[Paradigm Shift] Planar Planning

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Idabrius's picture
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[Paradigm Shift] Planar Planning

This will hopefully be a repository thread for working on how the NEW planes will look! Here's an example:

Carceri, the Astral Prison
Magical Notes: No form of magical or planar travel can function within Carceri. Once a body is stuck there, they cannot escape without first traveling through a natural portal.

Carceri is a dismal plane. Whether or not it was hand crafted to serve as the dumping grounds of the multiverse is under debate. Composed of bleak spheres that float suspended in space, the layers of this plane are nestled inside each other like dolls. There is truly no escape from this awful plane. Contained therein are many of the multiverses eldest imprisoned creatures. Besides the few Primordials and Titans kept locked up here, there are enemies of every culture and trapped deities of every portfolio. Its upper layers are bathed in gloomy light that grows more stagnant and darker as one descends within the spheres. Travel between layers is strictly guided by the Gehreleth, the gatekeepers of this prison-plane.

The Gehreleth
The fiends that inhabit this plane as though it were their natural home have been impressed into service by all manner of Powers. They name themselves Gehreleth, but most creatures in Carceri know them as jailors, wardens, and watchers. They guard every snaking passage that wends its way down into a deeper layer and the only egresses back into the Outlands.

Notes for expansion
Need to come up with layers, things imprisoned here, and adventure sites.

Idabrius's picture
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So, while I'm away why

So, while I'm away why don't we focus on getting philosophical themes down for each plane? These would be used to rebuild them without socializing them -- social constructs can come in a second phase.

 

The list so far:

    The Grey Waste - Langour?

    Carceri - Imprisonment

    Mechanus - Order, Progress

    Pandemonium - Madness

    Limbo - Mutability

 

Each entry should probably have TWO descriptors -- for example, Baator would differ from Mechanus in the THEME of the law'n order it presented. Sure, close to the alignment system right? But less restricting, methinks.

Center of All's picture
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It seems to me that Order

It seems to me that Order and Progress together would fit Arcadia or, maybe even better, Bytopia. Mechanus never struck me as a plane that particularly involved itself with advancement and progress. It seems more of a plane about status quo. About unrelenting order for order's sake. A creation that works according to very precise rules, but which has no clear purpose.

Bytopia, on the other hand, is an industrious plane, a place of invention and innovation. I would say if you wanted a plane of Progress within the rules, use Bytopia.

A place like Acheron might be suitable for progress unrestricted by rules. Acheron is a plane of war, and war begets progress, but often without heed for the world around it, or the people "affected" by that progress. Thus, despite its place on the old Great Wheel, I think it lends itself more to being in opposition to a plane like Bytopia.

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Idabrius's picture
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I would say that War,

I would say that War, Order would be the way I would try to describe Acheron. In fact, most "lawful" planes from the Wheel would probably wind up having Order and a second descriptor attached to them. So, something like:

Mechanus: Order, Stability

Acheron: War, Order

Bytopia: Work, Order

Mount Celestia: Purity, Order

... sort of deal.

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Intriguing. I can see that

Intriguing. I can see that point as well. Though in retrospect, I still wonder how Acheron is considered a plane of law, given that battle is not usually an ordered thing.

I'd like to ask regarding Carceri. Are you maintaining the idea that there are (IIRC, it's been a while since I've read about Carceri) only ever 999 gehreleths in existence at any one time? It's something I always enjoyed. So few by comparison, but they exert such strong power

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Idabrius's picture
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I hadn't really considered

I hadn't really considered the gehreleth angle, but I see no reason to change it. As far order and war go, I think it's got something to do with the order required for armies to function, not the Clausewitizian sense of fog-of-war. You know, generals and the like.

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Center of All

Center of All wrote:
Intriguing. I can see that point as well. Though in retrospect, I still wonder how Acheron is considered a plane of law, given that battle is not usually an ordered thing. I'd like to ask regarding Carceri. Are you maintaining the idea that there are (IIRC, it's been a while since I've read about Carceri) only ever 999 gehreleths in existence at any one time? It's something I always enjoyed. So few by comparison, but they exert such strong power

 

I think Acheron represents the callousness of military endeavors, and the subversion of individual will to accomplish a task by force. It is an interesting contrast to Ysgard, which is also a combat-oriented plane which is exactly opposite Acheron on the Great Wheel.

 

As far as the gehreleths, I think 3E raised the number to 9999. However, I always find the concept of limiting the number of a particular race to be a little odd. Consider there were originally only six Type VI demons (aka Balors) in first edition D&D.

 

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