Riadus

Material Planes

The Material Planes are worlds that balance between the philosophical forces of the Outer Planes and the physical forces of the Inner Planes. Within the Riadus Campaign Setting, there is only one of each of the Inner Planes, and as such there is only one Material Plane: Riadus.

Riadus: Riadus is the physical world in which the majority of any campaign will take place. It is the “normal” world, and in may respects resembles Earth in form and function, if not geography. Most of the physical laws which apply to reality (gravity, mass, time, motion) apply as they do in the real world to the world of Riadus.

Inner Planes

The Inner Planes are made up of elemental matter and forces. They consist of the Elemental Planes and the Energy Planes. While each is its own separate plane, in several areas some of the planes overlap, creating a quasi-plane which possesses properties of each. Opposing planes do not touch or overlap in any way, except where all six planes converge to create the Material Plane.

The four elemental planes are responsible for the formation of all matter in the material plane, while the two energy planes are responsible for all life (and unlife). All living things draw upon the positive energy plane, and this energy is slowly siphoned off by the negative energy plane. This flow causes aging, and the eventually death of all living things. In the case of the undead, this flow is reversed, though there is no aging effect or reversal thereof.

Air: The Plane of Air is an empty plane, consisting of sky above and sky below. It is the most comfortable and survivable of the Inner Planes and is the home of all manner of airborne creatures. Indeed, flying creatures find themselves at a great advantage on this plane. While travelers without flight can survive easily here, they are at a disadvantage.

Earth: The Plane of Earth is a solid place made of soil and stone. An unwary traveler might find himself entombed within this vast solidity of material and crushed into nothingness, with his powdered remains left as a warning to any foolish enough to follow. Despite its solid, unyielding nature, the Plane of Earth is varied in its consistency, ranging from soft soil to veins of heavier and more valuable metal.

Fire: Everything is alight on the Plane of Fire. The ground is nothing more than great, ever-shifting plates of compressed flame. The air ripples with the heat of continual firestorms and the most common liquid is magma. The oceans are made of liquid flame, and the mountains ooze with molten lava. Fire survives here without needing fuel or air, but flammables brought onto the plane are consumed readily.

Water: The Plane of Water is a sea without a floor or a surface, an entirely fluid environment lit by a diffuse glow. It is one of the more hospitable of the Inner Planes once a traveler gets past the problem of breathing the local medium.

The eternal oceans of this plane vary between ice cold and boiling hot, and between saline and fresh. They are perpetually in motion, wracked by currents and tides. The plane’s permanent settlements form around bits of flotsam suspended within this endless liquid, drifting on the tides.

Negative Energy: To an observer, there’s little to see on the Negative Energy Plane. It is a dark, empty place, an eternal pit where a traveler can fall until the plane itself steals away all light and life. The Negative Energy Plane is the most hostile of the Inner Planes, the most uncaring and intolerant of life. Only creatures immune to its life-draining energies can survive there.

Positive Energy: The Positive Energy Plane has no surface and is akin to the Plane of Air with its wide-open nature. However, every bit of this plane glows brightly with innate power. This power is dangerous to mortal forms, which are not made to handle it. Despite the beneficial effects of the plane, it is one of the most hostile of the Inner Planes. An unprotected character on this plane swells with power as positive energy is forced upon her. Then, because her mortal frame is unable to contain that power, she is immolated, like a mote of dust caught at the edge of a supernova. Visits to the Positive Energy Plane are brief, and even then travelers must be heavily protected.

Outer Planes

The Outer Planes are home to beings such as deities and otherworldly creatures such as demons, celestials and devils. Each Outer Plane is usually the physical manifestation of a particular moral and ethical alignment and the entities that dwell there often embody the traits related to that alignment.

Most Outer Planes are spatially infinite but are composed of features and locations of finite scope. Many of these planes are often split into a collection of further infinites called layers, which are essentially sub-planes that represent one particular facet or theme of the plane. In addition, each layer may also contain a number of realms. Each realm is the home to an individual deity, or occasionally a collection of deities.

Each of the Outer Planes has a visual representation in the sky of Riadus. Most Outer Planes can only be seen at night, though a few (most notably Solaris) can be seen during the day.

Abyss: The Infinite Shards. A Chaotic Evil plane represented in the heavens by a band of dull stars which stretch across the sky from east to west, and angled in the sky to the north. The plane is a seemingly infinite number of tiny planes, each a unique world in itself, with individual shards, or groups of shards, ruled over by demon lords.

Arcadia: NG/CG Fey realm of passion, abundance and nature’s caprice.

Archonis: LN This clockwork plane is the ultimate in order; scholars and constructs live here.

Arora: CN A dreamlike, anarchistic and unpredictable plane.

Celesia: LG Heaven. Countless paladins and saints have ascended here.

Infernus: LE Hell. A realm of oppression, torment, and diabolical plots

Lumos & Luna (Bytopian Moons): LG/CG Twin Paradises

Malenna: NG The plane of peace and unadulterated goodness.

Porpha: CG The plane of idealized nature.

Roth: CE/CN An infinite network of pitch-black catacombs, with winds that drive men mad.

Samuth: NE The Waste

Smidloft (The Vortex): N The eternal battleground where true heroes prove their valor.

Solaris: LG the sun, home of Triceal

Tempus: LG/LN A peaceful place where all live in harmony; consequently, it is quite dull.

Transitive Planes

The transitive planes connects the other planes and generally contains little, if any, solid matter or native life.

Astral:

Ethereal:

Shadow:

Demiplanes

Demiplanes are minor planes, most of which are artificial. They are commonly created by demigods and extremely powerful wizards and. Naturally occurring demiplanes are rare; most such demiplanes are actually fragments of other planes that have somehow split off from their parent plane. Demiplanes are often constructed to resemble the Material Plane, though a few — mostly those created by non-humans — are quite alien.

There are no notable permanent demiplanes in the Riadus Campaign Setting.

Other Planes

Other places exist or may be referred to within the cosmology of the Riadus Campaign Setting, but are not a physical part of it. These “planes” exist outside of reality, or otherwise do not exist, though they may be referenced.

Beyond: The Beyond is believed by some scholars to be where the gods originated, and it is thought that all of existence, that which the planes are made, came from Beyond. From Riadus and its Outer Planes, there is no way to enter the Beyond, save through the power of the god Tarkin, and once Beyond, there is no return.

Some faiths of Riadus view the Beyond as the ultimate heaven, while others see it as an opportunity to become a god. The general consensus, however, is that the Beyond is nothing more than certain oblivion. To enter Beyond is to not exist.

Mechanus: Also known as The Sixteenth Plane, Mechanus is a plane of law which existed prior to creation. Little is known of it, other than its name.

Plane of Time: The concept of time as a plane of existence occasionally comes up in philosophical discussion. There is no known “Plane of Time” though some believe it to exist, perhaps as a mega-plane which encompasses all others.

The Void: At the edge of the universe, where the Astral Plane ends, is the Void. The Void is not truly a plane as it simply indicates where the Astral ends, and nothing continues after. However the Void does have space and depth, and one may travel through it, provided they have some means. The only objects known to exist within the Void are Stars, small pin pricks of light which shine eternally. The stars themselves are nothing more than insubstantial wisps of luminous clouds roughly six to ten feet across. It is rumored living things reside in Void, but such living things will be alien to the rest of the universe, either having been something left over from a time before time, or perhaps having traveled through the Void from some other reality.