Modern Heaven

Modern Heaven

Whether it was inevitable, deliberate, or some combination of the two, the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia have evolved as a bright and shining mirror of its lawful evil counterpart. All the corrupt and sinister aspects of the Nine Hells have been inverted and purified by the Celestian archons.

The archons have changed slightly. Nearly all of them are completely humanoid and wingless; only their slightly metallic complexions and unusual height distinguish them from ordinary humans, elves, halflings, or dwarves (in a few cases, they seem to be golden-skinned goblins). They dress in uniformly severe business suits in most situations, dark gray with only the color of their ties and wristwatches denoting rank. Military archons wear uniforms of black leather set off by dog collars. The lower ranks are equipped with automatic weapons; the higher ranks don't need them.

Lunia
Lunia, also known as Shamayim, Jannatu el-Khuld, the Silver or Coral Heaven, and Yesod, is primarily Greater Heart's Faith, a cool silver metropolis seeming to stretch into infinity in this layer - all shining metallic high-rises, perfectly engineered freeways, and subway systems that are always precisely on time. The Silver Sea, once so dominant, has now retreated to the far "edges" of the plane, far beyond the region most visitors and residents see. The stars that once illuminated the plane are now masked by the lights of Greater Heart's Faith, whose neon and florescent glow makes the streets seem bright as day beneath the twilight sky. Billboards and other advertisements are ubiquitous here.

The petitioners of Lunia are those not ambitious enough to strive for Celestia's higher reaches. They live mundane, unexceptional afterlives in data entry, secretarial positions, and classic rock DJs. The elite do design work for Barachiel's ad campaigns.They shuffle off to their cubicals for eight hours and then go home to their apartments. They do not strive for anything more. If they did, they wouldn't be in Lunia for long.

Security in Lunia is subtle, so as not to scare away potential customers. Hound archons disguise themselves as ordinary citizens, their briefcases containing tasers and automatic weapons. Greater Heart's Faith is also filled with secret cameras, the better to ensure the safety of all.

Other hound archons drive taxis. For some reason, most of them claim to be named Michael.

Mahlhevik Records
The producer-mogul Mahlhevik was once a chaotic and evil wizard of terrible power and cruelty, it is said. This hasn't been true for centuries. Now Mahlhevik uses his place in one of the oldest and tallest of skyscrapers in Greater Heart's Faith, a masterpiece of postmodern architecture resembling a silver flame, as a combination recording studio and music label. Mahlhevik specializes in bringing the music of the celestial choirs to the greater multiverse, and some of his old cruelty shines through a bit in his ruthlessness in finding and keeping distributors and his insistance that his artists always fulfill their contracts precisely and on time. Mahlhevik still continues his old policy of allowing visitors of all alignments into his offices, and isn't above signing a fiendish act. Thus, Mahlhevik Records can be a place of intense rivalries and intrigues as succubus divas scream at firre prima donnas, and Celestian choirs dis in their lyrics choirs of screaming Baatific petitioners who have been surgically altered in vile ways. Disturbing disappearances aren't unknown. "The market will decide what's best," Mahlhevik says, and the tome archon Barachiel agrees.

Israfel is Mahlhevik's primary assistant and the representative of the archons set to watch the wizard, just in case. He seems sad and distant, since although he works in a music company he hasn't had time to play music himself in a long, long time. He still has the ability to unfold four angelic wings if he desires; the last time he did this was seventy years ago.

The Towers of Stars
The only building taller than Mahlhevik Records, the Towers of Stars are four white office buildings many kilometers high, joined together by silver tunnels at each floor. It is here that Barachiel, Tome Archon of Lunia, has his headquarters.

An outspoken member of the Free Trader clique in the Celestian hierarchy, Barachiel believes that tyranny and injustice will ultimately crumble thanks to the power of the free market. The more choices people have, he reasons, the more they will demand the right to choose goodness and order, especially if most of the products they use and enjoy come from Mount Celestia. He campaigns to have trade restrictions reduced all across the planes. As part of this, his layer has the largest advertising budget of anyone on the plane. Primarily he spends this promoting the products of the many companies based in Greater Heart's Faith, as well as promoting the idea free trade in general.

Of the Lords of the Nine, Barachiel is most opposed to Levistus and Dispater.

Also in the Towers of Stars, but deep beneath the city streets, are the headquarters of the layer's military. Their chief general is Pheleg, an agathinon with a crusty and somewhat arrogant demeanor. He reports to Barachiel, but considers himself far better informed in military matters than his superior. He and Barachiel argue constantly, but he is too good at his job to be rid of.

