A Tour of Arborea

"So what plane do you feel is the most free of the Upper Planes?" snarled the old revolutionary.

"Why Arborea of course, even us Indeps have respect for that plane of ultimate law and good." I said. "It's the home of freedom tempered with restraint, a paradise without oppression. Home to the Olympians, the best of the gods, goodness incarnate."

"You really think so?" said the revolutionary, "Allow me to show you otherwise."

He spilled a bottle of good Arborean wine on the doorway and a portal appeared. "Care to follow." he said, daring me onward. I followed hoping this wasn't a leap to my doom.

"Where are we?" I asked. Looking around I saw I was in a grassy valley surrounded by wooded mountains. In the middle of the valley was a pool.

"A place where people were free to help others and pursue their own choices and be benefited by gifts of the gods." The old Anarchist said in a mocking voice. "You see that cave up there?" He said pointing to a hole in a mountainside.

"Yeah." I said.

"Follow me." He stated and walked to the cave. "I want you to shout into the cave for me."

"HELLO!" I yelled. "HELLO!" A hauntingly feminine nymph voice shouted back. "Hey who are you?" I yelled. "Hey who are you?" the voice replied.

"Iabusun, and you are?" I yelled. The voice was mocked me. "She's toying with me." I said to the Rev Leaguer. He turned to me and laughed. Then he walked down to the pool. I went to get a drink from it when he suddenly held me back.

"Don't be a fool boy." He hissed, "The waters of Arborea are often enchanted. Look at the flowers growing by the shore instead." I looked and saw that each of them was hanging over the pool looking into its depths.

"Why have you brought me here?" I said.

"To learn." He replied, "To learn."

"You heard that voice right? It was Echo, a nymph Zeus had help him. Whenever the big guy wanted to cheat on his wife Hera he had her serve as a distraction and argue with her while he sneaks out. Zeus used her when he when out to be with his nymph playthings instead of his wife. Hera is smart though, she learned of the distraction and tired of the argument so she let her have the last word, literally. Echo was forced to mimic everything said to her. A mere pawn in the games of those 'oh so good Olympians' of yours left to suffer for what she did to help."

"What about the flowers?" I asked.

"Another example of the goodness and godly gifts of Arborea." He said laughing. "Narcissus, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope, was born with supernatural beauty. He had men, women, and even children from all over wanting him as a lover. But to poor Narcissus this was a torment worse than the Abyss itself. Those gifts his parents passed down to him left him without any peace and they were his ultimate downfall.

Echo asked him out as well, but Narcissus didn't want a relationship and turned her down. Echo then fled to the cave, while Narcissus went to the pool to drink. There he saw his reflection and fell in love with it. He knew he couldn't have himself, his only true love, but he tried anyway. He went to kiss it and drowned. Where he died flowers grew, each one looking into the water in hopes of catching its reflection, or perhaps his, I forgot which. That's not the worse part, upon seeing her love die Echo faded away only leaving her voice behind."

"Saints and Proxies!" I exclaimed, "That's a tragic story."

"That's not the only one," he said. "You see, Zeus's pawns, godly beauty causing death, looking so good you have no peace, that's what Arborea is about. I'm an Anarchist, a lover of chaos, and I find this place absolutely oppressive."

"Then it's time to leave?" I asked.

"Not yet." He said. "We still have three stops to go."

He waded into the pool and held a glass globe over his head. The pool shimmered and became a portal. "So much for curses," I muttered to myself as I followed after him.

The next spot was odd indeed. There were huge indentations in the ground where the hands of an immense titan lay. Was the titan standing on his hands? Then my vision shifted. He wasn't on his hands at all, he was holding up Arborea!

"So I assume this is Atlas, brother to Prometheus and Epimetheus." I said.

"Yep," said the Rev Leaguer. "Another victim of the oppressive rules of Arborea. You see old Chronos needed a leader for his titan armies so he chose old Atlas here. After Zeus and company won, Atlas wasn't sent to Carceri. As the head of the army he was forever made to hold a burden that was heavy even to him. You see he may have led the armies of Chronos, but he wasn't Chronos himself. Chronos was the one who made the battle plan. Atlas and company executed it. If he went to Carceri then he'd have hope of gaining worshippers, becoming greater than Zeus and escaping. It would have been tough, but not impossible. Instead, he now does what has no respite."

