Gehenna

The Baleful Star of Destruction, dominion of the Four Horsemen and homeworld of the Hinnom

Perhaps you aren't aware, but the realm you call The Baleful Star is perhaps the single greatest treasure trove for any Biologist, Botanist, Ecologist...hells, basically any "ist" you can think of, and they'd have a reason to seek out Gehenna!
Just imagine - if even a tenth of the shoddy reports we've gotten from those who've seen Gehenna up close are true, then we could be looking at a discovery as significant as the invention of the wheel! Species from beyond The Gloam...long-dead species of far-distant worlds...all new varieties of bird, plant, and more!
Hells, what I'd give to visit it...mock me all you like, but you'd be surprised how many scholars like me would consider making deals with those Horsemen if it means being granted access to its interior for study. Not to mention how many already have.

— A nameless Inaran Scholar

Geography

The Geography of Gehenna is incredibly unique, and divided largely into three distinct "layers", each with its own loose geography:

• The Worldbreaker's Ward: The expansive outer shell of Gehenna, known primarily for its incredible durability and highly dangerous native beasts which guard its surface, is the first and greatest line of defense for the Baleful Star of Destruction - a massive, detached "shell" which surrounds the Planet of Gehenna itself which, if the myths of the Hinnom are to be believed, is the skinned hide of a long-dead God of Destruction known as The Rough Beastthat once haunted a far-distant(And likely obliterated) Cosmology that is said to have been personally slain by Charon himself long, long ago. Possessing no easy means of entry, this "shell" yet retains shards of the furious, destructive sentience it once possessed in life and attacks those who would seek entry into the realm of Gehenna proper with countless lumbering beasts of such unfathomable size, scale, and power that even lesser deities have reason to fear them, attacking intruders with the same mindless zeal with which a living being's immune systems fights off infections. Granting passage through hidden entryways and massive gateways that open only to those strong enough to force them open or to those who bear the touch of Gehenna or the favor of its masters, this shell serves myriad purposes yet supports no life besides the mindless beasts of destruction which spawn from its rough, lifelessly, rocky exterior like infected pus from an open wound. Here, there is no color, no life, and no hope - and those foolish enough to linger here, even the Hinnom or other Planar Beings, often find themselves driven into mad, spastic fits as the mad mental energies of the skinned god the Shell once was lashes out at them and ruins their minds.


• Gehenna Proper: Somewhat contrarily to the lifeless, colorless "Shell" that surrounds the planet, Gehenna itself is a great deal more vibrant and lively than many initially assume - the sky eternally filled with a beautiful(Albeit wholly alien) starry sky not found anywhere else within The Cosmology of Ea alongside a massive, baleful red star that hangs in the sky above Gehenna like the eye of an evil deity. On the surface, alien plants of strange colors and aberrant shape and size tower above the rocky landscape which is constantly mired in dark black fog - the air here, while habitable, is heavy and rotten beneath the veil of a bloody half-light that never seems to fully disperse or illuminate. Perhaps most famously, the fived damned rivers of Gehenna dot the landscape like the veins of a massive alien beast - snaking their way from the towering heights of Gehenna's enormous mountains and slowly winding down into the depths of its core and into The Screaming Hollow deep within the Planet itself, each serving some vital essence to the souls of the damned who are consigned to Gehenna's burning fields. Massive citadels are perhaps the most common sight of civilization across the Baleful Star, each belonging to a minor warlord or mighty Hinnom, with the largest and most mighty of these citadels being the Four Citadels of the Horsemen themselves. Massive differences in elevation are common here, eliciting feelings of always moving either uphill or downhill in those who live or move there, as are pockets of more habitable greenery and pleasant air - as if the planet is constantly attempting to rebuild itself only to constantly tear itself apart in the next instant. Strange happenings, finally, are commonplace here on Gehenna proper - parts of the planet cracking away and floating off into the Astral Plane or entire new continents forming wholesale alongside sickly forests, burning sands, and more whenever Gehenna gorges itself on a particularly juicy glut of souls or other energy. All in all, geography is varied but sickly here on Gehenna - as if the planet itself can hardly decide what it wishes to be.


• The Screaming Hollow: A poorly documented area of Gehenna that resides deep within its core, no expedition has ever entered the caverns and passageways leading to the Hollow, believed to serve as the beating, twisted heart and soul of Gehenna itself, and come back alive - a fact which has made information on this area incredibly scarce. Here, it is believed, is where The High Horseman and by extension the living essence of the plane itself resides - the ever-burning screaming engine that keeps Gehenna intact so long as it is fueled by souls and planar essence. Only the Four Horsemen have ever ventured down into this mysterious core and returned alive.