Mercuria
Mercuria, the Golden Heaven, also known as Raquia, Hod, Jannatu el-Adn, or the Gardens of Perpetual Abode, is much closer to its medieval state than Lunia. Its sky is still bright gold; it's still filled with lush valleys and pure streams as well as rivers of oil, wine, honey, and milk. The tombs to fallen heroes are all cared for and well-preserved, and are popular tourist destinations for those who prove themselves worthy of ascending this high up the Mountain.

The places of learning, always important in Mercuria, have expanded greatly. Now the layer is filled with schools and universities, each the size of cities, but what really dominates the layer now is its tech industry; archons who once forged celestial weapons now make microchips in clean suits. Petitioners who were geniuses in the high-tech industries in life continue their careers here, accessing their former memories - or anyone else's - from the Astral Plane as needed thanks to powerful psionic search engines that scour the silver void.

Bahamut has abandoned his old palace, turning it into a museum open to all. He wanders the multiverse in the form of an old homeless man surrounded by golden canaries who are, in another form, golden dragons. He rides freight cars from plane to plane and drifts through the planar cities, invisible in the seas of mortal flesh.

Aurilon, the Golden Spire is preserved exactly the way it was centuries ago, a 400 foot-tall tower of burnished gold by a pristine lake. This is the administrative center of the Golden Heaven. The former tome archon, Domiel, admitted he was out of his league when the layer went high-tech, and has long since ascended to the Illuminated Heaven. The new Tome is Remiel, who formally ran the Eschequer of Souls in Jovar. The digital revolution delighted Remiel, whose job was made so much easier by fast processing speeds. He immediately jumped head-first into the data age, and was a natural choice to replace Domiel. He is eagerly directing projects to develop programs that can read difficult forms of data, like dreams and fire.

Remiel is a friendly and forgiving archon, always glad to look at the positive side of every situation. However, he has a stern side too, and is not afraid to punish those who fall short in their duties toward goodness and law. Mercuria thus has a secret prison complex for errant archons, where Remiel works hard to redeem his wayward brothers and sisters.

Remiel is part of the Free Trader clique in the Celestian hierarchy; together with Barachiel and Erathaol, he believes that the more Celestian products distributed throughout the multiverse, the more goodness and law will follow. Of the Lords of the Nine, he is most opposed to Mammon.

Venya
The Pearly Heaven, also known by such names as Sagun, Jannatu el-Ma'wa, Daru el-Qarar, Shehaquin, Netzach, Paradise, the Gardens of Refuge, the Dwelling of Peace, and Summerland, is the center of agriculture on the Mount. Its green fields are sown with all manners of edible or useful plants, and celestial cattle volunteer to be slaughtered for meat. There are even oil wells pumping the black blood of the mountain into barrels ready to be refined. The whole process is guided with great precision and economy by the tome archon Erathaol the Seer, who has made it his business to advance the science of agriculture to unprecedented heights. Every day he comes up with new efficiency guidelines, new and better ways of accomplishing the same thing. A new, daring idea he has is the renewal of old "pagan" fertility rituals; he has gathered many books on Wicca, Thelema, and even Tantra, and is experimenting with different ways that sexmagic can be used by lesser archons and petitioners to enhance the soil.

The Glass Tarn
An icy mountain lake in a secluded valley, the Glass Tarn has long been held to have great and profound powers. Erathaol once traveled regularly to this place of prophecy, which has defied explanation by modern science and thaumaturgy. He believes it is a channel by which the mysterious crown archons of the Illuminated Heaven communicate to the multiverse at large, beings with names like Duma and Izra'il. For the past one hundred and twenty years, however, few have journeyed here to draw forth its secrets. Erathaol has not visited it at all.

Shireton
What was once the Green Fields is now a major city equal to any on the planes - only smaller. Modern halflings have adapted fully and enthusiastically to urban life, and the realm of their goddess Yondalla has followed suit. It looks much like a human city, and indeed has many portals to other cities throughout the planes through which halflings can slip in and out like mice through cracks in the walls. Yondalla is a kind, matronly power, lovingly tolerant of the missteps of her chosen people, but lately her other aspect, the shadowy, chaotic Dallah Thaun, has begun to dominate. As more and more residential buildings have turned themselves into smuggling operations trying to slip Celestian goods out of the plane without the archons' knowledge, it is beginning to look more and more as if Shireton does not belong on this plane. The more lawful halflings have actually begun to leave.