"WRONG MORTAL!" Boomed Atlas's voice. "I RESTED ONCE WHEN HERCULES DID HIS LABORS. HE HELD THE VAULT OF THE HEAVENS FOR ME! WHEN I RETURNED HE SAID HE MAY ONE DAY RETURN AND HOLD THEM UP FOREVER. THAT WAS YEARS AND YEARS AGO. THERE IS STILL HOPE HERE."

"I always thought Atlas held up a prime world or the stars." I said.

"Well." The Rev Leaguer said. "If he held up a world he'd be a star beast and the Greek culture has no star beast. If he tried holding up the stars it would be pointless. They are on a weightless crystal sphere.

He's a planar pathway too. You can climb down him to where his feet are planed on the prime. However to find him on the prime you must actively look for him. If not he doesn't exist."

"Well you showed me, these gods pass on godly traits for those unprepared for them and they punish war criminals. I have no control over what my children inherit and this is only one punishment." I said.

"If that's the what you think let me show you how these gods torture and twist the desires of their own children, believe me, they learned uncaring from their titan fathers. They're pros at it."

Again a portal opened. I stepped through it and stepped out in a forest clearing with a pond and a few houses around.

"Another pond?" I asked.

"It's more than that," the Rev Leaguer said. "This is Epicene, a Sensate boomtown around the spring of Salmacis."

"The what?" I asked.

"Let me start from the beginning." he said. " Hermes and Aphrodite fell in love once. Those Greek gods can't keep their hands off their love goddess you know. They had a child, an effeminate lad named after both parents. This child, called Hermaphroditus, was another child of the gods who had no interest in a sexual relationship. He stopped by the pool of Salmacis, the nymph, and she fell in love with him. She pulled him under drowning him, wishing that they be together forever. He wished for all those who enter this pool to share his same fate.

Those damn gods perverted their desires, merging boy and nymph into one body. Now he, she, whatever lives a tormented life, torn between his prudishness and her nymph desires. You see it regretting every choice it makes. Of course this site gained popularity with the Sensates. I brought you here not just to show you Arborean gods twisting wishes, but because this is where the portal to the last stop on this trip lies.

I followed the Rev Leaguer to a house in the middle of town. "Don't worry," he said. "This spot is home to Rebis, a being that called itself that because it's as mixed up as Dabus-speak. It's the alchemist. You see a Sensate and his wife found a wish spell and wanted to reattempt the ill-fated wish of our prior tragedy. They ended up merged half-and-half with two heads. They act peaceful in public but you can sure hear them bicker at night.

I followed the Rev Leaguer to the house where he asked the owner for a few things. He was given a leather glove and a slab of liver. "What's that for?" I asked.

"Just watch me." He replied. He held the leather glove outward and threw the liver through the town gate whistling. An eagle swooped down, grabbed the liver and landed on his glove. He handed the glove and the eagle to the owner and went through the portal that had triggered in the town gate. I followed, after all this is the last stop on this crazy planar tour.

"Here's Atlas's brother." He said pointing to a titan chained down to the slope of mighty Olympus. Here an eagle swoops down ripping out his liver. He regenerates it each day, but with each healing the eagle strikes again.

"What did he do to deserve this?" I asked. "Did he kill a power of peace or something?"

"No." said the Rev Leaguer. "He did the horrible sin of helping humanity. Humanity was dying-poor, pathetic, and miserable. They had no meat to eat; most of their animal sacrifices went to the gods. The little meat they had was eaten raw as they shivered in the cold.

Prometheus did the decent thing and stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. After all, if the gods were all-powerful why would they need fire? He also told the people how to keep the best part of the sacrifices for themselves. After all why do gods need to eat if they are all powerful? The Greek gods are corrupt and decadent, they prefer to have all things swayed in their favor and don't care about mortal suffering. So they gave eternal punishment to Prometheus and had Prometheus's brother Epimethius, the titan who never thinks before acting, build Pandora's Box to spread fear and worry to mankind.

See what being nice gets you in Arborea? Arborea is full of gods punishing people for their skills, gods using mortals as pawns, gods toying with and twisting the wishes and words of mortals to cause pain, and gods keeping mortals in pain and hurting those who help them. I for one would rather be a known revolutionary in Arcadia than live in Arborea. After all, in a plane of law you know the crimes you commit and the punishment for your actions. If I spread revolutionary cause against the gods oppressive and unknowable rules here, there's no telling if what I do is wrong or not and what the punishment is."

That was the last time I ever saw that interesting Anarchist. No doubt he's plotting and planning against the factions somewhere. As for me, I quit the Free League, the Athar appeal much more to me now that I have seen that there is no true freedom as long as their are gods.