#upper planes

[terolusgreyhawk]

Knowledge (the planes) DC20:

Aeryx the Redeemed is risen daemon who dwells in Dothion, the pastoral layer of Bytopia. Extremely powerful, he still bears the glowing scar of this self-sacrificial beheading (the act that allowed him to atone for his sins and be reborn as a celestial). His twisting, elegant daemonic horns are patterned beautifully now, and the glowing third eye upon his forehead is the source of his angelic aura.

[terolusgreyhawk]

Knowledge (religion) DC20:

The Earthfriend is another name for Segojan Earthcaller, the gnome god of earth, nature, and death. Neutral good, He is a gentle death god who looks after the gnomes interred in the ground, and guides their souls to the Twin Paradises of Bytopia or whatever plane their favored deity resides on.

Knowledge (religion) DC25: Segojin is said to have gifted the gnomes with their ability to communicate with burrowing mammals. His symbol is a glowing gemstone, especially a diamond, and His sacred animal is the badger.

Knowledge (religion) or Profession (miner) DC30: Segojan teaches that the heart and soul of the gnomish race is the substance of the earth; that gnomes spring from its comforting embrace, live much of their lives in its depths, and are buried there when they die. Segojan believes that the treasures of Oerth are to be preserved, both mineral and living. He encourages exploration and mining, and urges his followers to avoid the destruction and avarice personified by Urdlen, the most evil and terrible of the gnomish pantheon. The Earthfriend's priests teach that Segojan will protect those who obey his teachings, and they are especially common among svirfneblin.

[twoshroom]

One of the cooler parts of the Upper Planes is the danger lurking beneath the surface. Although they’re most hospitable than other planes generally, there’s a lot of scary stuff behind the scenes, and a curious party can find lots of excitement there. They get such a reputation as being paradises, but travel to Arborea and find spiders in Lloth’s old realm or break into the forbidden layers in Elysium or Arcadia and claim that they’re safe.

[dicecast]

D&D Arch Angels

The three main Upper Planes are well known, Elysium (NG), Aborea (CG) and The Seven Heavens (LG) but there is also the Radiant Throne, the realm of all good, any Good, with the strange eldrich and generally horrifying Angels ruling over them.  The Angels are ruled by the Arch Angels, 12 beings who are the most powerful creatures of good in the multiverse, who rule a joint council to try to coordinate the forces of the upper planes and promote a slightly less horrible world.  Like all Blessed, they are massively overworked.  Some say that they are ruled by Michael, some say Metatron, others say Samael, but there is no clear consensus, only the Arch Angels know and they aren’t telling.  

The Twelve Archangels are 

Michael 

Gabriel 

Uriel 

Raphael 

 Samael 

Metatron 

Raguel 

Saraqael 

Remiel 

Jegudiel .

Selaphiel 

Jerahmeel

Fallen: Sariel 

[dicecast]

Angels: First Choir (Any  Good)

Image shall not be owned by me

Angels (any good) are by a large margin the most powerful of the Exemplar, and are the most numerous of the good Exemplars, so much soon that people often call Archons/Azata/Aaisomons “Angels” by mistake. The most powerful of the Angels have the power of demigods and there is no standard Damned of similar power.  Which is fortunate for them, because with good being outnumbered by evil as it is, the power, numbers and variety of the Angels are necessary to keep the forces of evil at bay, and at any given moment almost all of the angels are fighting to keep the various evil forces from expanding their power too much.  This war is so all consuming that Angels aren’t seen much by mortals, and they are often mistaken for monsters when mortals do behold them, due to their absolutely horrifying appearances.  All Angels announce their presence with the phrase FEAR NOT, which communicates to all who hear it that this is in fact an Angel.  This effect cannot be replicated.  The Angels are divided into three Choirs, the first being the commanders of the Angelic armies, the second being the troops themselves, and the third being emissaries and visitors to the mortals as well as spies.  

