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Oinos

First Gloom of the Grey Waste, today we cover Oinos, the Battle Plain.

Oinos appears as a nearly flat, grey field, the soil especially gritty and dry; in fact, the top layer of soil in most of the land is no soil at all, but rather the ash that remains from a fiendish corpse after the millennia of decay required to break it down to its core elements. Few plants grow here, and those that do have their growth stunted, as though they can hardly put forth the effort to reach their full height. 

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Mechanus

What day is it? Let’s see if I remember how this goes. (And how long I can keep this back up.)

Here, we have a piece on the Clockwork Nirvana itself, Mechanus.

What is Mechanus? An endless clockwork nirvana, of course, and the connection between cogworks and the concept of order is obvious, but such a basic description belies the complexity of this realm. No, Mechanus represents the basic underpinnings of reality, the rules and strictures that determine how all functions. Not necessarily in a direct sense, though there are those sages that believe that yes, Mechanus does drive the multiverse, but certainly representationally. Mechanus reflects the truth that no matter the chaos one views in a system, it is driven by laws that can be grasped by a sufficiently skilled mind, and as such it stands in opposition to Limbo, the indescribable realm of ultimate chaos.

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Broken Reach

Today we go back to the Abyss for a piece on one of the few (relatively) safe outposts in the plane, the city of Broken Reach.

For the last 200 years, Broken Reach has been one of the closest things the Abyss has to a sanctuary for outsiders, a place where travelers to the plane can live and operate from without worry of violence, impressment, or enslavement.

Two centuries ago, the city then known as Bladed Reach, after standing firm for over 800 years as the gate-town to the Abyss, suffered a city-wide massacre, the causes of which are still unknown. Whatever set it off — and most assume tanar'ri instigation in one way or another — within a single day, nearly the entire population of 8,000 people was wiped out. Perhaps a few dozen survived. The event was so strong, Bladed Reach slid almost overnight, leaving the city of Plague-Mort in its wake.

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Changeling

While the chaond might be the "official" chaos-blooded planetouched, I always thought it was a bit too slaad-specific, and there already exists a 3.5 race that seemed to fit perfectly.  Today we have the changeling!

Among the less common of the planetouched races, the changelings are those with a bit of Limbo in them; either descended from those beings that stand for chaos — most prominently of which are thetanar'ri, the eladrin, or rarely, the slaadi themselves — or affected by the transformative nature of the planes of Chaos while still in the womb. And as Chaos itself, a changeling is a fluid creature, able to transform itself and take on nearly any humanoid appearance they wish.

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Ankhwugaht

Following up on yesterday's article, today we have Sotakh's realm, Ankhwugaht.

A dark desert standing out from the frigid fields of Stygia, Ankhwugaht is the realm of the power Set. It stands out in stark contrast to that layer, just as Set prefers, placed here likely specifically because of how inappropriate a site it was. For many, the sands of Ankhwugaht make for a welcome respite from the surroundings, both in climate and in inhabitants. The skies above Ankhwugaht are in constant darkness, the deep, dark grey of a roiling storm with occasional flashes of orange lightning.

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Set/Sotakh

Jumping from the Abyssal stuff we've focused on in recent days to Baator, today we have a piece on Sotakh, also known as Set; an odd one for Planescape, considering he was literally the Egyptian god of chaos, but I think I've better brought his representation in line with the mythological version.

Sotakh (or Set, as he is commonly known) was born as one of theEnnead, the nine deities which form the core of his pantheon, on the third day of Pi Kogi Enavot, approximately akin to Veiled 15 in the standard Outlands calender. Son of the gods Nut and Geb, he is twin to Nephthys, and brother to the twins Osiris and Isis.

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Death Knight

Today we have a form of undead created relatively recently, developed by Demogorgon and spread through the Prime: the death knight.

One of the rarer undead beings, death knights are the physical representation of the betrayal of ones' principles in the name of pride or anger, a creature that while once good, has far fallen from grace, and seeks to destroy all they once believed in in the name of their foul patron. Dark champions, these beings are nothing more than a perversion of the ideals of knights, both in form and in attitude.

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Tarsheva Longreach

Today, we have the character that's had more pull-quotes in Planescape than perhaps any other, the planewalker Tarsheva Longreach, guide to all.

Tarsheva Longreach is perhaps the best-known planewalker in Sigil. Having personally explored the planes for nearly 30 years now, she knows more about their many-varied ways and dangers than even most Guvners or greybeards. In her travels, she's gone through every plane and seemingly every realm of existence, giving her a special reputation as the tout of the Multiverse; unlike most, she's even traveled theInner, Astral, and Ethereal as much as, if not more than, the Outer Planes, giving her a truly multiversal perspective.

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Hall of Records

Keeping in the Fated theme for now, today we have a piece on their headquarters, the Hall of Records.

