Outer Planes

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The Outer Planes is a dimension that features in Dungeons and Dragons.

Contents

History

The Outer Planes were seventeen planes of existence, each representing a degree on the spectrum of morality and ethics, that lie beyond the Astral Plane. In the beginning, before time or shape held meaning, there existed only a swirling, primordial soup of infinite possibility, a chaos from which all things would eventually coalesce. Within this formless expanse, powerful entities arose, among them the Twin Cosmic Serpents, Jazirian representing goodly law and Ahriman representing evil law, the mightiest champions of order. The twin serpents, working in concert, sought to bound this endless chaos and impose a fundamental structure upon reality. They formed a massive ouroboros, each biting the other's tail, and their vast coils stretched out into the surrounding chaos. This act of cosmic engineering created the central plane of true neutrality, known as the Outlands, and arranged the other alignment-based planes around it in a vast circle, the Great Ring or Outer Planes. In so doing, they established the foundational principles of the multiverse: the Unity of Rings and the Rule of Threes. However, the serpents soon fell into disagreement, each desiring their own favored plane (Mount Celestia and the Nine Hells, respectively) to be the absolute center of this new reality. They broke their eternal embrace, ripping off each other's tails in the struggle. This schism shattered the perfect unity of law, ensuring no single center of reality existed, and caused the newly formed planes to stretch infinitely. Jazirian flew to Mount Celestia, its shedding blood forming the couatls, while Ahriman, wounded and without wings, fell into Baator, eventually reinventing himself as the archdevil Asmodeus to plot his return to former glory. Weakened by their conflict, they were largely forgotten, and other god-like entities rose to prominence, populating the new, structured multiverse with realms that served as the spiritual afterlives for mortal souls.

Overview

In appearance, the Outer Planes were not conventional locations as mortals understood them; they were infinite realms of pure philosophy and belief, where thought and faith held physical form. Each plane represented a fundamental aspect of the alignment spectrum—from the perfect order of lawful good's Mount Celestia, a mountain of seven ascending layers, to the infinite, churning, chaotic evil layers of the Abyss. They did not adhere to the natural laws of the Prime Material Plane; gravity could shift with a thought in some places, while others lacked a sun or breathable air. They are grouped in two major ways: By degrees of good vs. evil (Upper Planes and Lower Planes) or by degrees of law vs. chaos (Planes of Law, Planes of Conflict, Planes of Chaos).

The Outer Planes were generally conceived as existing on a massive, two-dimensional ring known as the Great Wheel, revolving around the perfectly neutral Outlands, at the center of which stood the Spire, a massive, unscalable needle that extended infinitely upwards into an unvisitable void. The planes themselves were diverse beyond mortal comprehension. The lawful planes included the celestial fields of Elysium and the harmonious layers of Arcadia, while the chaotic planes encompassed the ever-shifting landscapes of Limbo and the chaotic wilderness of the Beastlands. At the extremes of evil were the orderly, rigid Nine Hells and the formless corruption of the Abyss, constantly warring in the eternal Blood War. Each plane, and often each layer within a plane, possessed its own unique environmental rules, native inhabitants, and visual characteristics that were direct manifestations of the prevailing beliefs and moral alignments that powered their very existence.

In addition to representing morality and ethics, the Outer Planes are also where the souls of the dead are drawn, as well as the realm of gods, fiends and celestials. On the Outer Planes, belief is crucial- some even believe the very reality of the Planes can be manipulated by strong enough beliefs.

The known planes included:

Inhabitants

  • Asmodeus :
  • Demogorgon :
  • Orcus :

Notes

  • Outer Planes was created by Gary Gygax where it featured in the setting of the Dungeons and Dragons universe.

Appearances

  • The Dragon v1 #8: (1977)

External Links

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