I have a game world where elves and humans had a terrible war and both sort of lost. Large natural areas were destroyed and a huge region of the world emptied of Elves entirely.
I would like an elven enclave to have moved, forest and all, to a bleak planar retreat where they could believably eke out an existance. I don't expect them to be fighting demons and devels for a plane in hell, for example.
I'm thinking that I'd like to place a demiplane either off the astal plane (where it would be expected) or some sort of green bubble off of the plane of ash. I like the idea that the elves have to work to keep their forest alive and defend it against bleak waste.
Any Ideas?
I've learned that if my placement is smart to begin with the story has logical players and opponents.
Sigurd
So you would like the elves' sanctuary to be a challenging place to keep green. Okay. One question that would need to be answered, then, is why they moved to such a place, when there are easier settlements available in areas welcoming to elves, such as Arborea. Did they need to stay in a place tied to their homeworld? Then it would make sense that their sanctuary had to be, possibly, the immediate vicinity of some refuge portal from their homeworld. That would have restricted their options, and it will affect the nature of your elves, since they will have some spiritual tie to that place.
A large demiplane is certainly possible. This would have automatically limited size, so that the population would have to restrain itself from growth; young elves might be encouraged to seek a home elsewhere. The environmental challenges would be magnified if the borders of the demiplane were regularly tested by ethereal critters who like the 'taste' of the inhabitants and their environment, or if there is a nearby ethereal feature like a rift.
You mention ash, which would be a fine place for a portal to open up naturally from a world that had been devastated by war. A large, warm pocket with a source of water could make a plausible sanctuary; the inhabitants would have to maintain their heat source and water source to keep the colony viable.
On the Outer Planes, your sanctuary might have ended up as a twisted wish: their magics granted them a green world of their own, and it turned out to be on Othrys, on Carceri. They are now the primary inhabitants of one of the orbs, and only their constant tending and devotion to their sylvan ways is keeping the vegetation and ecosystem from being overwhelmed by Carceri's aggressive native flora and fauna. This is all besides the occasional petitioner that pops up in their midst, and the Styx every now and then deciding to blacken the waters that run through their home. How much they are imprisoned there, and whether by imposition or by sense of duty, is up to you.