Manual of the Planes

CHAPTER 7:THE OUTERPLANES90HEROIC DOMAINSOF YSGARDIt is a place of heroes and glories.It is where wars rage and valor is proved.It is the battleground of eternity.Ysgard is a plane on an epic scale, with soaring mountains,deep fjords, and dark caverns that hide the secretforges of the dwarves. A biting wind always blows at ahero’s back. From the freezing water channels to thesacred groves of Alfheim’s elves, Ysgard’s terrain is grandand terrible. It is a place of sharp seasons: Winter is a timeof darkness and killing cold, and a summer day is scorchingand clear.Most spectacular of all, the landscape floats atopimmense rivers of earth flowing forever through an endlessskyscape. The broadest earthen rivers are the size ofcontinents, while smaller sections, called earthbergs, areisland-sized. Fire rages under each river, but only a reddishglow penetrates to the continent’s top. Of more concernis the occasional collision between rivers, whichproduces terrible quakes and sometimes spawns newmountain ranges.Ysgard is the home of slain heroes who wage eternalbattle on fields of glory. When these petitioners fall, theyrise again the next morning to continue eternal warfare.Two deities make their homes on Ysgard: Kord, scionof Strength; and Olidammara, patron of thieves.OPTION: WITHOUT THE OUTER PLANESThere can be as many or as few Outer Planes as you desire inyour cosmology. Or you can even dispense with the OuterPlanes entirely. If you decide to do without the Outer Planes,you need to relocate a sizable population of outsiders, determinewhere your deities live, and determine what becomes ofthe spirits of dead characters.Outsiders can be treated as natives of the Inner Planes,demiplanes, or even the Transitive Planes. Such a changemakes those planes much more populated with creatures, soencounters on those planes are more frequent.Similarly, deities can still exist without the Outer Planes.Here are some places they can live.• They inhabit other planes, such as Inner Planes, TransitivePlanes, or even alternate Material Planes. Perhaps they evenlive in particularly remote locations on the Material Plane.However, they cannot modify their home realms like theycan on the Outer Planes. A deity who lives on the MaterialPlane must use brute force to build a golden (or infernal)palace. While impressive, such feats could be matched by amortal spellcaster.• They might be out of the picture entirely. They cannot bereached nor accessed. In effect, they have realms and planes,but mere mortals cannot go there, ever. They are beyond theAstral Plane itself, and only through their powers can theirpresence be felt on the Material Plane. The advantage of thisThe plane boasts two layers, Muspelheim and Nidavellir,beneath the main expanse of Ysgard.YSGARD TRAITSYsgard has the following traits.• Normal Gravity.• Normal Time.• Infinite Size: Ysgard goes on forever, but its well-knownrealms have boundaries within the plane as a whole.• Divinely Morphic: Specific powerful beings (such asthe deities Kord and Olidammara) can alter Ysgardwith a thought. Ordinary creatures find Ysgard as easyto alter as the Material Plane is—they can be affectedby spells and physical effort normally. But deities canchange vast areas, creating great realms for themselves.• No Elemental Traits: No one element dominates onYsgard; all are in balance as on the Material Plane.However, parts of the second layer, Muspelheim, aretreated as if they possessed the fire-dominant trait.• Minor Positive-Dominant: Ysgard possesses a riotousexplosion of life in all its forms. All individuals on a positive-dominantplane gain fast healing 2 and may evenregrow lost limbs in time. Additionally, those slain in thenever-ending conflicts on Ysgard’s fields of battle riseeach morning as if true resurrection were cast on them,fully healed and ready to fight anew. Even petitioners,who as outsiders cannot be raised, awaken fully healed.pqqqqrsoption is that deities interfere less with the daily life of theMaterial Plane, though divine spellcasters still prepare spellsand can contact their deities if necessary.Very few spells and spell-like abilities are affected by the eliminationof the Outer Planes. If you dispense with outsiders, thenthey cannot be summoned by the various summon monsterspells. Spells such as contact other plane reach elsewhere whenused to contact deities.THE BLOOD WARThe word “war” is too simple to describe a conflict that hasraged for millennia, ravaging the planes between the Abyss andthe Nine Hells. The brutal quest for annihilation is a war offiend against fiend. Split along ideological lines, it’s demonagainst devil—and given the treachery of both sides, demonagainst-demonand devil-against-devil battles sometimeshappen. But the Blood War eventually touches every creatureon the Outer Planes, one way or another.The origins of the war are lost to time. Now, it’s all aboutgenocide. As long as there are fiends, they’ll fight each other ina contest in which no quarter is given or asked. On thoseplanes and layers most directly affected, great siege enginesrumble across the battle-plains like mobile mountains,attended by a surging sea of fiends and mercenaries. Whentwo armies clash under hellish suns, the very landscape is splitwith the terrible energies of war unleashed.pqqqqrs