Xiranthador
Erathaol's library-fortress of seashells still exists, but the sea it once lay under does not; it was drained to make room for more crops, something that was probably an overzealous measure on an infinite layer. Erathaol never does things by halves, however. He is a loyal member of the Free Trader clique, pushing to produce as many agricultural goods as possible, to feed, clothe, and fuel the multiverse with goods grown in the soil of incarnate goodness and law. Of the Lords of the Nine, he despises Belial and Fierana the most.

Erathaol's old interests in prophecy and learning have unfortunately fallen by the wayside, mostly delegated to subordinates he rarely pays attention to. His loyal seers, however, have found something interesting, and something they believe to be vital: a prophecy that Mount Celestia itself will fall, and its corruption will be from within. In a panic, they put an extra solar in charge of watching the halflings until they realized that it was not from Shireton that the threat came. But where? They need more seers on the project to find out, but Erathaol never has time for them anymore.

Solania
The Crystal Heaven is called Daru el-Salam, and the Dwelling Which Abideth. Pistis Sophia, the tome archon of the layer, calls it Utopia.

Solania has been engineered by Pistis Sophia to be the perfect socialist state. As part of the Enlightened Despot clique she opposes the Free Traders and all they stand for; she believes goods should be the property of the state and distributed freely as needed. The notion of selling goods for a profit or charging interest for loans - all things advocated by the Free Traders - is disgusting and dangerous to her. She believes that the secret of spreading the ideals of law and good throughout the planes isn't through crass commodities, but by acting as a shining and flawless example of Celestia's ideals.

Solania's high, treacherous mountains have been bridged with broad highways forming a perfect grid between the layer's major cities, and crosses diagonally between t hem as well. Each city is also laid in a grid. Each city performs a specific function in the social machine that is Solania; Tiphereth is the medical center; Mechanon is its industrial center, creating vehicles and weapons; Salem is its academic and administrative center; Erewhon manufactures soft goods, textiles and the like; Zebhul produces food. All under Pistis Sophia's command are expected to fulfill the function her tests determine that they're best at. They should not leave their designated districts without reason. Although there are official vacation days scheduled at regular intervals, the amount of forms and passports needed to travel anywhere beyond Solania make such trips nearly impossible.

Of the Lords of the Nine, Pistis Sophia most reviles Baalzebul, who was once known as Triel, though she saves quite a lot of animosity for the Hag Countess of Malbolge.

Erackinor
The greatest and most sacred mountain of the Morndinsamman, Erackinor is home to the dwarven gods Moradin, Berronar, and Tharmekhul. Unlike the bustling technocracies of Dwarven Mountain in the Outlands or the bizarre Chaos-Works of Nidvellir in Ysgard, the dwarven spirits of Erackinor have not adapted to modern technologies. They practice blacksmithing and other traditional tasks, maintaining an art practically dead on other planes because their god insists on it. The settlements of Istor's Forge, Stonefall, the Rift, and Berronar's Side are much the same as they've been for tens of thousands of years.

The Monastery of the Planes-Militant
The Planes-Militant, on the other hand, have undergone a radical update. A military base considered exceptional in the planes, its technology is decades ahead of anything else on the plane. With a fleet of helicopters and fighter jets capable of crossing planar boundaries and a tremendous stockpile of tactical missiles, the air force and marines of the Planes-Militant are ready to take on any challenge anywhere in the multiverse. Their nuclear store is kept secret from outsiders; they want it to be a surprise.

Uroboros
Uroboros, called the Gates of Wisdom, is a realm in mid-air, just beyond every one of Solania's peaks. It is intangible and transcendent; words of power spoken there are said to become living creatures of flesh. It is the only gate to the heaven of Mertion. The hermaphroditic couatl god Jazirian has been missing for a long time; it is feared she is dead, or asleep like her counterpart Merrshaulk in the Abyss. Caring for it in her absence is Aulasha the Librarian, a goddess of a race called the Illumians. She makes sure everyone who seeks to ascend to the higher heavens is properly tested, and she conforts the couatls in their father-mother's absence.

Mertion
The White Silver or Platinum Heaven is also known as Geburah, Jannatu el-Na'im, Machon or Ma'on, and Logres. The "mountains" of this layer are impenetrable black domes known as the Sentinels; in all the centuries the archons have not revealed to any not indoctrinated in their ranks what purpose they serve. The skies are silver-gray like the Astral Plane, but seem far brighter to those not sufficiently lawful or good; painfully, almost agonizingly so.

