Log X: The Primes

Hehe, yeah. He's got a lot to learn, but he's a pretty smart guy and he has a good teacher so he should pick up easily. I would've posted sooner but I am criminally lazy. At any rate, I tried to sum up Ssilir as best and concisely as I could. There's a LOT I have prepared for the culture, so I tried to pick out the points that, to me, are the most notable.

Your world Scar reminds me a little bit thematically of one of the worlds from Spelljammer. I forget what it's called but it's a water body that used to be the moon of a larger planet that exploded. Chunks of the planet fell into the water moon and are now floating continents on the water. The new world is very still and dead, covered in a slightly acidic and very thick fog that doesn't allow any atmospheric light through.

Cross-posted from my own thread. This is the sketch page 6 of my comic, but it has a sort of panoramic view of the Ssilirian city where Qul lives, so you can get a rough idea of what Ssilirian architecture and cities are like. The large building dominating the foreground is a temple. Ssilirian tradition/law prohibits any building in the city from being taller than the city's main temple. All temples also have 6 tiers, one for each of their major gods.

(Click on the thumbnail to enlarge)

Page 6 with Ssilirian City

Name: Deadworld. Natives, showing a typical lack of imagination simply call it “The World”

Access: There are three known portals that manifests regularly near the Mortuary. The prime-sides move about in a regular pattern that has been mapped by a resistance movement in the land of the blood-dukes.

Prevailing conditions: The World is much the same as a typical prime world with a few differences. The one moon is very large and also darker than typical, taking up a full thirteenth of the night sky but shedding as much light as a night-time traveler to other primes might be used to.

The main explored area of Deadworld consists of a single continent. The temperate areas are a mix of farmland and light forest with many hills and rivers. To the north lie ever-thickening forests of pine, while to the south is a vast desert.

There is a great deal of ambient magic, and both arcane and divine spellcasters are fairly common in certain areas.

Inhabitants: This prime is known as ‘Deadworld’ for good reason. The main inhabited areas are ruled by covens of vampire nobility, known as the blood-dukes. Each duke (or duchess) rules a coven which claims a small fiefdom, often making war with neighboring dukes in a limited fashion. They are ruled over, sort of, by an Arch-duke, “the first among equals”, who keeps any single coven from becoming too powerful and directly challenging his power. .

The living inhabitants of this world are human. There are legends of elves and fey in the deep forests of the east, but most knowledgeable scholars believe they were wiped out centuries ago, in the days of The Last King.

Description: The Arch-duke, VonFrost, inhabits the largest fiefdom, which lies north of the others. He is especially powerful in winter, when the nights in his homeland are longer than in lands to his south, and thus his magic holds sway when the others are still sleeping in their crypts. Arch-duke VonFrost also controls the lycanthropes, mostly werewolves, but a few less common types as well. These he uses as secret police, spies, and enforcers of his will in the lands of the blood-dukes.

Long ago, the first Arch-duke and a number of co-conspirators overthrew The Last King, an incredibly ancient and powerful vampire-necromancer “who ruled all The World” so that they could establish their own covens freely. They were successful, and the blood-dukes have ruled in more-or-less their current configuration for centuries. VoFrost is simply the most recent Arch-duke, but he has ruled for almost three hundred years.

To the east of the lands of the blood-dukes lies a broad river, the Poros. The far bank marks the lands of the Orders. Powerful workers of magic, be they nightwalkers or living, would have an advantage going east if their spells could affect the vampires in the west while they slept waiting for nightfall. Thus The Last King made his capital on the river Poros, and declared all magic banned from all the lands east of it. Knightly orders were created and given sway over tiny baronies and manors. In their knightly traditions, they must protect the people and battle all manner of supernatural heresy. To reduce movement and communication, a knight must traditionally earn his road by contesting the local knight at each border as he travels, unless they belong to the same Order. Knights of the same Order are not allowed to share borders.

Most of these knights are living humans, but a few Orders are secretly made up of vampire knights. They too, battle each other under the night sky. They only induct the most skilled living knights into their Orders, so they are as a rule, unholy terrors of steel and fang. Those blood-dukes who closest to the Poros often have designs to expand eastward, but they are rarely successful. The baronies of the Poros are of course controlled by the oldest and most powerful vampire knights.

The great desert to the south is often known simply as the Land of Dust. Natives of southern lands often whisper that the desert grows a little every year, mentioning whole towns swallowed by the dunes. This is not what they fear, though, for sometimes hordes of skeletons or desiccated zombies swarm from the wastes, bringing more death, and returning with the bodies of the slain to swell their numbers for the next raid. The blood-dukes of the southern fiefs work hard to safeguard their populations against the relentless advance of the dust lands, but they do not speak of what they know. Far to the south, in the center of the great desert lies the abode of The Lich. The process of attaining lichdom was banned by the Last King, and has been therefore lost for millennia in the known lands. The Lich represents a real threat to the blood-dukes and Orders alike, for unlike the vampires who must co-exist with the living, the dead lands of the far south suffer nothing to survive.

There is an active resistance movement opposing the reign of the blood-dukes. Fairly new, actually, it consists of living wizards who have discovered the portals to Sigil. These they use to move around, and have set up safe-houses at or near most of their termini. They have a few kips in Sigil as well, and their main meeting-place is a residence near the Mortuary, a few blocks from each of the known portals back to Deadworld. Their ultimate plan, and whether or not some of them have aspirations of vampirism or lichdom themselves, is unknown, but they have been known to hire Sigilan mercenaries, especially teiflings and other non-humans, to convince their enemies they have the ability to “summon demons”.

Name: Awn's Landing

Access: A smaller arch in the Market Ward, only twenty feet in height, carved by tiefling monks from sandstone mined from an asteroid-sized planetoid elsewhere in the multiverse and covered in bas-reliefs of aasimon and unidentified tentacled creatures embracing. This portal - known colloquially as the Angelsquid Gate - leads to Awn's landing once every 30 days, and elsewhere in the multiverse for the rest of the month, changing its destination every night at Antipeak. Some believe the portal matches the cycle of the moon on a small, unpopulated world covered in a shallow, warm, salty sea; perhaps, they opine, the Lady of Pain finds it easier to match the cycles of portals up with arbitrary cosmic events elsewhere in the multiverse. In any case, the world whose lunar cycle is thought to be linked to the Angelsquid Gate is not Awn's Landing. Nor is Awn's Landing the nearly airless planetoid from which the sandstone was gathered.

The key to every world accessible through the Angelsquid Gate is the word "caliginous" spoken in Planar Common. The merest whisper of the word activates the portal, causing it to open to whatever world it is tuned to on that day.

On the world of Awn's Landing, the other side of the portal is a jagged hole in what appears to be an airship of some kind, shattered and turned over on its side. The hole is approximately the same size as the arch in Sigil, though very irregular in shape. Travelers once had to climb down from the hole around 15 feet to the ground, but Sigilian merchants have since built a broad, sturdy ramp out of material scavenged from the ship.

Prevailing conditions: The atmosphere is fresh and good, more humid than the Elemental Plane of Air but no less pure and dense. Strong winds are ubiquitous, sometimes enough to blow a halfling off his feet. The ground, however, roils and flexes slowly, so that hills and valleys may appear where none were before within a few hours' time. Lakes and seas may also appear with little warning, and flash floods are unfortunately common. The ground is covered in dense grass and weeds; trees understandably have trouble establishing themselves here, and what vegetation there is can survive being flooded for a time. A fast-growing bamboo-like material grows in some places, and it is from this that the locals construct their vehicles.

The world has a small white sun, and irregular periods of near-darkness, but no stars or moon. Half the sky is a deeper azure than the other half, though this half rotates slowly throughout the day.

Inhabitants: The inhabitants of Awn's Landing are humans compatible with humanity as it exists throughout the planes, with coppery skin and red or auburn hair, generally worn long and tied in the back in both sexes. Women wear tough cotton dresses and men trousers; their garments look old-fashioned and quaint to Sigilian eyes. Their homes are large wagons with massive wheels and a distinct nautical design, complete with masts and sails.

The people of Awn's Landing trace their history back a mere three hundred years, when their ancestor Captain Awn landed in this country aboard an airship they call the Wind-Ark along with ninety other men and women. The crew of the Wind-Ark were escaping some kind of disaster, they say, although the nature of this disaster varies in tales told in different communities. Some say a giant monster (its description matching that of the epic abomination known as the chichimec) devoured the world from which they escaped. Others say their world was about to crash into another realm. Still others report a war or religious persecution. Their calm acceptance of the fact of other populated worlds, as well as the fact that their language is clearly a dialect of Planar Common, has led some to believe their ancestors might have originally arrived on this world from Sigil or some other such cosmopolitan place.

The Awnlanders, as they call themselves, live primarily by following their short-lived lakes and seas around and harvesting the fish. Sometimes they are able to find aquatic life left flopping on dry land after the water recedes and collect it before it goes bad, though most of the time the fish slide around with the water. The fish are preserved and dried and brought with them on their migrations. The Awnlanders also plant wild grains and return to harvest them later on in the season after the floods have come and gone.

Description: The mystery of the strangely flexible landscapes of Awn's Landing was solved only three months ago by a team of Guvner diviners armed with celestial ethereoscopes and communing with the local spirits and gods. In short, the "world" on the other side of the portal is a continent-sized leaf fluttering in the wind as it falls toward the ground millions of miles away. The fuzzy region of deeper azure that fills half of the sky was identified as the trunk of the tree from which the leaf fell, masked by atmospheric distortion across an unthinkable distance. The periods of darkness are thought to be times when the branches of the tree temporarily masks the sun. The ground, which remains somewhat hypothetical as even the local gods had never seen it, is completely invisible even with a powerful telescope.

The existence of other leaf-continents must be assumed, probably hundreds of them, though none have yet fluttered close enough to be seen and no portals leading to them have yet been discovered. The Guvners stated with authority that there was only a single tree filling a crystalline sphere, though nothing in their notes backs up this claim. It seems likely that they simply found the idea of an entire forest of such trees so mind-shatteringly huge that they invented the idea of the sphere for the sake of their own peace of mind.

