Arborea: Difference between revisions

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[[File:arborea.jpg|right|caption]]Arborea is named after its endless, rolling forests, but half of it's a land of field, orchards, and meadows. Most of Arborea is harmless, and most of the time a cutter's as safe as a sheep in the fold. But there's wolves in the hinterlands, and even prowling powers. Arborea doesn't have the wild, bloody dangers of [[the Beastlands]] or the obvious deathtraps of [[the Abyss]], but all the same, a cutter'd better watch herself. The powers and the nature spirits demand their due, and woe to the berk who doesn't appease them - or worse, scorns their might.
[[File:arborea.jpg|right|caption]]
It is a plane of passion and peace.


It is abundant nature in its patchwork glory.


Arborea's a land of deep emotions and powerful curses, loves, and hatreds. Petitioners are quick to react with anger, lust, greed, and envy. The good news is that charity, love, justice, and kindness run just as strong on the plane. Enchantments and charms function very well in the emotionally charged atmosphere of Arborea. 'Course, like emotions, the backlash is stronger if a spell fails.  
It is the domain of the Elven Lords.


Magic requires small sacrifices to the natures spirits that rule every brook and grove of the plane. Spell keys in Arborea take the form of ritual offerings to the earth and nature spirits that make the spells function. Wine, oat cakes, milk, gold, olive oil, fine idols, unblemished animals, and a mage's blood are typical offerings that make magic possible. Unfortunately, each school and sometimes each spell has its own offering that serves as a key, enough to make even a mage's head ache.
The Olympian Glades of Arborea are a crazy quilt of climates and environments, all of which thrive. Arborea contains great woods of towering maples, birch, and oak. These great deciduous trees strain skyward, leaving a forest floor relatively free of undergrowth and brush. The ground beneath the canopy itself is a rolling landscape of velvet moss and ferns. But the forestscape sometimes retreats before open glades of wildflowers, fields of swaying wheat and barley, and neat rows of fruit trees untended by any human hand. Here are trees that have never seen the woodsman's axe, fields rich with grain, and orchards heavy with fruit. The very air of Arborea seems charged with anticipation and excitement. Sudden squalls brew up out of nowhere, beating the tree-lined paths with heavy winds. They pass within minutes and leave behind warm, sunny arcs of light filtering through the forest canopy. In the distance there always seems to be music; sometimes the elves and the fey are playing, but just as often the faint tune is merely the wind curling through the boles of the great trees. Arborea is a place with flowers in bloom and trees bearing fruit simultaneously. There are uplands covered with snow, but even the snow shines beneath a crystalblue sky. Arborea is almost overwhelming in its beauty, and the land embodies both wilderness and loveliness in one package. Yet only the top layer of Arborea has the great forest implied in the name of the plane. Arborea's second layer is an endless ocean, and its third layer a borderless desen of white dust. All three layers are places of mercurial weather, sudden attacks, and strong passions. Arborea is a plane of joy and sorrow.


=Traits=
*Normal Gravity.
*Normal Time.
*Infinite Size: The part of Arborea best known to visitors from the Material Plane is the home of the Elven Court. There may be realms beyond it presided over by deities unknown.
*Divinely Morphic: Deities can change the traits of the plane and remake the landscape; mortals must use spells and physical effort to change their environment.
*No Elemental or Energy Traits.
*Mildly Good-Aligned and Mildly Chaos-Aligned: Evil or lawful characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma- based checks. Lawful evil characters suffer a –4 penalty.
*Normal Magic. ARBOREA LINKS Arborea borders the Beastlands and Ysgard. Natural portals between these locations are common, as are shifting borders that automatically switch travelers from one plane to its neighbor.


