The MATERIAL PLANE

Living mortal creatures can be found here, they are born and die within its confines. Many other creatures can traverse here from their native planes or vice versa, but often this task is taxing or dangerous. Creatures, Eidolons, Animals, Monsters, Beasts and Plants reside here.

Ara is the World in which Dungeon Crawler begins. Keldorna is located on the northern portion of the continent of Aerymohr.

The ASTRAL PLANE

This is the endless veil between the Material Plane and all other planes of existence. Here magic has gathered in pools to be collected by those that seek arcane power. It appears as an endless rolling white cloud, with occasionally scattered objects, structures, pools of energy and even living beings. Its residents are called the Powers or the Quintessence.

Familiars, Gremlins, Devils, Gargoyles, Succubi and Genies are a few of the beings you might find from here. They can also be found under the command of a powerful spell caster. The most powerful of these beings, the Asmodai, can be bargained with at great peril. Although a single object, person or place can be found when willed, there is nothing binding within the astral plane; no roads or paths, no sense of time passing, no sense of touch or sound, it is like a void in which only white cloud drifts until something is pulled towards you or you towards it. Traversing the Astral Plane is more an act of will than physical restriction or limitation. For instance, if someone were to believe there was a city within the Astral Plane, they could will themselves there, but for each person the experience would be different and the scenery would constantly shift.

You are alone in the Astral Plane, or at best, you can link with one other person that is not a denizen. If a group were to try and meet or traverse together, they may never find one another at the same time. One consistent structure within the Astral Plane is the Traveler’s Inn, everyone seems to find this place if given enough time, even if their experiences there are different. It is very important to have your Astral Anchor, so you don’t spend too long, or get disorientated in the Astral Plane. The Astral Plane also acts as a gateway to Pandemonium and the Netherworld.

DIMENSIONAL POCKETS

These tiny spaces are not truly planes, but just pockets of astral space that exists between it and the other planes. Faeries live here calling them Faerie Groves, while a Wizard may create their own space to use as a Stasis spell, or a Sorcerer may use it for a Dementia spell to create a large castle or keep upon a floating rock mass within an endless expanse.

The ELEMENTAL PLANE (PANDEMONIUM)

Forces of living energy and matter occupy this twisting mass of chaos. Floating masses of earth, water and flames shift between the Air around them. Storms, blizzards, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, sandstorms and fire rage whenever these elements collide in their endless swirling paths.

The Elementals are native to this realm, and although they do not war with one another, they are territorial. This flux appears as both the beginning of the world and its end, its swirling mass collapsing ever towards a central apex like a coil.

Many seemingly strange lifeforms have evolved amongst the Elementals to etch their lives in to the elements; fire guarded towers with molten motes, icy castles with bridges of snow, ancient stone ruins and castles atop clouds belong to these denizens and dot the lands. Nothing seems to settle for long in Pandemonium, but many ancient fractions from the past can be found scatters like leaves to the wind. The denizens are often hostile towards the other elements due to their strengths, weaknesses and obvious differences, but can be unpredictable towards mortals.

The realms of Pandemonium are ever changing, the most common regions are often ruled by Giants or the Elemental-kin; Salamanders, Sylphs, Undines & Gnomes.

NETHERWORLD
(Limbo, Gehenna, Twilight)

Within the Netherworld there are three distinct regions intertwined. The wilds of Limbo, the horrific citadels of Gehenna and the shadowy spectral lands of the Twilight Realm. Spread throughout this realm are crystals used to traverse the lands with relative risk to attracting or creating a fragment of themselves.

Limbo is a place of the bizarre; tiny swarms consume the large, the large devour the small, in an endless cycle of seemingly illogical pseudo-natural behaviour. Some creatures found in Limbo can be excellent companions or controlled for a time, others are simply too strange to comprehend. Long ago the Outsiders, Limbo’s inhabitants, were summoned by totems by desparate mortal tribes to solve their worldly problems, many remote areas still call upon these ancient beings. Limbo consists of the wilds of the Netherworld including its seas and its underworld. Mortals that come to this plane are captured and enslaved or turned in to Outsiders themselves. Occassionally shrines and totems can still be found across its wilds, recipricols of their material plane counterparts. Limbo surrounds Gehenna’s civilizations and the seemingly ordinary Twilight Realms. The realm of Limbo behaves like a chemically induced hallicination, its grasp on reality twisted and non-sensical.

Gehenna consists of organic like metal or stone citadels or fortresses, often they float through the sky, have bottomless moats or highly aggressive defenses for their seemingly impassable walls. The greatest of these citadels is called Hades. The custodians of these great monstrosities are called the Neth. The Neth wish to rule the Material Plane and to enslave all of its kind. They build the citadels like great flying war machines of flesh, bone, web and the like to invade the material world or wage war with one another, the more slaves they have the more power they have, and the slaves they have never leave thier hold without a price.

As the sun rises and falls, the Twilight Realm changes from something that mirrors the Material plane, to that of despair. Mortals that have found themselves in the Netherworld often gravitate towards the familiar, in the Netherworld that often leads them directly to Twilight Realms. Sanctuaries here are few and far between, for when night falls everything changes from creepy to dire. The inhabitants of the Twilight Realms are known as Spirits and Undead, the most powerful of which are Shades that hunt the living to swell their numbers.

HELL

Filled with those that have been taken or gone willingly after their mortal coils are shed and the ancient souls born within its infernal pits, the residences of Hell consist of burning souls, Cambions, Demons and Fallen Angels. In constant turmoil it is said to be the most terrible of all places in existence.

At its deepest level filled with lakes of acid and darkness resides Mephistopheles. This black oily sightless creature spreads death amongst those souls that have plummeted to his recesses to burn in agony as their bodies constantly try to reform. Should they escape the pools and its heartless guardians they may then begin to form a body once again and start their long journey out of the pits.

Surrounding the pools are pourous cliff walls leading up fissures and chasms. Sharp crags of barren stone await those able to make the climb, and here Beelzebub also waits with his flying minions, always in the corner of their vision, whispering madness in their ears, brushing or crawling across their skin from the shadows before striking with toxic stings until their victims fall back to the acidic depths below.

At the top are the fiery peaks, broken fortresses and caves, here the warrior demons, led by Abaddon, wage their endless war with the Fallen and hurdle souls back to their bleak doom with blades and pitchforks. Pyres of bodies lie throughout the rocky center where searing magma is heated and poured down along the fissures to keep too many souls from making their escape.

Beyond the caves and peaks are the barren wastes, this endless stretch of dust is only dotted with dry thorn bushes and broken bones. Here the demons of famine feed on those souls able to make it this far. Azazel rules here, feeding on reformed flesh and bones turning them to dust. The dust slowly reforms back to bones along the wastelands floor, but the demons roaming there devour the flesh and break them, while some simply drain them of essence turning them back to ash. This last fringe of hell is surrounded by an iron gate which none can pass without the aid of someone from beyond hell - to call their name.

The HEAVENS

Filled with only those granted access after their mortal coils are lost and the ancient souls born within its gates, the residences of Heaven consist of pure souls and Angels. It is said to be the most beautiful of all places in existence.