Summary
Acheron is a plane of conflict, armies, and open warfare. It is a realm of law and evil, but not the kind of evil perpetuated by the forces of
The Abyss or
The Nine Hells. Instead, this evil results from the total disregard for the consequences of actions. Acheron has four layers, and while there is no up or down on Acheron, the layers of the plane are considered to descend down, from Avalas at the top to Ocanthus at the bottom.
Cycle of Time
Each of the layers of Acheron is lit by an unknown but always distant light that never wanes or waxes, so time is a difficult thing to measure. On Avalas, the perfect shapes of the cubes and their unusual but ordered patterns of movement actually give a measure of time the other layers lack – every 24 hours, two of the cubes connect, sending out a clear ringing.
Avalas
The largest and most populated layer of Acheron is Avalas, filled with great metal cubes, some as large as continents, floating through a haze of gray smoke. These cubes collide with one another on a regular basis, creating a siren call to arms for many of the military forces that occupy the cubes. Most cubes are hollow or riddled with tunnels, into which scurry the countless armies and military factions that fight their endless battles against one another. Each cube holds its own gravity, pulling things to their center and allowing creatures to walk along all six external faces with no impediment.
Thuldanin
Thuldanin is a layer of Acheron that contains titanic metal cubes filled with valuable scrap metal and stone from across the multiverse piled in heaps with no apparent design. The amount of usable scrap attracts armies from across the planes, but a natural property of the layer turns all objects to stone over time, rendering magical objects inert for all time. The layer is also known for its petrification power that can turn living creatures to stone in as little as half a day. The only known native inhabitants are the duergar dwarves of Hammergrim, who keep the petrification power at bay with the protections of their dark god and use the scrap for their own purposes.
Tintibulus
Tintibulus is another layer of Acheron that holds geometric shapes, such as eight-sided, ten-sided, and twelve-sided cubes, in addition to standard six-sided varieties. This layer is much emptier than other layers, and no native life is known to exist there due to its constant pressure on living creatures, which comes from Tintibulus trying to force the living body into geometric shapes. The pressure can quickly result in physical exhaustion that eventually leads to being crushed to death.
Ocanthus
The lowest layer of Acheron is the most openly hostile. Its gray sky is filled with shards of black razors, some large enough to walk on, while most are small enough to rend flesh from bone. The razors are sharp, and if there were any cubes on Ocanthus like the other layers it is likely they were destroyed long ago in one of the fierce razorstorms. The strange thing about Ocanthus is that the shards are not iron or metal, but instead black ice. It is rumored that the bottom of Ocanthus, and thus Acheron, is actually an immense sheet of ice, and this forms the source of the razor shards that fill the layer. Some planar scholars refer to this mysterious site as the Sea of Memories as they believe it is either the source or destination for the River Styx, and that every memory stolen by the river is kept frozen there.
The Warforged
Acheron draws military forces from across the multiverse, and many rogue armies and failed rebellions linger in physical or spirit form across the plane. The Infernal Battlefield shares a close philosophical border with
Mechanus, the plane of ultimate law and precision, and some union between the two created a race of mechanical humanoids known as the warforged.
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