Hello everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent.
This week we’re discussing the Chaotic Neutral and Evil realms of Pandemonium and Carceri.
Now in between these two planes is the Abyss, but I’ve covered the Abyss in an earlier
separate video.
You can check that out via the link above or in the description below.
Pandemonium is an underground realm.
It is a place of howling, screaming winds.
A realm of stygian darkness.
It is where sanity is besieged by unending madness.
Pandemonium to me… is terrifying.
It’s completely underground, the entire plane has no surface only tunnels.
It’s pitch black due to being underground.
Caverns are cut into this earth by the destructive force of wind.
These caves are linked together with tunnels and the wind howls constantly.
The wind blows so fiercely that it extinguishes normal fires, and lights that last longer
draw attention of wights driven insane by the constant howling wind.
The wind is so loud and consistence that every conversation in Pandemonium is a scream or
a shout.
Which then your words are taken by the wind and carried throughout the plane.
While standing there you are berated by the constant howl and muffled screams of past
adventurers and creatures that spent time in Pandemonium.
The wind is cold and steals the heat from travelers unprotected from it’s endless gale.
Blowing sand and dirt into their eyes, snuffing torches, and carrying away loose items.
In some places the wind can physically lift you up and throw you a fair distance before
you are slammed into the rock walls.
Gravity is relative here, any rock wall could be considered the ground.
Gravity is oriented towards whatever wall a creature is nearest, so there isn’t a
floor per se, nor a ceiling, any surface is a floor if you’re close enough.
It truly is a place of madness, a great mass of rock riddled with tunnels with no natural
inhabitants.
Any creatures found here are those banished to this plane with no hope of escape, driven
mad by the incessant winds.
There are four layers on Pandemonium, and terrible windstorms can blow through them all.
Pandesmos is the first layer and has the largest caverns.
Some big enough to hold entire nations.
Various streams of frigid water flow between caverns which are all Tributaries of the River
Styx.
There are creatures here that have made citadels and some other semi organized buildings.
Making it a somewhat safer place for would-be travelers.
But beware because any such area of people are almost guaranteed to have the majority
of their populace be insane.
Cocytus is second and the tunnels here tend to be much smaller than the first layer.
This allows the winds to become even stronger.
The tunnels here appear to be hand chiseled, if this is true such an undertaking occurred
so long ago no-one is able to recall who or what did the tunneling.
In the center of Cocytus stands Howler’s Crag.
A jagged spike of piled stones as if a giant's palace had collapsed on itself.
On top is an eight foot platform with a low wall surrounding it.
The ones who make their home in Pandemonium say that anything yelled from the top of the
crag finds the ears of the intended recipient.
No matter where they are in the great wheel.
The third layer is known as Phlegethon.
The unrelenting noise of dripping water meshes with the howling winds in these twisting tunnels.
Unlike the rest of Pandemonium normal gravity exists here which gives rise to stalagmites
and stalactites.
There is a large city here called Windglum that sits in a cavern several miles wide and
long.
Hundreds of ever-burning globes provide light for the city.
The people here do not trust strangers and many are insane.
Travelers can find a brief rest here from the relenting wind storms of Pandemonium.
Finally the last layer is Agathion.
Very narrow constricting tunnels filled with stale air that lead to an infinite number
of closed off spaces.
The portals that connect Agathion to the rest of Pandemonium open into otherwise unreachable
bubbles.
Unless you aware of a specific portal many of these spaces are unknown to anyone.
Because of this deities have used this plane as vaults for their most precious treasures.
You’ll find numerous underground dwelling races in Pandemonium, as well as no-name demons
making their homes here.
Occasionally a demon lord-in-exile will use Pandemonium as a hiding place, consolidating
and rebuilding their power to return to the Abyss.
Up next the Tarterian depths of Carceri.
A plane of exile, a prison for the multiverse.
Carceri appears the least overtly dangerous of the lower planes, but that first impression
quick disappears upon visiting.
Unlike Pandemonium, the Abyss, or the Nine Hells there are no seas of acid, biting cold,
infernos of heat, or sulfuric atmospheres.
However this plane is a place of darkness and despair, a poison of the mind takes place
here where hatred runs like a deep, slow-moving river.
It truly is a prison planet, where traitors and backstabbers go, or rather are banished.
A prisoner on Carceri may only escape when he/she has become stronger than whatever imprisoned
them there.
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.
Carceri is called the six-fold realm because it has six layers nested like little wooden
dolls, one inside the other.
Each layer has a series of orbs like tiny planets, in a row.
Then they go further extending out into infinity.
The layers radiate their own light, a dull reddish glow like that of a fire beetle.
Yet the glow gives off no heat.
Many portals lead to Carceri, but these are one way.
Almost none allow access out of Carceri with one exception, the River Styx which runs through
the first layer of Carceri and leads to Hades.
Othyrus, the first layer is a realm of bogs and quicksand.
The River Styx runs freely here, saturating the ground with magic.
Where the river isn’t present great swamps exist, with rare patches of dry ground.
The 2nd layer is Cathrys which is covered in a wretched jungle.
The stench of decay fills the air fueled by the acidic secretions of the jungle plants.
The air here deals 1d4 points of acid damage per minute.
Minethys, the third layer is filled with sand.
Whipped up by the wind, it has great destructive power.
Capable of stripping a creature down to it’s bones in a matter of hours.
All who dwell here cover themselves in cloth garments to block out the stinging sand.
Colothys is the fourth layer, a mountainous region of rough cruel peaks.
Travel on foot here is almost impossible because the land is divided up by canyons miles deep.
However there are trade routes that have become safer paths.
Porphatys, the fifth layer is filled with a cold shallow ocean fed by black snow.
The snow and water are mildly acidic dealing 1d6 acid damage every 10 minutes of exposure.
Boats and other artificial structures don’t last long here, but there are small islands
scattered about the realm.
Finally Agathys, the coldest layer and also the lowest.
A sphere of black ice streak with red.
The air bites at adventurers.
A large black citadel carved out of ice stands here, home to the greater deity Nerull.
A Greyhawk deity of murder and death.
And that’s it for today.
I think Pandemonium would be an excellent choice for a teleport spell gone awry.
I’m looking forward to putting it in a game at some point as a transit hub for planar
travel.
I love how chaotic and spooky it is.
Stay tuned next week for Hades and Gehenna, and if you want the full package check out
my video on the Abyss.
That’s it for now, I’ll see you all next Wednesday.