theoretically, travelers who understand the workings of the storm could use it to travel to a desired Material Plane world.
Sea of Ice
Bordering the Para-elemental Plane of Ice is the Sea of Ice. The frigid water is choked with icebergs and sheet ice, which are inhabited by cold-loving creatures from the Plane of Ice. Drifting icebergs can carry these creatures farther into the Plane of Water to threaten ships and islands in warmer seas.
Sea of Light
Life flourishes in the sunlit waters of the Sea of Light, located in the upper reaches of the Sea of Worlds. Aquatic peoples craft castles and fortresses in the coral reefs here.
Silt Flats
The region of the Plane of Water nearest to the Para-elemental Plane of Ooze is called the Silt Flats. The water is thick with soil and sludge, turning into muddy ground before giving way to the great swamp that is the Para-elemental Plane.
Elemental Water Adventures
The nature of water is to flow, not like the gusting wind or the leaping flame, but smoothly and steadily. It is the rhythm of the tide, the nectar of life, the bitter tears of mourning, and the balm of sympathy and healing. Given time, it can erode all in its path.
Elemental Evil emphasizes the erosive power of water, as well as the destruction wrought by surging tides, deadly maelstroms, and raging torrents. Cultists of Evil Water believe the seas and deep waters are eager to reclaim the water trapped in the bodies of living creatures, and think it’s their duty to return others to the primal waters by drowning them or shedding their blood.
Elysium
Elysium is home to creatures of unfettered kindness and a refuge for planar travelers seeking a safe haven. The plane’s bucolic landscapes glimmer with life and beauty.
The River Oceanus originates in the lowest layer of Elysium, Thalasia, and flows through the plane’s layers before cascading onward to the Beastlands. Though illustrations of the plane’s layers seem to show the river flowing “up” from each layer to the one “above” it, the experience of passing from one layer to another on the river is no more dramatic than weathering rapids on any ordinary river. Along its course, the great river splits into myriad smaller flows, recombines, and splits again.
Layers of Elysium
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Amoria | Small towns on the banks of the River Oceanus, surrounded by lush meadows, are among the most hospitable refuges on the Outer Planes. |
| Eronia | Steep hills, craggy mountains, and white granite valleys offer a rugged home for hardy souls. |
| Belierin | Lighthouses pierce the fog and form hubs for small communities amid sprawling marshlands. |
| Thalasia | The Heroic Isles, rising from the headwaters of the River Oceanus, hold the best departed souls. |
Elysium Adventures
Tranquility and contentment seep into the bones and souls of those who enter Elysium. The longer a visitor remains on the plane, the less reason they find to ever leave. An adventure in Elysium can challenge characters’ devotion to doing good by offering them the opportunity (or the temptation) to rest from their labors and enjoy a well-earned reward.
Belierin is said to be the prison of some deadly creature. Some tales say it’s a powerful titan, perhaps the tarrasque, while others claim it’s a deposed duke of the Nine Hells, a banished elemental prince, or even a near-dead deity. Evil creatures sometimes lurk in the marshes, seeking to free the prisoner or claim some power from it.
Characters might also venture to Elysium to seek out some ancient spirit on the Heroic Isles. When faced with the once-a-millennium task of forestalling a prophesied disaster, characters might consult with the valorous knight who accomplished the deed a thousand years ago.
Ethereal Plane
The Ethereal Plane is a misty, fogbound dimension. Its “shores,” called the Border Ethereal, overlap the Material Plane, the Feywild, the Shadowfell, and the Inner Planes, and every location on those planes has a corresponding location on the Ethereal Plane. Visibility in the Border Ethereal is usually limited to 60 feet. The plane’s depths comprise a region of swirling mist and fog called the Deep Ethereal, where visibility is usually limited to 30 feet.
Characters can use the Etherealness spell to enter the Border Ethereal. The Plane Shift spell allows transport to the Border Ethereal or the Deep Ethereal, but unless the intended destination is a specific location or a teleportation circle, the point of arrival could be anywhere on the plane.
Border Ethereal
From the Border Ethereal, a traveler can see into whatever plane it overlaps, but that plane appears grayish and indistinct, its colors blurring into each other and its edges turning fuzzy, limiting visibility to 30 feet into the other plane. Conversely, the Ethereal Plane is usually imperceptible to those on the overlapped planes, except with the aid of magic.
Normally, creatures in the Border Ethereal can’t attack creatures on the overlapped plane, and vice versa. A traveler on the Ethereal Plane is imperceptible to someone on the overlapped plane, and solid objects on the overlapped plane don’t hamper the movement of a creature in the Border Ethereal. The exceptions are certain magical effects (including anything made of magical force) and living beings. This makes the Ethereal Plane ideal for scouting, spying on opponents, and moving around without being detected. The Ethereal Plane also disobeys the laws of gravity; a creature there can freely move in any direction.
Deep Ethereal
To reach the Deep Ethereal, one typically needs a Plane Shift spell, a Gate spell, or a magical portal. Visitors to the Deep Ethereal are engulfed by roiling mist. Scattered throughout the plane are curtains of vaporous color, and passing through a curtain leads a traveler to a region of the Border Ethereal connected to a specific Inner Plane, the Material Plane, the Feywild, or the Shadowfell. The color of the curtain indicates the plane whose Border Ethereal the curtain conceals; see the Ethereal Curtains table. The curtains are also distinguishable by texture and temperature, each one reflecting something of the nature of the plane beyond.
Kent Davis
The Radiant Citadel is a refuge in the Ethereal Plane, despite its proximity to a raging ether cyclone
Ethereal Curtains
| 1d12 | Plane | Curtain Color |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Material Plane | Turquoise |
| 3 | Shadowfell | Dusky gray |
| 4 | Feywild | Opalescent |
| 5 | Elemental Plane of Air | Pale blue |
| 6 | Elemental Plane of Earth | Chestnut |
| 7 | Elemental Plane of Fire | Orange |
| 8 | Elemental Plane of Water | Green |
| 9 | Para-elemental Plane of Ash | Dark gray |
| 10 | Para-elemental Plane of Ice | Aquamarine |
| 11 | Para-elemental Plane of Magma | Maroon |
| 12 | Para-elemental Plane of Ooze | Chocolate |
Traveling through the Deep Ethereal is unlike physical travel. Distance is meaningless, so although travelers feel as if they can move by a simple act of will, it’s impossible to measure speed and hard to track the passage of time. A trip through the Deep Ethereal takes 1d10 × 10 hours from one curtain to another, regardless of the origin and destination. In combat, creatures move at their normal speeds.
Ether Cyclones
An ether cyclone is a serpentine column that spins through the plane. The cyclone appears abruptly, distorting and uprooting everything in its path and carrying the debris for miles. Travelers with a Passive Perception score of 15 or higher receive 1 minute of warning: a deep thrum in the ethereal matter. Travelers who can’t reach a curtain or portal leading elsewhere suffer the cyclone’s effect. Roll 1d20 and consult the Ether Cyclone table to determine the effect on all creatures in the vicinity.
Ether Cyclone
| 1d20 | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1–12 | Extended journey. Each character in a group traveling together makes a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. If at least half the group succeeds, travel is delayed by 1d10 hours. Otherwise, the journey’s travel time is doubled. |
| 13–19 | Blown to a location in the Border Ethereal overlapping a random plane (roll on the Ethereal Curtains table) |
| 20 | Hurled to a random destination on the Astral Plane |
Radiant Citadel
Jessica Fong
Against the unending mist and unseen terrors of the Ethereal Plane, the Radiant Citadel stands bright as a bastion of hope. It’s a living relic of the ingenuity and collaboration of twenty-seven great civilizations on the Material Plane. Abandoned and lost for ages, the Radiant Citadel was resurrected from its slumber and reclaimed by descendants of those societies.
