Concordant Opposition
00
<leather brown>
Concordant Opposition
00
<leather brown>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Concordant Opposition
mixes the properties of all the planese it
touches. It is limitless, yet unlike any
of the other outer planes, it has
a definite center. It changes from moment
to moment like chaos,
yet always maintains the same sense of
order and placement.
Good && evil co-exist in different
forms (much like the PMPs)
yet their ability to affect each other
is reduced.
Concordant Opposition
has either a single layer || a multitude
of similar layers w/ similar inhabitants.
Each time a traveller visits
this plane, it presents a different face:
on the first visit a gothic
city, on the second an aquatic wonderland,
on the third a great
forest where all live in hollow trees.
The xtent of these changes
stretch throughout the plane, but the
traveller seeking the Norns
can find them in the same spatial loc.
on this plane, though
their appearance and that of their surroundings
may vary from
visit to visit. In general, on the first
visit Concordant Opposition
always resembles a much-larger
version of the traveller's homeland.
(A farm boy sees acres upon acres of farms,
while his companion,
a scribe, is in a massive library filled
w/ shelves of
books, and their modron guide sees more
interlocking wheels
than Nirvana has at its busiest.) Deities
who reside on this plane
can manipulate its appearance to a slight
degree, but they are <fix the grammar>
cannot fully control its appearance to
others.
Concordant Opposition
has as neutralizing effect on weapons
&& spells that hurt (or heal)
a random amount of damage. Weapons
and spells inflict the min. damage possible.
A dagger ||
a short sword inflicts 1 point, while
a two-handed sword
causes 3 points. Cure light wounds restores
1 point of damage. The
heal spell returns all but 1 point of
damage. Spells && items that
inflict damage not measured by HP (poisons,
for example) <some poisons>
are unaffected by this rule. Likewise,
bonuses from STR ||
magickal weapons are unaffected. This
limitation to damage is
true throughout the plane of Concordant
Opposition.
Concordant Opposition,
unlike the other outer planes, can be
argued to hav a definite center (most
outer planes are usu.
said to have a "center point," but this
is usu. the palace of the
Deity that is venerated by the speaker).
The center of Concordant Opposition
appears variously as a great tower, coumn,
mountain, waterspout, tornado, or tree.
Regardless of its form, it
cannot be climbed, entered, or damaged
by any means, godly ||
NOT. As individuals MOVE toward the center,
more powers &&
abilities are temporarliy neutralised;
consult the table below:
| Distance
from Center |
Effect |
| 1,000 Miles | 9th-level spells and spell-like abilities no longer function. |
| 900 Miles | 8th-level spells and spell-like abilities no longer function. |
| 800 Miles | 7th-level spells and spell-like abilities no longer function. |
| 700 Miles | 6th-level spells and spell-like abilities
no longer function.
Illusion and phantasm spells fail as if all viewers were wearing gems of seeing (without revelaing true nature of this plane). Life-draining abilities no longer function. |
| 600 Miles | 5th-level spells and spell-like abilities
no longer function.
Astral viewing portals no longer function. <l> Artificial poisons no longer function. |
| 500 Miles | 4th-level spells and spell-like abilities
no longer function.
Natural (internal) poisons no longer function. Conduits from other planes cannot reach beyond this point. |
| 400 Miles | 3d-level spells and spell-like abilities
no longer function.
No conjuration or summoning spells function. Powers of demi-gods no longer function. |
| 300 Miles | 2d-level spells and spell-like abilities
no longer function.
Powers of lesser gods no longer function. |
| 200 Miles | 1st-level spells and spell-like abilities
no longer function.
Powers of greater gods no longer function. |
| 100 Miles | Chemical reactions (burning, dissolving,
etc.) no longer work.
Neither man nor god can come closer to the center. |
Spell-like abilities
that mimic spells of different levels are
always treated as the lesser of the levels.
Levels of lost spells
applies to all spell casters, so clerics
do not begin to lose spell
abilities until 800 miles from the center.
Because powers are lost
near the center of the plane (but
regained upon moving farther away from
the center), the central
region of Concordant Opposition is often
used as a meeting place,
trade-market, and common ground by the
Deities of the outer
planes. Two hundred miles from the center,
Greater Deities of
differing alignments can confer without
fear that either side can
TURN the situation to its advantage.
Concordant Opposition
can be reached via color pools (more
than 600 miles away) and by portals
to every other outer plane.
These portals xist in a great ring
at the 1,000-mile mark from the
center. They always appear as simple
white disks laid into the
ground (regardless of the appearance of
their surroundings). Th e
disks come in various sizes, some large
enough to accomodate
an entire party of adventurers. All disks
send the travellers to any
ov the outer planes merely by concentration.
In cases of groups,
majority rules (a group of three paladins
and four imps will likely
end up wherever the imps decide to go).
In +addition+, those of
chaotic alignments (CG, CE, or CN)
sometimes end up in the wrong plane. If
the traveller is chaotic (or
the majority of the group is chaotic),
refer to the following table to
determine the destination.
| D100
Roll |
Result |
| 1-80 | Intended destination |
| 81-90 | One plane away clockwise or counterclockwise on the wheel |
| 91-00 | Opposite location on the great wheel ("That's odd, do you remember the smell of brimstone the last time we were in Olympus?") |
Features of Concordant Opposition
Concordant Opposition,
sometimes called Godsland or the
Friendly Opposition, has no native races.