With contact and trade relations with several local communities secured, Awn's Landing has become a common place for Sigilian merchants looking for fresh water, soil, seafood, grains, and the bamboo-like building material. There is nothing on this world that could be called a luxury by Cager standards, but staples are important in a city like Sigil where everything has to be imported, and the reliability of the Angelsquid portal makes places like Awn's Landing important.

Although the Awnlanders arrived on their leaf via an airship, such constructions are no longer made in modern times; the secret of making them fly has been lost, and nothing in the ruins that remain has so far revealed the dark of it. For a time after the arrival of the Wind-Ark, the knowledge was preserved, and the ship that the Angelsquid Portal leads to is only one of dozens of smaller hulks built in imitation of the mothership. The location of the Wind-Ark itself is the goal of every major Awnlander faith; it is believed that within the remains of the Wind-Ark, the secret of flight can still be found, and any who doubt this or suggest that the Wind-Ark has been utterly destroyed or lost over the edge of the world are considered to be demon-tainted heretics and burnt. When Sigilian merchants suggested trading them alternate flight magics from their own city they nearly met the same fate; those who travel regularly to the world have since learned to keep their mouths shut about such thing, contenting themselves with trading pretty baubles, brightly colored fabrics, and simple tools. A few younger Awnlanders have won the secret of the portal key through charm and seduction of loose-lipped Sigilians, but thus far the knowledge has not traveled far, and those Awnlanders who have settled in Sigil have mostly turned their backs on their old world.

The variability of the origin stories among the Awnlanders has led to speculation that there were actually a number of different colonists, and thus multiple Wind-Arks. Again, this is treated as blasphemy by the close-minded elder Awnlanders.

Contact between Sigil and Awn's Landing has existed for several years now, ever since the portal key was discovered after the Faction War and the Tempest of Doors. Relations have been generally peaceful between the merchants and the locals, who are strict about their religious beliefs but are accepting of the idea of visitors from other worlds, there have been rumblings from more distant communities jealous of the new wealth, goods, and strange ideas they're seeing in their neighbors. The merchants are trying to manage the situation carefully, but some have been hiring mercenaries, as they're beginning to suspect that an attack might soon come that might damage the portal.

In addition, there are other more distant worries. What of the force that destroyed the Awnlanders' distant homeland? A chichimec would be horrifying enough, but perhaps stoppable by Sigilian heroes, but what happens if one continent-leaf hits another, crushing the inhabitants of one? And what happens when the leaf finally hits the ground?

And, of course, the idea that somewhere on the "world" is a magical secret that can empower not just one massive airship, but a whole fleet of them, has many tongues in Sigil wagging.

Name: Roustow, Ulee

Access: The Broke Bralani, a gambling hall in the Hive. To exit Sigil, the user simply heads to the portal after making a bet with the house on whether the portal (an arch leading off the gaming floor) will open to Roustow or Ulee; the desired destination must be the bet. The percentage of 100gp bet, up to 50gp, is the percentage chance the portal opens to the correct side. The user will be deposited at one endpoint or the other, and if he won then 100gp will be in his pockets when he arrives, subtracted from the House cash. The Lady has moved this portal when the previous gambling hall went bankrupt for unrelated reasons; the house breaks even on the travel itself. The portal lets out in one of a few rotating locations on each side of the world, around which trade cities have grown up. Most giants cannot fit through the Sigil portal unless shrunk, which the more adventurous of them sometimes do.

Prevailing conditions: Humanoid-normal.

Inhabitants: The ecology is temperate in the usual points of arrival on Ulee, and can shade to the extremes (vast dry desert, high cold mountain) in Roustow. Roustow is populated primarily by giants and giant-kind; Ulee is populated almost solely by halflings, gnomes, and other small folk.

Description: The twin worlds of Roustow and Ulee are of interest to those who might need something associated with giants or little folk. The two worlds are two sides of a planetary disk about which the celestial bodies orbit.

Roustow is populated with all the known species of giants, as well as several unusual types that suggest crossbreeding, local variants, and manipulation. Ogres, ogre mages, ettins, and trolls are all in evidence, along with giant beasts and abnormally large versions of other creatures. The local plant life is on much the same scale.

The giant cultures of Roustow are somewhat different from the usual types. Not having to share their continents with humans and smaller folk, the giants are spread out in plains and valleys just as any other world would hold its people. There are even Sea Giants that sail enormous ships that hunt whales and sea monsters for food and other resources. The troll and ogre lands might surprise travelers the most, though. These species are nowhere near as violent and brutish as they are on most worlds, and the average alignment of each is neutral on the good-evilaxis, with a stong bent toward chaos. It is speculated that, being among the smallest of the species in their usual haunts, rather than towering over humans and other creatures, they found less value in thuggery and more in a primitive but civilized mode of nomadic existence.

Vaprak and Grolantor are known to be displeased with the lack of respect they are shown by the trolls, ogres, and ettins of Roustow, but so far their chosen messengers have failed to impress the rather more intelligent locals. The latest messengers have started threatening that civilization has made trollkind on Roustow soft, and an invasion of barbarians to smash their works and send them back to the pure state of nature is what they need.

Ulee is on the other side of Roustow. The trip between the two sides can be made by walking, if one brings supplies; the world is about 50 miles thick. At various points around the circumference of the disc, islands or mountains have caves that lead into tunnels that slope downwards and twist around until they exit onto the broad edge of the planet. Gravity now faces toward the axis of the planet, and does so until the traveler crosses the bare, mostly-smooth rock of the Edge, an expanse of dry stone scoured endlessly by howling winds as the planet slowly turns in its air-filled crystal sphere. Encounters on the Edge are rare; most beings that find themselves here wish quickly to cross to one side or the other. A few aerial predators ride the gravity ridge and hunt near the crossing points, though.

Ulee is home to little folk: gnomes, halflings, kobolds, and goblinoids. Compared to Roustow, its landscape is much gentler, mainly rising in low ranges of hills underneath Roustow's highest, grandest mountains. (The oceans of both sides are well away from the edges.) The native races are likewise more as planar travelers would expect: kobolds and goblinoids are on generally bad terms with gnomes and halflings, as well as each other. Still, the bhukas, the desert goblins, are relatively numerous and their worship of the good Grandmother Kikanuti is fervent. The interspecies warfare is low-grade and nowhere near as vicious as it is on other worlds, and the kobold and goblin nations have in some cases managed to achieve periods of relative quiet and cultural attainment.

The natives of Roustow and Ulee, even those in rural areas far from the planar trade centers, both regard human-sized creatures as unsurprising, since after all they are simply a less extreme version of the people on the other side of the disc. Trade with the Planes and other worlds typically consists of good-quality equipment made to handle giant or small creatures. The worlds also serve as a place to study these cultures under conditions more livable than usually are found on the Planes. (Hill giants, as it turns out, have something of a knack for landscaping, and temples on Roustow often consist of patterned terraced regions of hills.) Soldiering for and against giant-kind and small-kind, and spells or tricks useful in living with them, can be learned here.

Name: Unnamed locale; local settlement, Starblack Station

Access: thought to be a prime material vortex-portal from the Slags which became stable, this portal sits in the third-story window of a tenement in the Hive. The key both ways is a wind faster than 10mph, blowing toward it.

Prevailing conditions: an artificial installation in natural outer space.

Inhabitants: station staff, business travellers, possibly local undead

Description: You'd think the Prime would be safer than the Inner or Outer Planes. That's not always the case. Nobody knows how many bashers got sucked in to Starblack before someone explored with the right procedure, but the portal to Starblack used to dump a sod into vacuum, the real thing. They finally found that out when a golem with a couple of magic items went through and reported back. The cutters that did this were looking for just such a plane: essence of nothing and the infinite emptiness of the Astral are all very well, but both have native traits which are disruptive to various forms of magic and itemcraft. The purity of natural, Prime Material vacuum allows delicate work with temperamental, sometimes highly reactive materials, especially those that shouldn't be exposed to air, like sovereign glue.

The entrepreneurs who found the crystal sphere set up a bunch of permanent walls of iron and walls of force. Teleportation circles allow various sorts of creatures that can stand exposure -- golems, warforged, crystalline or metal beings that don't need to breathe, and the like -- access to rooms open to the hard vacuum with materials to shape or to research, visible through walls of force. You can also enter the rooms wearing a necklace of adaptation, which Starblack will be happy to rent you. Bashers can even foray further from the station using a patched-up apparatus of the crab the company has on hand, which has been specially insulated to be airtight and thermally secure. There isn't much of any other place to go, though; it's mainly used for repair.

Starblack makes its money off of the wizards, alchemists, and other crafters who come here to make items with special requirements, or who wish to create goods of exceptional chemical purity. It's also useful for people who need items exposed to sunlight -- there's a whole trellis of goods outside that gain power from being in sun. The local sun's perfectly normal, and can shine on them 24 hours a day, unfiltered through atmosphere. Travellers pay for room, board, and sufficient air to serve their needs, as well as light security. Few people make trouble, though. Berks who tick off the stationmaster can find themselves dropped into a teleportation circle sans necklace.

The station has been making good money for a while, but recently they've been having trouble from some that don't care about being tossed outside: incorporeal beings are showing up and sniffing around the station, occasionally messing with people's heads. They've disturbed several residents both temporary and permanent, though so far there have been no deaths. Sightings are conflicting; theories range from ethereal predators, to loumara, to spelljamming pirates staying out of sight, to a disembodied psion race native to the sphere. The popular theory, though, is that they're undead: unsettled spirits of local primes, from a planet somewhere else around Starblack's sun, or possibly deep within its past. Obviously, the station wants the source located and stopped, and in the meantime they're hiring cutters who can handle incorporeal foes.

