Cathrys

Carcerian Layer
Order:	Second
Realms:	The Steading Palace of Poison Tears

The sanguine jungles and plains of Cathrys are fraught with danger and unpredictable hazards. The air's filled with the stench of decay; it's like autumn leaves rotting on a prime world, but it never ends and the stench is much more painful to the nose. Though the stink doesn't cause physical damage, it's enough to make someone unused to the plane wrinkle their nose for a few good hours.

Why all this rot? The jungle trees ooze acid instead of sap, and this eats through nearly anything except the natives, who have developed an immunity to the stuff. It's no wonder that few've tried to penetrate the heart of the scarlet jungle - a body can't journey through the underbrush without being destroyed by the secretions of the blood-coloured plants. Unless somebody discovers some long-lasting protection against this acid, the secrets of the jungle will remain dark.

The plains of Carceri's second layer, however, are habitable. They're vast, wind-swept grasslands, arid and dry, with grass blades like jagged swords. Those who pass through the grass without protection will get cut, bad; but those with even minimal armour can avoid this entirely. Still, most stick to the roads that traverse the grasslands; to do otherwise is folly.

Roaming human and hill giant petitioners maintain the roads, since the alternative is to be sliced into ribbons by the grass. Still, the grasslands constantly encroach upon the roads, and even constant trampling won't keep the grass from sprouting everywhere it can. Some say it's just a lesser version or razorvine.

Gehreleths and petitioners populate this layer. The farastu gehreleths stick mostly to the jungle, since they're unwelcome in the inhabited savannah. The petitioners are either servants of the hill giant Grolantor or the despicable humans who ended up here. Of course, the petitioners have an advantage in dealing with the layer Since they never bathe, they develop a kind of slimy second skin, which protects them from the acidic sap. They're able to travel the jungle, but they usually steer clear of it - it's full of dangers like the vaath, and the petitioners have a superstitious dread of the place. All they know is that the undergrowth harbours creatures that hunt and destroy.

Villages in Cathrys are few and far between. The barbaric tribes read each other for food and meat, eating the other petitioners (or the flesh of unlucky travellers) and drinking the blood of the same. The villages are huts made of the razor grass, and they stink of filth and decay. The nomadic petitioners pick up and move once they've polluted a particular territory.

Carcerian Layers

Othrys . Cathrys . Minethys . Colothys . Porphatys . Agathys