The Outlands

The Concordant Domain of the Outlands, is the plane of true neutrality. The Outlands is unique among the Outer Planes because it borders all other Outer Planes. As a result, it is the common ground for extraplanar creatures. Beings from infernal and celestial planes, as well as those of law and chaos, can be found here.

The Outlands is an infinitely large wheel with a great spire rising from its center. Outlanders consider this towering cylindrical plinth as the heart of the Outer Planes and the axle around which the Great Wheel spins. This great plinth is clearly visible from anywhere in the plane, as it rises above the clouds themselves and ascends into unreachable heavens. The City of Doors, Sigil, floats at the top of the spire.

The Outlands borders the top layer of all the other Outer Planes. There are number of semi-permanent locations known as portal towns about a thousand miles from the spire. These communities grew up around existing portals to these other planes and see a regular flow of traffic between the other Outer Planes and the Outlands.

In addition, the Outlands has a number of freestanding portals to the Material Plane, as well as portals to Sigil, the City of Doors. Because portals connect Sigil to each of the portal towns, Sigil is the heart of the heart of the Outer Planes.

This plane defies description by changing the perception of those who entered, becoming a completely new and yet familiar plane with each visit. Typically on the first visit the plane appears as a larger version of the visitor's homeland. (A farmer would see vast farmland, a scribe would see a huge library for example.) Subsequent visits reveal a different face but demesnes remain in the same spatial location—a city on one visit might be a forest with inhabitable trees on the next—chaotic variation but with the same order and placement.

The Outlands itself is a broad region of varied terrain, with open prairies, towering mountains, and twisting, shallow rivers. There are settlements throughout the area, inhabited by petitioners and other natives of the plane. But they are small flecks against the greater wildness of the Outlands.

Arranged in a rough circle about a thousand miles from the base of the spire are a string of small communities. These are known as portal towns, because they exist near natural entrances to the Outer Planes. While other portals to the Outer Planes exist, these portal towns are easy to find and are convenient stopping places for travelers seeking a particular Outer Plane.

The various portal towns emulate the traits of the planes beyond their portals. Those bordering lawful planes tend to be neat and orderly, while those near the planes of chaos are more unstructured and rambling. Those near the good-aligned planes tend to be more hospitable to peaceful travelers, while those near portals to evil-aligned planes are more hostile.

On occasion, these portal towns may suddenly disappear, moving directly onto the plane they are connected to. This may be due to the alignment of the town natives; once a critical mass is reached, the town and its inhabitants are welcomed into the related Outer Plane. This phenomenon is a natural quality of the outlands. It shrugs off pieces to the various Outer Planes.

Some within the various portal towns are extremely hostile to those that might hold them back from reaching the Outer Plane. Others seek to keep the town (and its merchants) securely moored in the Outlands by making sure there is some darkness in every light, and some light in every dark.

The Outlands is relatively open space once you get beyond the portal towns. Rolling, grass-covered hills, deep canyons, thick forests, and sharp-toothed mountains dot the landscape. The Outlands has a cycle of day and night similar to that of the Material Plane, although there is no obvious sun or stars. During the day, the sky simply brightens; twelve hours later, it darkens for night.

In the Outlands, heavy fogs and mists are common. Travelers occasionally get lost and wind up closer to unfriendly portal towns than they anticipated.

The Outlands has a neutralizing effect on the randomness of weapons and spells, reducing all healing and damage to the minimum possible while having no effect on strength or magical bonuses. In addition to this, magic itself is gradually neutralized as one approaches the center of the plane. At about 1,000 miles out, high-level spells cease to function. Every 100 miles or so, lower level spells begin to fail, until finally at 200 miles from the center even first-level spells do not function. This applies to divine magic and the powers of the gods as well. Therefore, this ring around the center of the plane becomes a meeting place, bazaar, and common ground used by every intelligent species of the Outer Planes including greater deities of differing alignments. Moving in closer to the center, at about 100 miles, all chemical reactions cease to function and even the gods cannot get any closer to the center of the plane.

As the crossroads of the Outer Planes, the Outlands can have any and all other natives of the Outer planes within its borders. Creatures from the other Outer planes tend to cluster at portal towns with access to their particular planes. Other planar natives such as the mercenanes are regular traders in this domain.