Name: Cantalot

Access: A large marble arch at the heart of the Hive which was said to have been displaced from the Market Ward during a battle between two grand sorcerers.

The key from Sigil is the book "Oll the Factions ov Sigill", an incorrect telling of the factions and their beliefs, which must be pressed against the arch at anti-peak. It has been said that if you were brought up in the Hive and are sickened with your lot in life, the portal may open for you briefly. If the Hiver chooses not to go through the portal, it will not open for them again. You may land anywhere on the plane, though often on a mountain.

The return key is difficult to obtain even for the seasoned planewalker, as it is a form of local dance called "Moros Dancing" that four or more people wishing to leave must do in unison on a mountain top in the month of May. The portal will open at the arch.

However, this unique Prime offers many other portals off-plane, such as the famous Money Pit, that is said to lead to the Elemental Plane of Minerals and the much guarded Why-Hole, a portal that opens at the center of a stone hedge which is known to lead to a pleasant valley area of the Beastlands. There are many more besides that are yet unknown, but the natives speak of as having been used in the past.

Prevailing conditions: Survivable to any of the common races of the Multiverse, though the cities (which there are many of) are often smog-filled and lacking decent plumbing. Magic is relatively strong in Cantalot and young magic-users in training appear to feel a boost in raw power above anyone. It is a flat earth with common Prime nature.

Inhabitants: The ruling race are known as Bearns, they appear to be all but human, but share traces of tiefling, aasimar, high elf, orc and more in their blood. It appears the people of Cantalot have little reguard for racial lines. Cultural differences are not shown in bodily features, but in symbolic tattoos; it is not uncommon for nobility to be completely covered in ink.

Within the Bearn lands also live the Hobs, a mix of various goblinoid and perhaps Halfling of small size, each family has a Hob that lives with them and does chores. However, they are not slaves, and if treated poorly they are well within their rights to break things owned by the family or to leave with their livestock.

There are small pockets of races, from the dwarves that often act as diplomats and judges (who are frighteningly jovial compared to most) to the short-lived pixies who race through life offering little to anyone and a race of deep thinking giants calling themselves Magogs, who are called, to use local terms "canny codgers".

The beasts of the plane run the gambit between common, near-mindless animals to the dreaded dire mantis and savage hawksloth. On the whole these are not reasons to visit Cantalot.

Description: Some time in Sigil's history, a unknown group of bashers wandered into the primative Cantalot and made big, big changes. The decendants of those that were taught civilisation at the hands of the Sigilians have had their whole way of life warped by people much more advanced, and much more cynical. Indeed, Cantalot had no Age of Heroes where brave adventurers fought dragons, far from it, everyones favourite campfire tale is "The Cony-Catchers and the Wyrm" a story that leads to one poor ancient dragon being caught in a hundred year deal that forced him to protect the town of Ruberider.

However in contrast to Sigil, no one ideal or belief system is prominate, the twin cities which the plane is named after, Cantalot-by-the-Way and Cantalot-by-the-Path, are both democratic societies which house seveal mock factions (who may or may not understand the multiverse better than their fore-fathers) such as the Slinkers, a group that believe their world is ending and they should enjoy every sensation while they can, the Professional Anarchistic League, who's duty is to buck trends and question laws set by the Golden Lads (and Lassies) that rule the cities and the Motleys, a large union of clerics that are attempting to piece togethor a religion that incorperates all other religions on the plane in order to fully understand the Great Beyond. Many a Planar has come to Cantalot and had their whole world-view shaken up, most considering the faction they are members of old fashioned and stagnant next to the hundreds of mock-factioners that stand in the streets outside the Ten Thousands Idols Cathedral and Numberous Bars Club screaming at each other. Though considered two cities, the cities are all joined in various places. It is only politics that keep them apart.

Outside of the twin cities region are small kingdoms ruled by noble houses who's station rises and falls with the people's wants. They are complex countries with far too many bylaws and traditions, though many have tried, they all seem to be stuck in decedant rut, unable to push forward. Though in honestly, most are quite happy with the way things are, as those that want more in life leave for the twin cities.

In general, the technology of Cantalot is basic, but they possess the printing-press, "horseless chariots" that run on clockwork, fine ink pens and wide spread use of paper.

[As a mere sidenote the architecture of the plane is like that of Sigil, which is to say all over the place culturually, but without the grim spikes adorning the rooftops.]

Due to the natives innate ability to barter, lie, cheat, confuse and their basic understanding of the Multiverse they are not to be taken lightly. While they may not know the true dark of it all, they'll be able to tell a native from a traveller unless they are disguised in some fashion or up on the local goings on. They are willing to trade with anyone (even slaadi), but be warned, they'll try to make the best of it and have been known to use enchanted teleporting gold to buy items from the more simple-minded planewalkers.

Currently the plane is politically stable and without particular troubles, one does not travel to Cantalot for physical battle, but for wits? Its a banging war!

Other settlements and areas of interest:

Berkonhead, a large port town policed by the Mercible Group. Their tough stance on justice is driving the locals out, but the mayor does nothing.

Hendehill, the spiritual home of the fastest, most daring pixies. The water from the springs around Hendehill are narcotic.

Lathly Forest, once the home of the long dead orcs, although...

Skiffskag, a stronghold of thieves in a bracken swamp, unlike most, they believe in nothing but wealth. Recently they have taken to using undead as slaves after "finding" some scrolls on necromancy.

Ruberider, a simple town which by virtue of birthing several Bearn heroes (or should that be anti-heroes) has been on the map for centuries. The Tomb of Teethface the Arse is said to hold a skeleton key that can open any lock.

The Xenadic, a iron trading vessel which is as large as a city, powered by steam, cogs and elementals, it has resently run around as it's elementals grow too old to work. They need magical aid, and fast.

Quote: Upon my own visit to Cantalot, the first native I met had this to say;

"Oi oi! Wots this den? Allo yow san of a legs-a-wide barmaid, wot can I get ya, ya berk? Har har, I'm onni kiddin' you seem alright... Ere, your not one o' dem egg laying chaps fram Lumbo are you?"

Name: Aluna

Access: A crudely painted drawing of a crescent moon in an alleyway in the Lower Ward, slightly taller than a human, in silver paint. When moonlight touches the drawing (since Sigil has no moon of its own, moonlight must be bottled artificially) the space within the silver borders becomes a portal to a Prime world called Aluna. On the Alunan side, the portal is a silver archway created by an ancient race of fey, decorated with a crescent moon motif. Originally it was designed to open to a plane of Faerie during certain phases of the moon, but currently it is malfunctioning and only opens to Sigil. The area around the archway is wilderness, though a human village is within a few hours' walk, and a city within a few days' journey.

Prevailing conditions: Aluna seems a fairly typical Prime world in many respects. The first difference a planewalker'll ken to is in the night sky: the moon is shattered, barely half of it still intact, with silver shards of the former satellite hanging around it in a cloud. Occasionally massive beings made of silvery energy will dart from shard to shard, like flies feasting on carrion.

Inhabitants: Identified races include humans, elves, and gnomes, as well as exotic planetouched known as "moontouched." Some reports have suggested that the moontouched are actually 'loth-spawned tieflings, though the predominant view is that they are humans who have been affected by contact with shards of the broken moon. Also inhabiting this world are orcs (invaders from another Prime where they are the ruling race), dwarves (pitiable refugees from the orc world) and gray-skinned, hairless creatures similar to bugbears but larger and less malevolent.

Description: A thousand years ago, the moon died.A thousand years before that, skygazers across the planet reported a silvery birdlike entity, who flew from the constellation of ill omen and wrapped the moon in her wings. For three days she remained there, then she flew away again. The manifestation was duly recorded, but no one knew what to make of it.A thousand years before the present day, the moon cracked. Observers said it resembled nothing so much as an egg that had been pierced from within. Over the next three days, they watched in horror as it fell apart, its shards falling from the sky and devastating the world. Winged shapes of silver light escaped from the orb, crying out in joyous musical tones.Today, the world is a very different place than it was. The oceans have risen and remapped the world, and vast swathes of territory have been transformed into desolate and highly magical moonlands, where the touch of the lunar shards have distorted them into something alien and strange. In the sky, the remnants of the shattered moon remain as a haunting reminder of the perfect orb that once graced the heavens. On the earth, the cult of the Silvery Ones demands submission to the new gods who gestated in the moon. The system of moongates that once connected the fey empire with the otherworlds went wrong when the heavenly body they were tied to broke; the remaining moongates can lead to literally anywhere now. The very afterlife has changed: where once souls were ushered into the land of the dead by the kindly goddess of the moon, for centuries they had no way of escaping the world of flesh at all, and gathered in undead hordes until the arrival of the Pure Ones, a race of fiends with smiling masks who offered to construct a new afterlife for a price. Through the jagged holes pierced in the cosmos, the Unfettered emerged, horrifying fiends who sought nothing but destruction. From the timeless depths of the Graveyard of the Gods, elder gods awoke to find their errant children had let their creation be shattered by invaders from without; the old gods, full of rage, made new war in the heavens, and now seek to found a new divine dynasty so that the world will have new wonders to replace the old.

Primarily, this world is of interest by planewalkers for its malfunctioning moongates, which make it something of a nexus of many worlds. Besides Sigil and the orc world (which is called Bonag), moongates have been discovered leading to a far-future version of Aluna where all life has died, fled, or vanished; to various fey planes, each associated with a different phase of the moon; to an "underworld" plane where restless souls of the dead are unable to move on to the Outer Planes; to an artificial afterlife created by the Pure Ones (who are yugoloths); to a world with a green sun where fire-worshipers practice ritual human sacrifice and merchant lords buy unimaginable wealth with precious metals and spices; to a world with six moons where warring factions name themselves after the hours of the day; and to a seemingly Edenic, thinly populated world (actually a forested moon) currently being settled by Alunan refugees.

Ooh, Aluna's a good one for adventures. Well done.