The Radiant Citadel is a nexus of diplomacy and trade, a repository of histories and secrets, and a thriving sanctuary for those seeking safety or a better life. The floating city is a miracle of architecture carved out of a single, massive fossil that snakes around a colossal gemstone shard known as the Auroral Diamond. The luminescence of the Auroral Diamond is mirrored in the constellation of fifteen structure-sized gemstones, the Concord Jewels, that orbit the city and provide transportation to the far-flung homes of the city’s founding civilizations. In the haze of the Ethereal Plane, the Auroral Diamond is a scintillating beacon visible from miles away. The diamond seems to have moods, changing colors unpredictably, but it is always visible for wanderers lost and in need.
Just beyond the city whirls a massive ether cyclone known as the Keening Gloom—a looming threat that’s a grim reminder of the Radiant Citadel’s precarious position.
Heroes and paupers meet on equal footing in the Radiant Citadel. By common agreement, power and resources are equitably shared. Dignity is afforded to all, and great need is met with great aid.
Ethereal Plane Adventures
Adventurers typically use the Ethereal Plane to travel from one place to another, either skirting around Material Plane obstacles on the Border Ethereal or venturing into the Deep Ethereal to travel to the Inner Planes.
The Radiant Citadel can serve as a home base for any campaign built around the idea of exploring new worlds. Several such worlds are introduced in Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, an anthology of short adventures.
Far Realm
Alfven Ato
When the Dragon’s Tear comet appears above Firestorm Peak, the Vast Gate forms a bridge to the Far Realm
The Far Realm is outside the known multiverse. In fact, it might be an entirely separate universe with its own physical and magical laws. Where stray energies from the Far Realm leak onto another plane, matter is warped into alien shapes that defy understandable geometry and biology. Aberrations such as mind flayers and beholders are either from this plane or shaped by its strange influence.
The entities that abide in the Far Realm are too alien for mortal minds to accept without strain. Titanic creatures swim through nothingness there, and unspeakable beings whisper awful truths to those who dare listen. For mortals, knowledge of the Far Realm is a struggle of the mind to overcome the boundaries of matter, space, and rational thought. Some Warlocks embrace this struggle by forming pacts with entities there. Anyone who has seen the Far Realm mutters about eyes, tentacles, and horror.
The Far Realm has no well-known portals, or at least none that are still viable. Ancient elves once opened a vast portal to the Far Realm within a mountain called Firestorm Peak, but their civilization imploded in bloody terror, and the portal’s location—even its home world—is long forgotten. Lost portals might still exist, marked by an alien magic that transforms the surrounding area.
Far Realm Adventures
The Far Realm is the home of entities so far beyond comprehension that mortals can’t fathom their motivations. To see these beings is to become lost in their magnitude and the evidence that mortals have never, will never, and could never matter to the cosmos at large.
Adventures involving travel to the Far Realm or its influence seeping into the Material Plane might touch on fundamental questions of what it means to be a person, what mental and bodily autonomy mean and their value, and whether mortals have any control over their fate or any importance in the grand scheme of things. (It’s an especially good idea to review your players’ limits that might pertain to such issues before planning an adventure exploring these themes, as discussed in the “Ensuring Fun for All” section in chapter 1.)
Feywild
The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, is a land of soft lights and wonder, a place of music and magic. The plane responds to unfettered emotion: flowers turn and tremble in the presence of a heated argument, grass withers under the feet of one who seethes with malice, and birds chip merrily in the presence of those who are joyous and squawk angrily at those who are dour.
Time and distance in the Feywild are mutable, as is the plane’s geography. Roads are uncommon, and the ones that exist change as frequently as the land around themselves. Feywild natives are accustomed to the plane’s mutability, but it can be terribly disorienting to visitors.
The Feywild exists in parallel to the Material Plane as an alternate dimension that occupies the same cosmological space. When moving from the Material Plane to the Feywild, travelers usually find themselves in a location similar to the one they left, but more marvelous and magical—and often more vibrant and colorful, too. Adventurers climbing a volcano on the Material Plane might suddenly find themselves scaling a Feywild mountain topped with skyscraper-sized crystals that glow with internal fire. Leaving behind a wide and muddy river on the Material Plane, characters might appear beside a clear and winding brook whose waters glitter like diamonds in the Feywild. In the heart of a dismal marsh might lie a portal leading to a vast bog filled with eerie lights and sinister shapes twisting in the water. And moving to the Feywild from old ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the door of an archfey’s castle.
Domains of Delight
Much of the Feywild is governed by powerful Fey called archfey. The area under a particular archfey’s command—called a Domain of Delight—reflects the character and desires of its ruler. Some domains are bright and cheery, bathed in perpetual sunlight and awash in colorful wildflowers, while others are gloomy and drab, cast in unending twilight. Most of them change with the emotional state of their rulers.
The following sections describe a handful of the best-known Domains of Delight.
Fablerise
The domain of a story-spinning spider archfey named Yarnspinner, Fablerise is a rambling thicket of twisted roots, thorny vines, and sinuous creepers. This vegetation weaves together to form long tunnels, grand hallways, and enormous domes. Yarnspinner loves reading stories to the animals that occupy his domain.
Gloaming Court
The Queen of Air and Darkness rules the Gloaming Court, a realm of twilight, fireflies, cobwebs, and autumn leaves accompanied by the music of hooting owls and croaking frogs. The Fey of the Gloaming Court shun the formalized etiquette and rituals of the Summer Court (see below), instead prizing behavior that is intuitive and instinctual.
Prismeer
Prismeer is a large domain belonging to the archfey Zybilna. It encompasses a vast swamp called Hither; an ancient forest named Thither; and a stormy, mountainous landscape called Yon. Zybilna resides in the Palace of Heart’s Desire, situated where the three portions of her realm meet. As its name suggests, the palace is fabled as a destination for anyone seeking their heart’s desire. On some worlds, Zybilna is regarded as a fairy godmother of sorts, granting wishes for the lost, the forsaken, or the betrayed. Sometimes her wishes bring happiness, other times despair. (Prismeer is detailed in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.)
Summer Court
Ruled by the archfey Queen Titania, the Summer Court is the most settled and pastoral domain in the Feywild. Wrapped in the warmth of a perpetual summer day, with fluttering butterflies and a riot of colorful flowers, the lands of the Summer Court mimic the trappings of courtly life in some realms of the Material Plane. The residents of this court wear elegant clothing and value elaborate ceremony and ritualized etiquette, and the Fey are quick to shun those who flout the Summer Court’s baroque rules.
Fey Crossings
Fey crossings are places of mystery and beauty on the Material Plane that have a near-perfect mirror in the Feywild, creating a portal where the two planes touch. A traveler passes through a fey crossing by entering a clearing, wading into a pool, passing into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like simply moving into the Feywild. To an observer, the traveler is there one moment and gone the next.
Like other portals between planes, most fey crossings open infrequently. A crossing might open only during a full moon, on the dawn of a particular day, or for someone carrying a certain type of item. A fey crossing can be closed permanently if the land on either side is dramatically altered—for example, if a castle is built over the clearing on the Material Plane.
Feywild Magic
Tales speak of children kidnapped by Fey creatures and spirited away to the Feywild, only to return to their parents years later without having aged a day and with no memories of their captors or the realm they came from. Likewise, adventurers who return from an excursion to the Feywild are often alarmed to discover upon their return that time flows differently on the Plane of Faerie and that the memories of their visit are hazy. You can use these optional rules to reflect the strange magic that suffuses the plane.