Mertion is a military dictatorship ruled wisely by Raziel, the tome archon now known as the Crusader. Raziel the Firestar was once the angel of divine wisdom, content to write in his book and contemplate the mysteries of the planes. It was he, it is said, who first brought the secrets of arcane magic to the eldest dragons.

It was only after the destruction of his predecessor, the warlord Mika'il, that he was appointed chief of Heaven's armies, originally as the chief sword archon of Soqed Hezi and later as the Tome of all Mertion. He took to it slowly, at first studying only books on warfare and strategy. With all his theory, his first campaigns were disastrous. Only later did he understand the real horrors of war and begin to study in earnest, this time with personal experience as his greatest tutor.

When Pistis Sophia and Sealtiel first began discussing their theories of Enlightened Despotism, both Raziel's scholarly mind and his military mind were intrigued, but he disagreed with much of what they had to say. The other Tomes spoke of the enlightened rule of scholars, but Raziel had already been down that path and had met, to his sorrow, its limitations. Only the discipline of a military mind could create the ideal society, he knew, so when he began to create his own utopia he put soldiers at the top of its hierarchy.

Of the lords of Hell, Raziel's natural rival is Bel, the Warlord of Avernus.

The Hall of Heralds
The fabled Hall of Heralds lie in the region known as Arvenna, the Chanting Grounds. The Heralds keep meticulous records of all the activities of everyone who dwells in Mertion - their great deeds, their not-so-great deeds. With great pragmatism born from brutal experience in battle, they ensure that everyone does their part in society, and that everyone's talents are used to the fullest.

The City of Tempered Souls
The old city of Empyrea has been much expanded and modernized. As a place of healing, it has no equal in the planes; Tiphereth in Solania is a village midwife by comparison. The very latest medical equipment combines with doctors on the cutting edge of medical research to ensure that everyone in Mertion is in condition for fighting as soon as possible. The entire city is sterile, and no one can enter or leave without an elaborate decontamination process. The head doctor and chief military officer in the city is the throne archon Och, who took over after his predecessor Tarahiel's unfortunate fall from grace.

The City of the Sands of Time
The Celestial Time Police leave Rempha, the City of the Sands of Time, through a massive time-gate through the Demiplane of Time into all times and places in history. The time-travelling equipment invented by the rogue modron Secundus has become very advanced indeed with the addition of modern processors, and the veil of time is not a barrier for them. This is still, somehow, a secret kept by the archons, and it seems no one else has yet found out about it. Still, other races occasionally find their own ways of traveling through time, and the Celestial Time Police make sure they don't affect history for the worse.

The City of Swords
Soqed Hezi, the City of Swords, is the center of martial strength in Raziel's domain. While its technology is not as advanced as that of the Planes-Militant, Soqed Hezi's airfleet is certainly far, far bigger, with all the resources of Mount Celestia at its disposal. The military leader here, a sword archon named Ruth, is answerable only to Raziel.

The Celestial Court
Seeming to teeter at the edge of a bottomless chasm, the Celestial Court is one of the most feared citadels in all the Heavens. Here are the headquarters for Mount Celestia's own police force; these are the archons who police other archons, a dangerous force to cross indeed. They do not answer to Raziel; their ultimate leader is Saraqael, who runs the Exchequer of Souls in Jovar.

Jovar
Illiyun, Chesed, Zebul, Makhon, the Heaven of Gems: whatever it is called, the Glittering Heavens are the very summit of Mount Celestia. Beyond is the great unknown, the bright light above. Jovar is a place of jeweled world-facets, raw elements, storms, and Yetsirah, the Unending Ziggurat and the Heavenly City. It is so far removed from the material world that it defies description.

The tome archon guardian of Jovar is Sealtiel, known as the Defender. Another member of the Enlightened Despot clique, Sealtiel has constructed from his layer a strict meritocracy. Everyone in the layer gets a ranking of how wise, how intelligent, how spiritual, how lawful and how good they are; those with higher total rankings command those with lower ones. Those with higher rankings in a specific area command those with lower rankings in that area - but only in situations where that area is most relevant.

The Heavenly City is Yetsirah, a ziggurat-shaped metropolis of moving walkways and escalators that ascends into the infinite sky. On the very top is rumored to be the bridge of al-Sihal, a freeway made of light that extends into the following layer.