Name: Precipice

Access: The portal floats around the border between the Lady's Ward and the Lower Ward, manifesting in seemingly random doorways. You can tell when the portal has shifted to a new location by the Harmonium patrol going around tapping on doors to the street with a four-tined spear or pitchfork (the key).

Prevailing conditions: Thin, cold air in a cavern near the top of a middling-high mountain, but nothing a Cager isn't used to. The bigger problem is the war on.

Inhabitants: Humanoids of the standard sort. The Harmonium has set up a stronghold in the area around the portal.

Description: The portal from Sigil to Precipice opens to a strategically located pass in what appears to be the point where two curving mountain ranges touch, leading to steep-walled cliffs overlooking deep, sheltered valleys. It's a prime place for a fortress, and sure enough one had been built there a long time before the portal from Sigil was discovered.

That fortress was one of the most fought-over places on this world, since the continent where the portal comes out is split by those mountain ranges into four kingdoms sharing just enough culture to find each other morally backward heathens. All four claim they built the fortress in the pass, and truth be told all four of them have over the years claimed, extended, remodeled, and lost it, so the true origins of the keep are vanished into unwritten prehistory.

The portal comes out in one of the caverns below the keep, and was found in the Sigil direction first, by a party of local adventurers tasked with securing an extension of the keep's storage and barrack systems. They dutifully explained things to the Harmonium patrol that met them in the Lady's Ward, and received a delegation, unfortunately just before another battle started.

The patrol didn't want to take sides in the ensuing fight, it being a local matter, but when a few days later when the attackers gained entry and the holders of the fortress retreated to Sigil, flooding the neighborhood with armed troops, the Harmonium decided that the portal was too big a threat to Sigil to allow it to remain unsupervised. They armored up and took the fortress themselves, declaring that it now belonged to none of the locals, and further attempts to retake the fortress would be looked upon with great disfavor.

This was not taken quite as well as the Harmonium would have wanted, and since then the fortress has been almost constantly under siege, sometimes from multiple armies working at cross-purposes. For several years now the Harmonium has held -- it helps to have a permanent supply line inside your fortress -- and they have at times tried making alliances with one and all sides. The Harmonium higher-ups would clearly like to convince one or all of the local nations to join the Harmonium nationally, but so far none seem interested. Perhaps if the military stalemate goes on long enough this will change. The Harmonium is also known to hire interested "society scouts" to exit the fortress, travel the various kingdoms, and learn about the locals, and better yet put in a good word for the Harmonium.

At the moment, no particular trade goods flow between Sigil and Precipice except for the fortress' military supply line. Word has it that the locals have some exquisite porcelain techniques, though, with fine clays and skilled glazes in vibrant colors, each kingdom with a distinct style. A few pieces are showing up in connoisseurs' collections in Sigil.

Name: Zur (native)

Access: The Sigil portal shifts rapidly between several libraries and bookshops. Its far end shifts as well, between many planes coexistent with Zur, of which it has an anomalously large number.

Prevailing conditions: Zur itself is a humanoid-normal flat Prime Material world of average size, if threatened with a fairly large number of monsters forcing human settlements into small, well-defended regions. However, the portal from Sigil may exit onto one of a number of coexistent planes with various elemental and magical traits. Only two are so far known to be immediately dangerous, a fiery plane, and one that lacks atmosphere.

Inhabitants: Zur has native humans, dwarves, and elves. Settlements are small, far-flung, and peery of strangers. The technology is mostly Bronze Age; dwarves possess the secret of ironworking and guard it jealously. The wildernesses between settlements are teeming with extraplanar entities, some of which are simply predators, while others are more actively malevolent. This leads natives to be severely suspicious of planar visitors; most of the ones they have known have been threats.

Description: An academic curiosity to those who study the planes, the Prime Material world of Zur possesses, in addition to a Near Ethereal, a Shadow border realm, and a Faerie echo, several other coexistent planes with a variety of native inhabitants. Most are accessible from the local Ethereal, and some possess coterminal points where portals exist, to and from the main Prime as well as between the various surrounding planes. Local coexistent planes include, and more are occasionally discovered:

* the Realm of Magic: local arcane spellcasters draw their magic from this region, requiring some minimal adjustment the first time they travel off-plane. It is magically morphic; all spells are enhanced, except that spells that dispel other spells or cancel magical effects, such as dispel magic or Mordenkainen's disjunction, automatically fail. (Counterspells being actively cast work normally.) Several permanent spells which cannot be dispelled litter this plane, and magic-focused creatures, including living spells of various sorts, are notably common. Those with the ability to shift realms are usually serious problems for human settlements.

* the Liferealm: a minor positive-dominant plane which is also coterminous with the Faerie realm at many places. The native predators are a significant danger to local travelers; fortunately, few can directly planeshift. Those that threaten Zur tend to have arrived via Faerie. Frequent attempts to establish settlements usually fail due to the combined problems of monster attraction and fairy interference.

* the Paths of the Dead: while not negative-dominant, this plane is physically static. Objects are reflected from the main world of Zur here if not currently being attended by a living being, with some slight extension of the local materials to fill holes left by objects being used or altered. This means that the plane ends up being very still, without air or water (travelers must bring their own of both), primarily consisting of expanses of stone, pocked with bare regions corresponding to towns in which tools flicker into and out of existence. It's very difficult to change the position of a reflection. The souls of all who pass away on Zur must by local divine ordinance travel through here (traveling souls don't breathe) from the place of their death to the portal to the Astral at the center of the land disc. The major pantheons of the planes are known, and keep garrisons of celestials here to protect the migrating souls from spiritual predators; naturally, the celestials focus their efforts on those of purer alignment for their pantheon, and are extremely suspicious that any living travelers are there to make trouble.

* the Psirealm: this plane exhibits traits for psionics which parallel magic traits on many other planes, but have not been widely discovered for psi. All psionic powers subject to the Empower Power feat receive this metapsionic enhancement automatically unless the psi actively suppresses it, much like the enhanced magic trait elsewhere. Likewise, the plane is psionically morphic; it consists in its entirety of astral constructs, which are partially permanent -- constructs reflecting physical objects or plants are permanent, while those reflecting people or animals, or made by traveling psis, are temporary. Sigilian psions are studying the effect with hopes of finding more places like it, possibly coexistent psionic planes previously unnoticed on known worlds. The local psionic creatures are happy to encourage the influx of more power points for their consumption.

* the Prison of Fire: this plane features in the local myths. It is fire-dominant, possesses erratic time, and is strongly evil- and chaos-aligned. Access to this plane is more difficult, requiring that an accessing plane shift or gate spell be cast from within a giant bonfire large enough to fully contain the caster. The local analogues of objects in the physical world appear to be constantly aflame. A race of chaotic evil fire creatures, somewhat like mephits, lost a war with either ancient heroes or early gods (their memories differ) and are cursed not to leave this place. They spend eternity attempting to subtly make misery for humanity, most of them having mastered sufficient spellcasting to cast transdimensional spells but realizing that too much overt activity draws the unpleasant attention of mortal forces that come and wreak vengeance indiscriminately. Still, blaming an unexpected fire or lost object on the sparkspits is a common superstition among the local humans.

* the Vault: earth-dominant, with heavy gravity and limited magic that makes the plane dead to spells or powers that would move, transmute, or allow passage through its native rock, this finite plane only stretches up to a few hundred feet above or below the surface of the main world at any point, fading off from there into the Ethereal. With the only way to make a dent in it being phsyical labor, it is primarily used by those who can afford the planar travel as a place to stash valuables or hiding places. The rock itself is common and not valuable.

Name: Ekana

Access: The portal from Sigil to Ekana appears in the space bounded between two catwalks joining a pair of Hive tenements. It is cataloged as intermittent, as it appears spontaneously on days when the pollution is severe, but sufficiently thick smoke will act as a key. The nearby residents will object, obscenely.

Prevailing conditions: Ekana has no ground surface. The exit of the portal is suspended from a network of balloons high in an atmosphere subject to gravity, so falling is a danger, but the locals have rigged a platform for landbound travelers. Ekana's air is slightly poisonous to normal humans. Travelers without resistance to acid or poison (either will do) suffer 1 point of acid damage per hour spent on Ekana unless they make a Fort save vs. DC 15. The air is otherwise acceptable in temperature and pressure, though winds are brisk.

Inhabitants: A native race of intelligent birdlike creatures, calling themselves Iyekan. They are extremely ungainly on their taloned feet when they cross into Sigil, until they are on the wing; they have a land speed of 5 feet and a Dex penalty of -2 on the ground, but a fly speed of 60 feet (perfect). They have acid resistance 5. They have somewhat weak forearms as well: -2 to Str and -2 to Dex for fine (noncombat) manual tasks, due to a bad grip. They can attack with beak, or taloned forearms or feet. An Iyekan is feather-covered, with whites, greys, and blacks predominating but almost always individualized with splashes of gold and green. They have a slightly razored beak 6 to 9 inches long. They are Large, about 7 feet tall, with a wingspan of twice that (they need at least 2 squares to take off). However, their reach with arms or feet is that of a Medium creature. Their wings can buffet up to 2 squares away, but only to the side or back, as an unarmed punch (feats and monk levels can improve this). To save mass, their bones are thin; Iyekan take double damage from crushing attacks. Iyekan can sleep on the wing with eyes open, moving at 40 feet (average) in a general direction chosen before sleep or staying near an obvious marker or group, instinctively maintaining altitude and avoiding large obstacles; they are not helpless when asleep, though they can be surprised. They are LA +0 and can take any PC class.

Description: Ekana is a gas giant; the portal lets out in a cold oxygen-nitrogen layer (with occasional eddies from the ammonium sulfide layer above, hence the acid damage). White and yellow clouds rush by miles above and dark grey and red clouds flow past even further below, on days when wet grey clouds aren't filling visibility nearby. The light filters dimly through upper layers; occasions when the Sun is seen (in a distant, black sky) are moments of religious awe and terror for the Iyekan, since the sweeping ray of light tends to boil poisonous clouds off of the usually-frozen lower layers.