Memory Loss. A creature that leaves the Feywild makes a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. Fey creatures automatically succeed on the saving throw, as do creatures that have the Fey Ancestry trait, such as elves. On a failed save, the creature remembers nothing from its time spent in the Feywild. On a successful save, the creature’s memories remain intact but are a little hazy. Any spell that can end a curse can restore the creature’s lost memories.
Time Warp. While time seems to pass normally in the Feywild, characters might spend a day there and realize, upon leaving the plane, that less or more time has elapsed everywhere else in the multiverse.
Whenever a creature or group of creatures leaves the Feywild after spending at least 1 day on that plane, you can choose a time change that works best for your campaign, if any, or roll on the Feywild Time Warp table. A Wish spell can be used to remove the effect on up to ten creatures. Some powerful Fey have the ability to grant such wishes and might do so if the beneficiaries agree to subject themselves to a Geas spell and complete a quest after the Wish spell is cast.
Feywild Time Warp
| 1d20 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Days become minutes |
| 3–6 | Days become hours |
| 7–13 | No change |
| 14–17 | Days become weeks |
| 18–19 | Days become months |
| 20 | Days become years |
Feywild Adventures
The Feywild gives physical expression to powerful emotion and excels at metaphor. When characters venture into the Feywild, they might find themselves robbed of a cherished memory or deep regret, then later find the stolen memories embodied in little figurines or lockets. A mischievous sprite might sneak up behind a character who is laughing loudly and steal their laughter, robbing the character of the ability to laugh until the sprite is found and the laughter—perhaps taking physical form as a bouquet of lovely flowers—reclaimed.
Simon Dominic
Fey revel in the Gloaming Court under the watchful eye of the Queen of Air and Darkness
Gehenna
A volcanic mountain dominates each of the four layers of Gehenna, and lesser volcanic earthbergs drift in the air and smash into the greater mountains. The rocky slopes of the plane make movement difficult and dangerous. The ground inclines at least 45 degrees almost everywhere. In places, steep cliffs and deep canyons present more challenging obstacles. Hazards include volcanic fissures that vent noxious fumes or searing flames.
Gehenna is the birthplace of yugoloths, greedy and selfish Fiends that dwell here in great numbers.
Layers of Gehenna
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Khalas | Lava illuminates clouds of volcanic ash and steam from the River Styx. |
| Chamada | Constant lava flows and eruptions make overland travel difficult. Iron zeppelins piloted by yugoloths drift through the constant gray ashfall. |
| Mungoth | Acidic ash mingles with falling snow on this freezing layer. |
| Krangath | The Dead Furnace is a great mountain suspended in silence and darkness, home to a coterie of liches. |
Gehenna Adventures
Gehenna is the plane of suspicion and greed, with no space for mercy or compassion. Adventures on this plane might be an opportunity to explore themes of betrayal, examining how characters behave when tensions run high and they can trust no one—perhaps not even each other. (See “Environmental Effects” in chapter 3 for one way this atmosphere can manifest.) Characters might encounter people in need who turn out to be yugoloths in disguise, pitting the characters’ growing suspicion against their empathy and compassion.
Characters might make their way to the Teardrop Palace on Khalas to purchase something they can’t find elsewhere, probably at a terrifying cost. This bustling market, crowded with Fiends and occasional mortal visitors, offers all manner of forbidden and sinister goods for sale. Its name comes from its shape: the point is on the palace’s uphill side so it diverts the ever-present lava flow to either side of the structure.
Or characters could try to infiltrate the Tower Arcane in search of some great secret from yugoloths’ ancient history. The tower, a sinister structure adorned with blades and spikes and guarded by arcanaloths, stands somewhere on Chamada. It is rumored to hold yugoloths’ history and the records of their contracts.
Hades
The layers of Hades are called the Three Glooms—places without joy, hope, or passion. A gray land with an ashen sky, Hades is the destination of many souls that are unclaimed by gods or Fiends. These souls become larvae and spend eternity in this place, which lacks a sun, a moon, stars, or seasons. Leaching away color and emotion, the gloom on this plane is more than most visitors can stand.
Layers of Hades
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Oinos | A land of dead-gray ash, stunted trees, and virulent disease is stalked by roving bands of Fiends looking for a fight or recruits for the Blood War. |
| Niflheim | Gray pine trees blanket rolling hills and rocky bluffs, and thick mists coil around their trunks. |
| Pluton | Shriveled willows, olive trees, and poplars contribute to the gloom of this concentration of the deepest despair in the multiverse. |
Plane of Gloom
At the end of each Long Rest taken on the plane, a visitor makes a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature gains 1 Exhaustion level that can’t be removed while the creature is in Hades. If the creature reaches 6 Exhaustion levels, it doesn’t die. Instead, it permanently transforms into a Larva, whereupon all Exhaustion levels afflicting the creature are removed.
Hades Adventures
Hades embodies despair manifested as apathy. Pure, undiluted evil is like an inescapable force of gravity, dragging all creatures down—not in body, but in spirit. Even the consuming rage of the Abyss and the devious plotting of the Nine Hells are subjugated to hopelessness in the Gray Wastes of Hades. The plane slowly kills dreams and desires, draining hope and optimism from formerly fiery spirits.
An adventure in Hades can challenge characters to find an answer to the ever-present question that hangs over this plane: why bother? As apathetic despair saturates their hearts and spirits, they must find a way to rekindle the passion of life and the sense of purpose that drives them or else succumb to the hopelessness of the plane.
Adventurers might pursue a hag, a lich, or another evil spellcaster who comes to Hades to collect larvae for vile purposes. Once they are in the Three Glooms, the adventurers risk becoming trapped by the overwhelming despair of the place.
Limbo
Limbo is a plane of pure chaos, a roiling soup of impermanent matter and energy. Stone melts into water that freezes into metal, then turns into diamond that burns up into smoke that becomes snow, and on and on in an endless, unpredictable process of change. Fragments of more ordinary landscapes—bits of forest, meadow, ruined castles, and even burbling streams—drift through the disorder. The whole plane is a nightmarish riot.
Limbo has no gravity, so creatures visiting the plane float in place. A creature can move up to its Speed in any direction by merely thinking of the desired direction of travel.
Limbo has no layers—or if it does, the layers continually merge and part, each is as chaotic as the next, and distinguishing one from another is impossible.
Power of the Mind
Limbo conforms to the will of the creatures inhabiting it. Creative imaginations can create whole islands of their own invention within the plane, sometimes maintaining those places for years. A nonsapient creature such as a fish, though, might have less than a minute before the pocket of water surrounding it freezes, vanishes, or turns to glass. Slaadi live here and swim amid this chaos, creating nothing, whereas githzerai build entire monasteries with their minds.
As a Magic action, a creature in Limbo can make an Intelligence check to mentally move an object within 30 feet of itself that is on the plane and isn’t being worn or carried. The DC depends on the object’s size: DC 5 for Tiny, DC 10 for Small, DC 15 for Medium, DC 20 for Large, and DC 25 for Huge or larger. On a successful check, the creature moves the object 5 feet plus a number of a feet equal to how much the total exceeded the DC.
A creature can also take a Magic action to make an Intelligence check to alter a nonmagical object within 30 feet of itself that isn’t being worn or carried. The DC is based on the object’s size: DC 10 for Tiny, DC 15 for Small, DC 20 for Medium, and DC 25 for Large or larger. On a successful check, the creature changes the object into another nonliving form of the same size, such as turning a boulder into a ball of fire.
