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The Outer Planes	-	-	-	Manual of the Planes

Arcadia is the plane of well-ordered law for the common good,
a plane where organization and hierarchies are used as a tool
with beneficial ends. Its realms are huge fields of well-tended
crops and orchards, cities laid out in geometrically perfect
shapes, and mountains unblemished by erosion. There is day
and night in Arcadia, bu it is the result of a great sphere set into
he highest peak of the land. This sphere is half radiant and half
black, as if portions of the Positive and Negative Material planes
had been brought together with neither mutual destruction nor
melding into shadow. The revoultion of this sphere is the same as
a day in the PMP, but an Arcadian day is dawnless
(light appears suddenly) and duskless and is divided equally
into night and day.

Arcadia has three layers, though the lower reaches have not
been explored nor are their contents common knowledge. The
uppermost layer consists of many well-organized and defined
realms that share a common gravity<>. It is a land of gentle showers
and kindly creatures. The flowers are all colors of the rainbow
and are always found in well-ordered patches that grow without
needing to be tended.

It is the trees of Arcadia that are most remarkable. These great
plants grow in neat forests and straight-rowed orchards. Their
bark is metallic, either copper, gold, silver, or iron (depending on
the type of tree). Their leaves range from deep greens to fireball
reds and never fall, though in appearance they are similar to
Prime planar trees that do lose their leaves. The fruit of these <link: WG.trees>
is always avail. and has magical abilities. If picked, such
fruit lasts for 1d10 days before spoiling (regardless of actions taken <link: WSG.food_spoilage>
to preserve them) and duplicates the effect of a double-strength
magical potion. The types of potions are rolled
randomly, on the potion tables either from the DMG or UA. Each
species of tree grows only one type of potion fruit.

Arcadia is also the home of peaceful animals: golden foxes,
coppery hares, and silver-wooled sheep, as well as all manner of
organized insects such as wasps, bees, and ants. These creatures
are peaceful in nature and, as they are natives of the outer
planes, are not affected by Prime Material spells that normally
affect such beings. Arcadian animals do not speak, but they have
pupilless white eyes that can pierce any illusion or phantasm
spell, so they make excellent watch beasts (in game terms, use
the standard abilities and statistics for the creature, with the
changes above).

Highly intelligent creatures inhabit the plane of Arcadia as well:
creatures of the upper planes such as hollyphants, planetars, foo creatures,
and a few devas. Visiting creatures incl. shedu and
lammasu (lesser and greater varieties of both), ki-rin, and titans.

Permanent portals to other planes are few, but they are in permanent
locations in Arcadia. Generally they are marked by
arched trellises of white ivory or black steel. They can be passed
through normally, but once in a while (1 in 10 chance), the archway
mists over and a field of color appears similar to that of a color pool.
This pool of color is white if it leads to Heaven,
black if it leads to Concordant Opposition,
and silvery if it leads to Nirvana.
Ninety percent of the time, both sides of the archway
lead to the same portal on the other plane, but 10% of the
time different sides of the archway lead to different locations
on the same plane.

Arcadia is also a plane of warriors of good and lawful alignment,
in much the same way that Acheron is the plane of those
organized for evil ends. Militias of spirit-folk roam the countryside
looking for those creatures that do not belong. Good && lawful
creatures are greeted and offered to ride alongside, while those
of neutrality are stiffly asked their business, and evil and chaotic
creatures are attacked. As natives, these militias can use divination
magick over the background static of the plane. For other
details, see the entry under einheriar in Appendix III.

Features of Arcadia

    Two Greater Deities make their homes in Arcadia. Both
are warriors, but only one is considered a god of war among his people.
The exact domain of their realms is unknown, and if there are
other Deities in upper Arcadia, they have yet to reveal themselves.

    Marduk the Valiant of the Babylonian patheon mythos makes his home
in a great, well-ordered city populated by warriors and gardeneres.
This city occupies the land where the rivers Kath and Laur cross,
the former passing over a causeway where the latter has a cascade.
The city of Marduk is home to valiant warriors known as kindari,
who are sent by their master to aid other Deities of his
mythus, in particular Marduk's own ruler, Anu (see einheriar in
Appendix III). In many cases, Marduk leaves the city to deal with
particular menaces himself, leaving a vizier in charge of the city.
The city of Marduk is simple in design and grand in scale. Those of
good alignment are welcome regardless of ethical (Law-Chaos)
disposition. Its sole restriction is against any form of draonkind.
Those planes that have a Babylonian mythos tell tales of
Marduk's continual battles with Tiamat.

    Clangeddin Silverbeard (UA 110) is called the Father of Battle
among the dwarven peoples; he is both their hero and war-god.
His home is a great conical mountain range within easy sight of the
mountain housing the sphere of light && darkness. This mountain
has been carved into a great fortress that can withstand any attack
(indeed, the people of this citadel practice siegecraft
against it to test its strengths and weaknesses). It is large enough
to hide and house all the dwarven peoples native to a Prime
Material plane.

    Clangeddin's city is home to dwarvish warriors of good alignment
who continually practice their skills and hone their weapons for battle 
(see einheriar, Appendix III). On occasion, Clangeddin leads the
host into combat against invaders from other planes or launches
assaults against other battle-hosts in the plane of Acheron. Her
particularly seeks out groups of the spirits of evil dwarves and duergar.
As a force of both good && law, Clangeddin's intention is to inflict
maximum damage while risking the fewest of his troops. He does
not engage in wholesale slaughter, unlike the battle-hosts of
Acheron. Clangeddin and Marduk are on good terms (as gods of
other pantheons go), primarily due to the fact that they share similar
interests without competing for followers.

    A barrier region that leads to the second layer of Arcadia is said
to exist in the passages beneath Clangeddin's audience hall.
Other barriers in the upper layer seem to be quite rare.
 

 

d12+d8	Monster	Frequency
2.		vr or u
3.		vr
4.		vr or r
5.		r
6.		r
7.		u or 2 vr
8.		u or 2 vr
9.		c or 2 r
10.		c or 2 r
11.		c or 2 r
12.		c or 2 r
13.		c or 2 r
14.		u or 2 vr
15.		u or 2 vr
16.		r
17.		r
18.		vr o r
19.		vr
20.		vr

 
 
 

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Ladon (river) in Arcadia, Greece
 

Quote:
Originally posted by Grigori
Hey, Gary! An off the wall question--- What, if any was the relationship between dreggals and barghests in Gehenna? Barghests seem more powerful, but dreggals had the bigger role in the Gord novels... Also, did you ever develop creatures native to the Plane of Arcadia--seems that this plane in particular was neglected. Thanks!
 

Here I am again after thinking I had slipped off this hook...

In developing some nasty inhabitants for Gehenna, I figured that the dreggals would be the mnost populos, not the mots powerful. Thus you see lots of them in action--the proverbial cannon fodder for the greater creatures behind them. They carry out the tasks assigned, are expendable.

I never did get sround to creating a population for Arcadia, as that plane was not one that I envisioned as playing much of a role in the great struggle. Before that none of my players ever got sent to that place, so being a typically busy and harries DM, I didn't spend time working on something that seemed unlikely to be a factor in the campaign. Evenmtually I would have gotten around to it, mainly to toss something really different into the mix, but...

Cheers,
Gary