Manual of the Planes

CHAPTER 7:THE OUTERPLANES130space covered with grass, and a single ring of trees atthe very center.The town is one of peace and tranquility, a placewhere everything is so ordered and habitual that citizensanticipate the course of time and flow of conversation,interrupting visitors who don’t know what thefuture holds.Those who seek perfect equality and freedom from thelower (and higher) passions make their homes here.The population is a mixed collection of every race on theGreat Wheel, but all are equal and there is no ruler. Manypetitioners also reside within and around Delon-EstinOti, happy to work the agricultural plots.The town has a reputation as a place where seers areborn and where fortune-tellers gravitate, so visitorshoping to discover their fate are common.Fortress of Disciplined Enlightenment: This structuresits on its own cog, and its spires and towers risehigh into the void of Mechanus. The fortress is two milesin diameter, and some of its spires reach twice thatheight. Inevitables enforcing the “don’t trespass” lawpatrol the parapets, keeping a vigilant eye out for fiendishinfiltrators or colonizing formians.A group of mortals from the Material Plane called theFraternity of Order are the masters of the fortress. Themembers of the Fraternity of Order believe that if theycan but tease forth every law of the cosmos, they willhave the power of the deities. To that end, they built thisstronghold on the plane of ultimate law.A horde of clerks, functionaries, legal aides, translators,mathematicians, philosophers, and bureaucratsstaff the Fortress of Disciplined Enlightenment. Mostbelong to the Fraternity of Order, though sometimesvisitors are granted access to study at the vauntedlibraries of the Fortress. The libraries extend throughhundreds of rooms and hold tomes of legal volumesfrom all over the Great Wheel.Mechanus EncountersUse Table 7–7: Hellish Encounters or Table 7–8: HeavenlyEncounters (alternate between them) for randomencounters on Mechanus.PEACEABLE KINGDOMSOF ARCADIAIt is the land of perfection.It is where laws are made for the common good.It is the plane where harmony is born.Arcadia thrives with orchards of perfectly lined trees,ruler-straight streams, orderly fields, and cities laid out ingeometrically pleasing shapes. The mountains areunblemished by erosion. Everything on Arcadia workstoward the common good and a flawless form of existence.Here, nothing intrudes on harmony.It is said that everything on Arcadia is as perfect as itcan be, neither as strictly regimented as Mechanus nor asdevoted to the perfection of the individual as Celestia.But this is not entirely accurate. In fact, the inhabitants ofArcadia are often so convinced of their own righteousnessthat they are hard-pressed to recognize their ownflaws. This likely contributed millennia ago to the loss ofthe bottommost layer of Arcadia, Menausus, which spirituallytransmigrated to Mechanus, becoming one withthe gear-works realm of ultimate law.St. Cuthbert of the Cudgel, deity of goodly retribution,has his realm on Arcadia.ARCADIA TRAITSArcadia has the following traits.• Normal Gravity.• Normal Time.• Infinite Size: Each layer of Arcadia stretches throughan infinite, well-ordered landscape.• Divinely Morphic: Lesser deities can transform Arcadiawith a wave of the hand, but the plane has the alterablemorphic trait for other creatures.• No Elemental or Energy Traits.• Mildly Law-Aligned: Chaotic characters on Arcadiasuffer a –2 penalty on Charisma-based checks.• Normal Magic.ARCADIA LINKSPortals to other planes are few on Arcadia, but they are permanent,clearly identified fixtures. Arched trellises of floweringivy, holly, or some other lush, verdant growth markeach gateway to another plane. Portals also connect farflunglocales on Arcadia, as well as running between its twolayers. Portals between the layers are usually set betweenhuge, rune-carved plinths standing 40 to 50 feet tall.ARCADIA INHABITANTSMany mortals from the Material Plane live on Arcadia,settling among such other creatures as archons, aasimar,devas, and the ever-present einheriar militias (see ArcadiaPetitioners, below).Arcadia is also home to peaceful animals: golden foxes,coppery hares, and silver-wooled sheep, as well as allmanner of organized insects such as wasps, bees, and ants.Giant-sized versions of these animals and insects also canbe found throughout Arcadia.Formians have a few hive-cities on Arcadia, but theirexpansionist ethic is muted (at least outwardly). Arcadia’sharmony would be spoiled should warrior formiansbegin to march.Arcadia PetitionersThe petitioners of Arcadia are called einheriar. The einheriarappear much as they did in their previous lives,though they are markedly more healthy and robust. Theyare all fanatically devoted to making sure the commongood is maintained.Using their abilities to discern the alignment of allthey meet, einheriar make it their business to police theplane. If they catch any nonlawful or nongood creature,