The Furnaces
The Furnaces are a vast, seething range of molten-bellied mountains on the Elemental Plane of Earth, located near the volatile border with the Para-elemental Plane of Magma. In this region, the typically solid and unmoving stone of the plane gives way to cracked peaks, lava-filled caverns, and burning subterranean flows, where earth and fire merge in a tumult of pressure and heat.
The Furnaces embody the violent tension between stability and eruption—earth containing fire until it can no longer hold it back. It is a place of forging, pressure, and transformation, where materials, creatures, and even ideas are melted down and remade under intense strain. The region stands as both a warning and a wonder: the heart of the earth, exposed and aflame, ever on the verge of bursting open to reveal its molten soul.
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Geography
The landscape of the Furnaces is a mountainous crucible, where jagged stone spires erupt from the plane’s dense mass, many of them split open by fiery fissures and glowing with inner heat. Veins of liquid rock wind through the mountains like arteries, pulsing with slow, searing movement, casting orange light across the sooty cliffs and cavern mouths. The ground constantly rumbles and groans, the pressure of fire trapped within earth creating a near-constant threat of eruptions, earthquakes, or molten floods.
Sulfuric smoke, metallic ash, and volcanic gas fill the air, choking and blinding those unprepared. Though the region is technically part of the Plane of Earth, the temperature here rivals that of the Plane of Fire, and the oppressive heat can melt metal and scorch stone. The stone itself is blackened, brittle, and hot to the touch, warped by the molten currents and constant tectonic strain.
Scattered throughout the region are vast lava domes, obsidian citadels, and natural furnaces—chambers where magma collects and surges in unpredictable bursts. Rivers of lava flow through subterranean trenches, sometimes breaching the surface to form temporary lakes of molten stone.
Natural geothermal vents erupt periodically, spewing flame, steam, and magma high into the air. Some of these vents are worshiped or harnessed by native creatures, used in forging or elemental rituals. Enormous stone bridges, suspended over lava chasms, mark old routes carved by dao miners or other elemental denizens seeking rare minerals formed in the extreme heat.
Fauna & Flora
The Furnaces are inhabited by beings aligned with both earth and fire. Magma mephits, lava elementals, and emberspawn roam the molten canyons, while dao and azers mine rare materials such as pyrocrystals, molten gold, and fire-born gemstones—gems formed only where heat and pressure reach incredible intensities. Occasionally, magma dragons or elemental titans are sighted, drawn by the powerful convergence of elemental forces.
Fire-aligned beings from neighboring planes sometimes trespass into the Furnaces in search of resources or conquest, leading to periodic conflict with earth-dwelling natives who see the region as theirs alone.
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