The First Choir

Seraphim (lesser then Greater) 

Seraph 

Throne Angel

Ophanim (Lesser, greater, and Offanim)

Galgalin

Cherubim 

Putto

Many Eyed One 

Burning Wheel

Erelim

Arelim

Er’el

Arel

Hashmal

Ishim

Stronghold 

Dominions

Elders 

Tetramorph 

Virtue 

Power 

Principalities 

Rulers

Cherub

Personal Angel 

[dicecast]

Blood War Part 2: The Upper PLanes

         The Archons (LG) believe the war itself to be an abomination and they would like nothing more than to launch a crusade to wipe all three sounds out in a single stroke.  Problem is that they tried that and all they accomplished was getting a billion plus Blessed killed.  So now that they know that such a plan won’t work (shut up Trias nobody likes you), the Archons have to settle on something new.  For now they have settled upon using the distraction of the war to try to destroy the Damnned in whatever other place they can, specifically the Material Plane.  The Archon’s top priority is keeping the forces of the Lower Planes from overrunning the Material Plane and every year there are dozens of major battles over various portals/rifts/gates between the Damned and the Archons.  In fact the Heavenly armies mostly deploy in small elite unites to attack various Damned forces cut off from the Blood War before they can do serious damage to innocents This is why the Archons are often mistaken for the “leaders” of the Upper Planes, they have the most visible presence and since they don’t spend much in the Blood War, they can dedicate all of their forces killing the Damned who are directly threatening mortals.  That being said, there are some within the Heavens who like to covertly support the Hells in the hopes of slaying more Demons, and anti-demon equipment captured in battle often has a way of being sold to the Hells (never if it can hurt good forces however).

       Aasimons (NG)  They see the War as a needless distraction that doesn’t help anybody and has no hope of ending.  Involving themselves in a war which by its very nature will never end just seems dumb, so they focus instead on trying to improve the standard of living of mortals and make good societies self-sustaining so that more good souls can be sent to the upper planes.  The Blood War is just a pointless conflict to keep evil occupied until good can have a fighting chance.  Aasimons focus primarily on society building, but their marital forces also ignore the Blood War, instead operating as surgical strike teams trying to take out great evils before they can actually enact their plans.  If a demonic hoard is stopped from overrunning a Material World by the Archons, its only because a dozen more never made it that far thanks to the Aasimons.  Generally speaking however, they see the Daemons as the real threat, as they are wasting far less of their soldiers on this war and have more space to plan their evil covertly.  

      Azatas: The Chaotic Good Exemplars have a different perspective on the Blood War, they think it is hilarious and is a prime opportunity to hurt the lower PLanes.  Azata forces see Evil killing evil as fantastic and in their mind it is ideal to try to keep this war going as much as possible.  The Azata focus primarily upon trying to make the Blood War live up to its name, maximizing causalities on both sides and critically keeping anyone involved from gaining an edge or finding an opportunity to surrender/tone the war down.  It is the Azata who tend to arrange for Demonic raiders to strike into the Lower Hells expectantly, or for an Infernal Column (see what I did there?) to breach the Demonic defenses.  The goal of the Azata is to keep the Damned occupied on this war and they have endless tricks to keeping the war escalating.  Some of their old favorites include giving false intel to various sides to lead to a massacre (or even better a three way brawl), false intel to imply treachery in the ranks (actually often true intel there), smuggling anti demonic/anti Devil weapons into one or the others hands, true intel of a critical weak spot, sabotage, assassinations, cutting supply lines, and drawing both sides into unfavorable terrains.  Sometimes they will even fight openly for one side or the other if they feel it is really necessary, though they only tend to do so, on the Demons side for obvious reasons.  Azata plans are deliberately disorganized, often small groups of 2-20 working together which makes the Damned spy networks have trouble catching them.  Even more, the Azata leadership (if it can be called that) encourages individuals to go help out in their own way.  Those Azatas who don’t involve themselves in the Blood War instead wander the Planes doing random acts of kindness and trying to destroy evil where they find it.  

      Celestials (Pure Good) They wish that they could wipe the war out entirely, as its effect on the places it touches is horrifying, but most of their armed forces still haven’t recovered since the last war and in the meantime the war does provide more room for them.  Being a less martial group, they generally ignore the war and focus upon small acts of kindness across the planes, mostly running soup kitchens, hospitals, and schools, free of charge.  

