It is a plane of passion and peace.
It is abundant nature in its patchwork glory.
It is the domain of the Elven Lords.
The Olympian Glades of Arborea are a crazy quilt of climates and environments, all of which thrive. Arborea contains great woods of towering maples, birch, and oak. These great deciduous trees strain skyward, leaving a forest floor relatively free of undergrowth and brush. The ground beneath the canopy itself is a rolling landscape of velvet moss and ferns. But the forestscape sometimes retreats before open glades of wildflowers, fields of swaying wheat and barley, and neat rows of fruit trees untended by any human hand. Here are trees that have never seen the woodsman’s axe, fields rich with grain, and orchards heavy with fruit.
- Manual of the Planes
Gatecrasher's Guide[]
This plane's called Olympus by primes who've heard of some of the local powers, and Arvandor by prime elves who revere a few other powers that live here. 'Course, they've both got it wrong, but whatever a sod calls this plane, the best way to sum it up in one word is to say "boisterous." This is the home of a pantheon of gods that call themselves "Greek" — a tag that reflects one of their favorite prime-material worlds. Wherever that world is, it must be a wild one because this pantheon is half-barmy with the party lifestyle. Their passions run high and deep, and the plane reflects that with stupendously craggy mountains, unbelievably deep gorges, forests of monstrously huge trees, and vast wild stretches of wheat fields, orchards, and arbors. The petitioners who live here are a hearty lot of backslapping, wide-grinning, epic-singing bravos when they're happy. But they drink to excess and wail like banshees when they're sorrowful. When angered, they leap into battle without a moment's hesitation (though their "combats" are better called "brawls" — lots of heads get thumped, but people seldom die). A swashbuckling cutter feels right at home on this plane. There's always hunts and battles, contests of strength and derring-do, and long, loud parties — it ain't ever dull around here!
The elven pantheon also makes its home on this plane, but it remains separate from the Greek gods. The elf gods are a bit more elegant in their behavior, though no less passionate. The petitioners pour out their joys and sorrows in achingly beautiful music, their rage in hard-eyed, cold-blooded vengeance.
The Sensates maintain a palace on this plane. It's a rambling structure of white marble, filled with sumptuous viands, beautiful art work, excellent musicians, and graceful dancers and acrobats.
Portals between the layers of Arborea are rarer than on most other planes, and those few are well guarded by the powers and petitioners, sometimes even with stone walls and iron gates. The idea isn't to keep travelers out, but to stop or slow the influx of unintelligent or dangerous monsters.
- Guide to the Planes
Traits[]
- Normal Gravity.
- Normal Time.
- Infinite Size: The part of Arborea best known to visitors from the Material Plane is the home of the Elven Court. There may be realms beyond it presided over by deities unknown.
- Divinely Morphic: Deities can change the traits of the plane and remake the landscape; mortals must use spells and physical effort to change their environment.
- No Elemental or Energy Traits.
- Mildly Good-Aligned and Mildly Chaos-Aligned: Evil or lawful characters suffer a -2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks. Lawful evil characters suffer a -4 penalty.
- Normal Magic.
Features[]
Olympus[]
The first layer of the plane takes the same name of the plane's most significant feature, Mount Olympus. This mountain dwarfs all others in size and significance (except Mount Celestia, of course), and it serves as an interplanar conduit to all crystal spheres where the Greek pantheon is (or has been) worshiped on the Prime Material Plane. Its caverns reach into various lower levels of the planes, like Gehenna, the Gray Waste, and Carceri. Separated from the Greeks by a stretch of wilderness lies the home of the elven pantheon. By some trick of the land, both the Greeks and the elves occupy the highest point on the plane, yet neither is higher than the other.
Ossa[]
The second layer in Arborea is called Aquallor by the elves. It's one vast yet shallow sea, scattered over with islands. In the waters lie portals to the other layers of the plane, which are guarded by elf petitioners. Those gateways on the islands are watched by Greek petitioners. Sashelas of the elven pantheon swims these waters, as does Poseidon of the Greeks. The River Oceanus flows into Ossa from Thalasia (on Elysium), too. Watch out for the huge, funnel-like maelstroms that can suck a cutter into Elysium in the blink of an eye.
Pelion[]
This layer, called Mithardir ("white dust") by the elves, is a place of blowing white sand and snow with a few scattered ruins. The temperatures aren't extreme, but the land seems to have disintegrated, fallen into an infinity of shifting, blowing dust. The Egyptian goddess Nephythys maintains a palace of dun-colored stone here in the middle of this desert plain.
On the Server[]
There are currently no Aborean areas on the server.