FEATURES
OF ARBOREAIt 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. The very air of Arborea seems charged with anticipation and excitement. Sudden squalls brew up out of nowhere, beating the tree-lined paths with heavy winds. They pass within minutes and leave behind warm, sunny arcs of light filtering through the forest canopy. In the distance there always seems to be music; sometimes the elves and the fey are playing, but just as often the faint tune is merely the wind curling through the boles of the great trees. Arborea is a place with flowers in bloom and trees bearing fruit simultaneously. There are uplands covered with snow, but even the snow shines beneath a crystalblue sky. Arborea is almost overwhelming in its beauty, and the land embodies both wilderness and loveliness in one package. Yet only the top layer of Arborea has the great forest implied in the name of the plane. Arborea's second layer is an endless ocean, and its third layer a borderless desen of white dust. All three layers are places of mercurial weather, sudden attacks, and strong passions. Arborea is a plane of joy and sorrow.
Arborea has the following 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. ARBOREA LINKS Arborea borders the Beastlands and Ysgard. Natural portals between these locations are common, as are shifting borders that automatically switch travelers from one plane to its neighbor.
Celestials are common in Arborea, especially the eladrin, powerful elflike protectors of the plane. The best known and most common of this breed is the ghaele, which are often found hunting in the wilderness of this plane. In addition to ghaele eladrin, the fine eladrin, guardians of beauty and art, are common here. Both appear elven, but they have a more noble demeanor than elves of the Material Plane. Though regal-looking, the eladrin are fierce in combat. Evil creatures lurking in Arborea quake in their boors at the thought of an eladrin hunting party. Many lillends make their homes in Arborea, thriving on the emotions that ripple through the plane. Arborea is also the home of many celestial or anarchic versions of creatures found on the Material Plane. Celestial creatures tend to leave travelers alone unless crossed, at which point they fight with relish. Anarchic creatures, on the other hand, are as unreliable and unpredictable as you’d expect.
Arborea has two common types of petitioners. The first are the spirits of the elven dead, whose souls have migrated to Arborea and their final reward. Some infuse the plane itself, others are reformed into celestial or anarchic creatures, and still others serve as petitioners in the elven realm of Arvandor, the first layer of Arborea. These last act as scouts and wardens for the communities on the plane, serving the Elven Court in their magic glades and great castles. The deity of the elves, Corellon Larethian, rewards worthy souls in the afterlife with elven form and service in his oak-lined halls. Here they enjoy an afterlife of hunts, trysts, and celebrations in the elven fashion. These petitioners, known as the Chosen of Arvandor, have the following special petitioner qualities:
Additional Immunities: Electricity, poison.
Resistances: Cold 20, fire 20.
Other Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/+1.
Other petitioners may be found in Arborea besides the elven souls on the plane. Called bacchae, these petitioners are wild mobs of drunken revelers found reclining in glades or running through the forest in raving, winesotted celebrations. The bacchae are satyrlike, caught in mid-transformation between man and beast. Bacchae are spirits of equal measures good and chaos, living for the moment and making it the best moment possible. The greatest danger they pose to travelers is enticing newcomers to join in their celebrations. Bacchae have the following special petitioner qualities:
Additional Immunities: Electricity, polymorph. Resistances: Acid 20.
Other Special Qualities: Entice.
Entice (Su): A traveler within 100 feet of a mob of bacchae must make a will saving throw (DC 10 + the number of bacchae within range; maximum DC 25) or else join the party. While partying among the bacchae, those who failed their saves drink, eat, and engage in all manner of pranks and foolery. But they take no sustenance, and suffer the effects of being without food and water. The bacchae entice ability lasts either for 101 days or until the enticed character collapses from lack of sustenance. Moving the character more than 100 feet from the bacchae ends the entice effect, but those under its sway do not leave the bacchae revelers willingly. Bacchae petitioners are generally nonviolent, fleeing if attacked—or more likely offering bread and mead to their assailants. In previous lives, bacchae were the spirits of gourmands, gluttons, well-meaning drunkards, and others who relished the act of living.
Arborea does not present any penalty to movement beyond what travelers from the Material Plane expect. On Arvandor, paths snake through the undergrowth and clear glades are as common as patches of briar and tangles. Creatures that can climb or brachiate (swing from branch to branch) move through the forested sections of Arborea without touching the ground. Aquallor, the second layer, is entirely aquatic, so characters have to swim from place to place. Arborea Combat: The plane does not present any inherent benefit or penalty to combat. Cover and concealment are plentiful in the forests of Arvandor, while combats in Aquallor use the same water combat rules as on the Elemental Plane of Water.