Finally, a creature in Limbo can take a Magic action to make a DC 20 Intelligence check to stabilize an area within a 30-foot-radius Sphere centered on a point it can see on the plane. On a successful check, the creature prevents the area from being altered by the plane for 24 hours or until the creature takes this Magic action again.
Limbo Adventures
Limbo is change. That constant churn is most easily discerned in the ever-shifting physical form of elements altering and reconfiguring in the vast expanse of the plane, but it applies just as much on a mental and emotional level. Visitors to the plane find themselves caught up in a storm of intrusive thoughts and unruly emotions, forcing them to confront the transient nature of so much of what they think of as their identity. The key to success on this plane—both in shaping the physical environment and in mastering the internal landscape of chaos—is asserting one’s sense of self, identifying what is unchanging amid the storm of constant change.
The sanctuaries of the githzerai are among the few havens that adventurers can hope to find on this tumultuous plane. Although githzerai aren’t generally hostile to visitors who come in peace, they don’t welcome those who bring the chaos of Limbo with them: a tumultuous heart brought into a refuge can unravel the entire sanctuary.
Adventurers might also come to Limbo to explore the secrets of the Spawning Stone. Said to have been created by Primus, the overlord of the modrons, the Spawning Stone absorbs chaotic energy and makes it possible to shape enclaves of order in Limbo, but the chaotic energy it absorbs is responsible for the creation of slaadi.
Material Plane
Worlds of the Material Plane are infinitely diverse, but it was not always so. Some legends speak of a primordial state, a single reality called the First World, where many of the peoples and monsters that inhabit the worlds on the Material Plane originated. After the First World was shattered by a great cataclysm, the many worlds were formed like reflections or (in some cases) distortions of that original reality.
Some myths describe a great tree that grew on the First World at the dawn of time. Planted and tended by the god Corellon, this tree was a seedling of Yggdrasil, the World Tree that connects all the Outer Planes (see “Traveling the Outer Planes” earlier in this chapter). When the First World was destroyed, seeds from this great tree scattered into the void of the Material Plane. Legends say that these seeds sprouted and formed worlds of their own—all the myriad worlds that now constitute the Material Plane.
The most widely known worlds are the ones that have been published as official campaign settings for the D&D game over the years, many of which are shown on the D&D Settings table in chapter 5. If your campaign takes place in one of these settings, your version of it can diverge wildly from what’s in print.
Alfven Ato
With its magical marvels of technology, Eberron is one of countless worlds on the Material Plane
Traveling between Worlds
Transit between the worlds of the Material Plane is rare but not impossible and can be accomplished in a variety of ways.
The Dream of Other Worlds
Aided by magic, travelers can fall into a deep slumber and dream themselves into a new realm.
The Great Journey
Characters can undertake an epic voyage fraught with peril and obstacles to be overcome. One route leads through Wildspace and across the Astral Plane aboard a vessel powered by magic. (The “Astral Plane” section in this chapter describes Wildspace.) It is also possible to travel through the Shadowfell or the Feywild, though such routes are less charted and no less perilous.
The Leap to Another Realm
The most direct method involves the use of spells such as Teleportation Circle or Teleport, or magical portals like those described in this chapter. This magic causes the user to appear in a known teleportation circle or some other location in another world.
The Roots of the Worlds
Similar to magical portals, nexus points are locations that exist in multiple worlds at the same time. These points might be located at or near the roots of the worlds—the places where the seedlings of the First World’s great tree took root and grew into a new world.
A nexus point can be a geographical feature, such as an enormous tree, a mountain or mesa, a yawning cavern deep under the mountains, or a meteorite in an enormous crater. It might also be a constructed feature: a lonely tower or castle, a bustling tavern, or even a city. Normally, visitors to these places return to the same world they came from when they depart, but it’s also possible to use a nexus point to travel from one world to another. Depending on the place, shifting worlds might require the use of magic, an object from the desired destination world as a sort of key, or nothing more than an act of will.
Some nexus points exist in multiple worlds—but not at the same time. They flit from world to world, disappearing from one and appearing in another according to a regular schedule. Such a place might linger on one world for anywhere from a year to an hour before moving on to another, carrying everyone inside with it to a new world.
Mechanus
Mechanus is where perfectly regimented order reigns supreme. It consists of equal measures of light and dark, and equal proportions of heat and cold. On Mechanus, law is reflected in a realm of gigantic clockwork gears, interlocked and turning according to their measure. The cogs seem to be engaged in a calculation so vast that no deity can fathom its purpose. Some theories hold that they are the clockwork of time throughout the cosmos—that time itself would stop if the gears ceased their turning. Other theories propose that the cogs uphold the basic rules and order of the cosmos.
Modrons are the primary inhabitants of Mechanus and maintain its intricate clockworks. The plane is also home to the creator of the modrons: a godlike being called Primus, whose realm is called Regulus.
Mechanus has no distinct layers. Each turning cog has its own force of gravity pulling toward its center, with structures built on the faces of the cogs. Some of the cogs are like small islands, while others are hundreds of miles across.
Mechanus Adventures
Mechanus embodies absolute order, and it influences those who spend time here. Individual consciousness is subordinated to the search for perfect order, and “I” is ultimately subsumed into “we.”
An adventure on Mechanus might lead characters to examine their individual egos in the light of the adventuring party. It might challenge a character to set aside personal goals for the benefit of the group (or the greater cause of cosmic law), or alternatively it might encourage characters to assert their own individual identities, distinct from the party and possessing their own goals and needs.
Mount Celestia
The Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia rise like a mountain from a shining Silver Sea to utterly incomprehensible heights, with seven plateaus marking its seven heavenly layers. The plane is the model of justice and order, of celestial grace and endless mercy, where angels and champions of good guard against incursions of evil. It is one of the few places on the planes where travelers can let down their guard. Its inhabitants strive constantly to be as righteous as possible. Countless creatures aim to reach the highest and most sublime peak of the mountain, but only the purest souls can. That peak fills even the most jaded of travelers with awe.
The pervasive goodness of Mount Celestia bestows blessings on creatures on the plane (see “Environmental Effects” in chapter 3).
Aleksi Briclot
The Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia beckon virtuous souls toward ever-greater heights
Layers of Mount Celestia
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Lunia | In the Silver Heaven, the holy water of the Silver Sea laps at the base of the celestial mountain under a starry sky. |
| Mercuria | The Golden Heaven’s tame slopes and lush valleys are bathed in golden light that evokes the hope of a new dawn. |
| Venya | In the Pearly Heaven, terraced fields and tended woodlands dot the snowy slopes. |
| Solania | In the Crystal Heaven, holy shrines glitter under a silvery sky amid luminescent fog. |
| Mertion | On the sweeping plains of the Platinum Heaven, holy soldiers muster in grand citadels for battles across the planes. |
| Jovar | The Glittering Heaven, strewn with beautiful rubies and garnets, is home to the seven-tiered Heavenly City. |
| Chronias | The Illuminated Heaven is an ineffable mystery. |
Mount Celestia Adventures
The plane of ultimate law and good is sometimes imagined to be the most boring place in the multiverse, but in truth Mount Celestia’s nature makes it the target of unrelenting attacks by evil forces. The devils of the Nine Hells, in particular, long to corrupt the goodness of the Seven Heavens. The yugoloths of the Lower Planes covet the wealth of the plane, particularly the mines of Solania and the scattered gems of Jovar. And the demons of the Abyss would like nothing better to smear their filth on the gleaming purity of Mount Celestia.
But while Fiends of all sorts launch doomed assaults on the shores of Lunia, evil’s true foothold on the plane is in the hearts of those well-meaning visitors who bring their secret shame and hidden sins to the holy mountain. An adventure in Mount Celestia is an opportunity for characters to prove themselves worthy of the many blessings it offers—or to become worthy by forswearing the selfishness, greed, and hatred that lurk in their hearts.