Arboreans live unrestrained lives of hedonism. Lots of bashers think it's because Arborea is the home of the [[Society of Sensation|Sensates]], but that's only half the chant. After all, the curses of the powers can bring about tragic ends, including such ugly fates as exile, slavery, patricide, and blindness. Comparing oneself favorably to the gods, failing to make a sacrifice, offering an insufficient sacrifice, breaking an oath - these things are all trouble. Sad truth is, any sod can make a mistake, but in Arborea the powers might hold it against him. That's chaos, but it ain't pretty.
Inhabitants
Celestials are common in Arborea, especially the eladrin, powerful elflike protectors of the plane. The best known and most common of this breed is the ghaele, which are often found hunting in the wilderness of this plane. In addition to ghaele eladrin, the fine eladrin, guardians of beauty and art, are common here. Both appear elven, but they have a more noble demeanor than elves of the Material Plane. Though regal-looking, the eladrin are fierce in combat. Evil creatures lurking in Arborea quake in their boors at the thought of an eladrin hunting party. Many lillends make their homes in Arborea, thriving on the emotions that ripple through the plane. Arborea is also the home of many celestial or anarchic versions of creatures found on the Material Plane. Celestial creatures tend to leave travelers alone unless crossed, at which point they fight with relish. Anarchic creatures, on the other hand, are as unreliable and unpredictable as you’d expect.


=Petitioners=
Arborea has two common types of petitioners. The first are the spirits of the elven dead, whose souls have migrated to Arborea and their final reward. Some infuse the plane itself, others are reformed into celestial or anarchic creatures, and still others serve as petitioners in the elven realm of Arvandor, the first layer of Arborea. These last act as scouts and wardens for the communities on the plane, serving the Elven Court in their magic glades and great castles. The deity of the elves, Corellon Larethian, rewards worthy souls in the afterlife with elven form and service in his oak-lined halls. Here they enjoy an afterlife of hunts, trysts, and celebrations in the elven fashion. These petitioners, known as the Chosen of Arvandor, have the following special petitioner qualities:
*Additional Immunities: Electricity, poison.
*Resistances: Cold 20, fire 20.
*Other Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/+1.
*Other petitioners may be found in Arborea besides the elven souls on the plane. Called bacchae, these petitioners are wild mobs of drunken revelers found reclining in glades or running through the forest in raving, winesotted celebrations. The bacchae are satyrlike, caught in mid-transformation between man and beast. Bacchae are spirits of equal measures good and chaos, living for the moment and making it the best moment possible. The greatest danger they pose to travelers is enticing newcomers to join in their celebrations. Bacchae have the following special petitioner qualities:
*Additional Immunities: Electricity, polymorph. Resistances: Acid 20.
*Other Special Qualities: Entice.
*Entice (Su): A traveler within 100 feet of a mob of bacchae must make a will saving throw (DC 10 + the number of bacchae within range; maximum DC 25) or else join the party. While partying among the bacchae, those who failed their saves drink, eat, and engage in all manner of pranks and foolery. But they take no sustenance, and suffer the effects of being without food and water. The bacchae entice ability lasts either for 101 days or until the enticed character collapses from lack of sustenance. Moving the character more than 100 feet from the bacchae ends the entice effect, but those under its sway do not leave the bacchae revelers willingly. Bacchae petitioners are generally nonviolent, fleeing if attacked—or more likely offering bread and mead to their assailants. In previous lives, bacchae were the spirits of gourmands, gluttons, well-meaning drunkards, and others who relished the act of living.


The greatest number of petitioners are the elves of [[Arvandor]], and the humans of [[Olympus (Realm)|Olympus]]. Sensates can be found in both camps, and the factions seems to rule the plane. In addition, the petitioners of Arborea include almost all sylvan races from centaurs, elves, gnomes, and humans to satyrs, nixies, and harpies. They're the commoners of the plane, tending to the good of the woodlands and meadows. Though not as wild as the Beastlands, Arborea still has many ancient groves in need of care. The Arborean petitioners treat this work with as much diligence and concern as peasants treat their crops elsewhere.
=Movement and Combat=
Arborea does not present any penalty to movement beyond what travelers from the Material Plane expect. On Arvandor, paths snake through the undergrowth and clear glades are as common as patches of briar and tangles. Creatures that can climb or brachiate (swing from branch to branch) move through the forested sections of Arborea without touching the ground. Aquallor, the second layer, is entirely aquatic, so characters have to swim from place to place. Arborea Combat: The plane does not present any inherent benefit or penalty to combat. Cover and concealment are plentiful in the forests of Arvandor, while combats in Aquallor use the same water combat rules as on the Elemental Plane of Water.