        Angels (Any Good): These mighty champions of Justice are unsure about the Blood War, they remember all too well the losses they suffered in the last war and don’t want to repeat this process.  Angels primary focus has always been coordinating and facilitating communication between all of the forces of Good, which means that the Blood War is less of a major concern to them than the actions of Evil Gods.  In fact, Angels don’t concern themselves too much with Exemplars at all, to them the Blood War, internal feuding, the other Good Exemplars or Good Gods should have them covered, and while angelic armies does occasionally attack the Lower Planes, normally its either on behalf of a Good God or to protect/acquire/destroy some powerful magical item/ritual/force that might change the balance of the world.  While they want the war to continue, they don’t see much benefit in escalating it, those resources could go else ware, so they only intervene if it looks like one side might have a permeant advantage. The Chaoships that have allowed the Abyss to undercut Asmodeus’ recent advance were their idea  (and most of them contain a flaw that will cause them to malfunction should they be used against the Upper Planes).  The only exception to this rule is in regards to Androlynne, which they spend significant forces defending and will use the Blood War (as well as anything else not evil) to keep that plane protected. Generally speaking however, the Angel’s greatest goal is freeing lost souls and escalating the Blood War seems to undercut that, as Souls serve as such powerful tools for both sides. 

       The Malkuth (LG/NG)really don’t have the time and energy to give to the Blood War, since their focus is on keeping evil imprisoned and redemption and all that is kind of a full time deal.  However at the behest of the Angels and Azata, they have agreed to plant powerful anti demonic/anti Devil weapons all across their plane in guarded fortresses, so that both sides will send their forces to retrieve them.  Due to Avalon’s special properties, this serves as a massive recruitment drive for the Upper Planes, and thus explains why the Damned can be found there in large numbers trying to retrieve their powerful items.  The Malkuth doesn’t really like it, but as long as it keeps the Damned away from their real job, well what are you going to do?

       Agathions (LG/TN) Really want to avoid the Blood War, they really do, their priority has been what it always has been, rewarding good work for mortals and trying to encourage kind behavior.  However due to Bytopia’s extreme amount of natural reasources, both sides constantly send raiding parties forcing the Agatheions to slaughter them.  It’s annoying honestly.  

       The Asura (CG/CN) are….well they are the Asura, and they see the Blood War as an opportunity to slay evil and do effectively the same thing as the Azatas.  However they are far more willing to be ruthless than the Azata, and feel that the war shouldn’t just be esculated, it should be expanded.  Ideally evil will destroy each other like…yesterday and if they can use this war to destroy some of the great evils in the world like evil Gods, Elder Evils, or some of the Lower Exemplars (Asmodeus anyone?) They even go so far as to design weapons for the creatures to kill each other with and get neutral parties involved, in fact they see the Blood War as an ideal way to recruit more paladins.  In particular they try to draw the conflict to Avalon, so they can recruit more and more creatures for the forces of Good.  Asuras are dicks.  

       The Eladrin (CG/TN) are deeply involved in the Blood War but they have a far more personal involvement in the conflict.  Before the Great Sorrow, they primarily tried to continue their previous efforts with the Tana’ri rebellion and the Brood Wars, pitting the Demons against each other and causing the Abyss to destroy itself rather than others.  The Blood War to them was another tool in their eventual goal of having the Abyss consume itself, in fact it has long been rumored that they started the Blood War itself.  The Eladrin and the Azata were running a two man operation, the Azata undermining Hell while the Eladrin’ undermined the Abyss.  Then the Great Sorrow happened, and now their top prority is defending the Planar lair of Androlynne.  Now the Eladrin’s top priority is defending their kin, and almost all of their forces are dedicated to this goal.   90% of their armed forces are on this plane fighting to defend their trapped kin (except for those who are banished), and these forces are supplemented by the combined armies of other good forces, every good plane save  the Azatas and Asuras have always standing forces here. The Azatas figure they would help more by covert tactics than open armies, though the occasional individual hero does arrive there, while the Asuras view the whole thing as a bleeding ulcer and not worth their time.  Due to the truly desperate struggle of this conflict, the Eladrin are sometimes forced to ask the Devils for help, and in exchange for weapons, intel, or even armed support they have agreed to either help the Devils or cease some of their own plots against them.  Twice the plane has been used as the staging ground for an Infernal invasion of the Abyss, and there is currently an Infernal Legion stationed here to help hold the Demons off.  The Eladrins really don’t like it, but until the pact can be broken they don’t have any ideas.  IN regards to the Blood War, they have been partisans for the Devils side, and specifically want Hell’s forces to take out Pale Night or her brood.  