On the edge of a clear lake in Mertion stands the city of Empyrea, renowned for the healing power of its fountains and springs. Pilgrims from across the planes seek out the healers, hospitals, and restorative magic found here.
Negative Plane
Cupped like a bowl beneath the other planes, the Negative Plane is the source of necrotic energy that destroys the living and animates the Undead. A lightless void without end, it is a needy, greedy plane, sucking the life out of anything that is vulnerable. Heat, fire, and life itself are all drawn into the maw of this plane, which always hungers for more.
To an observer, there’s little to see on the Negative Plane. It is a dark, empty place, an eternal pit where a traveler can fall until the plane steals away all light and life. Merely entering the plane is comparable to the life-draining touch of a wraith, so only creatures that have Immunity to Necrotic damage can survive there for long.
In some locations on the Negative Plane, the intensity of the plane is so great that the negative energy folds in on itself, stabilizing into solid chunks of matter that devour light. These chunks, called voidstones, are thought to be the source of Spheres of Annihilation and similar magical effects. Anything that comes into contact with a voidstone is destroyed in seconds.
Negative Plane Adventures
An adventure on the Negative Plane is a face-to-face confrontation with annihilation, which is unlikely to end well for the adventurers. Even if their magic enables them to survive the environment of the plane, the experience tends to drain all the vitality, energy, and happiness from body and soul. The Negative Plane has all the apathy and despair of Hades and the Shadowfell, combined and concentrated in an infinite expanse of nonbeing and uncreation.
Nine Hells
The Nine Hells inflames the imaginations of travelers, the greed of treasure seekers, and the battle fury of all moral creatures. It is the ultimate plane of law and evil, and the epitome of premeditated cruelty. The devils of the Nine Hells are bound to obey the laws of their superiors, but they squabble within their individual castes. Most undertake any plot, no matter how foul, to advance themselves. At the very top of the hierarchy is Asmodeus, who has yet to be bested. If he were vanquished, the victor would rule the plane in turn. Such is the law of the Nine Hells.
The Nine Layers
The Nine Hells has nine layers. The first eight are ruled by archdevils who answer to Asmodeus, the archduke of Nessus, the ninth layer. Collectively, the rulers of the Hells are called the Lords of the Nine. To reach Nessus, one must descend through all eight layers above it in order. The most expeditious means of doing so is the River Styx, which plunges ever deeper as it flows from one layer to the next. Only the most courageous adventurers can withstand the torment and horror of that journey.
The Layers of the Nine Hells table summarizes each layer; detailed descriptions of these layers follow the table.
Layers of the Nine Hells
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Avernus | The Blood War rages across battlefields littered with corpses and the wreckage of hellish war machines. |
| Dis | Iron roads in deep canyons lead to the dreaded Iron City of Dis. |
| Minauros | Acid falls like rain on putrid bogs and decaying cities. |
| Phlegethos | Obsidian fortresses bask in the heat of raging volcanoes and magma rivers. |
| Stygia | Levistus’s prison is a frigid hellscape of jagged ice and cold fire. |
| Malbolge | An ever-crumbling mountain threatens to bury visitors. |
| Maladomini | Swarms of hungry flies plague dead cities surrounded by utter desolation. |
| Cania | Ice-trapped cities provide shelter in a realm cold enough to freeze the soul. |
| Nessus | Mighty fortresses stand watch over the deepest pits of the Nine Hells. |
Avernus
Kent Davis
The first of Nine Hells, Avernus, is an eternal battlefield in the Blood War
By Asmodeus’s orders, no planar portals connect directly to the lower layers of the Nine Hells. The first layer, Avernus, is the arrival point for visitors, a rocky wasteland with rivers of blood and clouds of biting flies. Fiery comets occasionally fall from the darkened sky and carve out fuming impact craters. Empty battlefields are littered with weapons and bones, showing where the legions of the Nine Hells prevailed against invading enemies.
The archdevil Zariel rules Avernus, having supplanted her rival, Bel, who fell out of Asmodeus’s favor and was forced to serve as Zariel’s adviser. Tiamat, the Queen of Evil Dragons, is a prisoner on this layer, ruling her own domain but confined to the Nine Hells by Asmodeus in accordance with some ancient contract (the terms of which are known only to Tiamat and the Lords of the Nine).
Zariel appears as an angel whose skin and wings are scorched. Her eyes burn with a furious white light that can cause creatures looking upon her to burst into flame. Her seat of power is a flying basalt citadel that rakes the battlefields of Avernus.
Dis
Dis, the second layer of the Nine Hells, is a labyrinth of canyons wedged between sheer mountains rich with iron ore. Iron roads span and wend through the canyons, watched over by the garrisons of iron fortresses perched atop jagged pinnacles.
The second layer takes its name from its current lord, Dispater. A manipulator and deceiver, the archduke is devilishly handsome, bearing only small horns, a tail, and a cloven left hoof to distinguish him from a human. His crimson throne stands in the heart of the Iron City of Dis, a hideous metropolis. Planar travelers come here to conspire with devils and to close deals with night hags, rakshasas, incubi, succubi, and other Fiends. Contracts signed on his layer contain special provisions that allow Dispater to collect a cut of the deal.
Dispater is one of Asmodeus’s most loyal and resourceful vassals, and few beings in the multiverse can outwit him. He is more obsessed than most devils with striking deals with mortals in exchange for their souls, and his emissaries work tirelessly to foster evil schemes on the Material Plane.
Minauros
The third layer of the Nine Hells is a stench-ridden bog. Acidic rain spills from the layer’s brown skies, thick layers of scum cover its putrid surface, and yawning pits lie in wait beneath the murk to engulf careless wanderers.
Cyclopean cities of ornately carved stone rise up from the bog, including the great city of Minauros, for which the layer is named. The slimy walls of the city rise hundreds of feet, protecting the flooded halls that are the lair of Mammon, the archduke of Minauros. Mammon resembles a massive serpent with the upper torso and head of a hairless, horned humanoid. Mammon’s greed is legendary, and he is one of the few archdevils who will trade favors for gold instead of souls. His lair is piled high with treasures left behind by those who tried—and failed—to best him in a deal.
Phlegethos
Phlegethos, the fourth layer, is a fiery landscape whose seas of molten magma brew hurricanes of hot wind, choking smoke, and volcanic ash. Within the fire-filled caldera of Phlegethos’s largest volcano rises Abriymoch, a fortress city made of obsidian and dark glass. With rivers of molten lava pouring down its outer walls, the city resembles the sculpted centerpiece of a gigantic, hellish fountain.
Abriymoch is the seat of power for the two archdevils who rule Phlegethos in tandem: Belial and Fierna, Belial’s daughter. Both are handsome devils who resemble tieflings, with red skin and small horns. Belial exudes civility, even as his words carry an undercurrent of threat. His daughter is said to have the wickedest heart in the Nine Hells. The alliance of Belial and Fierna is unbreakable, for both are aware that their mutual survival hinges on it.
Stygia
The fifth layer of the Nine Hells is a freezing realm of ice within which cold flames burn. A frozen sea surrounds the layer, and its gloomy sky crackles with lightning.
Archduke Levistus once betrayed Asmodeus and is now encased deep in the ice of Stygia as punishment. He rules this layer all the same, communicating telepathically with his followers and servants, both in the Nine Hells and on the Material Plane.
Stygia is also home to its previous ruler, the serpentine archdevil Geryon, who was dismissed by Asmodeus to allow the imprisoned Levistus to regain his rule. Geryon’s fall from grace has spurred much debate within the infernal courts. No one is certain whether Asmodeus had some secret cause to dismiss the archdevil or whether he is testing Geryon’s allegiance for some greater purpose.
