Brainstorming session, part 3: the upper planes

The Upper Planes: The Struggle for Free Will.

One of the biggest conflicts in the outer planes, and the upper planes in particular is over the importance of free will. No allignment has a real claim to it, not good, not chaos. In fact, the planes of conflict tend to embrace free thought, while the more more strongly aligned planes try to quash it (with the possible exception of Arborea. More on that below). They all have radically different take on it, however.

Arcadia is deceptive. Just because nearly everyone on the plane is working toward a common goal, and will almost always abide by whatever rules are laid down from on high doesn't mean that people don't disagree on what the best way is or what should be law and what shouldn't. In fact, the entire plane is a hot bed for heated polical debate that is notable because it almost never turns violent. They aren't called the "Peacable Kingdoms" for nothing. The placidity of the plane (which some jokingly say beats Bytopia for the title of "most boring place in the multiverse") is undercut by those few times when people do turn violent. Invariably this will cause huge repercussions for whoever caused it (Nemausus, anyone?). So the plane remains peacefull, because everyone involved is trying to make a better future, not because everyone involved has been purged of free will. In fact, if you do something to violate their freedom of thought, they will become quite upset, and since the slumbering war machines of Buxenos and Mt. Clanggedin house what is perhaps the most feared army on the upper planes, this is probably a lethal proposition.

Celestia is rather frightening when you think about it. It gradually "purifies" those who climb its peaks, purging them of all thoughts and feelings that deviate from the Mount's own particular brand of righteousness. As petitioners and mortals ascend the mountain, they are gradually robbed of everything that makes them themselves. Nobody knows what is on the seventh heaven, because everyone who reaches the seventh layer of Celestia is exactly the same! By this point, they cease to individuals at all. Whether they become powerful spirits that rule the mount with a hive mind of sorts or are simply absorbed into the plane, the end result is that they have been purified (corrupted?) to the point where there is literally nothing left to purge. Archons are beings that are part way along this path and embrace the belief in its righteousness without a second thought. Naturally, those Archons who are sent out into the planes take this idea of purification with them, which can spark conflict even among other lawful good indiviuals. It is hard to piss off a Bytopian, but telling them they are foul and impure will likely succeed.

Bytopia is simple. People get along because they like each other. The reason the plane is full of gnomes is because gnomes are practically the only race kind, good natured, and layed back enough to make the plane work. They just want to be free to be themselves and see no reason to do anything that would stop others from doing likewise. A Bytopian gnome is probably one of the best neighbors in the planes. Most importantly, gnomes enjoy treachery and deception, but they are not mind-benders. As such, the generally kind-hearted gnomes will become fearsome indeed if anyone good or not tries to rob them of their freedom of thought.

Elysium is probably the most obvious example of a plane that is out there to warp wills. It crushes your will in a thoroughly enjoyable, but nevertheless terrifying process. It literally destroys your mind and makes you a shell of who you once were. Like the Bacchae in Arborea and the its evil twin Hades, Elysium subverts the will of all who are foolish enough walk its bountious fields, whether they have any desire to join the plane or not. A charitable person would describe it as the epitome of prostelization. A plane which shows rather than speaks of the perfection of good and the folley of evil. The people who say that are virtually all exemplars who just so happen to be immune to the entrapping trait. Pretty much everyone else decribes it as the second most feared feature found on any outer plane. Just after the identicle power found on Hades, but notably before such terrors as Acheron's blade storms and Pandemonium's maddening winds. This is because not only are you effectively killed and trapped on the plane, but your soul has been altered by Elysium to the point where it is open to debate as to whether it is even still really you anymore. Worse still, Gaurdinals are well not for trying to bring more people to their point of veiw, to this end they bring those they capture in combat to Elysium where the plane itself converts them. An Arcadian probably isn't going to be too happy when he learns that his brother is now a permanent resident of Elysium.

The Beastlands are perhaps the only "ideological battleground" on the upper planes that doesn't fully embrace freewill. Beastlands petitioners gradually turn into animals causing them to lose both their racial identities and their personal identities. It can be argued, however, that memory loss is a natural part of being a petitioner. Besides, the Beastlands don't erode free will, so much as they simply make people more primal and instinct driven. The petitioners on the plane don't really mind this process, and some even find it quite enjoyabe. The Beastlands to follow the patter set by Arcadia, Bytopia, and Ysgard, however, in the way they approach anything foreign that defies freedom of thought. They see it as unnatural and foul and something to be fought or avoided at all times.

Arborea, like most chaotic planes, is full of contradictions. The elves and Eladrin claim to be all about protecting freedom of all kinds, and many of them are, but even more seem to have a peculiar blindspot when it comes to protecting the sanctity of free will. A distrurbing number (at least to people who dont' want to be charmed) of them seem to use domination and charm effects with little reservation or self-awareness. Other facets of Arborea such as the Bacchae are even worse. They swoop down on anyone looking for a little fun, and effectively destroy their lives turning them into semi-mindless revelers forced to live a hollow life amid a continous party where they continually lure other unsuspecting victims. Arborea has an uneasy balance between those sworn to protect free thought, and those willing or forced to subvert it. This tension generally results in an uneasy peace in Arborea where beings on both sides of the aisle often try to just ignore it and focus on what they have in common. When these conflicting ideas spills onto other planes, however, the results are often lest than peaceful. And one should expect to find zealous eladrin on both sides involved in some of the bloodiest conflicts.

Ysgard more than any other plane is about the triumph and folley of the individual. Freedom is a natural part of a plane where nothing is truly permanent and even the most powerful mind-effecting spells are dispelled during the bloody deaths and subsequent ressurections that are a daily fact of life on the plane. No prison, physical or magical, has ever held someone on Ysgard for any real length of time without help from a power. If you combine this with the daily struggles of life and battles of life in Ysgard, you begin to realize why the average Ysgardian has one of the most indominable wills the planes can produce. If you try to destroy the will of a Ysgardian, not only will you probably fail, but even if you succeed you'll mark yourself as an enemy of a plane that has some of the most feared individual warriors in the Multiverse.

What this means is conflicts between the thought police and free thinkers of the planes are common very common. The two sides aren't coherent groups, but they are illustrative a simmering tension that pervades much of the upper planes. In fact, more than the conflict between Law and Chaos, or the conflict between millitant good and pacifist good, this this underlying conflict of the upper planes is a flashpoint of extremism, intolerance, and violence, and other evils that are supposed to be rare on the Upper Planes. If you see an Astral Deva and a Hound Archon fighting to the death, it is safe to assume that this underlying conflict on the planes is the root.

Whew, that's a long'un. I really like this one, because it isn't one race, allignment, or plane against another, and it isn't a war so much as a point of tension. It doesn't make sense for Celestials to be involved in a full war amongst themselves for any length of time. Feal free to poke it full of holes, but I'm happy just as long as it gives you something to think about.