Pandemonium
Pandemonium is a plane of maddening, claustrophobic chaos—a limitless expanse of solid rock honeycombed with endless tunnels, caverns, and winding shafts, all carved by the eternal scream of howling winds. There is no open sky here, no horizon—only darkness, echoing madness, and the sense of being buried alive in a world gone mad.
Pandemonium embodies raw, senseless chaos—not the creative freedom of Limbo, but the suffocating, eroding madness of endless noise, isolation, and instability. It is a place where the dark corners of the mind echo endlessly, where even your own voice can become your tormentor.
To enter Pandemonium is to risk your grip on reality, as the plane strips away reason and replaces it with whispers, darkness, and wind.
Geography
The entire plane consists of a great mass of rock, riddled with natural and unnatural tunnels that twist in all directions. Gravity is erratic and often local, allowing travelers to walk along walls or ceilings in some areas without ever realizing it. The winds are the defining feature of Pandemonium—ceaseless, shrieking gales that snatch away sound, light, and sanity. These winds can extinguish flames, carry whispers across great distances, or even erode flesh and stone in exposed areas.
In many tunnels, the wind is so fierce that communication becomes impossible, and creatures must resort to magical means or gestures to be understood. Some winds carry voices that aren’t your own, echoing fears, secrets, or false commands—making madness a constant threat.
Pandemonium has four loosely defined layers, each more perilous and chaotic than the last:
- Pandesmos: The uppermost layer and most accessible, filled with tunnels large enough for cities or armies to hide. Even here, the wind howls relentlessly.
- Cocytus: The layer of bitter cold, where icy drafts freeze the unprepared and the rock is slick with frost and fear.
- Phlegethon: Tighter tunnels press inward, and gravity becomes wholly unpredictable. The winds here often whisper secrets and lies.
- Agathion: The deepest, most silent layer—a tomb of black stone, where no wind blows and no sound escapes. It is used as a prison by many powers, its isolation absolute.
Fauna & Flora
Few beings call Pandemonium home by choice. Those who dwell here tend to be:
- Exiles, madmen, and hermits, hiding from the multiverse or themselves.
- Derro and howlers, native aberrant creatures warped by the plane’s influence.
- Insane cults drawn to the winds’ whispers.
- Lost souls, both figuratively and literally, wandering the tunnels with no direction or memory.
The plane itself seems to resist order—maps become outdated, tunnels shift or collapse, and any attempt at building stability is eventually undone by the plane’s inherent chaos.
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