Malbolge
Malbolge, the sixth layer, has outlasted many rulers, among them Malagard the Hag Countess and the archdevil Moloch. Malagard fell out of favor and was struck down by Asmodeus in a fit of pique, while her predecessor, Moloch, still lingers somewhere on the sixth layer as an imp, plotting to regain Asmodeus’s favor. Malbolge is a seemingly endless slope, like the sides of an impossibly huge mountain. Parts of the layer break off from time to time, creating deadly, booming avalanches. The inhabitants of Malbolge live in crumbling fortresses and great caves carved into the mountainside.
Malbolge’s current ruler is Asmodeus’s daughter, Glasya. Her cruelty and love of wicked schemes rival those of her father. The citadel that serves as her domicile on the slopes of Malbolge, called Osseia, is supported by cracked pillars and buttresses that are sturdy yet seem on the verge of collapse. Beneath the palace is a labyrinth lined with cells and torture chambers, where Glasya confines and torments those who displease her.
Maladomini
The seventh layer, Maladomini, is ruin-covered wasteland. Dead cities form a desolate urban landscape, and between them are empty quarries, crumbling roads, slag heaps, the hollow shells of empty fortresses, and swarms of hungry flies.
The archduke of Maladomini is Baalzebul, the Lord of Flies. He is a tall, powerful devil with the compound eyes of a fly. The archduke has long conspired to usurp Asmodeus, yet has failed at every turn. Asmodeus laid a curse on him that causes any deal made with him to lead to calamity. Asmodeus occasionally shows Baalzebul favor for reasons no other archduke can fathom, though some suspect that Asmodeus still respects the worthiness of this adversary.
Cania
Cania, the eighth layer of the Nine Hells, is a frozen hellscape whose ice storms can tear flesh from bone. Cities embedded in the ice provide shelter for guests and prisoners of Cania’s ruler, the brilliant and conniving archdevil Mephistopheles.
Mephistopheles dwells in the ice citadel of Mephistar, where he plots to seize the throne of the Nine Hells and conquer all the planes. He is Asmodeus’s greatest enemy and ally, and the archduke of Nessus appears to trust Mephistopheles’s counsel. Mephistopheles knows he can’t depose Asmodeus until his adversary makes a fatal miscalculation, and so both wait to discover what circumstances might turn them against each other. Mephistopheles is also a godfather of sorts to Glasya, further complicating the relationship between Mephistopheles and Asmodeus.
Mephistopheles is a tall, striking devil with impressive horns and a cool demeanor. He trades in souls, as do other archdevils, but he rarely gives his time to any creatures not worthy of his personal attention. It is said that only Asmodeus has ever deceived or thwarted him.
Nessus
The lowest layer of the Nine Hells, Nessus is a realm of dark pits whose walls are set with bleak fortresses. There, pit fiend generals loyal to Asmodeus garrison their diabolical legions and plot the conquest of the multiverse. At the center of the layer stands a vast rift of unknown depth, out of which rises the great citadel-spire of Malsheem, home to Asmodeus and his infernal court.
Malsheem resembles a gigantic hollowed-out stalagmite. The citadel is also a prison for souls that Asmodeus has locked away for safekeeping. Convincing him to release even one of those souls comes at a steep price, and it is rumored that Asmodeus has claimed whole kingdoms in the past in exchange for such favors.
Asmodeus most often appears as a handsome, bearded man with four large horns, piercing red eyes, and flowing robes. He can also assume other forms and is seldom seen without his ruby-tipped scepter in hand. Asmodeus is the most cunning and well-mannered of archdevils. On the surface, he seems warm, pleasant, and lighthearted, doling out wisdom and small acts of kindness like a caring father. The ultimate evil he represents can be seen only when he wills it so, or if he forgets himself and flies into a rage.
Zoltan Boros
Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine, maintains a veneer of pleasantry while inflicting agony on imprisoned souls
Infernal Hierarchy
The Nine Hells has a rigid hierarchy that defines every aspect of its society. Asmodeus is the supreme ruler of all devils and wields the power of a lesser god. Worshiped as such on the Material Plane, Asmodeus inspires evil cults and sinister Warlocks. In the Nine Hells, he commands scores of pit fiend generals, which in turn command legions of subordinates.
A supreme tyrant, a brilliant deceiver, and a master of subtlety, Asmodeus protects his throne by keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. He delegates most matters of rulership to the pit fiends and lesser archdevils that make up the infernal bureaucracy of the Nine Hells, even as he knows that those powerful devils conspire to usurp his throne. Asmodeus appoints archdevils, and he can strip any member of the infernal hierarchy of rank and status as he likes.
Infernal Hierarchy
Least Devils
- Lemure
Lesser Devils
- Imp
- Spined devil
- Bearded devil
- Barbed devil
- Chain devil
- Bone devil
Greater Devils
- Horned devil
- Erinyes
- Ice devil
- Pit fiend
Archdevils
- Duke/duchess
- Archduke/archduchess
Archdevils. The archdevils include all the current and deposed rulers of the Nine Hells, as well as the fiendish aristocrats that make up their courts, attend them as advisers, and hope to supplant them.
Promotion and Demotion. When the soul of an evil mortal sinks into the Nine Hells, it takes on the physical form of a wretched lemure. Archdevils and greater devils can promote lemures to lesser devils. Archdevils can promote lesser devils to greater devils, and Asmodeus alone can promote a greater devil to archdevil status. All diabolic promotions involve a brief, painful transformation, with the devil’s memories passing intact from one form to the next.
Low-level promotions are typically based on need, such as when a pit fiend transforms lemures into imps to gain stealthy spies under its command. High-level promotions are almost always based on merit, such as when a bone devil that distinguishes itself in battle is transformed into a horned devil by the archdevil it serves. A devil is seldom promoted more than one step at a time.
Demotion is the customary punishment for failure or disobedience among the devils. Archdevils or greater devils can demote a lesser devil to a lemure, which loses all memory of its prior existence. An archdevil can demote a greater devil to lesser devil status, but the demoted devil retains its memories—and might seek vengeance if the severity of the demotion is excessive.
No devil can promote or demote another devil that hasn’t sworn fealty to it, preventing rival archdevils from demoting each other’s most powerful servants. Since all devils swear fealty to Asmodeus, he can freely demote any other devil, transforming it into whatever infernal form he desires.
Nine Hells Adventures
The Nine Hells embodies the cruelty and corruption of law turned to evil ends. The devils of the Nine Hells are more cunning, more insidious, and far more dangerous than other Fiends. Their intelligence, their delight in deceit and manipulation, and their unhindered pursuit of their own agendas make them truly terrifying foes.
A descent into the Nine Hells is a journey into the heart of evil. Every shred of evil is used in the Nine Hells, and each layer specializes in some way to accommodate and exploit the vices and weaknesses of mortals. Far too many people who make such a journey discover their own hearts aren’t immune to temptation and corruption, and they end up making the Nine Hells their eternal home. To avoid such a fate, good-hearted adventurers must resist the insidious manipulation, deceit, and treachery of devils, even when the devils promise to fulfill their deepest longings.
Outlands
The Outlands lies between the Outer Planes. It is the plane of neutrality, keeping all aspects of the planes in a paradoxical balance—simultaneously concordant and in opposition. The plane has varied terrain, with prairies, mountains, and shallow rivers.
The Outlands is a great disk. In fact, those who envision the Outer Planes as a wheel point to the Outlands as proof, calling it a microcosm of the planes. That argument might be circular, since the arrangement of the Outlands inspired the idea of the Great Wheel in the first place.