The petitioners are just pikers compared to the nature spirits that rule the land: every tree, every brook, and every hillock of Arborea. The elfin arasi are the water spirits, the powerful oreads rule every peak - including Mount Olypmus - and dryads and sylphs rule the woods and the heights. The spirits require sacrifices in many springs, sacred groves, and ancient caverns of prophecy and judgement - small shrines alert travelers that a spirit lives nearby. Ignoring them brings bad luck, and any traveler barmy enough to give 'em the laugh pays the price.
=Features=
 
Arborea is divided into three layers. The top is the best known layer: Arvandor, home of the Elven Court and the final resting place of many good elven spirits and their allies. The second layer, Aquallor, is made entirely of water. The third and deepest of the known layers is called Mithardir, a plain of white dust.
 
Worse are the bacchae: roving gangs of bubbers, capering half-mad mobs of pleasure and destruction that roam the countryside. If they tell a basher to drink with them, she drinks. Trouble is, she's likely to become one of them if she starts to enjoy their company and they accept her. Petitioners in Arborea don't always stay petitioners until they merge with the plane - they become bacchae as often as planars do. How it happens isn't clear, but the magic of music and dance is said to trigger it. The powers blame the creation of the bacchae on [[Dionysus]], though [[Pan]] is sometimes named as well. Whatever their origins, they're a danger to all travelers, especially those who provoke them. Most anything provokes a bacchae: failure to offer wine, offering inferior wine, or failing to be as joyous and drunk as they are.
 
Philosophers of Thrassos and the [[Fraternity of Order|Guvners]] still argue whether petitioners who become bacchae ever regain their normal form. 'Course, what really matters is that they lost it in the first place. A basher should just be grateful that no planar's ever become one against his will.

Revision as of 07:06, 8 July 2013

Outer Plane
Layers: Olympus
Ossa
Pelion
Primary Faction: Society of Sensation
Sect: Children of the Vine
caption
caption

It is a plane of passion and peace.

It is abundant nature in its patchwork glory.

It is the domain of the Elven Lords.

The Olympian Glades of Arborea are a crazy quilt of climates and environments, all of which thrive. Arborea contains great woods of towering maples, birch, and oak. These great deciduous trees strain skyward, leaving a forest floor relatively free of undergrowth and brush. The ground beneath the canopy itself is a rolling landscape of velvet moss and ferns. But the forestscape sometimes retreats before open glades of wildflowers, fields of swaying wheat and barley, and neat rows of fruit trees untended by any human hand. Here are trees that have never seen the woodsman's axe, fields rich with grain, and orchards heavy with fruit. The very air of Arborea seems charged with anticipation and excitement. Sudden squalls brew up out of nowhere, beating the tree-lined paths with heavy winds. They pass within minutes and leave behind warm, sunny arcs of light filtering through the forest canopy. In the distance there always seems to be music; sometimes the elves and the fey are playing, but just as often the faint tune is merely the wind curling through the boles of the great trees. Arborea is a place with flowers in bloom and trees bearing fruit simultaneously. There are uplands covered with snow, but even the snow shines beneath a crystalblue sky. Arborea is almost overwhelming in its beauty, and the land embodies both wilderness and loveliness in one package. Yet only the top layer of Arborea has the great forest implied in the name of the plane. Arborea's second layer is an endless ocean, and its third layer a borderless desen of white dust. All three layers are places of mercurial weather, sudden attacks, and strong passions. Arborea is a plane of joy and sorrow.

Traits

  • Normal Gravity.
  • Normal Time.
  • Infinite Size: The part of Arborea best known to visitors from the Material Plane is the home of the Elven Court. There may be realms beyond it presided over by deities unknown.
  • Divinely Morphic: Deities can change the traits of the plane and remake the landscape; mortals must use spells and physical effort to change their environment.
  • No Elemental or Energy Traits.
  • Mildly Good-Aligned and Mildly Chaos-Aligned: Evil or lawful characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma- based checks. Lawful evil characters suffer a –4 penalty.
  • Normal Magic. ARBOREA LINKS Arborea borders the Beastlands and Ysgard. Natural portals between these locations are common, as are shifting borders that automatically switch travelers from one plane to its neighbor.