Ecosystem

Rather uniquely(A phrase often used to refer to Gehenna), Gehenna's ecosystem is not merely a vessel for serving the Plane's intended purpose - such as with Malefacta or Archainus, where the Ecosystem is an extension of the plane itself designed to help it fulfill its purpose - it is in every way a true Moon or small Planet whose ecosystem seems constantly trapped in a sickly, dying state.
Gehenna, not merely a home for the Hinnom(Planar natives of the planet), exists as the center of an Ecosystem that seemingly once(and in some places, still does) support entirely unique species of both man, beast, and everything in between across its numerous climatic zones - each of which constantly struggle to survive under the dominion of the respective Horsemen who rules that section of the world. Surprisingly, Order is kept surprisingly well in many parts of Gehenna - the Hinnom far less prone to infighting and open violence than their other Planar Peers such as Devils or Demons - as the realm seems, by and large, kept in a perpetual state of Feudal War as armies of Hinnom and the other intelligent species that dot Gehenna know Plenty and Famine in equal measure depending on the whims of their local warlords and the wars they wage, the whims of the Horseman who rules their local area upon Gehenna, and most primarily whether Gehenna itself has recently fed upon another world or plane and rejuvenated its own core.
Nonetheless, the ecosystem of Gehenna is one defined by souls and suffering - as a world perpetually locked in a war of limited resources where even life and souls themselves are limited and precious beyond measure, war and violence are the foremost tools of all life to survive and thrive within it, making Gehenna as much of a "Death World" as has ever been seen in The Cosmology of Ea.

Ecosystem Cycles

Gehenna, much like a temperate world such as the Planet of Ea itself, has four well-defined seasons that help cycle the Ecosystem between different stages - though these seasons are often altered by the Horsemen who rule over Gehenna, arrive late or drastically more or less intense than usual, or sometimes do not arrive at all depending on the health of Gehenna itself.
Much like the rest of Gehenna, Gehenna's ecosystem and its cycles are much like those of a dying planet - attempting to function as normal in spite of its own constantly failing and collapsing nature.

Localized Phenomena

Gehenna is rife with all manner of strange phenomena - as a Planet that is essentially ruled over and altered at the will of the Four Horsemen, Gehenna's unique and localized phenomena depend very much on where exactly one finds themselves on its surface; Each of the Horsemen often make a habit of stylizing their "section" of the Planet in a different way or make fun out of altering the land or its denizens in ways that amuse, interest, or entertain them.
Beyond these phenomena, however, Gehenna is rife with all manner of dangerous occurrences - most commonly the twin phenomena of Cracking and Expansion which represent Gehenna's periods of low-energy and high-energy, respectively.
Cracking, an occurrence which is an unfortunately common happenstance on the ever resource-poor world of Gehenna, is a unique phenomena that occurs whenever Gehenna begins to run low enough on souls, planar essence, and the other cosmic "fuel" that powers the Planetoid's continued existence such that it cannot sustain its current mass - whereupon huge chunks of the planet will simply crack apart and slowly drift outwards, expelled from The Worldbreaker's Ward which surrounds the Planet and out into the Astral Plane where they are slowly reduced into Cosmic Dust as Gehenna itself slowly re-knits itself back together around the missing land and shrinks in size accordingly. The fate of those upon such landmasses is, unfortunately, as grisly as one might expect - a fact which is not helped by the minimal warnings the residents of Gehenna get for such events(Usually measured in hours, though sometimes slower events happen over days). Rarely, though, Cracking is reversed and the fragmenting landmass re-absorbed back into the planet if Gehenna feeds while it is occurring.
Expansion, as one might then imagine, is another fascinating phenomena that occurs whenever Gehenna gluts itself on the souls, essences, and energies of other Planes or Planets and thus possesses an excess of energy which it requires for its current mass - a process which often(Though not always, depending on the whims of The Four Horseman and especially Charon who rules them) results in Gehenna cracking apart in certain places(Most often near the poles, equator, or other geologically significant areas or fault lines) and simply "Generating" new landmasses with appropriate climate, landmasses, and lifeforms through a process that entirely escapes the understanding of all mortal and divine scholars.

Climate

Though not pleasant per se, Gehenna itself is possessed a widely varied climate much like a temperate world such as the planet of Ea itself - possessing tropical and tundra climates, desert and grassland climates, and all others between alongside expansive fresh and saltwater lakes and oceans. The catch, of course, are the Five Damned Rivers that creep across Gehenna like cancerous veins which each radiate different corruptions and powers(Detailed somewhat on the sidebar of Charon's page for those interested) and the overall air of malaise that often hangs over the planet - like a heavy, rotten haze that permeates the air and fills the lungs in unpleasant ways.
This climate, however, is tinged with the ever-sickly atmosphere that permeates Gehenna itself - varying wildly to extremes unheard of on more habitable worlds in ways that coincide with Gehenna's ever-fluctuating energy supplies.

