Nirvana

A paradise of unsullied benevolence, the plane of Nirvana grants a return to innocence to its chosen souls, and the power to protect that state for those spirits willing to sacrifice that gift. Home to a powerful, poignant mystery and many other hidden, resonating secrets, Nirvana also harbors the agathions and angels. These celestial martyrs pledge themselves to a higher purpose, sacrificing their own chance to taste a return to innocence in order to defend and uphold their plane’s principals of universal good, whatever the cost to themselves. It is strongly good-aligned.

As the plane of benevolence untouched by either law or chaos, the paradise of Nirvana exists as a balance between the extremes of good as represented by the celestials of Elysium and Heaven. Curiously though, its natives pursue a more interventionist and active role across the planes than their ideological neighbors, while its blessed souls seek to achieve a personal enlightenment free of care and worry. Contrary to the opinion of some, Nirvana is not a plane of the elect, the enlightened, and the virtuous to the exclusion of all others; it is a place of respite, a sanctuary for the weary soul, and a place of redemption for any who would willingly seek it out—even the damned.

Geography

Notable Sites

The plane of absolute good holds many sanctuaries, godly realms, and places of interest.

• Dragonmane Mountains

• Dream Lotus

• Good Will

• Forest of Whispered Longing

• Hall of the Slumbering Kings

• Isle of the Penitent

• Kurgess’s Field

• Lake of Spring-Thawed Ice

• The Nirvana Dragon

• Sarenrae’s Realm

• Sea of No Shadows

• Shelyn’s Domain

Fauna & Flora

Native Creatures

The pastoral wilds of Nirvana support a myriad of natives, including petitioners, all manner of celestial wildlife, mortals, gods, agathions, and angels. While the plane’s agathion celestials frequently visit their favorite places in the mortal world, the plane itself—or some other force— seems to ensure that Nirvana’s once-mortal souls let go of their worldly shackles, perhaps worrying that their rest or enlightenment might be hindered by mortal influence.
As for the petitioners, most spirits of the mortal dead that arrive on the plane do so with something of a clean slate. While on other planes the dead may retain their mortal memories in various states of completion, and gods have full control over the memories of their dead faithful, Nirvana’s petitioners uniformly shed their memories, either all at once, or slowly discarding their burden memory by memory. Free of the shackles of mortal concerns and worries, they pursue a sheltered, idealistic afterlife, growing ever more attuned to their plane and its spiritual ideals before they vanish, ascending to a higher state of existence hidden deep with Nirvana’s core, or achieving a divine unity with the plane itself.
Comprising such races as the avorals, leonals, vulpinals, and other such beast-aspect outsiders, the agathions embody the metaphorical concept of the peaceable kingdom. Each group pursues a deeper understanding of Nirvana’s mysteries while serving a specific role within the plane. Leonals serve as guardians of the plane’s gates and portals. Avorals watch over the monastic mountaintop aeries or serve as prophets, warriors, and liaisons to the plane’s gods. The wandering vulpinals act as itinerant sages, bards, and storytellers. Although the agathions lack any rigid hierarchy, each group possesses a number of unique individuals granted power by their plane; the common agathions look to these individuals for leadership, following their wisdom. Korada-of-the- Dream-Lotus, Kelumarion-the-King-Over-the-Mountain, and Lady-Taramyth-the-Singing-Flame lead the avorals, leonals, and vulpinals, respectively. Though none of these have openly claimed their position, they do not deny their status either.
While the agathions serve Nirvana from within, the devas, planetars, and solars serve their plane’s ethos beyond its borders, hurling themselves at whatever threats to its sanctity might exist in the realms beyond. Most often the angels are found watching over the River of Souls and assaulting the fiends of the Abyss whenever its chasms open near any of the good-aligned planes. Unlike Heaven’s archons, the angels believe preemptive crusades into the depths of the Maelstrom against the protean tide are pointless, ideological genocides; of greater importance is finding and rescuing those souls of any alignment stolen and denied their proper place in the Outer Sphere, whether a consequence of theft by infernal contract, the depredations of night hags or daemons, or the actions of evil mortals.

Type

Dimensional plane