Inhabitants Celestials are common in Arborea, especially the eladrin, powerful elflike protectors of the plane. The best known and most common of this breed is the ghaele, which are often found hunting in the wilderness of this plane. In addition to ghaele eladrin, the fine eladrin, guardians of beauty and art, are common here. Both appear elven, but they have a more noble demeanor than elves of the Material Plane. Though regal-looking, the eladrin are fierce in combat. Evil creatures lurking in Arborea quake in their boors at the thought of an eladrin hunting party. Many lillends make their homes in Arborea, thriving on the emotions that ripple through the plane. Arborea is also the home of many celestial or anarchic versions of creatures found on the Material Plane. Celestial creatures tend to leave travelers alone unless crossed, at which point they fight with relish. Anarchic creatures, on the other hand, are as unreliable and unpredictable as you’d expect.

Petitioners

Arborea has two common types of petitioners. The first are the spirits of the elven dead, whose souls have migrated to Arborea and their final reward. Some infuse the plane itself, others are reformed into celestial or anarchic creatures, and still others serve as petitioners in the elven realm of Arvandor, the first layer of Arborea. These last act as scouts and wardens for the communities on the plane, serving the Elven Court in their magic glades and great castles. The deity of the elves, Corellon Larethian, rewards worthy souls in the afterlife with elven form and service in his oak-lined halls. Here they enjoy an afterlife of hunts, trysts, and celebrations in the elven fashion. These petitioners, known as the Chosen of Arvandor, have the following special petitioner qualities:

  • Additional Immunities: Electricity, poison.
  • Resistances: Cold 20, fire 20.
  • Other Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/+1.
  • Other petitioners may be found in Arborea besides the elven souls on the plane. Called bacchae, these petitioners are wild mobs of drunken revelers found reclining in glades or running through the forest in raving, winesotted celebrations. The bacchae are satyrlike, caught in mid-transformation between man and beast. Bacchae are spirits of equal measures good and chaos, living for the moment and making it the best moment possible. The greatest danger they pose to travelers is enticing newcomers to join in their celebrations. Bacchae have the following special petitioner qualities:
  • Additional Immunities: Electricity, polymorph. Resistances: Acid 20.
  • Other Special Qualities: Entice.
  • Entice (Su): A traveler within 100 feet of a mob of bacchae must make a will saving throw (DC 10 + the number of bacchae within range; maximum DC 25) or else join the party. While partying among the bacchae, those who failed their saves drink, eat, and engage in all manner of pranks and foolery. But they take no sustenance, and suffer the effects of being without food and water. The bacchae entice ability lasts either for 101 days or until the enticed character collapses from lack of sustenance. Moving the character more than 100 feet from the bacchae ends the entice effect, but those under its sway do not leave the bacchae revelers willingly. Bacchae petitioners are generally nonviolent, fleeing if attacked—or more likely offering bread and mead to their assailants. In previous lives, bacchae were the spirits of gourmands, gluttons, well-meaning drunkards, and others who relished the act of living.

Movement and Combat

Arborea does not present any penalty to movement beyond what travelers from the Material Plane expect. On Arvandor, paths snake through the undergrowth and clear glades are as common as patches of briar and tangles. Creatures that can climb or brachiate (swing from branch to branch) move through the forested sections of Arborea without touching the ground. Aquallor, the second layer, is entirely aquatic, so characters have to swim from place to place. Arborea Combat: The plane does not present any inherent benefit or penalty to combat. Cover and concealment are plentiful in the forests of Arvandor, while combats in Aquallor use the same water combat rules as on the Elemental Plane of Water.

Features

Arborea is divided into three layers. The top is the best known layer: Arvandor, home of the Elven Court and the final resting place of many good elven spirits and their allies. The second layer, Aquallor, is made entirely of water. The third and deepest of the known layers is called Mithardir, a plain of white dust.