Pax Exaltea is Sealtiel's fortress near Yetsirah's very top, just below al-Sihal. It is itself a ziggurat made entirely of gemstones the size of buses. Sealtiel keeps himself busy those judged the most competent what to do, and they in turn tell others. Sealtiel commands the layer's armed forces, protecting the sacred Bridge, and entertains those who are honestly worthy of ascending it. When he is not busy with all that, he opposes the works of Baator's lord Mephistopheles.

The Celestial Exchequer is the highest court of law on the plane, and the headquarters of the law firm of Saraqael, Qaddisite, Qaddasite, Irite, Irite, and Uriel. These six archons (the Qaddasin and Irin are two pairs of twins) were once led by Remiel before he became the tome archon of Mercuria; now they have formed a celestial law firm that specializes in countering the diabolic lawyers of Baator. The celestial law squad comes, dressed in their identical gray suits, unsummoned and unbidden wherever it is needed, dismissing any existing attourneys with a severe glance. They have trained hard in the legalese of Baator, Gehenna, and elsewhere, and they are confident there is no good-aligned force in the multiverse more competent to defeat fiendish lawyers at their own game.

Chronia
The layer known as the Illuminated Heaven is also called Da'ath, Araboth, the Great Mystery, the Illuminated Heaven, Jannatu el-Firdaus, and the Ancient of Days. It is silence, solitude, emptiness, stillness, mystery and transcendence. Araboth is both the Eternity and the Time of all things prior to days and eternity and time. It is the home of the Unknowable, which the greatest and eldest of seraphim revere; the Unknowable is cognate to the Athar's Great Unknown, and represents the positive side of their faith as the Serpent Trench of Nessus represents the negative.

Chronia is the gap, the mystery; the space between the known of Jovar and the unknown. The separation created when the Aeons left the Mount for the realities beyond. It is the place where knowledge ends, the time and place of rest, the sacred taboo.

The current Tome of Chronia, Camael, inherited his position when the original tome archon Zaphkiel gave himself up to final transcendence, either merging with the pure white light of the plane or ascending to still higher layers. Camael was formally the leader of the Celestial Court in Mertion, a strangely scarred sword archon with a history of compromising deals with the lower planes. He and almost everyone else thought that he was just about the last possible choice to inherit Zaphkiel's title, but Zaphkiel saw a basic decency in him, a willingness to bend the rules in order to enforce their spirit that the other tome archons lacked. After several months of rituals intended to purge him body and spirit and bring him to full throne archon status, Camael was guided across the bridge of al-Sihal, to his destiny. Zaphkiel imparted some final advice to him, shook his hand, and transformed him into his current form, that of a golden-skinned humanoid with the right half of his face wreathed in darkness. Then Zaphkiel vanished, leaving Camael with the keys to the chocolate factory (as it were).

Camael's responsibility is enormous now, but he always took his jobs seriously, regardless of how much he felt like he was screwing them up. Camael is gifted with a far-sightedness, a long-term view that even other immortals fall short on, and he believes that no one is unredeemable, not the worst of fiends, not the Dark Lord of Nessus himself.

Camael still feels like he is not worthy of the role that has been thrust upon him, but he knows that Zaphkiel did not believe anyone else would be better, and Camael trusts Zaphkiel's judgement. He tries to guide the other archons wisely. Refusing to commit to either the Free Trader or Enlightened Despot cliques, he steers the plane toward a clear middle ground that Camael hopes will end up providing the best for everyone.

Camael, now called the Watcher after Zaphkiel, feels obliged to watch over everything in the multiverse. He keeps a particular eye on the fiends, but feels it is his role to look specifically at the fiend called Asmodeus, the Dark Lord of Nessus, and hopes his counterparts elsewhere will keep an equally vigilant eye on those most like them.

The Cliques:

The Enlightened Despots
Ruling for the good at all, the Enlightened Despots seek to use well-intentioned principles of logic and reason to bring peace and well-being to the citizens of the planes.

Pistis Sophia, Sealtiel, Raziel

The Free Traders
The Celestial Trade Organization seeks to bring prosperity and equality to the planes by controlling economies and the flow of capital.

Barachiel, Remiel, Erathaol

The Independents
A faction unto himself, Camael the Watcher belongs to neither of the other two Celestian cliques. Whether this is because he sees merit in both approaches or because he sees merit in neither is something he keeps to himself.