Evenly spaced around the outside edge of the circle are the gate-towns: sixteen settlements, each built around a portal leading to one of the Outer Planes. The Gate-Towns of the Outlands table lists all sixteen gate-towns and the Outer Planes they connect to. Each gate-town shares many of the characteristics of the plane where its gate leads. Planar emissaries often meet in these gate-towns, so it isn’t unusual to see strange interactions, such as a Celestial and a Fiend arguing in a tavern while sharing a fine bottle of wine.
Gate-Towns of the Outlands
| Town | Gate Destination |
|---|---|
| Automata | Mechanus |
| Bedlam | Pandemonium |
| Curst | Carceri |
| Ecstasy | Elysium |
| Excelsior | Mount Celestia |
| Faunel | Beastlands |
| Fortitude | Arcadia |
| Glorium | Ysgard |
| Hopeless | Hades |
| Plague-Mort | Abyss |
| Ribcage | Nine Hells |
| Rigus | Acheron |
| Sylvania | Arborea |
| Torch | Gehenna |
| Tradegate | Bytopia |
| Xaos | Limbo |
Outlands Adventures
The Outlands is the closest the Outer Planes come to being like a world on the Material Plane. Adventurers can travel easily from one gate-town to the next, making a tremendous variety of planar-themed adventures possible within the boundaries of the Outlands.
Adventures in the Outlands often involve the conflicts between opposing planar influences. It’s much easier for a slaad to wreak havoc in the gate-town of Automata than it is for even a horde of slaadi to accomplish anything in Mechanus itself. Celestial spies and Fiend assassins carry out subtle plots and deadly sabotage across the Outlands.
Despite these conflicts, the Outlands remains a plane of balance. Toward the center of the plane, away from the gate-towns, lie vast stretches of land similar to the different environments found on worlds of the Material Plane. Preserving nature’s balance from the pull of powerful extremes in any direction can also be a theme of adventures here.
Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse includes extensive information on the Outlands.
Pandemonium
Pandemonium is a plane of overwhelming chaos, a great mass of rock riddled with tunnels carved by howling winds. It is cold, noisy, and dark, with no natural light. Wind quickly extinguishes nonmagical open flames such as torches and campfires. It also makes conversation possible only by yelling, and even then only to a maximum distance of 10 feet. See “Environmental Effects” in chapter 3 for more information about the winds of Pandemonium.
Most of the plane’s inhabitants are creatures that were banished to the plane with no hope of escape. The incessant winds force them to take shelter in places where the howls of the winds sound like distant cries of torment.
Layers of Pandemonium
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Pandesmos | Howling winds, dark streams bound for the River Styx, and blowing snow pour through vast, desolate caverns. |
| Cocytus | Winds blowing through narrower tunnels create a stronger force and louder wails, making this the so-called “Layer of Lamentation.” |
| Phlegethon | Tunnel walls absorb light while water creates intricate rock formations. |
| Agathion | Sealed-off tunnels are largely inaccessible from elsewhere, making them ideal as vaults for ancient secrets. |
Pandemonium Adventures
Pandemonium is the plane of last straws. The incessant howling of its winds brings everyone on the plane, sooner or later, to the edge of lashing out in frustration, breaking down in despair, or dissolving into incoherence—and then some event, force, or creature on the plane pushes them over that edge. Simply existing on the plane is exhausting; trying to accomplish even a basic conversation is aggravating.
An adventure in Pandemonium can be a way to explore what happens to characters on their worst day, when everything goes wrong and the howling wind won’t let up. The trick is to convey the frustration that characters are bound to experience there without transferring that frustration to the players.
A jagged spike somewhere in Cocytus, called Howler’s Crag, is rumored to have a unique magical property: anything yelled from the top of the crag is said to find the ears of its intended recipient—carried on a shrieking, frigid wind—no matter where in the multiverse that person might be.
Chris Rallis
Three adventurers brave the howling winds of Pandemonium in search of Howler’s Crag
Para-elemental Planes
The regions where the Elemental Planes collide and their elemental substances overlap are called Paraelemental Planes.
Plane of Ash
On the Plane of Ash, also called the Great Conflagration, howling winds from the Plane of Air mix with the cinder storms and lava of the Sea of Fire. This plane is an endless storm of flames, smoke, and ash. The thick ash obscures sight beyond a few dozen feet, and the battering winds make travel difficult. Here and there, ash clusters into floating realms where outlaws and fugitives take shelter.
Plane of Ice
The Plane of Ice, also called the Frostfell, forms the border between the Plane of Air and the Plane of Water. This plane is a seemingly endless glacier swept by constant, raging blizzards. Frozen caverns twist through the Plane of Ice, home to yetis, remorhazes, white dragons, and other creatures of cold. The inhabitants of the plane engage in a never-ending battle to prove their strength and ensure their survival.
The Frostfell’s monsters and bitter cold make it a dangerous place to travel. Most planar voyagers keep to the air, braving the powerful winds and driving snow to avoid setting foot on the great glacier.
Plane of Magma
The boundary between the Plane of Earth and the Plane of Fire is a great range of volcanic mountains. The Plane of Magma, also called the Fountains of Creation, is home to azers, fire giants, and red dragons, as well as creatures from the neighboring planes. Lava flows down the slopes of these mountains toward the Plane of Fire.
Plane of Ooze
The border region between the Plane of Water and the Plane of Earth is a horrid swamp where gnarled trees and thick, stinging vines grow from the dense muck and slime. Here and there on the Plane of Ooze (also called the Swamp of Oblivion), stagnant lakes and pools play host to thickets of weeds and monstrous swarms of mosquitoes. The few settlements here consist of wooden structures suspended above the muck on platforms between trees. Visitors to the plane have sometimes tried elevating houses on poles stuck in the mud, but since no solid earth underlies the muck, even such structures eventually sink.
It is said that any object cast into the Swamp of Oblivion can’t be found again for at least a century. Now and then, a desperate soul casts an Artifact of power into this place, keeping it away from the rest of the multiverse for a time. The promise of powerful magic lures adventurers to brave the monstrous insects and hags of the swamp.
Para-elemental Plane Adventures
The Para-elemental Planes are extreme environments but fundamentally similar to places found on the Material Plane—the place where all four elements mingle freely.
At a symbolic level, the Para-elemental Planes represent the interaction and sometimes the contrast between the forces and ideals embodied by their constituent elements. The Plane of Ash, for example, highlights the commonality between air and fire—the tendency to movement and change, given a destructive tone by the raging conflagration of the plane. The Plane of Ooze heightens the contrast between stable, rigid earth and steadily flowing water.
Positive Plane
Like a dome above the other planes, the Positive Plane is the source of radiant energy and the raw life force that suffuses all living beings. Like the heart of a star, it is a continual furnace of creation, a domain of brilliance beyond the ability of mortal eyes to comprehend. It is a vibrant plane, so alive that travelers are empowered by visiting it.
The Positive Plane has no surface and is akin to the Elemental Plane of Air with its wide-open nature. However, every bit of this plane glows brightly with innate power. This power is dangerous to mortal forms, which can’t handle it for long. Only creatures that have Immunity to Radiant damage can survive there.
Positive Plane Adventures
Vibrant life, creative energy, and radiant health are the essential characteristics of the Positive Plane, though touching this fundamental energy can be just as dangerous as entering the soul-siphoning annihilation of the Negative Plane. Characters who survive an excursion into the Positive Plane often find that it leaves them with a lasting charge, making it hard to calm down, to stem the flow of ideas, and even to sleep. On the other hand, they also find themselves with a persistent resistance to disease and despair.
