Summary
Mechanus is a plane of absolute order and harmony, where everything moves and happens with deliberate and driven purpose according to a grand plan. This Clockwork Nirvana is the most orderly plane in all of the multiverse and is filled with enormous gears, like the internal workings of a clock. Each gear moves in perfect concert with adjacent gears, some as small as 10 feet across, while others span hundreds or thousands of miles across. Life exists in Mechanus as well, though most of it is mechanical or constructed in nature. The most numerous and recognizable of Mechanus’ resident races are the modrons - geometrically shaped creatures living, breathing, and operating to keep Mechanus ticking and running smoothly. The Modrons worship
Primus, the One and the Prime, the leader of every
Modron with godlike power.
Mechanus consists of a single layer, infinite in size across all directions, with no natural ground to be found. Everything is manufactured, though in such a strange mechanical plane, the metal is natural, so perhaps it would be more accurate to state that there is no natural vegetation. One particularly strange aspect of Mechanus is the gravity – it’s subjective based on the gear you’re
traveling on. Many gears and cogs are perpendicular to one another, but a traveler can move from one to the other by simply stepping onto it.
The Grand Plan
The sheer scale of the operation on Mechanus is mind-boggling and its true meaning has eluded attempts at deciphering, though some have dedicated their lives trying to unveil the mysteries of Mechanus. The
Confederacy of the Cog are a group of brilliant artificers who are wholly devoted to understanding not just how Mechanus works, but why. However, most residents of Mechanus are blind to the grand plan that governs their actions, a situation that suits them just fine. In this plane of constant motion and gear teeth moving with absolute precision, everything is in perfect balance. Day and night, light and dark, they are all parceled out in equal portions without change or deviation.
Predictably Perfect
The clockwork precision of Mechanus is not just found in the continually running gears and moving pieces. There is a sense of rigid order that pervades every facet, affecting everyone equally who travels its realm of endless gears. The regular variance of chance is dampened to an extreme degree, so that the predictable outcome is the most likely, even in an otherwise unpredictable situation. Warriors swing their weapons with the same amount of force, regardless of how much they want to inflict more or less. Magic and spells are affected in similar fashions. There are other, stranger manifestations in this plane of absolute order. The Word of Law is an enigmatic figure that twists the natural power of Mechanus into immensely powerful written words, like scrolls. Few have seen this strange being face-to-face, and most believe it is an entity from another plane pushing into the Clockwork Nirvana.
The Scrap Tract
It surprises some to learn that there are portions of Mechanus devoted to junk and refuse, along with the raw materials that make up the gears. These are, of course, all perfectly orderly and organized, and the modrons that tend to them and many other realms in the Clockwork Nirvana take their jobs very seriously. They have strict rules preventing outsiders from taking scrap or raw materials outside of the designated zones. These junk areas are called Scrap Tracts, which house the refuse and junk produced by the
natural processes of Mechanus, and each one is contained in a vast cylinder of gray steel. The cylinders are hundreds of miles across with multiple entrances, and inside are the vast collections of scrap metal from across the plane. Metallic golems patrol the interior and exterior, but each Scrap Tract is so large as to be impossible to patrol thoroughly.
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