        The Guardinals (NG/TN) once viewed the Blood War as necessary part of the world to keep the Damned in Check but not something they should involve themselves with, instead they focused on promoting harmony between nature and mortality as well as pursuing….well adventuring parties.  Obviously some of these adventuring parties took a tour of duty fighting against both sides in the Blood War but most just dealt with evil where they could find it.  Then the Beastlands started to become a major battleground for the Blood War and suddenly everything changed.  Why the Beastlands are the current battlefield for the Blood War is anyone’s guess but titanic armies on both sides are battling here and the Guardinals just want them to go away. Generally speaking they have contented themselves with ambushing the surviving army in the hope of eventually disincentive these assholes from being on their home.  Thus far it hasn’t worked and while the Guardinals can command considerable forces on their home terf and the plane is equally damaging to both Demons and Devils, but either side conquering the Beastlands isn’t a realistic possibility.  Far more scary is the damage wrought to this pristine plane by the horrific world weapons each sides wields and how many locals might die before the various invasions are beaten back.  The locals have no answer, and others look at this in horror as the war might come to their own front yard.   This has led to a recent trend of Guardinals launching suicide attacks on the Lower Planes in the hopes of being banished for a 100 years back home so they can do more damage, as dying defending their own terf kills them permanently.  

     The Devas (NG/CG) view the war as a horrible mess…but also part of the reality that we live with, and tend to take on a decidedly partisan stance on the matter.  They believe that the Devils and their allies are by far the larger threat, as the demons will fight among themselves without the Blood War, the Blood War is all that holds the Devils back, and have been overtly supporting the Demons directly in the hopes of destroying Asmodeus’s forces.  They still hope as many demons as possible die in the process and recently have come to see the Daemons as an equal threat to the Devils, but generally speaking they are pretty pro Demon as much as you can be, and can be seen by the Princes as solid allies who sometimes randomly betray you and kill all your leadership (like normal allies honestly).  This has put them at odds with the rest of the Blessed, who either stay out of the war or fight both sides, and in particular the Eladrin who have been adopted a more and more pro Devil tone since their own lives are on the line here.  While this has never turned into open conflict, the tension is intense and the Devas have faced criticism for being so nakedly partisan (rather than how they normally are, which is just naked).  

          Finally there are the Empyreals of the Firmament, the realm of doing good out of guilt or obligation rather than genuine good will or emotional health and they of course love the Blood War, it is an excellent opportunity for them to do so.  Since their domain is nothing but an over design fortress anyways, clearly the best way to handle this is to draw as many Damned as possible to their domain to fight.  So like Avernus or the Grey Wastes, the Firmament is one of the main battlegrounds for the Blood War, though since the locals are behind comically overdesigned walls, they don’t get killed quite as much.  Instead they shoot at both sides from behind their defenses.  Pretty good gig actually.  

[dicecast]

The upper planes have long been neglected in D&D, just considered boring and unimportant, so we wanted to talk about why and offer our own ideas on how to fix...

Podcast of the Week.  Where we discuss why the Upper Planes are so boring and what can be done to make them fun/interesting.  Warning Theologgy major present.

[dicecast]

Can you run Angels as Antagonists without compromising their values? Yes, yes you can, and you can do it without evil characters.

Can you make Angels and other upper planes beings into good antagonists without resorting to the “Knights Templar” mentality, and not using evil characters.  Of course you can, Dot and I explain why.