A large # of
xtra-planar beings are found here, however,
engaged in trading,
meetings, and in the service of higher
deities. All intelligent creatures
of the outer planes can be found here
with the frequency
that they are found on their home planes.
Thus the plane is overrun
by all manner of demons, devils, warriors
of Anu, and spirit
legions seeking weapons, einheriar, planetars,
deva, and slaadi.
The Deities of Concordant
Opposition tend to reject the standard
aligned wheel concept of the outer planes.
They include true
neutrals, deities who have left or been
removed from their pantheons,
and those who set themselves above such
petty concerns as
alignment. While these Deities cannot
fully control what
the travellers see & hear, they can
{color} it to reflect their
own sensibilities. The Celtic gods tend
towards woodlands, for
instance, while Thoth favors places of
learning. A traveller entering
the Celtic realms
here finds different forms of forests, while
those searching for Thoth find him among
libraries && schools.
Most Deities make their
permanent domains outside the ring
of white disks,
where their powers function as fully as the plane
permits. (If challenged by a powerful
opponent in the plane of
Concordant Opposition, a Deity seeks the
areas nearer the center
[if overmatched] || takes his attacker
to another plane, if the
full power of that god may make the battle
easier.)
Dagda the Dozen King
and most of the Celtic mythos rules a
large swath of Concordant
Opposition, radiating from the circle of
white disks
outward like a wheel. In +addition+ ot Dagda, the
deities Brigit, Diancecht, Dunatis, Lugh,
Morrigan, Nuada, and
Silvanus. Their entire realm
is called Tir na Og (Land of Youth),
and Dagda's domain is Mag Mell (Field
of Happiness). Manannan Mac Lir,
the Celtic sea god, makes his abode in
a great ocean within Tir na Og,
called Tir fo Thuinn, the Land under the
Waves.
Goibhnie, the Celtic blacksmith
of the gods, is said to be
able to craft weaopns that function normally
in the lands of Concordant Opposition,
though this god does not work outside
of
the Land of Youth. Oghma maintains a small
domain closer to the
center, where the Celtic god of knowledge
keeps a prison for
xtra-planar trouble-makers (usu. devils
&& demons) where
their power are negated and they can do
no mischief.
Of the Egyptian panethon,
both Thoth, the god of knowledge,
and Bes, the Lesser Deity concerned with
luck, make their
homes here. They rule large
expanses beyond beyond the circle of portals
and keep lesser estates within the circle.
As their portfolios
do not overlap, these gods have little
to do with each other, SAVE
in times of need (usu. Bes's need).
Untamo of the Finns
has a realm known as the Sleeping Lands.
Here this lesser god of dreams remains,
rarely venturing beyond
the borders of his domain. Surprisingly,
his domains are adjacent
to the noisy, clattering realms
of Tvashtri, the Indian demi-god of
artifice && science. The latter's
domain is filled with all manner
of pipes && columns &&
inventions that hav been recently discovered.
Naturally, he will be most angry if others
TAKE these
devices, for he believes that discovery
is the most important factor
in creation, not gifts from the gods.
The Norns are said to
have their well of souls at the very edge
of the center. They {identify} this AREA
as an unattainable part of the
Yggdrasil, though the behavior of this
AREA is unlike that of any
other part of the World Ash conduit. Here
men && deities both
seek their fortunes from the fates.
Yen-Wang-Yeh maintains
a domain on the other side from
Untamo. He is primarily concerned with
sorting out the spirits that
believed in the Chinese mythos and sending
them to their final
destinations. His mission is to ensure
that they neither tarry on
the PMP nor are sent to the wrong final
REST. A
faithful bureaucratic servant who answers
to Shang-Ti, he is said
to leave for one week a year to present
his books to the August
Personage in Jade in Nirvana. It is during
that time, when his
assistant controls the dead, that many
spirits wander the earth
and are misplaced.
Dragon #243
Of the non-human gods
of this realm, most seek this plane as
an escape from the factional politics
of the aligned planes.
Semuanya of the lizard men inhabits a
great swampy region outside
the circle of portals. This swamp
borders on the great sea
that is home to Eadro of the locathah
&& merman. Sheela Peryroyl
of the hobbits maintains a rich orchard
&& farm not far
from these regions. Of the dwarven gods,
Dumathoin controls
a large underground realm
that xtends to very near the center.
The dwarven god of luck, Vergadain, is
suspiciously similar to
Bes in both appearance && portfolio
(luck && wealth), yet he
maintains a separate household &&
realm.
Both deny that they
are one Deity, yet the times when they
have been seen in one
place are very few (and prove nothing
when dealing with Deities
of this caliber).
Despite that,
creatures from every outer plane <Outer
Plane> and the [Astral Plane] can be found in Concordant Opposition,
for it connects with all these planes.
Whether Concordant Opposition is truly
an outer plane <Outer Plane> or an entirely new
form of plane or demi-plane <link?> is unrevealed.
WyzardWhately,
Not much to add to your exposition,
other than to say that Concordant Opposition is Balance.
The Oriental concept of
Yang and Yin is good example of the True Neutral concept.
How I would love ID political parties with the D&D alignments, but that's a no-no <EEK!>
Cheers,
Gary
