Outlands

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game cosmology, the Concordant Domain of the Outlands, also known as the Concordant Opposition, is the Outer Plane where the souls of people of Neutral alignment are sent after death. It is popular as a meeting place for treaties between the powers. The Outlands are also home to the gate-towns. At the center of the Outlands is the Spire, atop which Sigil can be seen. The Outlands are the home plane of the neutral-minded rilmani.

First Edition and Pre-Planescape 2nd Edition[edit]

In first edition and second edition AD&D before Planescape, this plane is also at the center of the Outer Planes and known by its original name Concordant Opposition. The First Edition Manual Of Planes states that the center of the plane takes various forms at different times (a mountain, a huge tree, etc.) and godly powers are lost as one moves toward the center, as well as spells, beginning with the highest levels of spells at the farthest out and then gradually losing the lower ones step by step the further one moves inward. Within 100 miles (160 km) of the center, not even chemical reactions take place, and neither man nor deity can get closer than 100 miles (160 km). In Second Edition Outer Planes Monstrous Compendium, under the description of the Mediators of Nirvana (Mechanus), it states that this plane was originally intended for Neutral Powers (deities) and created by the Powers (deities) of creation, but each Neutral Deity asserted their individual influence causing it to become unbalanced, then were cast out by the powers of creation. It also states that three lights of balance exist at the center of this plane, one for each Mediator in Nirvana. (Mechanus) Before Planescape, there is also no mention whatsoever of Sigil being at the Center of this Plane.

Gate-towns[edit]

Gate-towns are settlements which are built around a permanent portal to a certain Outer Plane on the Great Wheel. Gate-towns are important strategically because they provide a (relatively) stable way to enter a desired Outer Plane. The gate-towns reflect the plane that they lead to, for example, Xaos (or aXos, soaX, etc.) is a town where everything changes from one moment to the next. Even the location of the portal to Limbo changes every day – not that there's any regularity to daybreak and nightfall in Xaos. The character of Xaos mirrors what the plane of Limbo is like.

There are 16 such gate towns, each connected to their own Outer Plane

Glorium (Ysgard)
Xaos (Limbo)
Bedlam (Pandemonium)
Plague-Mort (Abyss) A diseased realm of squalor and verminous fecundity, choked with razorvine and bizarre alien parasites. People here are so desperate that they have taken to the worship of the Lady of Pain en masse, constructing their makeshift mud hovels with blades atop them in the hopes of placating her. They pass their days agonizingly trying to numb their pain beneath layers of hard vices, slowly mutating into forms less and less recognizable. Elsewhere in the city, in massive cruel fortresses, the rich and powerful parade inhuman wealth and power before the suffering masses.
Curst (Carceri) City of Traitors and Betrayers. The inhabitants constantly plot against one another, attempting to send others to the vast prison below the city before others arrange to have them sent there. It is arranged in concentric circles, the innermost housing the rich and powerful. The city gate to Carceri is a pair of crossed arches covered in moaning skulls of the betrayed, and is activated by a chain link.
Hopeless (Hades) A bleak, gray city where colors are forbidden, built like a maelstrom that spirals to a central murky tarpit—a sinkhole to its patron realm. Ruled by a once human wizard garbed in chains and an iron wolf mask who is in turn served by a cadre of beholders. Its gate is a massive blood red screaming face.
Torch (Gehenna) An ever-changing furnace of cracked lava rock descending into steaming runlets of lava covered with hundreds of iron towers, hot as frying pans, that stretch up to a roiling sky choked with black smoke. The creatures that live there, mostly fire elementals, yugoloths, barghests as well as a subrace of nomadic humans called Desh, do so in order to savor the endless pain and suffering that comes from living there.
Ribcage (Baator)
Rigus (Acheron) A massive fortress-city enclosing a military camp endlessly engaged in preparations for war. Blacksmiths bang away at hot metal in the streets while corner venders sell military provisions and war animals. The city is built on a hill and is surrounded by a series of seven circular walls, each rising higher than the last. At the center, in a section of the city known as the Crown, a winding stair penetrates deep underground to a grey-green nimbus of twisting light like a great cat's eye: the portal to the city's patron plane.
Automata (Mechanus)
Fortitude (Arcadia)
Excelsior (Celestia)
Tradegate (Bytopia)
Ecstasy (Elysium)
Faunel (Beastlands)
Sylvania (Arborea)

Magic[edit]

The closer to the Spire, the harder it is to use magic-related powers. However, most of the towns, portals, realms, etc. are located far enough not to suffer from these impediments.

Realms[edit]

The Outlands is the location of a number of godly realms, including the following:

The Caverns of Thought, realm of the illithid deity Ilsensine
The Court of Light, realm of the naga deity Shekinester
The Flowering Hill, the realm of the halfling goddess Sheela Peryroyl
Gzemnid's Realm, home of the beholder deity of gases and vapors
The Hidden Realm, home of the chief giant deity Annam
The Hidden Vale, realm of the Dragonlance god Gilean
The Hidden Wood, realm of the nature god Obad-Hai
The Library of Lore, realm of the god Boccob
The Mausoleum of Chronepsis, realm of the dragon deity Chronepsis
The Marketplace Eternal, realm of the god Zilchus
The Palace of Judgement, Yen-Wang-Yeh's realm
The Scales of Wealth, the realm of Shinare
Semuanya's Bog, realm of the lizardfolk deity Semuanya
The Steel Hills, realm of the goddess Ulaa
Thoth's Estate, the realm of Thoth
Tvashtri's Laboratory, realm of the Indian god of artifice
The Web of Fate, realm of the goddess Istus
The Well of Urd, realm of the Norns
Wonderhome, realm of Gond

Three dwarven gods, (Vergadain, Dugmaren Brightmantle, and Dumathoin) share the realm of The Dwarven Mountain on the plane of the Outlands.

The Celtic gods (Daghdha, Diancecht, Goibhniu, Lugh, Manannan mac Lir, Oghma, and Silvanus) share the realm of Tír na nÓg on the Outlands.

References[edit]

Grubb, Jeff. Manual of the Planes (TSR, 1987).
Grubb, Jeff, David Noonan, and Bruce Cordell. Manual of the Planes (Wizards of the Coast, 2001).

Outer Planes
Celestia	Bytopia	Elysium	Beastlands	Arborea
Arcadia	↑Good↑			Ysgard
Mechanus	←Lawful	Outlands	Chaotic→	Limbo
Acheron	↓Evil↓			Pandemonium
Baator	Gehenna	Hades	Carceri	Abyss

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