Acheron

The first sounds that are heard upon entering the plane of Acheron are the screams and clashes of battle for that is all this plane knows; Conflict, war, strife, and struggle. Endless armies fight eternal wars and though there are many soldiers, generals and leaders are scarce and few. It is difficult to avoid a skirmish anywhere within this plane no matter who populates it, be it petitioner, mortal, fiend, or Celestial.

It is where ignorant armies clash by night.
It is the refuse-plane of a million failed rebellions.
It is a plane of enforced order, where conformity is more important than good.

— Manual of the Planes

Acheron has four prominent layers all comprised of cube-like shapes. Sometimes these cubes are the size of continents while others are conglomerates of many. These cubes frequently collide with each other, leaving wakes of destruction in their midst with the deafening sound of clashing metal emanating upon their impact. Acheron is the home to many deities including Wee Jas, the deity of Death and Magic, Gruumsh, the god of the Orcs, and Maglubiyet, the Goblin deity. They are all ruled over by the supreme god of tyranny and the entire continent of Tok, Hextor.

Acheron Links

Like much of the other Lower Planes, the River Styx flows through Acheron on its top layer called Avalas. Avalas is made up of many cubes and the river flows through all of them, connecting the cubes in odd perfect geometric manners. It flows from all sides and then spills off to drip into another cube and then welling up in large craters leftover from the many battles that occur throughout the plane. Portals are common along the River Styx, usually appearing in tunnels and deltas off-shooting from the main current.

Acheron Inhabitants

Armies fill the plane that comprises all races found on Oryth and beyond. There are those who attempt to rise up as a general or leader to guide the army, but madness takes holds and mutiny quickly follows even the strongest of willed. Armies of Undeath or constructs can last longer due to their mindless following of orders and not having to worry about the effects the plane has on the mind. Armies that have not gone completely mad attempt to seek a goal that once had in life, such as defending a place of importance, retrieving goods or provisions, or even overthrowing a tyrannical leader. The unfortunate fact remains, however, that most of these goals were far away in a plane that Acheron will never see and their fruitless efforts will go in vain.

Rakshasa clans rule several of the cubes throughout Acheron which are cloaked with their powerful illusionary magics. There are also Clockwork creatures from Mechanus such as the Modron have hidden mining colonies throughout the two lowest layers of Acheron who have been preparing for war with rumors of their plans to invade the Material Plane of Oryth. Finally, there are many flocks of enormous birds that sore through the skies, picking the corpses of the fallen soldiers clean after a skirmish has cleared from the immediate location.

Art From: Planes of Law, 1995 TSR Inc.

Acheron Petitioners

Much of the armies on Acheron are the petitioners and deserters of Oryth. When a soldier fights and kills for a cause he doesn't truly believe in or kills happily for the sake of killing, they may end up as petitioners in the plane of Acheron.

Terrorists and revolutionaries can also end up on the Infernal Battlefield, finding themselves in a never-ending war after death. These particular petitioners often become leaders of roving armies, unable to rest until they are slain in the battle on Acheron and their essence becomes one with the plane itself. Petitioners often don't realize that they have died on the Material Plane, resuming their onslaught and bloodlust for centuries on one of the many cubes, never truly knowing the peace of death.

Movement & Combat

Movement and combat are similar to that of the Material Plane, save for the gravity shifting to align movement with whatever face of the cube a person is on at any given time. There can often be bottlenecks and clusters at the corners of the cubes and are often where phalanxes and polearm users make their stand. Traveling between cubes is difficult to the untrained, but relatively easy. Flight is required to move from cube to cube or waiting for the collision of two cubes. The various six-sided islands can be seen for days before actual impact, allowing for evacuation or well-timed, but dangerous, maneuvering between the two places. If a person is not careful during this collision, they can be caught in cracks and caverns that form during impact, or worse, be completely disintegrated from the kinetic onslaught of the two colliding bodies.

Art By: Wizards of the Coast

Alternative Name(s)

Infinite Battlefield, Infernal Battlefield,
Iron-Shode Battle Planes

Type

Dimensional plane

Owner/Ruler

Hextor

Characters in Location

• Gruumsh
• Hextor
• Maglubiyet
• Wee Jas

Acheron Traits

Acheron has the following traits.

• Objective Directional Gravity. The strength of gravity is the same as on the Material Plane, but which way down depends on which face of the cube you’re on. Walking across edges between faces can be dizzying for the inexperienced.
• Normal Time.
• Infinite Size. Each cube is finite, but the void the cubes hang in is infinite.
• Divinely Morphic. Acheron changes at the whim of its deities. Ordinary creatures must use spells and physical effort to change the infernal battlefield.
• No Elemental or Energy Traits.
• Mildly Law-Aligned. Chaotic characters suffer Disadvantage on all Charisma checks.
• Normal Magic.
• Petitioner Qualities.
• Immunities. Electricity, Thunder
• Resistances. Cold, Fire
• Hearten. All members of a renegade army within a 100-foot radius of a petitioner commander receive Advantage on Saving Throws against Charm and Fear effects and add 1d4 to attack and damage rolls.