Mechanus

Mechanus is the outer plane of absolute law. It is a realm of perfect order where time, motion, and causality function with complete precision. The entire plane consists of massive, interlocking gears that rotate through the void. Each gear is vast enough to hold cities, landscapes, and civilizations. Gravity adheres to the surface of each gear, and the rotation of one is perfectly synchronized with the others. There is no sky, only the ever-turning complexity of a cosmic machine.   The plane does not sleep, stall, or deviate. Clocks never drift. Patterns never collapse. Even entropy is subject to schedule. Cause always leads to effect. Magic behaves with mathematical consistency, and reality conforms to perfect logical structure. Emotion, chaos, and spontaneity are present only when imported from outside sources and even then, they are gradually ground down to conformity. The longer anything stays in Mechanus, the more ordered it becomes.   The native beings of Mechanus are the modrons, geometric constructs of law who act as extensions of the plane’s function. They do not govern it. They are part of it. Modrons operate under a rigid hierarchy, each type answering to the next highest form, culminating in the One and Prime. Outside this core race, inevitables, axiomatic dragons, and certain lawful-aligned petitioners live within structured societies. Justice here is literal. Punishment is precise. Mercy is neither absent nor encouraged.   Mechanus is often visited by extraplanar arbiters, contract-writers, and philosophers of law. Deities of judgment, fate, and discipline sometimes establish domains on its gears. Courts built upon these gears dispense absolute rulings, unbending and immune to appeal. Mortals come seeking unbreakable contracts or to hide within the rigidity of the system. However, the cost of remaining too long is subtle erosion of free will, eventually leading to absolute obedience.   In cosmology, Mechanus serves as the anchor of law. It balances the chaos of Limbo and tempers the extremes of other planes. It does not judge morality. It judges consistency. It is not a place of good or evil, but of alignment made manifest in clockwork and law. To enter Mechanus is to surrender the random. To remain is to be shaped by purpose. Nothing in Mechanus is without reason. Nothing in Mechanus is ever truly forgotten.