Bedlam (Bed-lam)

Overview

Bedlam is a realm of boundless chaos, a churning void of land, sea, and everything else that can or could exist between, bordering all of the Cradlerealms even as it seeks to devour them. Bedlam defies the efforts of mapmakers, as its very character shifts and flows like the tide of an unseen ocean, to which the edges of the plane are but shores and calm shallows. Crystalline forests melt like candle wax into shallow brine seas with jewel-like icebergs, and then sublimate to vast parched deserts, all within the stretch of days. Still, islands of stability do exist within the depths of Bedlam. These islands are ruled by petty gods, exiled fiends, and fallen celestials, and even the rare stronghold of a mortal wizard or priest-king can be found holding itself against the metaphysical lapping tide.

Planar Traits

Gravity subjective directional or normal
Time erratic
Realm immeasurable
Structural morphic
Essence mixed
Alignment strongly chaos-aligned
Magic wild (with pockets of normal magic on the most stable of Bedlams islands)

Denizens of Bedlam

Protean Lords - The protean lords act as intermediaries between the mysterious Speakers of the Depths and the protean choruses. Most prominent among the protean lords, who takes the form of a massive albino keketar. Proteans - The serpentine proteans are living extensions of Bedlam that act both subtly and overtly against incursions of other alignments. Proteans organize loosely into groups known as choruses, each with a philosophical obsession set by its keketar priest-kings, though chorus allegiance is wildly transient and their goals are often fluid. The choruses routinely assault the other planes’ borders en masse, acting almost like the manifestation of an immune system against an infection of unwanted ethics and philosophies. Einherjar and Valkyries - Einherjar congregate in Bedlam as much for its chaos as they do for the opportunity for conflict that it provides. Manifestations of fallen champions who perished in righteous religious wars, they either fight on their own or serve various gods and pantheons throughout Bedlam’s worlds.