Post by Stix on Apr 12, 2007 0:46:14 GMT -5
There's some berks that say Sigil's a birdcage, a prison, and other folks are too dim to realize it. Well, they ain't seen Carceri. That's a prison. Sigil's a holy temple compared to this plane. Known as Tarterus to green primes, Carceri is the land of exiles, the place where the outcast, the overthrown, and the defeated fume and plot for the day when they'll return. Olympic titans are the best known of the lot. Carceri plays its role in the Blood War by serving as a mustering ground and battlefield for the mindless armies of gehreleth.
Carceri is called the six-fold realm because it has six layers nested like little wooden dolls, one inside the other. Each layer is of immense size, sometimes the equal of the layer that contains it, and infinite by most standards. The layers radiate their own light, a dull reddish glow like that of a fire beetle. Though the light is fiery, it gives no heat, so the layers of Carceri range from cool to bitter freezing.
Petitioners consigned to Carceri are most frequently dead traitors, backstabbers, and other souls of underhanded ambition. While the petitioners don't remember their past lives, the old traits can't be broken. Thus it is that no petitioner of Carceri can ever speak the entire truth. They lie compulsively and most cunningly.
Layer: Othrys. The outermost layer of Carceri is home to most of the exiled titans - Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Mnemosyne, Oceanus, Phebe, Tethys, Thea, and Themis. Once, this layer was linked to Arborea, but in the war that threw the titans down, Zeus and his fellow powers shattered the bond, thus trapping their enemies here. Othrys is a realm of vast bogs and quicksand, fed by the Styx and its channels. Cronus's palace is old and in need of repair, but the plane offers none of the noble stone originally used to build the place.
Layer: Cathrys. Little is known of this layer, as it's filled with fetid jungle and scarlet plains. Traveling here is dangerous, for the plants ooze acidic sap that can eat through man or metal. Those creatures that live here are immune.
Layer: Minethys. This is a layer filled with sand. Stinging grit is driven so hard by the wind that it can strip an exposed being to the bone in a matter of hours. All who dwell in this layer, save the powers, are bundled in cloth and rags to block out the cutting blast. Tornadoes are common, and to avoid all these hazards, most petitioners live in miserable sand-filled pits, dug by hand. Coeus maintains a palace here.
Layer: Colothys. This layer is made up of mountains more immense than any in the Prime Material Plane. Travel on foot here is almost impossible, because the land is riven by canyons miles deep. The few trading routes that do exist carry travelers across impossibly rickety bridges and on cliff-face trails barely wide enough for a single man. Petitioner villages cling to the clefts in the rock, and Crius maintains a citadel on the highest peak in the layer. Crius is often at war with Grolantor, the hill giant deity, who has terrified a gehreleth shator into his service.
Layer: Porphatys. This layer is a cold, shallow ocean fed by black snow. Both the snow and the water are mildly acidic, inflicting 1 point of damage per minute to unprotected travelers. Small islands rise above the waves, barely more than sandbars. The exiled titan Oceanus maintains a half-sunken palace here. Starving petitioners crowd the little isles.
Layer: Agathys. This is the coldest layer of the plane, an orb of black ice streaked with red. The air is bitterly cold and burns for 1d2 points of damage each round. Petitioners here are half-frozen into the ice. Nothing else is known to live here.
Carceri is called the six-fold realm because it has six layers nested like little wooden dolls, one inside the other. Each layer is of immense size, sometimes the equal of the layer that contains it, and infinite by most standards. The layers radiate their own light, a dull reddish glow like that of a fire beetle. Though the light is fiery, it gives no heat, so the layers of Carceri range from cool to bitter freezing.
Petitioners consigned to Carceri are most frequently dead traitors, backstabbers, and other souls of underhanded ambition. While the petitioners don't remember their past lives, the old traits can't be broken. Thus it is that no petitioner of Carceri can ever speak the entire truth. They lie compulsively and most cunningly.
Layer: Othrys. The outermost layer of Carceri is home to most of the exiled titans - Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Mnemosyne, Oceanus, Phebe, Tethys, Thea, and Themis. Once, this layer was linked to Arborea, but in the war that threw the titans down, Zeus and his fellow powers shattered the bond, thus trapping their enemies here. Othrys is a realm of vast bogs and quicksand, fed by the Styx and its channels. Cronus's palace is old and in need of repair, but the plane offers none of the noble stone originally used to build the place.
Layer: Cathrys. Little is known of this layer, as it's filled with fetid jungle and scarlet plains. Traveling here is dangerous, for the plants ooze acidic sap that can eat through man or metal. Those creatures that live here are immune.
Layer: Minethys. This is a layer filled with sand. Stinging grit is driven so hard by the wind that it can strip an exposed being to the bone in a matter of hours. All who dwell in this layer, save the powers, are bundled in cloth and rags to block out the cutting blast. Tornadoes are common, and to avoid all these hazards, most petitioners live in miserable sand-filled pits, dug by hand. Coeus maintains a palace here.
Layer: Colothys. This layer is made up of mountains more immense than any in the Prime Material Plane. Travel on foot here is almost impossible, because the land is riven by canyons miles deep. The few trading routes that do exist carry travelers across impossibly rickety bridges and on cliff-face trails barely wide enough for a single man. Petitioner villages cling to the clefts in the rock, and Crius maintains a citadel on the highest peak in the layer. Crius is often at war with Grolantor, the hill giant deity, who has terrified a gehreleth shator into his service.
Layer: Porphatys. This layer is a cold, shallow ocean fed by black snow. Both the snow and the water are mildly acidic, inflicting 1 point of damage per minute to unprotected travelers. Small islands rise above the waves, barely more than sandbars. The exiled titan Oceanus maintains a half-sunken palace here. Starving petitioners crowd the little isles.
Layer: Agathys. This is the coldest layer of the plane, an orb of black ice streaked with red. The air is bitterly cold and burns for 1d2 points of damage each round. Petitioners here are half-frozen into the ice. Nothing else is known to live here.