Shadowfell
The Shadowfell, also called the Plane of Shadow, is a gloomy dimension whose sky is a black vault with neither sun nor stars.
The Shadowfell overlaps the Material Plane in much the same way as the Feywild. Aside from the bleak landscape, it appears similar to the Material Plane. Travelers from the Material Plane who enter the Shadowfell often observe landmarks similar to the world they left, but distorted and often sinister. A mountain on the Material Plane might be replaced in the Shadowfell by a skull-shaped rock outcropping, a heap of rubble, or the crumbling ruin of a once-great castle. The forests of the Shadowfell hold sinister-looking trees, their branches reaching out to snare travelers’ cloaks, and their roots coiling to trip those who pass by.
Shadow dragons and Undead haunt this bleak plane, as do other creatures that thrive in the gloom, including cloakers and darkmantles.
Julian Kok
The Shadowfell is a realm of death, despair, and dread
Shadow Crossings
Shadow crossings are locations where the veil between the Material Plane and the Shadowfell is so thin that creatures can pass from one plane to the other. A blot of shadow in the corner of a dusty crypt might be a shadow crossing, as might an open grave. Shadow crossings form in gloomy places where spirits or the stench of death lingers, such as battlefields, graveyards, and tombs. They manifest only in darkness, closing as soon as they feel light’s kiss.
Domains of Dread
In a far-flung corner of the Shadowfell drifts a hidden expanse of roiling mist and vague semireality. At this eerie edge of the multiverse, mysterious entities known as the Dark Powers collect the most wicked beings from across ages and worlds within inescapable, mist-shrouded demiplanes. In these shadowy prisons, the villainous beings become Darklords, able to exercise great power but confined to realms that twist their desires, capturing them in cycles of dread and despair.
Mists surround each of the Domains of Dread, making it difficult to leave one domain and even harder to find a path to another. The Mists rise and fall at the whim of the Dark Powers, and they can even slip across the planes to drag people unwittingly into the dread domains. Those who live in these domains ascribe all sorts of sinister stories to the Mists—any supernatural happening, inexplicable disappearance, or malicious force can be blamed on the Mists.
The following Domains of Dread are among the most infamous. They are described in more detail in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.
Barovia
The towering spires of Castle Ravenloft loom above the valley of Barovia, which is ruled by Strahd von Zarovich, the first vampire.
Borca
Amid opulent estates and impoverished villages, two Darklords—the vicious poisoner Ivana Boritsi and the childishly cruel stalker Ivan Dilisnya—pursue their obsessive schemes.
Falkovnia
Empty countryside surrounds ruined or crumbling cities, with only a few pockets of civilization fighting a losing battle against an endless plague of zombies. General Vladeska Drakov commands a fierce military force that desperately clings to power.
Kalakeri
A beautiful land of rainforests, rivers, and lakes is a quagmire of intrigue and despair as three royal heirs—transformed into monsters by their depravity and hatred—battle endlessly to claim the throne of their ancient dynasty.
Lamordia
Inventors and scholars violate both natural and moral laws amid the frozen bogs and glacial expanses of Lamordia. The worst of them is the domain’s Darklord, Doctor Viktra Mordenheim, whose efforts to create life and abolish death have led to the creation of many monsters.
Mordent
Death in Mordent heralds the beginning of a haunted afterlife as a restless spirit, for this domain is the realm of ghost stories and hauntings. The dead here earn no rest, no finality, no peace—just a passage into a shadow world of wispy phantoms, mournful groaning, and clanking chains.
Valachan
The devious hunter Chajuna roams the jungles of her domain, hunting the most dangerous beasts she can find. When she grows dissatisfied with simpler prey, she draws people into a fatal contest, ensuring that the land remains steeped in blood.
Shadowfell Despair
A melancholic atmosphere pervades the Shadowfell, and extended forays to this plane can afflict characters with despair.
When you deem it appropriate, though usually not more than once per day, you can require a character not from the Shadowfell to make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the character is affected by despair. Roll on the Shadowfell Despair table to determine the effects. You can substitute different despair effects of your own creation.
Shadowfell Despair
| 1d6 | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | Apathy. The character has Disadvantage on Death Saving Throws and Initiative rolls. |
| 4–5 | Dread. The character has Disadvantage on all saving throws. |
| 6 | Delusion. The character has Disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws that use Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. |
If a character is already suffering a despair effect and fails the saving throw, the new despair effect replaces the old one. After finishing a Long Rest, a character can attempt to overcome the despair with a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. (The DC is higher because it’s harder to shake off despair once it has taken hold.) On a successful save, the despair effect ends for that character. A Calm Emotions spell or magic that removes curses cures the despair.
Sigil, City of Doors
At the center of the Outlands, like the axle of a great wheel, is the Spire, a needle-shaped mountain that rises high into the sky. Above this mountain’s narrow peak, not part of the Outlands but a plane in its own right, floats the ring-shaped city of Sigil, its myriad structures built on the ring’s inner surface. Creatures standing on one of Sigil’s streets can see the city curve up over their heads and—most disconcerting of all—the far side of the city directly overhead. Called the City of Doors, this bustling planar metropolis holds countless portals to other planes and worlds.
Sigil is a trader’s paradise. Goods and information come here from across the planes. The city sustains a brisk trade in information about the planes, particularly the commands or items required for the operation of particular portals.
The city is the domain of the inscrutable Lady of Pain, a being whose purpose and goals are unknown to even the sages of her city. She appears almost human, although she most definitely isn’t. She wears ornate robes that shroud her body, and a mantle of blades coated in blue-green verdigris surrounds her masklike face. No one is certain who or what exactly the Lady of Pain is, but it’s widely accepted she’s a being on par with deities. Is Sigil her prison? Is she the fallen creator of the multiverse? No one knows—or if they do, they aren’t telling.
Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse includes extensive information on Sigil.
Katerina Ladon
In the cosmopolitan streets of Sigil, creatures
from across the multiverse coexist in uneasy peace
Ysgard
Ysgard is a rugged realm of soaring mountains, deep fjords, and windswept battlefields, with summers that are long and hot and winters that are cold and unforgiving. Its continents float above oceans of volcanic rock, below which are enormous icy caverns that hold entire kingdoms of giants, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and other beings. Heroes come to Ysgard to test their mettle not only against the plane itself, but also against giants, dragons, and other mighty creatures across Ysgard’s vast terrain.
Ysgard is the home of slain heroes who wage eternal battle on fields of glory. Any creature, other than a Construct or Undead, that is killed in combat while in Ysgard is restored to life at dawn the next day. The creature has all its Hit Points restored, and all conditions that affected it before its death are removed.
Layers of Ysgard
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Ysgard | Immense rivers of floating earth grind together in eternal rumbling. |
| Muspelheim | The ground smokes and burns beneath the earthbergs of the top layer. |
| Nidavellir | Floating chunks of earth are closer together, giving the appearance of endless tunnels with rich mineral deposits. |
Ysgard Adventures
The nature of Ysgard is glory earned through heroic deeds in battle. It’s the euphoria of an athlete, the exhilaration of a summer storm, and the triumphant celebration of victory. Since those who die on the plane return to life to fight again the next day, Ysgard can overlook the horrors of war and focus entirely on the glory.
An adventure in Ysgard can be an opportunity for lighthearted combat without consequences, for characters to prove their mettle against truly epic foes and perhaps even against each other. Adventurers might find themselves on the Plain of Ida on the topmost layer of Ysgard, where daily festivals let warriors and athletes show off their bravery and skill. Or they might venture into the lower layers to face greater challenges—or secrets buried in the deep caverns of the plane.