The Iyekan spend their life on the wing; in their evolutionary history, their limbs were used for hunting. Certain skyscape features, semipermanent whorls like Jupiter's Great Red Spot or the latitudinal color borders between bands of different types, mark the boundaries of the various nomadic nations they have built on their world. They are tribal herders, moving flocks of slow, balloon-suspended herbivores from one watery cloud oasis to the next so that their chattel may graze on Ekana's gauzy windborne plant life. It is a rotating fleet of these animals that supports the net that catches falling humans arriving from Sigil.

There is very little solid material available to the Iyekan, most of it being the fibrous husks of their flocks which make up their few textile garments and tools. Almost all Iyekan will be wearing a pouch or two woven of this coarse cloth. The hardest natural material they used to know is the scale and bone of dragons, a few of which sometimes arrive through elemental vortices to wreak havoc in tales that are retold among them with horror. However, they are quite magically capable as a species, with a high proportion of spellcasters (their core class ranks are light on fighters and paladins) -- indeed, the portal to Sigil was an unexpected development shortly after their greatest mages codified the gate spell. They possess the secret of frozen fog, a translucent material produced from air and cloud which is as hard as darkwood but neutrally buoyant in any gas atmosphere (weighing the same as darkwood in other environments). Weapons and armor made of it are naturally magical, at the usual additional cost; other items cost as if made of mithril, and require a crafter with Craft Wondrous Items. Druids can wear the material, and in air they qualify as light armor.

The spells and craft secrets involved in producing frozen fog are of mercantile interest in Sigil, though so far the bloods of the race have been canny about protecting their secret, milking item production facilities for all the credit they can before it gets spread abroad. There was some brief intertribal warfare over claiming the area, which was in a little-trafficked region, until the elders of the nearby clans agreed to split the labor and proceeds from the trading station roughly equally in council.

One point about Ekana is that it is huge for a Prime, and those who can fly effortlessly (and have some poison protection) find it nearly as hospitable as the Plane of Air. It's also a place that several groups have gone to dispose of unwanted, hard-to-destroy items by the simple expedient of dropping them into the infinite abyss below. Retrieving indestructible items from the high-pressure magma of the planet's core would take high-level magic indeed; merely "indestructible" items could easily find that the depths of the planet are sufficiently hellacious to beat down the defenses of anything short of divine protection.

With the arrival of the Iyekan in the Multiverse, their gods have also shown up in the Outer Planes. They have a small pantheon consisting of a thunderbolt-throwing authority figure whose realm has floated into the skies of Mt. Celestia over Mercuria, a god of the cosmic order (legal as well as physical, magical and psionic included) whose cloud-orb realm has wheeled into position between two gears rotating in tandem in Mechanus, a battle goddess who is currently engaged in proving her mettle to the boisterous denizens of Ysgard's skies, a hermaphroditic nature deity whose realm has been spotted roaming the Outlands as if it had always been there, a hungry thief-trickster god who is busy clawing out his territory from the tanar'ri on a groundless layer of the Abyss, and an implacable death god whose trailless, dark, foggy realm hangs in the void between two of Gehenna's mounts. Their Creator is an overpower that does not respond to worship; the supreme evil of the pantheon apparently is confined to the space between two particular orbs of Carceri, but somehow still manages to manipulate the other two evil deities as well as a small cult. The various churches were prepared for their arrival by various prophecies, and their clerics and troops are now frantically jockeying for advantageous foothold. Baatezu and demons (especially sibriexes) are experimenting with the possibilities of Iyekan souls as promotion material.

The petitioner populations of these realms, and their comments on their understanding of the Multiverse, strongly suggest to observers that other gas-giant Primes exist with Iyekanoid races on as-yet uncontacted crystal spheres.

Name: Jarra

Access: The portal is the outside entrance to the cellar staircase of Art's Adamantium Smithing and Archery Supplies, in what was previously a middling-wealthy residence in the Clerk's Ward. The business was set up to take advantage of the resources from Jarra, though by the law of the City the owner must allow free passage. An adamantium skeleton key must be used to unlock the door -- Art will happily sell parties tiny ones, about the size of a dart, for 100gp apiece. The return trip is through a cleft in the roof of a cavern, and requires a feather -- the locals will sell one for the same price, since feathers are vanishingly rare on Jarra.

Prevailing conditions: Mostly human-normal, but heavy gravity. Immediate region of arrival is a cold tundra; a small trading post with accommodations for travelers has been set up, but centers of civilization are far distant.

Inhabitants: Mostly humans, dwarves, and halflings. There are few elves and almost no giantish races on the world. The humans are a variant race, whose thick bones and differing musculature makes them distinguishable from normal humans with careful inspection. They have +2 Str, but -10 feet from their land speed after all other human-normal factors are accounted for. They treat heavy gravity as normal gravity for all skill checks, and have lifting limits twice those of a normal human. They treat normal gravity as light gravity for skill checks, with no additional penalties for actual light gravity. For weapon ranges, see below.

Description: Jarra is one of the few heavy-gravity Primes known. The land surface is enormous, and travel times are significant, especially since the portal comes out so far from other civilizations. The region is theoretically claimed by a particular nation, whose troops guard the area, but since most of the trade from Jarra is raw adamantium from mines found in the next nation south, and both nations tax the trade, there is no particular impetus for invasion currently. Adamantium goods can be had on Jarra directly for 25% cheaper than Sigil prices, since the material is relatively abundant here. However, purchase here requires a trip of several weeks to the nearest town -- Northpost -- with regular access to all the necessary smithing equipment and exotic treatment ingredients required to smelt and forge good weapons. The caravan organizers' cuts and the export taxes are exactly what can be wrung out and remain profitable, meaning that Sigil's prices for adamantium remain the same.

Jarrans occasionally travel to the Planes for all the same reasons as Primes from other worlds. In addition, Jarran human warriors, especially archers, are recruited at premium prices. Specialized Jarran longbows and shortbows are made of complex layers of adamantium and tough native wood, with unusual recurves that take advantage of Jarran musculature, so that while other ranged weapons (including inexpensive regular bows) function at half range, these longbows and shortbows operated on Jarra by a Jarran have full normal range -- and operate at double range in normal gravity, albeit no further in light gravity. Non-Jarrans attempting to operate these bows treat them as exotic weapons; Jarrans classify them as martial. The base cost for such a bow is 1000gp, but it can essentially be treated as having the distance feature without being magical (including for the purpose of further enchantment). Since this difference in range can win an archery battle, companies of Jarran archers are occasionally recruited for planned invasion or defense, and the mercs sometimes stay on the Planes to seek their fortunes.

(A starting "Jarran human" proficient with longbow or shortbow may, without too much danger to game balance, start play with such a bow, a high-level character treating it as standard equipment and a low-level character having the understanding that he has a debt to pay to his previous employer out of expected 1000gp in earnings.)

This is a brief listing of named Primes that appear in official published material.

Aebrynis -- home Prime of the Birthright setting (Guide to the Ethereal mistakenly refers to the world as Cerilia, the continent on which most of the action happens)

Athas -- home Prime of the Dark Sun setting

Glemayne -- a world destroyed over 50 years ago by a baatezu invasion. Home of a high-ranking member of the Believers of the Source. (Factol's Manifesto)

Krynn -- home Prime of the Dragonlance setting

Mystara -- home Prime of D&D basic setting

Oerth -- home Prime of the Greyhawk setting

Ortho -- home Prime of the Harmonium (Planewalker's Handbook)

Qua-Nosham -- home of Father Irynimas Sanuire (a character in Hellbound: The Blood War). The Finnish pantheon is known there.

Ranais -- home world of Moil, now a demiplane (Guide to the Ethereal Plane)

Toril -- home Prime of the Forgotten Realms setting

This makes me curious, has there ever been mention of the prime world that Barovia was a province of, before being whisked away to the Demiplane of Dread?

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This makes me curious, has there ever been mention of the prime world that Barovia was a province of, before being whisked away to the Demiplane of Dread?

The PCs get to visit it in the adventure Roots of Evil. It isn't named, though.

Name: Equestria

Access: Usable only by intelligent ungulates, such as pegasi, unicorns, equinals, cervidals, bariaurs and centaurs, or those temporarily shapeshifted into one of these forms. Previously the doorway of a private stable and now the center of a small arcade of hoof manicurists, equine chefs, and purveyors of fine ungulate-adapted gear. It was found about thirty years ago by accident -- it has to be entered at a dead run with the door closed, which has caused problems before. Fortunately, there is a large open field beyond, high in an icy mountain vale. Too cold for any sustainable settlement, it is watched by the local army, which is extremely peery of outsiders. One of the two local deific royals must open the portal for a return; they are fairly accessible, as incarnate gods go, but proper channels still take time, so traffic is light.

Prevailing conditions: Down below the snow line, Equestria has a temperate climate which is rather too perfectly habitable. Its ecology is, at first glance, Prime-standard. The small Prime is the size of a deific domain, perhaps a thousand miles in radius, with distant mountains joining the crystal sphere.

Inhabitants: The primary local race are intelligent equines, most of which are ponies (their word for the entire race) with roughly 1/4 the race each being unicorn and pegasus variants. These are not the standard planar forms of these races. The basic pony, referred to locally as an earth pony, is physically the same as its animal version, but notably stronger, capable of speech, and possessing an unconscious telekinesis (treat as at-will mage hand for objects touched) that helps it manipulate objects without fingers. Unicorn variants lack some of the physical strength of the earth pony but possess natural magical talent, including greater mage hand at full strength and usually a small selection of other spells which reflect individual personality. Unicorns are the only subrace that can become conscious arcane spellcasters. Pegasi lack both strength and magic, but can fly at speeds that outpace even a full-size pegasus of the more normal planar type, with good maneuverability (trainable to perfect). With training, their natural telekinesis allows them to walk on clouds, and even push them around or dissipate them. (Treat as an ability to reshape, move or dissipate mist, fog, smoke, and similar conditions.)

