Outer Planes

If the Inner Planes are the raw matter and energy that makes up the multiverse, the Outer Planes provide the direction, thought, and purpose for its construction. Accordingly, many sages refer to the Outer Planes as divine planes, spiritual planes, or godly planes, for the Outer Planes are best known as the homes of deities.   When discussing anything to do with deities, the language used must be highly metaphorical. Their actual homes aren’t literally places at all, but exemplify the idea that the Outer Planes are realms of thought and spirit. As with the Elemental Planes, one can imagine the perceptible part of the Outer Planes as a border region, while extensive spiritual regions lie beyond ordinary sensory experience.   Even in perceptible regions, appearances can be deceptive. Initially, many of the Outer Planes appear hospitable and familiar to natives of the Material Plane. But the landscape can change at a whim of the powerful forces that dwell on these planes, which can remake them completely, effectively erasing and rebuilding existence to better fulfill their divine needs.   Distance is a virtually meaningless concept on the Outer Planes. The perceptible regions of the planes can seem quite small, but they can also stretch on to what seems like infinity. Adventurers could take a guided tour of the Seven Hells, from the first layer to the seventh, in a single day — if the powers of the Hells desire it. Or it could take weeks for travelers to make a grueling trek across a single layer.   The default Outer Planes are a group of eight planes that correspond to the eight alignments (excluding neutrality, which is represented by the prime Material Plane).   The planes with an element of good in their nature are called the Upper Planes, while those with an element of evil are the Lower Planes. A plane’s alignment is its essence, and a character whose alignment doesn’t match the plane’s alignment experiences a sense of dissonance there. When a good creature visits Elysium, for example, it feels in tune with the plane, but an evil creature feels out of tune and more than a little uncomfortable.   The Upper Planes are the home of celestial creatures, including angels, couatls, and pegasi. The Lower Planes are the home of fiends: demons, devils, and their ilk. The planes in between host their own unique denizens: the construct race of modrons inhabit Mechanus.  

Outer Planes

 

Layers of the Outer Planes

Most of the Outer Planes include a number of distinct environments or realms. These realms are often imagined and depicted as a stack of related parts of the same plane, so travelers refer to them as layers. For example, Mount Olympus resembles a seven-tiered layer cake, and the Abyss has a seemingly endless number of layers.   Most portals from elsewhere reach the first layer of a multilayered plane. This layer is variously depicted as the top or bottom layer, depending on the plane. As the arrival point for most visitors, the first layer functions like a city gate for that plane.  

Traveling the Outer Planes

Adventurers generally really on spells such as plane shift to reach a different plane directly. Most often, though, adventurers use portals that links the two planes directly.   One planar features connect multiple Planes together, the world tree. The world trees are enormous trees, but the biggest of all, called the mother tree appear on multiple plane, its echo are present those planes (including the feywild, the shadowfell and the prime material realm). Adventurers might seek the mother tree in an attempt to find a portal linking it to an outer plane.