The Beastlands

The Beastlands, also known as the Happy Hunting Grounds or the Wilderness of the Beastlands, is the home of primal natures, sentient beasts, and vibrant ecosystems. This plane is located in the Outer Planes and is a Neutral Good Chaotic plane. This plane is occupied largely by beasts, and only the non-magical beasts, and there are very few settlements, as those who live here would rather live with nature than against it. Lush forests of all types cover this plane and its three layers, from giant sequoia forests to snow-laden alpine woodlands to deserts full of cacti and other fauna.
The Beastlands is broken down into three layers each highlighting a specific time of day, and it never changes on those layers. On the first layer, Krigala, it is always noon and the sun is always shining high overhead. The sun glares down in the savannahs and deserts, though in other locations the sun is barely able to penetrate the thick jungle foliage. On the second layer, Brux, it is in a constant perpetual twilight with the sun rising over the horizon, though the more pessimistic might describe it as in the middle of a sunset. This ruddy glow illuminates the land, and the creatures who hunt during these hours, like bats and foxes, can be found throughout this layer in a variety of environments. The third layer, Karasuthra, is in constant night with the moon hanging high in the sky and giving off the only source of light. This layer is filled with the nocturnal predators that hunt through the forests, and this is considered the most dangerous of all three layers.

Ecosystem

An Outsider’s Perspective Most visitors to the Beastlands are often those seeking the magnificent beauty and views of this plane or they are game hunters looking for the greatest hunt of their life. The Beastlands can be seen as a paradise for those attuned to nature and it awakens something primal in those who visit the plane.
This plane creates a hunger to eat, a yearning to hunt and to become more bestial in nature. This hunger is not a painful hunger, but rather a singular focus to fulfill the needs of hunting and to take part in eating a meal you hunted for. Though, visitors should be very careful because the beasts you hunt in the Beastlands may appear to be like the typical beasts in The Material Plane, but these beasts are cunning and intelligent. They can speak and form plans among other members of their packs, and they often end up becoming the hunter instead of the hunted.
Visitors who bring animal companions, mounts, or other beasts should expect to never see them again. As soon as a beast arrives on the Beastlands, they immediately take off, their leashes and other trappings magically falling off of them. Their primal urges overcome any training they had had and they begin their hunts throughout the plane. The most well-trained or magically bonded beasts will find their companions when they leave the Beastlands, but not before.
A Native’s Perspective Planes of Conflict, 1995 TSR Inc. Planes of Conflict, 1995 TSR Inc.
The inhabitants of the Beastlands are spread far throughout the plane based on their own personal preferences. Of the few settlements, most are made from roughly hewn logs and look more like temporary fortifications instead of permanent settlements. Those who reside in the Beastlands are mostly the sentient beasts themselves, along with hunters, wardens, the Verdant Guild, and the Faction of One, who are also known as the Signers.
Living in the Beastlands is about immersing yourself in primal instincts, in glorying in the hunt - whether you are the hunter or the hunted, and taking on bestial traits. The sentient beasts all have the ability to talk, and some can even cast spells though they will only do so in extreme danger. The sentient beasts are the petitioners, the souls of those who died and in their afterlife were carried to the Beastlands based off of how they lived. This privilege is reserved for the great hunters, the druids and rangers, and any who gloried in bestial quality of nature. The talking beasts are all these souls from the lowly grasshoppers who hop from one tree to another in the top layer of Krigala, to the mighty jaguars who hunt through the night shrouded forests of the bottom layer, Karasuthra.
Many of the inhabitants don’t take kindly to outsiders poaching through their forests, not because they dislike hunting but because those poachers are only doing so to gain a trophy, and most are often disrespectful to the hunt and its practices. The wardens, and the Verdant Guild, protect this plane from those visitors, often hunting the poachers and scaring them off from the forests. Their goal is to not kill them, but to strike the fear of the hunt into them and to scare them off.
Atmosphere The atmosphere of the Beastlands is greatly dependent on where you are on the plane, and which layer. The top layer, Krigala, is always in the noon sun with verdant forests, hot savannahs, and blisteringly cold alpine slopes. The beasts that inhabit these areas are always noonday hunters, hunting in the bright light and rejoicing in the perfect beauty. The second layer, Brux, is in the ever-constant twilight of a rising, or setting, sun with its opposite, the moon rising up on the other side of this layer. The beasts that inhabit this layer hunt during the hours of early morning or late evening - wolves, tigers, bears, and others can be found throughout its trees. The bottom layer, Karasuthra, is the pitch black of night with only the moon giving off any light. These are the dark hunters who stalk through the night and is the fiercest of the layers of the Beastlands for only the mightiest hunters stalk through the darkened forests.
Because the sun never changes position in any of these planes, it can be difficult to tell time, though time still passes like normal on every layer of this plane. Most track the progress of a day by the rain showers that move through the plane like clockwork. Once a day rain sweeps across the plane, though it is a light rain that is refreshing and encourages the vibrant growth of life.