FEATURES
OF ARBOREAArborea is divided into three layers. The top is the best known layer: Arvandor, home of the Elven Court and the final resting place of many good elven spirits and their allies. The second layer, Aquallor, is made entirely of water. The third and deepest of the known layers is called Mithardir, a plain of white dust.
Most travelers know Arvandor as the realm of the Elven Court of Corellon Larethian, the mythical Seldarine. Arvandor is a place of great open spaces beneath the trees. Within these canopied clearings lie the settlements of the Chosen of Arvandor, engaged in an idealized elven life. In the day there are hunts and challenges, in the evenings feasts and tales told around the fire. The cycle of day and night matches the Material Plane, with a golden sun beaming above the treetops in the day and a white moon nestled among a milky river of stars at night. The nights are warm in Arvandor. Even beneath the trees, great fireflies form their own elastic constellations among the huge oaks and lindens.
The Seldarine: The masters of Arvandor rule it with an artistic hand. The Seldarine's halls can be natural, huge cathedrals grown from the living trees. They can also be wondrous palaces made of crystal and white marble with golden towers, as befits the deity of such a noble race. Corellon Larethian's tower is the latter type. Festooned with colorful banners, it dominates the surrounding countryside. But only elves and Corellon's allies are permitted through its doors to share in the song and feast. Corellon's Court: Corellon has divided some of his duties as deity of the elves among members of his court. Sehanine Moonbow wields power over death and dreams, Hanali Celanil is the paragon of love and beauty, and Labelas Enoreth is the administrator of time. Aerdrie Faenya is the master of air and weather, Erevan Ilesere is behind much of the court's mischief, and Fenmarel Mestarine is the ambassador to the wild elves. Finally, Deep Sashelas is the deity of the sea elves.
The second layer of Arborea is an eternal ocean. It is like the Elemental Plane of Water, and indeed there are vortices between the two. But unlike that Inner Plane, the layer of Aquallor has both a surface and a bottom. At its lower reaches, it's as black as night. Aquallor is the home of Deep Sashelas, the deity of the sea elves. His realm is a construct of coral, gold, and marble veined with streaks of blue and green. The water around it is crystal blue and glows of its own volition. Deep Sashelas grams the ability to breathe water to those who find their way into the blue waters of his realm. What the layer lacks is islands, for great storms stalk Aquallor's surface, swamping any boats that dare its heavy seas. Beneath the surface, Aquallor has the water-dominant trait, and those reaches under Deep Sashelas's control offer protection against the pressures of the deep. Much like the first layer of Arborea, Aquallor is subject to quicksilver changes in the weather. Such weather takes the form of great underwater currents that drag the traveler miles off course. Sea life fills this layer, most of it either celestial or anarchic in nature. Larger beasts and aberrations can be found by explorers who swim deep enough. Aquallor is the ending point of the River Oceanus, which weaves its way through many of the upper planes. Yet there are maelstroms within Aquallor's depths that might lead back to the river's headwaters, so perhaps the river is like a snake swallowing its own tail, endless in nature. Those seeking to escape Aquallor can be swept away by one of the maelstroms, but only at the risk of encountering more unfriendly creatures elsewhere.
Mithardir means “white dust” in the elven language, and indeed this layer is a desert of fine, white, chalky grit that extends forever. This layer was once a great forest as well as home to creatures that campfire stories alternately describe as giants or titanlike deities. Why they no longer live on the layer is unknown, but Mithardir is now an empty layer. Persistent explorers can still find the great towers and tombs of this lost race of deities or giants, their minarets breaking through the grit like fingers straining to escape a premature grave. Brave travelers seek out Mithardir in hopes of prying away the secrets of the lost giants. More often than not, the incessant winds of this layer wind up grinding the bones of such explorers into powder. As with the rest of Arborea, the weather in Mithardir is sudden and dramatic. Lightning storms regularly lash across the desert, driving huge duststorms ahead of them. Travelers can be buried by a sudden attack (see Duststorm in Chapter 3 of the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide).
One feature of Arborea that makes the plane attractive to visitors is the Fountain of Beauty, called Evergold by the elves. It is a pool of crystal blue water surrounded by golden sand, and it reflects the light so cleanly that it hurts the eyes to gaze upon it. Those that bathe in its waters gain an enhancement bonus to Charisma of 1d4+ 1 points for a month and a day. The exact location of the Evergold is unknown, and different reports put it in different locations. Such travelers' tales are probably planted by elven petitioners and bacchae to confound mortals, because the pool itself moves around in Arborea, appearing where it is needed. Hanali Celanil, a member of Corellon Larethian's court, is said to know where it can be found at any time.
Use Table 7–8: Beatific Encounters for random encounters in Arborea.