The Outlands

The Outlands was the exception to many of the rules governing the Outer Planes, the first being its lack of alignment or true neutrality. It was an infinite plane, yet it had a definite center. The properties of all the other Outer Planes were mixed together in the Outlands. Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos existed here in all their forms, but they were less able to affect each other due to the neutralizing effect of this plane.

Geography

This plane defies description by changing the perception of those who enter, becoming a completely new and yet familiar plane with each visit. Typically on the first visit the plane appears as a larger version of the visitor's homeland. (A farmer would see vast farmland, a scribe would see a huge library for example.) Subsequent visits would reveal a different face but demesnes remained in the same spatial location—a city on one visit might be a forest with inhabitable trees on the next—chaotic variation but with the same order and placement. Deities could not fully control what visitors saw and heard in their realms, but they could influence the appearance to represent their proclivities.
The Outlands has a neutralizing effect on the randomness of weapons and spells, reducing all healing and damage to the minimum possible while having no effect on strength or magical bonuses. In addition to this, magic itself is gradually neutralized as you approach the center of the plane (which appears as a huge mountain, tree, fountain, tornado, tower, column, etc.). At about 1,000 miles out, high-level spells cease to function. Every 100 miles or so, lower level spells will begin to fail, until finally at 200 miles from the center even first-level spells would not function. This applies to divine magic and the powers of the gods as well. Therefore, this ring around the center of the plane is a meeting place, bazaar, and common ground used by every intelligent species of the Outer Planes including greater deities of differing alignments.
The Astral Plane connects to the plane of the Outlands by color pools, which are never closer than 600 miles from each other.
Around the outer edge of the Outlands are eight evenly spaced settlements that are each constructed around a portal to one particular Outer Plane. For that reason, each gate-town shares many characteristics of the plane to which it connected. The eight gate-towns are:
Excelsior - A beautiful, well-defended city with a kind population, it connects to Mount Celestia.
Ecstasy - A peaceful, pastoral town, it connects to Elysium.
Sylvania - A constantly partying town where music played day and night, it connects to Arborea.
Xaos - Also known as aXos, sXoa, oasX, and all other permutations, it is an ever-changing city that connects to Limbo.
Plague-Mort - A diseased, ruined, and decaying town, it connects to the Abyss.
Hopeless - A large city with a single entrance and organized as a spiral, it connects to Hades.
Ribcage - A mid-sized settlement, beautiful, but oppressive, it connects to the Nine Hells.
Automata - A perfectly ordered city, it connects to Mechanus.

Type

Dimensional plane

Owner/Ruler

Silvanus