Localized Phenomena

Animal Traits
The longer you stay in the Beastlands, the more likely that you will begin to start taking on the characteristics of beasts. A mighty warrior might begin growing tufts of fur like that of a bear, or a perceptive wizard might grow the crooked beak of a hawk. These characteristics can be slow to take hold, those who value law are the slowest for these characteristics to start appearing, but they always do. For those closest to the wilderness, they take only a few hours while those who come from more civilized backgrounds might take a few days. These animal characteristics are only temporary and will disappear after a few days outside of the Beastlands.
Magic, the Weather, and Flying Up to 3rd edition, there were the entities known as the Mortai, a type of living cloud creature that could be found in every layer of the plane. They controlled the weather and were said to have the faces of humans and voices that sounded like they were coming from a multitude of people. Because of their tight control over the weather, spells used to control the weather would fail instantly. In 2nd edition, they even had the power to make Fly spells and similar magic fail as well, leading to many wizards plummeting to their death when their feather fall spell did not work.
Due to these cloud creatures, the only creatures that are able to fly in the early editions where ones with wings like birds, aarakocra, and similar. In 3rd edition, this restriction is gone and there is no mention of any limits on flight.
Fire On the bottom layer, Karasuthra, light is incredibly sparse and is only from the moon that gives off a faint illumination to the forests, veldts, swamps, and other locales. Trying to light a torch while on this layer is impossible. The tinder won't catch, the flint and stone won't produce sparks and any fire that is created immediately dies out. The only way to produce light is to bring a torch or source of fire from another plane or layer, and even then it appears feeble and only gives off half its normal light. Another way around this is to create a magical light source, but this also creates a feeble light that is half as bright as it should be. It is said that it is the moon, known as Noctos, who drains all light from this realm. Only it’s sister, the sun known as Selera, could give off light on this layer, but only by reflecting it off of Noctos.

Tourism

Travel to the Plane Visitors to the Beastlands often arrive on the first layer by riding the River Oceanus as it winds its way through the four layers of Elysium before arriving on the first layer of the Beastlands and then finishing its journey on the top layer of Arborea. The broad river banks of the River Oceanus attract a lot of life, and for first-time visitors who are clueless to the planes, they can be caught unaware as the River Oceanus suddenly is filled with rapids and waterfalls once they arrive in the Beastlands. The course of the River Oceanus is straight across the Beastlands, dividing it nearly in half.
Other visitors find themselves on this plane by climbing the great World Ash Tree, Yggdrasil. Its branches touch the Beastlands and Elysium, allowing a traveler to traverse from Ysgard, where it originates, to these planes by simply walking along its branches and finding a portal to the Beastlands.
Getting off of the Beastlands is just as easy as it has companion portals to Elysium and Arborea in the form of portals that open and close throughout the forests of the first layer. A portal to Arborea can often be found inside of a hollow oak tree, while a portal to Elysium can be found in the hollow tree of a sequoia.
Traversing the Plane Traveling across the plane is relatively straightforward and just requires you to walk to your destination, though some are more foolhardy and will try to travel across the River Oceanus on a barge or ship - this typically ends in the craft being crashed against the rocks and any cargo lost to the swirling torrents and currents. Most, who travel by boat, are forced to disembark and drag their craft and cargo along the banks at multiple locations across the Beastlands in order to avoid destroying their vessel.
Walking between the layers of the Beastlands can happen erratically and when you least expect it. Ducking beneath a branch, you might find the afternoon sun replaced with the utter darkness of night, moving from Krigala to Karasuthra. On the other hand, you might be being chased between two trees when all of a sudden the night quickly turns to the early morning sun shining through the thick foliage, moving from Karasuthra to Brux. These portals are common and it is quite easy to accidentally stumble upon them and make your way back to the top layer.

Type

Plane of Existence

Location under

Upper Planes