The Hall of Records stands in the Clerk's Ward of Sigil, serving as the headquarters of the Fated and the center of all Sigilian record-keeping and tax collection. This complex spans across a large courtyard found at the end ofScholar Row and along Crystal Dew Lane, holding six massive buildings, some standing hundreds of feet tall.

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Rowan Darkwood

Today we get back to things wholly in the setting with a piece on one of the most powerful people in Sigil: Duke Rowan Darkwood, factol of the Fated.

Renown to some, reviled by others, Duke Rowan Darkwood — factol of the Fated — is one of the most divisive figures in Sigil. Having made his first significant appearance in the city only just over a year ago, in the time since he's risen to ranks many in the city thought inconceivable for a Prime. And his ambitions, as befitting a Taker, seem to have only grown even beyond his lofty position.

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Assortment

A few small articles this time, none of which are really long enough to warrant their own post.

The Dawn Cataclysm, a significant if little-understood event from the history of Toril

The Demiplane of Dread, the source of any number of rumors and tales across the planes.

Pseudoelementals, creatures conjured on the Outer Planes in lieu of the true beings.

Sparks, the inner force that empowers some exemplar races.

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Cloaker

A requested article by one of my players, today we have a creature not exactly planar, though dotting the Plane of Shadow; the cloaker.

Though well-familiar to many Primes experienced in delving the various dungeons that seem to litter the Material Plane, the cloaker is a rare beast on the planes, usually found only within the various lairs they keep on the Plane of Shadow. As such, many unfortunate planewalkers have been caught off guard by these mad abolethic creations.

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Fleshforges

And wrapping up (for now) the line of Abyssal layers is the Fleshforges, the domain of Dwiergus and the heart of tanar'ri research into the development yet more forms of their race.

This sickening, undulating realm, the 558th layer of the Abyss as cataloged by the Guvners, is the lair of theAbyssal lord Dwiergus, the Chrysalis Prince. Much as its lord, the land is a constantly shifting expanse of flesh; mountains of bone bursting through the fleshy ground, furrows becoming lakes as blood or bile rain from the heavens, forests of hair and cartilage growing in days only to rot away in same.

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Steaming Fen

Continuing off the interrupted Abyssal Layers update scheme, today we have the exiled home of the Queen of Chaos, once-ruler of the Abyss: the Steaming Fen.

Though first recorded fairly early by the Guvners, the Steaming Fen — the 14th layer of the Abyss — is far off the beaten trail, avoided even by the tanar'ri (out of superstition largely more than anything). This is because it was here that the tanar'ri were once kept low, here that once held power over the whole of the Abyss. It is the Steaming Fen where the Queen of Chaos holds court, and though she's well-weakened since the days of the War Between Law and Chaos, she still survives even today with hundreds of her spawn, the spyder-fiends.

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Blood War

I know this has lain fallow for weeks; apologies, but real life issues pulled me from this work.  I can't guarantee utterly regular posting in the near future, but I can at least give something fairly large for this current return: the longest piece yet on Timaresh, a full article on the Blood War!

There is no question that the Blood War is the most significant event on the Planes; having gone on since the dawning days of sentience, this battle for the supremacy of Law or Chaos has marked not only the Lower Planes, but the whole of the multiverse for eons on end, seemingly never-ending in its bloodshed and violence. No one can walk the planes for long before encountering something, somewhere, or someone incontrovertibly touched by the Blood War, and hardly ever the better for it.

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Forgotten Land

One of many Abyssal layers dangerous just to enter, let alone explore, today we have the Forgotten Land.

Little is known of the Forgotten Land, third of the layers of the Abyss as recorded by the Guvners, as few have managed to keep their wits long enough to explore the place and report back safely. Even its first official report was obtained only via a gestalt undead crafted by the Dustmen, the only being to return from the that early cross-faction expedition a thousand years hence. Even the latest records predating that expedition mention the layer only as a well-populated stop of the Styx' winding path, dotted with mortal cities exemplifying the peaks of Abyssal architecture. At some point before that expedition, though, the nature of the layer had drastically changed by means unrecorded; today, even simply entering the layer begins to eat at a person's memories and identity, leaving them an empty shell.

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Woeful Escarand

Next is the Woeful Escarand, the first stop for newly-arrived souls to the Abyss, where their new fates are first determined.

This layer is for many tanar'ri the first introduction to the Abyss. Here stands the Court of Woe within the great Mountain of Woe, where the nalfeshnee (also known, astoundingly enough, as the "lords of woe") sit upon their thrones of flame, deciding the fates of all incoming souls and larvae. Supposedly, those of the least promise are shaped into manes, slaves at best and food at worse. Those with enough darkness are shaped into dretches and sent onto the front lines of the Blood War to immediately engage in battle. And those that believe themselves to have far more potential than they truly do are shaped into rutterkin, to bring a sense of humility to them and show them their place, also sent into the War but as nothing but cannon fodder. Of course, with how orderly this process seems, many believe that these decisions are in fact made based on nothing more than the whims of the judges a soul happens to be sent before.