Fauna & Flora

Rather surprisingly, Gehenna is possessed of extremely diverse flora and fauna - so much so that much of the Flora and Fauna that seems native to the realm is almost wholly incompatible with each other; as if it were sourced from a thousand different ecosystems and suddenly forced onto Gehenna with no regard to itself or that around it.
Beyond that, almost all life on Gehenna has evolved to be extremely dangerous to survive the ever-scarce resources and environments in which they live - viciously fighting each other and hunting other living beings for survival.

Natural Resources

Gehenna, though it bears clear evidence of being a world which once possessed all the abundant resources of planets such as Ea, it has in the modern day been rendered a completely barren world whose natural resources are essentially non-existent - only when the planet "Feeds" upon other Planes of Existence or other Planets are those resources magically renewed for its denizens.
As one might expect, resources and scarcity are everything upon Gehenna - wars are waged, kingdoms rise and fall, and even the favor of The Four Horsemen are curried and lost on the backs of resource empires and offerings of scarce tribute.

History

For the incredibly fragmented history of Gehenna before its arrival within The Cosmology of Ea, see the pages for Charon and The High Horseman.
For the history of Gehenna during and after its arrival within the Cosmology of Ea, see "The Arrival of the Baleful Star" section of The Cosmology of Ea.

Tourism

Gehenna is, by the design of its Four Horsemen masters, positioned itself as nearly impossible to enter or arrive at without invitation or special favor of its rulers - it is an exceptionally difficult realm to enter for most(See the sidebar of this page for more info), even the magically mighty, and thus sees almost no visitors or tourists of any kind(Though ironically, it more than most all other Planes of Existence within The Cosmology of Ea generates the most scholars who are interested in its secrets and wish to study its oddities).
The one exception to its difficult-to-reach nature is during times of "feeding" - where The Baleful Star is brought into the "Orbit" of another Plane of Existence or Planet within the Materia Sphere(As it has before during The Advent of The Unraveler on the Planet of Ea, when it attempted to consume the Planet of Ea), where the otherwise nigh-invincible Worldbreaker's Ward opens up like the maw of a mighty beast to allow the planet to crack open and "drain" the Plane or Planet it is "orbiting" to restore Gehenna's supply of souls and revitalize its ever-decaying core. During this time, the planet often embroils itself in bitter wars and sees many visitors - though often for all the wrong reasons.

Alternative Name(s)

The Baleful Star of Destruction, The Burning Star of Destruction, The Parasitic Planetoid, The Red Moon of Mayhem, The Red Moon

Type

Plane of Existence

Location under

Astral Plane

Ruler(s)

Charon and the Four Horseman of Gehenna

Traits

Gravity

Light Gravity

Time

Normal Time

Realm

Self-Contained

Structural

Divinely Morphic

Essence

Mixed

Alignment

Strongly Evil Aligned

Magic

Enhanced(All spells with the Death and Evil Descriptors are enhanced) and Impeded(All spells with the Good or Healing Descriptors)

The Roaming Star of Destruction

Though now held in the common parlance across the Cosmology of Ea as one of the Cosmos's many Planes of Existence alongside the likes of Malefacta and Archainus, Gehenna is fairly unique among all the Planes of Existence in that it is in truth a foreign planetary body that arrived within this Cosmology shortly after its founding(See The Cosmology of Ea for more info) from the depths of The Gloam that lies in the Obliviating Non-Space beyond the Atlen Shell that delineates the border between the Cosmology of Ea and the Non-Space beyond it.
As a massive, foreign celestial body similar in size to a large rocky moon or small habitable planet, Gehenna occupies the same Astral Plane that links all Inner and Outer Planes yet drifts freely within it - a Planetary Body that has, over Eons of existence within this Cosmology, become an entirely unique "Plane of Existence" rather against its own will or even the will of the Major Gods themselves. Because of its unique nature as a roaming celestial body within the Astral Plane, Gehenna is as difficult to reach as one may expect.
Uniquely, Gehenna is almost impossible to reach via conventional magicks such as Plane Shift that allow for quick and easy transit between dimensions and/or Planes of Existence due to the simple fact that Tuning Forks aligned to Gehenna's own planar essence, a requirement for such magicks, are essentially nonexistent - and the few known to exist are tightly controlled by The Four Horsemen and the Hinnom who inhabit Gehenna itself. However, rather strangely, Gehenna is not entirely impossible to travel to - as it is instead possible(If not difficult) to reach via conventional teleportation magicks(assuming one is on the Astral Plane when casting such things) or via normal travel across the Astral Plane.
This mobile nature makes Gehenna especially deadly - a feature which is often used by The Four Horseman who rule over it to guide the Baleful Star of Destruction closer into the "orbit" of other Planes of Existence or Worlds within the Materia Sphere to allow the world to feed upon the souls and essence of the other Plane or World(Or sometimes even consume them wholesale, destroying them a process which sustains Gehenna's parasitic existence and keeps it fueled with souls and suffering.