Other intelligent races are known in the world, including dragons, griffons, and an intelligent buffalo species. Serious monsters can be found in wilder regions, including hydra and manticore, as well as monsters not widely known elsewhere. Rumors of the fearsome Ursa Major, a giant bear made of starlight, have interested several explorers, and there are local worries that members of the Vile Hunt and the Ragers have both showed up recently to try to find and kill the innocent (wild and dangerous, but innocent) beast.

Description: Equestria represents the interesting case of a fragment of an Upper Plane that has descended entirely to the Prime. Its early history is dim, but scholars believe that it was once a piece of Arcadia before one of its two local deities became tainted. Rather than risking a slip to Mechanus or the Outlands, or worse, Acheron, the newly villainous princess of the moon was sealed away and the domain descended to a crystal sphere.

While the goddesses royal refuse to discuss their distant origins, evidence is cited for this theory in several places. Equestria's ecology is run by manual intervention, with planning agencies juggling weather patterns, factories creating clouds which are then moved into place by teams of pegasi, and forestry departments that wake up hibernating creatures or build birds' nests for them. Ponies manifest a "cutie mark," usually prior to puberty, which describes a talent or personality style, and typically defines their career choice for life. Freedom is synonymous with danger: the Everfree Forest is the nearest acreage to settled areas where the weather and ecology work normally, and the monsters mostly congregate there. It's unsurprising that almost no ponies have made the daring leap to the Great Ring to try adventuring -- the cost, many Indeps and Athar say, of being too dependent on deities and rigid organization. There is a small Sigilian "chamber of commerce" post in the Equestrian capital, Canterlot, manned by Indep bariaur working for merchants in the Great Bazaar, but they have failed to convince many ponies to try the trip offworld.

One fact mitigating against the theory is that no petitioners inhabit the realm. If there is an underworld or petitioner region, it does not feature in the local myths.

It is interesting to note that many of the intelligent ungulate species tend to the upper side of the Great Ring: equinals, pegasi and unicorns in particular. Bulezau and falxugon are capable of using the Equestria portal, but a nearby shrine to deities associated with horses and related creatures -- Poseidon, Ehlonna, Epona, and Skerrit, especially -- is doing well and the clerics that hang around tend to discourage use of the portal by fiends. Those that do manage to cross will often find themselves followed and harassed. The chance to corrupt a fragment of Arcadia is a temptation too powerful to pass up, however, and it is said that an equinal who turned stag (no pun intended) is assisting in a flow of fiends to he region. Another rumor says that the yugoloth who originally corrupted Princess Luna a thousand years ago means to regain his prize now that the Princess' original sentence of imprisonment is concluded.

Oh my god, you created a My Little Pony world.

Surprisingly plausible, though.

Once it struck me as being notably Arcadian the rest flowed naturally.

Friend of mine suggested running the crossover with MLP dominant. There was speculation as to the cutie mark of the Pony of Pain.

Name: Bridge World. Planars, for reasons explained below, also refer to the world by its variation of the dwarven tongue - "Argnos ath Uhaan" which means "Birthed by His Hammer".

Access: The diviners who've studied the planet believe it to be located in an alternate Prime with a slightly altered topological space - meaning it is not within the "local" Primes that serve as the usual immigration-sources of Clueless to the Wheel. This prevents any direct access via a planeshift and even makes difficult the construction of portals in cities such as Union.

There is one portal to and from Sigil in the Lady's ward, an arch of petrified wood that leads into one of the gated gardens of a local magistrate. The key is a fragment of ice taken from a Prime world's North or South Poles. The portal is the only known access point, the return key being any object or body part originating from Hell.

Prevailing conditions: The immediate feature that strikes the traveler is the lack of land. Miles high plateaus, gathered in clusters, rise up from indigo waters frosted over with several layers of ice. The largest of these plateaus is roughly twice the size of Sigil. Bridges of petrified wood extend out from these plateaus, with smaller spans connecting the clusters and gargantuan trunks arcing across the world's oceans.

Inhabitants: The world is largely populated by elves, humans, and dwarves. The world, in the last several millennia, has seen a massive upswing in all three race's populations as more and more people have found ways to survive on the bridges - either by layering soil on the surface of the fossilized wood or digging into the bark. In some places, a variety of undead tree fungus creates forests inhabited by various reptilian and amphibious creatures such as kuo-toa and gecko stags.

Description: This world has one major export, and that is the thaumaturge-science of its druids' bioengineers. It was this technology that led to the initial creation of the bridges, one the druids managed to rediscover following the first global war. The druids have also been responsible for the creation of various races in this world, though the success of this endeavor has varied in range from misshapen mongrels to the enigmatic and wise trolls. Trolls bear some resemblance to the more benevolent Ysgardian trolls, but are much larger in size and have the characteristics most of us would ascribe to albinos. These plump sages contemplate the world from igloo cities built on the ice under the larger bridges.

The druids possess many other weapons, races, and tools derived from their shaping of Life such as moss cannons and dragonfly fleshmenders, and lucky for the Multiverse the Heirophant allows for exchanges of goods so long as it's done in designated tree-markets. The Heirophant believes greater secrets are buried in the burrowed tunnels of the ancient bridges and her subordinate druids have been given leave to pay and equip adventurers to sound out these fossil-caverns while she and hers get on with running the world.

While the Heirophant is the de facto but unrecognized ruler of the planet, her authority is largely that of an unseen benefactor committed to keeping the peace. Given that elven loyalty extends only to the walls of their crystalline cities and human loyalty is limited to city-states if it gets out the door of their houses, the only two major powers left to contest her status quo are the dwarves and the witch captains.

The witch captains are the seven archmagi that sail across the world in dirigible city states. Their purposes are their own, though they did present a united front against the Heirophant five hundred years after the first world war. This led to the second global conflict which, after six decades of arcanic disasters, ended in stalemate. While some dirigibles were ripped from the skies all of the archmagi survived to once more sail on currents of wind. Several petrified trunks still bear the scars of that war in the jungles of moss overrunning a few barkstone civilizations.

The dwarves are as spread out as the rest of the races, but have come to see themselves as a united race following the selling of their ancestors' souls to Hell. This sacrifice was made by veterans unable to cope with the disintegration of traditional clans and the disregard for blood debts accrued in first world war. While these veterans could kill each other and attempt to at least end their personal debts, they could not accept the end of dwarven traditions in the wake of globalization. Selling their souls to Hell, they travel the planes as heroes using Evil to do Good. When they cross paths they duel and thus come to honorable ends their descendants cannot help but acknowledge given the fate of their souls.

Their transformation into hell bound warriors fighting for justice across the planes has led to all of this world's dwarven kind taking up the religion of ancestor worship in addition to veneration of Moradin and his pantheon. (More information about this in the story here - feel free to add stories about your worlds to that thread! )

Just below the surface of the ice one sees bioluminescent orbs of yellow staring up at those who dwell on the plateaus and the stonebark. Who or what those glowing eyed denizens are remains unclear to this day. If any specimens have been found beyond the usual cetaceans and arthropods the common folk do not know of it and neither trolls, the druids, nor the witch-captains will speak of it. Even the kraken fishers do not know though they claim the Watchers are to worshiped as one carves a ship through the ice.

Adventurers prepared to engage in exploratory diving are sure to find generous employers amongst druids currying for their Heirophant's favor.

My first time reading through this excellent thread I imagined these worlds as planets in the Spelljammer-era cosmology of the prime material plane - whereas looking at it now I'm noticing that they're framed as demiplanes (or other planes more generally).

While there's a lot about Spelljammer that I've never been particularly interested in (boats and boat-related gameplay, for instance), I suppose I'll always think of it fondly for straightening out exactly this confusion for me. Other "worlds" that were sprawling palaces made of rainbows could exist in arbitrary, little-p planes (alongside comparably idiosyncratic spots), while "worlds/planets" of some substance had a coherent place in the larger prime.

Obviously this is all personal preference stuff, but I'm just curious if Jem or anyone else has any thoughts regarding their particular way(s) of looking at this.

Quote:

atomicb wrote:
My first time reading through this excellent thread I imagined these worlds as planets in the Spelljammer-era cosmology of the prime material plane - whereas looking at it now I'm noticing that they're framed as demiplanes (or other planes more generally).

They are indeed intended to be different Spelljammer-accessible worlds. Spelljammer sometimes has multiple planets in the same crystal sphere, but we're not worrying about that too often here, although Rip's Aluna is an interesting variation.

These are not demiplanes, although some of them have coterminous planes, like their own types of border Ethereal. They're full Prime Material worlds. Spelljammers could reach their crystal spheres and then navigate to the planets in question. More importantly for a Planescape game, portals from Sigil reach these Prime worlds.

Quote:

Other "worlds" that were sprawling palaces made of rainbows could exist in arbitrary, little-p planes (alongside comparably idiosyncratic spots), while "worlds/planets" of some substance had a coherent place in the larger prime.

Exactly. These are hefty, world-sized destinations. They obey the standard laws of the Prime Material Plane, because that's where they are. The goal of the thread is to give the variety available on the Prime Material some love, since it's theoretically accessible from Sigil but planars sometimes think all the action is on either side of the Prime -- Inner or Outer, but for some reason not happening on the Prime itself! I suppose the reason is that familiarity breeds contempt; there are many Prime worlds, with many variations on the basic physical laws, but there is only one Mechanus.

Thank you for the reply - I embarrassingly realize that I completely misread the introduction to this thread in coming up with my demiplane confusion. I believe we're on the same page here.

And now the pony planet has gotten me looking up the oddest things on wikipedia lately...

Name: Alluria

Access: The two-way portal is in The Lady's Ward, in the home of a wealthy elven merchant. The key is at least a bucket's worth of fresh water from a Prime world. The water should be poured on the ground in front of a particular section of basement wall. When a traveler steps into the puddle, the portal will open. The return key requires exactly one dozen local reeds, lashed together and used to draw a doorway in a particular section of prairie. The owner of the home in Sigil has kept the portal secret and secure for many centuries.

