Manual of the Planes

APPENDIX:VARIANT PLANES& COSMOLOGIES220found on Xato, while inevitables and formians arenative to One.Beyond One is the plane of Divinia, where crystallinepalaces of the good-aligned deities float in a goldenatmosphere. Its traits are as follows.• Normal Gravity.• Timeless: Inhabitants do not hunger, thirst, or age.• Divinely Morphic.• No Energy or Elemental Traits.• Strongly Good-Aligned.• Normal Magic.Beyond Xato is an evil-aligned plane known as the TerrorCitadel, a red-hot fortress that floats above a volcaniclandscape. The traits of the Terror Citadel are as follows.• Normal Gravity.• Timeless: Inhabitants don’t heal hit points or recoverability score damage except through magic.• Divinely Morphic.• No Energy or Elemental Traits.• Strongly Evil-Aligned.• Normal Magic.Beyond Divinia is a plane of nothing but water, whilebeyond the Terror Citadel is a wall of solid earth, tunneledby slaves of the Citadel’s dark lords.The deities of Ireth dwell on Divinia and in the TerrorCitadel. They often send their agents, as well as middlemensuch as mercanes and genies, to work their will onIreth. Djinn and marids serve Divinia, while efreet anddao act as freelance talent for the Terror Citadel.Divinia and the Terror Citadel are trying to destroyeach other, and the three planes between them are a vastbattlefield. They usually fight through their worshiperson Ireth, but should the balance of power on that planeshift too far, one side probably crosses the interveningplanes and invades. For this reason the mercane traderoutes are valuable to both sides, as are spellcasters capableof crossing the planes.PLANAR ANOMALIESAcross the many planes, the fabric of reality is undertremendous strain. Sometimes this cosmic strain twistsand tweaks the rules under which the planes operate.Though small compared to a single infinite plane, theseanomalies can change the local landscape dramatically.Outpocketing: Sometimes planar borders bulge andstretch, forming an outpocket, a bulge onto anotherplane. Outpockets are discrete areas, visible as transparentwalls or bubbles on the affected plane. In a way, anoutpocket is like a portal, though it’s often larger. A travelerinside an outpocket can see features beyond, butthey are blurred and indistinct, as if viewed through runningwater. Some outpockets are stable, and others mayslowly shrink or grow over time.Characters can move through an outpocket wall; thewall’s resistance is only as strong as a moderate wind.Once through the wall, the conditions on the new planeapply. Outpockets usually only occur between planesthat are coterminous or coexistent, although some outpocketsare bulges from parallel versions of the originalplane. Such outpockets can reveal possible futures, distantpasts, or barely recognizable presents.Nested Pockets: Sometimes outpockets form ingroups, each pocket nested inside another and connectedto a different plane. Thus, they are sometimes callednested planes or nested realities. The walls betweennested pockets may look like standard outpockets, or maybe invisible. Either way, passing through the boundary isas easy as walking into the wind. In this way, a simplecopse of trees could hold nested pockets—whole worldsreachable through deeper and deeper outpockets.Minor Planar Bleed: Sometimes the traits of oneplane can affect a small region of another plane, evenwithout a portal or vortex connecting the two planes. Thisis particularly likely between two coexistent planes, but isalso possible between coterminous planes. Planar bleedusually affects no more than a single room, structure, orcavern, or at most a few square miles.Minor planar bleeds superimpose one trait from a planeonto another. For instance, on a plane with normal gravity,an area with minor planar bleed might have no gravitybecause of a coexistent plane with that trait. Such planarbleeds can be dangerous, because the planar bleed areaisn’t always obvious until characters are inside it.Some minor planar bleeds are even more subtle; theironly effect is on the dreams of those who sleep nearby.For instance, characters traveling along a dry sea bottommight camp in a gully for the night and have dreams of awide, glittering ocean. The dreams are harmless, merely aresult of minor planar bleed from a coexistent alternateMaterial Plane on which the sea never dried up.Major Planar Bleed: Like minor planar bleed, majorplanar bleed involves seepage from one plane toanother in the absence of a vortex or portal. Majorplanar bleed is usually confined to a region no largerthan several square miles. It has all the effects of minorplanar bleed, including the overlap of a planar trait. Butactual creatures and objects seep through from oneplane to another despite the absence of a portal orvortex. Even structures, small cities, and landscapes canseep from one plane to another.Thar: The legendary trade city of Thar constantlymoves from plane to plane. It accomplishes this task bymagically inducing a major planar bleed around the cityfrom time to time, following carefully mapped planarstress-points where less power is needed to induce thebleed. Thar contains citizens from nearly every race andplane, and its widely varying and flamboyant architecturereflects its mixed heritage. The city, ruled by threerival merchant guilds, is rich with cross-planar trade.Travelers who tarry too long in Thar risk being sweptaway as the city seeps onto yet another plane.