First of all, hello everybody. This is my first post here, I hope I placed it in the right forum, as I found the descriptions a bit confusing (i am no native english-speaking either, that might help).
I have been playing a lot with 1st and 2nd edition D&D but i dropped it a bit before the 3rd edition was released, and fell in oblivion for a few years; luckily I have found a new, fresh group to play with and now I have been playing for months without interruptions, it's great to be back in shape.
However my short story follows: I have been following the planes and planar adventures before the Planescape setting was released, and when it hit the stores, I was fast grabbing everything that came out, from the dragon artciles, blood war cards, ps conspectus on, I had a totally complete Planescape library, but I couldnt access it becouse another player in my group wanted to dm a campaign, so I just kept them safe in my bookshelf for years without reading them much. After the campaign fell apart, I entered a bitter economical period and I had to sell 90% of my planescape collection, which left me with a Monster Manual 2, Faces of Sigil, The Great modron March, the campaign settings, and little more.
Now I am reading everything I can manage to master a decent play, and I just finished the 3rd edition rules and I read The Planescape Campaign Setting cover to cover, but now I am left with a lot of "holes", I am sure someone here might help me with these questions:
Petitioners: Okay, a body on the prime material or any of the outer planes dies (that means elemental creatures do not have souls? I had a character once which was a Fire Elemental plane version of a human, I think I read an article or somewhere on a monstrous compendium that every inner plane has its elemental variant of normal fauna, human included, does he drift to an outer plane or it melds in its inner plane of origin?) and drifts to the plane closest to his alignment, he forgets everything about his former life and starts a new life (unless he is from the Chinese pantheon in which case he has to pass through the palace of judgement first).
In Baator, he turns into a soul shell.
In Mount Celestia, he turns into a Lantern Archon.
In the Beastlands he turns into an animal etc.
So where do the Larvae fit? Are they petitioners of hades? If so why are they said to found in all the lower planes? Does a soul shell evolve into larva and then into lemure and nupperibo and so on?
Has anybody made a list of petitioners of the outlands and how they look like?
Monsters: The Sword Archon is described as cat-headed in the orginal manual of the planes and MC8, but in the Great modrom march she looks like human with wings instead of arms, and in the Book of Exalted Deeds, it becomes a muscular human with flaming swords tha replace its forearms, what's the official version? I usually adhere to the first.
the Outlands: If there are no stars or suns in the sky, are there no shadows either? How do common people describe time if there is no revolution of planets or atomic clocks? I guess they can't speak of hours since this is a earthly measurement. Do they adopt the peak/antipeak timing of Sigil?
Factions: - exactly how many people of sigil belong to a faction or another? It seems from the CS that you either belong to a faction, or you're a clueless prime, but can one planar hold a shop in Sigil and belong to no faction, not even the indeps?
Those who belong to a faction hold a pin, a paper or something to testify they belong to a faction or another, like politic party cards? How can one tell an harmonium from a mercykiller from an anarchist, if not by the speak? they wear some kind of uniforms and if so what are they like? A namer of the harmonium can arrest someone just becouse he slip a few coins to the faction? A player of my group plans to become an harmonium, what's the exact process to become one?
- Guvners are said to enforce laws, they do not make them, but exactly how they know what they are? Do the dabus confer with guvners on behalf of the Lady of Pain every now and then to dictate them what the rules of the city are? Seems a bit against the concept of the uncarig Lady, but then again who wrote the City laws first then?
I have some more but these are a little bit more "urgent".
Thanks in advance for your help!
Basically yes, but the jury is still out on this one. Elemental creatures and other Inner Planars are very diverse. It's quite possible for some of them to have "souls".
Long story short, all the Lower Planar petitioners first turn into larvae. The fiends harvest them, and bioengineer them into dretches, manes, lemures, etc.
The thing to remember about petitioners is that each deity/pantheon has its own rules. For example, LE souls that end up in Baator are usually not turned into baatezu if they were devout worshipers of a LE deity - they go to its divine realm and from there on, it's up to the deity...
Official version of a creature's appearance? Does it matter?
Yes, AFAIK. Sky goes bright, sky goes dark.
The Cage has changed. Factions were banished, and some are slowly crawling back to power. Download the latest chant on Sigil here:
/products/released.php (it's Chapter 7)
Er, no. Not in 2E, not in 3E.