Prevailing Conditions: Alluria is a small, prime-normal moon of an enormous gas giant planet. Visitors fond of wetter locales will find it very pleasantly habitable. The geography is largely wetlands and shallow seas with a smattering of prairie. The climate is perennially humid and pleasantly warm, interrupted only by short but dramatic rainstorms. The portal from Sigil deposits visitors on an uneventful prairie a day's walk from what might loosely be called Allurian territory.

Inhabitants: The world's namesake inhabitants are the descendants of long-ago unions between spacefaring elven pilgrims and local nature spirits. Resembling exceptionally thin, golden-tinted elves, Allurians are typically taken by planars for aasimar. They live in a series of modest but beautiful villages scattered along the coast of the moon's largest sea. Across the sea, primitive tribes of kobolds roam the marshes, ruled by a sisterhood of squabbling naga. While the vast majority of the world appears uninhabited by intelligent life, it is actually rich with reclusive magical creatures connected to the seas and wetlands. Incorporeal nature spirits abound, along with a variety of fey creatures.

Description: Alluria exists in an isolated crystal sphere on the fringes of explored space. During the daytime its sky is gorgeously dominated by its gas giant parent; this filters sunlight into a sometimes psychedelic array of earth tones and keeps plant life, while abundant, from growing particularly large. The bulk of the moon is untouched by any sort of civilization. Though spirits and magical creatures dwell everywhere, only a small minority have had contact with other intelligent races - most spirits are as much incoherent forces as entities, and the nixies, sprites, and other beings are exceptionally wild even by fey standards. They typically will not reveal themselves to outsiders, but may react with alarming amoral savagery towards those who treat nature with particular disrespect.

Several thousands of years ago, the last survivors of a lost and dying elven fleet landed on this moon. The spirits of the water and land took pity on them and, assuming corporeal form for the first time, taught the elves the tools of survival. For several centuries spirits lived among the elves, with intermarriage becoming a prominent custom. But while the spirits capably aped emotion and reason, they remained a fundamentally alien intelligence, and one day shed their physical forms and retreated back into the wilderness as unexpectedly as they has appeared. That said, the two groups remain on familial good terms (though the spirits remain incorporeal, communicating exclusively through tides and other cryptic means). As spirit-folk, the Allurians are intimately connected with the land around them. In the past, the cascading effects of small disturbances to the ecology have turned entire villages sickly - as such, the Allurians have learned to keep their population small and sparse. And having learned from early visitors about the Sigil portal, they have worked with generations of sympathetic elves to make sure the portal is unused (aside from the rare Allurian journey). The roots of this isolationism are not tradition-fueled xenophobia so much as survival-minded pragmatism.

Allurian villages are dazzling spectacles, their buildings artful assemblages of massive, curved shards of a smooth, fogged material. These are the thin and surprisingly sturdy exoskeletons of the gargantuan jellyfish creatures that populate the gas world above. The Allurians maintain several small spelljamming vessels, not to hunt these creatures but to seasonally retrieve their moltings - the sight of a massive shell tumbling from the sky into the sea is the rapturous centerpiece of their largest religious festival. The largest of the chitin buildings in a particular village is typically a terrarium, where insects (producing silks, glues, and other useful compounds) exist alongside a variety of medicinal plants. Most food is provided through aquaculture. Allurians practice a small amount of druidic magic, primarily focused on benevolent manipulation of nature in these industries.

Though it's the spirit-elves for whom this world is named, the kobolds on the other side of the sea have been here as long if not longer. Their legends tell of being chased from a great city - they quite possibly traveled through the Sigil portal long before it was controlled as it is currently. The kobolds struggled here for millennia, scarcely surviving and never ascending past barbarism. Aside from fracturing them into smaller, more manageable tribes, it can't be said that their naga mistresses have improved their circumstances terribly. The five sisters were banished from Ankhwugaht to the Prime by a minion of Set weary of their constant arguing. All the sisters are quite mad, though only four continue to rule bands of bloody kobold cultists; the fifth incited her flock to such wanton environmental destruction that the nixies and water spirits simply drowned them all. She wanders the marshes, alone.

The Allurians and kobolds are faintly aware of each other's existence, but maintain a rather remarkable distance from one another. If the sometimes-cooperating, sometimes-warring kobold tribes could work together long enough, they could probably overwhelm the gentle spirit-elves with sheer ferocity. The Allurians might seek out sympathetic adventurers in Sigil for assistance in such a predicament. Also, the naga have not been on the moon for particularly long at all by planar standards - there are certainly friends as well as enemies who would be happy to be reconnected with them.

Very nice! I like that it's a moon of a gas giant, and the insect "factories" are a nice touch.

Name: Grakixoxri

Access: No known portal from Sigil. There is a one-way portal from Gzemnid's realm in the Outlands. If a traveler falls (not flies) down a particular vertical shaft in Gzemnid's caves, he or she will be transported to a similar shaft in the interior of Grakixoxri.

Prevailing Conditions: Grakixoxri appears to be a dead prime-normal world. While the atmosphere is breathable, the surface of the small planet is cold and barren, with no water or vegetation to be found. The interior is somewhat warmer but impenetrably dark and difficult to navigate on account of its immense scale.

Inhabitants: Remnants of humanoid civilizations can be found on the surface, but the only intelligent life on the planet currently are the several thousand gigantic beholders that share a sprawling hive underneath the planet's surface.

Description: While scholars and unnaturalists have cataloged endless variation in beholder species across the Prime and the outer planes, the beholders of Grakixoxri are utterly typical in appearance but for one thing: their size. An average member of their kind is several stories high, with many growing much larger. Thankfully for primes and planars alike, the Grakix long ago put aside the psychotic malevolence that pervades their race in favor of isolation and lives of relative peace. It would be a step too far to take this for "goodness" and they continue to consider other races with typical beholder disdain, but perhaps being so transparently powerful simply tempered their impulses towards vulgar destruction and domination. Thousands of years ago, they settled on this desolate planet, extending natural caves into enormous winding tunnels deep under the ground.

The Grakix study magic and carve elaborate murals in the walls of their caves using their disintegration beams, but the great majority of their time is spent in meditation, achieving magical communion with one another and calming their naturally volatile minds. At many times during the day, the naturally reverberant caverns are overtaken by thousands of sepulchral voices repeating strange, guttural mantras. A great deal of the hive's space is devoted to cultivating large, regenerative worms (originally imported by behoider mages from somewhere on the planes) that make up the hive's food supply.

Legends of Grakixoxri flutter through the spheres and on several occasions over the centuries other beholder nations have come bearing genocide. In some cases the giants have scarcely responded, leaving the intrusion to their hive's potent magical defenses (a quartet of bound fire elementals reside in the sculptures decorating the main entrance tunnel and relish the rare opportunity to fill it with a raging inferno). On other occasions the Grakix themselves have replied in swift, overwhelming fashion.

The portal from Gzemnid's realm is understandably very seldom used, as it is incredibly difficult to find, and for those that find it on accident it is incredibly difficult to survive. Of the few that have made the trip intact, the Grakix have left most to wander the dark until they expire or determine some magical means of exit. Currently, however, there is a modron that holds the dubious status of "guest" among the beholders, who find the little creature alternately comical and deeply profound.

Thanks Jem! This is fun stuff - another planet in the Grakixoxri sphere to come.

Name: EquoTahl (adopted from the name of the major kingdom in which the Sigil portal is located)

Access: An old "iron maiden" you step into and close it around you, making this 1 person at a time portal. The key is an actual key that opens the padlock on the maiden. The Maiden is moved around the city, being sold from person to person not every owner knows of its portal powers.

Prevailing conditions: you avarage normal prime conditions

Inhabitants: The kingdom in which you arrieve is dominated by humans and fire elementals or semi-elementals. But only a small percentage of the humans are dominators, a special caste that has heritage passed down pacts with the elementals who are the true rulers of the kingdom and plauge most of the world surrounding that kingdom.

Description: The kingdom of EquoTahl is a huge one and a very dominat kingdom on the entire prime world, given their elemental rulers and worshippers. Eons ago a duke of flame managed to open a permanent connection to the plane of fire onto this prime world allowing his kin to invade and usurp and in the end govern and rule. This has culminated in a society where humans/humanoids live side by side with fire elementals and many variations of semi/demi/quasi/half -breeds.

Mages/wizards/sorcerers who practice elemental magic are hunted, only the ruling caste humans and the elementals themselves are allowed to meddle with elemental magic.

The first fire elementals who conquored the kingdom has a disdain for elves, these were hunted and enslaved. Later on planars were viewed as meddlesome and annoying as they often tried to upset the new order so they become outlawed.

The general attitude of the governing bodies is agressive, hot tempered and malicious.

Name: Grost

Access: The two-way portal to Grost can be found in a dilapidated courtyard in the Hive (once a garden on the edge of the Clerk’s Ward). To activate the portal, each traveler must arrange 100 fresh leaves in a circle on a patch of ground. When stepped on, the leaves will momentarily give way as if covering a trap.

On Grost, the portal is a man-sized knot high on an enormous tree. It is at the geographic center of the Citadel Primeval, a sprawling city-structure of pearl and coral winding through the jungle. The Citadel is long deserted, partially destroyed, and generally very precarious – a careless misstep can send a visitor plummeting hundreds of feet to the forest floor below. The key here is a tubular piece of volcanic rock.

Prevailing Conditions: While technically habitable, most visitors will find Grost a challenge. The small, hot world is covered by swamps, dense jungles, and muddy expanses of water. The abundant native fauna includes a wide array of insects, mollusks, and cephalopods, some extremely gigantic. Unsurprisingly, carnivorous plants abound as well.

Inhabitants: The only intelligent creatures naturally native to Grost are the carnivorous treants that roam the planet’s jungles. A number of immigrated races can also be found on the planet’s only explored continent. Bullywugs live in small communities to the south, where swamps and marshes give way to a thick, dark sea. The jungles north of the Citadel are home to nomadic tribes of steam genasi.

Five (technically native) mutant races can be found in areas not controlled by the bullywugs or the genasi:

- The meegugs are wretched tauric amalgams of goblins and giant snails, dwelling in the trees and making up for their relative slowness with numbers and cleverness.
- The nahrus are mostly-boneless trolls with hundreds of small suckers covering the front sides of their bodies. They are virtually undetectable when clinging tightly to trees and will often drop onto their prey (ideally the colossal land squids that lumber through the jungles), crushing them to death while simultaneously draining their bodily fluids.
- The xixie are small, swamp-dwelling insectile humanoids – while they lack the magical abilities of their fey heritage they are incredibly fast and possess dangerous spitting and stinging attacks.
- Thankfully the grillithids rarely venture far from the sea. These savage beasts are many heads taller than a man when upright, with powerful barrel-shaped torsos, tough pebbly grey hide, and faces full of writhing, barbed tentacles.
- It is unclear if the fungal mycophage is a race of creatures, a single distributed creature, or if this distinction is even worthwhile. At times they roam the forest floor in humanoid form (described by one naturalist as “a lurching pack of drunken, crippled children”). When threatened or hungry, groups will join together and behave as a shambling mound.

Description: For the first several centuries after the discovery of the Grost portal, the wild planet was primarily of interest to daredevil naturalists, bio-mages, and big-game hunters. Over time it became a relaxation destination of choice for steam genasi, who adored its solitude and luxuriant humidity; following the creation of the Citadel Primeval, many genasi visitors became permanent residents. (Visitation would eventually slow to a crawl as the portal’s location in the Clerk’s Ward was overtaken by the Hive.)

The Unhuman Wars brought the second wave of immigration to Grost. Selected by the orcs as a laboratory to continue the research that had produced the fearsome Witchlight Marauders, it was chosen not only for its seclusion but also for the abundant variety of primitive life that proved especially malleable to shamanic magic.

Prisoners of war from other spheres were also subjected to the orcs' gruesome tinkering, and soon the jungle was chillingly alive with the screams and howls of so many failed prototypes. However, it was not long before the war took a dramatic turn against the orcs and Grost was all but forgotten. Sickness had already thinned the orcs’ numbers substantially when one of their own living weapons, freed during a bullywug slave revolt, slaughtered nearly all of the remaining colonists; the survivors promptly abandoned the outpost in search of a home more habitable than the brutal jungle.

Only a single shaman called Gishnak survived the weeks-long journey that ended at the Citadel. Utilizing what little physical and magical strength he still possessed, he secreted his way into the city and through the portal to Sigil.

The details of the orc’s travels on the lower planes are unclear, as is the identity of the power whose proxies sent Gishnak and his followers back through the portal by trickery and force. Whatever the case, the Gishnak that reappeared on Grost a century later was no longer a shaman, but a lich, and the ensuing battle with the genasi was so violent and destructive that the normally unflappable treants intervened and forced the two sides apart.

The surviving genasi fled north through the jungle. Gishnak returned to the orc fortress, which had become a holy place for several experiments that had unexpectedly flourished in the intervening years. The meegugs, nahrus, xixies, and mycophage welcomed Gishnak as a returning messiah and he promptly set to work razing swaths of jungle and rebuilding the fortress as an infernal temple.

Today the continent exists in perpetual conflict: the genasi waging guerrilla war against Gishnak and his children, the lich enslaving and killing bullywugs at any opportunity, and both groups battling the treants while attempting to claim the Citadel and its portal.

Awesome locations bahne and atomicb!

I really like the elementals taking a more proactive role in conquering a prime world, and the inclusion of steam genasi and the Unhuman War on Grost.

Thanks, Sci! Sometimes you just need a monster planet, you know? (Though the writeup as it exists is sadly lacking in monsters! What happened? The earliest, mostly-in-my-head version of this was largely Godzilla-scale beasts wailing on each other and then I got all sidetracked with explaining that pesky portal. Permanent beta, I say...)

heh, you could make the giant beasts part of a new world or a parallel wheel.

I described Gyrus in the Rrakkma forum, but it might work here as well:

/forum/illithids-gyrus

It was originally designed in the context of an illithid campaign. However, while it's very dangerous for non-illithid visitors, Gyrus isn't under total illithid control, as much as the mind flayers would like it otherwise. If non-flayers were to link up with the sentient undead or some of the other illithid-hating parties on Gyrus, they might survive for a while -- at least long enough to find a portal leading anywhere else!

Supercool - this looks like the right place for it to me.

Wanted to get authors' permission to use some stuff in this thread for an article about the importance of the Prime in the Cosmic Game. Let me know if you don't mind - thanks!

Also, anyone who has ideas for said article please post them here:

/forum/possible-article-importance-prime-world...

Log X may be a regular feature column in the zine, so good submissions will probably see daylight at some point if that happens.

Just to reiterate here, I'm okay with any of mine being used, except of course Equestria, which was just for fun.

Personally I'd love to have it as a feature, which is why I wanted to introduce Prime Worlds and the Cosmic Game in the first issue.

Of course, nothing is really finalized with regards to content.

Name: Skraxus (for the main kingdom/continent)

Access: In a dank alley in the Hive, a portal can be drawn on a section of stone wall using organic ash no more than a day old. The Hezbanh end of the two-way portal is a crumbling stone wall around which a heavily fortified government building has been erected. Travelers will find themselves deposited in a bleak and well-attended holding cell. The return key is the same.

Prevailing Conditions: Prime normal.

Inhabitants: The planet's namesake continent is populated primarily by humans, united in a single empire under a beholder god-king. Mountain communities of dwarves exist in perpetual guerrilla conflict with the Skraxus empire and loosely connected orc kingdoms dominate the continent to the south. Immense oceans leave the remainder of the world unexplored.

Description: Skraxus occupies the same crystal sphere as the beholder monastery Grakixoxri. While a number of the colossal Grakix beholders have grown weary of their nation's quiet, meditative existence, most have taken their wanderlust to the planes. Approximately 1,000 years ago, a restless young beholder called Skrax'arak chose a different path, spelljamming under his own power away from Grakixoxri and out into the depths of wildspace. He traveled for months, the distant sun his only landmark, and finally came to rest, near-death, on the modest, uneventful world that now bears his name. The human tribes he encountered naturally identified him as some being or another from their various mythologies and, his mind muddled by his great journey, the once thoughtful Skrax'arak refashioned the local shamanic religions into bloody, fanatical cults.

Today the continent is dominated by a massive totalitarian empire, where impoverished peasants live in a constant state of fear punctuated only by elaborate public rituals of bleak fealty to their ruler. The seat of the empire is an imposing city-fortress of brutal stone architecture - his powers of flight severely impaired by his travels, Skrax'arak is primarily confined to the city's main temple, attended to by a hierarchy of mage-priests (the highest ranked of whom are all missing an eye, a self-inflicted demonstration of devotion to their master). The paranoia and ruthlessness natural to beholder-kind permeate the society here; while secret police and death squads are a standard tool of governance, the fear they inspire pales in comparison to the dreaded 'eye golems', magical constructs that are the real enforcers of the malevolent regime. Eye golems are perfectly smooth black spheres with a madly-blinking eye set flush against the surface - the smaller variety, as large as a man's head, are the eyes and ears of the empire, capable of flying quickly and silently, passing through most physical barriers, and replaying anything that they observe as illusions. The larger golems are as big as a typical beholder and, at the minimum, act as relentless, lightning-fast battering rams invulnerable to non-magical attacks. Many a clandestine meeting of nascent revolutionaries has been turned to bloody paste by one of these mindless marauders. Terrifyingly, some newer models appear to possess one of the traditional beholder eye stalk attacks.

Skrax'arak feeds seasonally, devouring hundreds of the elderly and infirm in gruesome festivals lasting for many days and nights. To be sacrificed in this manner not only promises paradise in the afterlife but brings some measure of honor and favor to the families as well. In this culture of mistrust and fear, many of the sacrificed are not so close to death's door after all.

Periodically Skrax'arak will launch offenses against the mountain dwarves at the edge of his empire or the orcs on the continent to the south, but both of these avenues remain fruitless thus far. Entire armies have been lost to cold, starvation, and relentless guerrilla attacks in the treacherous mountains. The orcs have scarcely lifted a finger against invaders thus far, as disease and the natural dangers of their jungles deal with outsiders quite capably.

Skrax'arak's madness has more than rekindled his genocidal racial bloodlust and, believing himself to be a unique creature, this animosity is squarely focused on the beholders of Grakixoxri. Skrax'arak understands that it would be utter foolishness to mount an assault with any sort of spelljamming fleet (which he doesn't have, for that matter); instead, his mage-priests are busily working on a number of potentially planet-destroying artifacts. Projects such as these sometimes require planar errand-running, for which adventurers in Sigil are often hired. Skrax'arak enjoys boasting of his world to planars and can be a surprisingly gracious host to those who do not evince repulsion at the world he has created.

Article on Adventuring in the Prime in Editor's Queue, but needs 1-3 prime worlds we can give a summary for (or one we include as a complete entry).

All suggestions welcome.

thanks,

Sci

Not sure what you're asking for; you have blanket permission to pick any you like of mine. I like several of other people's but don't wish to speak for them. If you want one to use of mine, I think Precipice (that's the name of the fortress; each of the surrounding nations has their own word for the world) and Starblack Station have the most immediate, simplest adventure hooks.

Will definitely incorporate these - if not for Issue 1, then later. Thanks Jem!

I just picked up Paizo's Distant Worlds book, a gazetteer of the Golarian solar system. It's quite cool, featuring some interesting spots that immediately called this thread to mind; that the planets are based on our own provides a pleasantly solid foundation for it all.