Irian
In Irian, birds sing in a fertile valley, while a group of settlers work together to raise their first home. Moving further in, you find the gleaming capital of a new empire, where cheering throngs celebrate in the streets. There are dozens of layers in Irian, and each one is a vision of life triumphant. Irian is the dawn that inevitably banishes even the darkest night, the promise of spring triumphing over the coldest winter. It’s the bastion of hope, the promise that life always find a way.
In his Planar Codex, Dorius Alyre ir’Korran calls Irian the Plane of Light, and indeed, its light is so prevalent that there’s no full darkness within Irian. But it’s also the plane of life, the source of positive energy, the force that sustains life and underlies most healing magic.
Geography
It’s always morning in Irian; the skies are clear, the sun is fixed in the sky, and the moon Barrakas is faintly visible. The plane contains many layers, and it’s always growing new ones. While the setting of a layer varies—a verdant valley, a growing city, a newly established farm—the story is always about life, growth, and hope. Things are growing, people are prosperous, and the future is bright. While there are many natural environments in Irian, it’s this optimism that differentiates them from those of Lamannia. Irian is a celebration of life; Lamannia focuses on the untamable primordial power of nature, and often feels more threatening and wild.
The layers are linked in realms, each of which is bound to one of the Architects. The denizens and themes of a layer reflect the influence of that Architect, so all of the layers of the Garden have a focus on rustic nature, while those tied to the Amaranthine City reflect its rising imperial power. Some layers are bounded by physical barriers, but most either loop back on themselves or end in walls of warm mist—anyone who wanders into the fog reemerges elsewhere in the layer. Within realms, layers are often connected by physical portals like a massive gate or a pool of light. Moving between realms requires plane shift or a ritual tied to that realm. These rituals may not be magical; they are simply secrets that have to be learned. If you’re in the Amaranthine City and you want to travel to the Garden, all you have to do is plant a flower and reflect on its beauty; those thoughts will carry you there.
Planar seeds sprout from realms. Early on, they’re small layers with indistinct themes, but expand and gradually take on the nature and properties of the plane they’re to become. Thus, you could stumble into a layer that replicates a piece of Dolurrh’s Catacombs or represents conflict in Shavarath. However, these layers aren’t fully developed—once they are, they move onto their destination plane—so Irian’s seed of the Catacombs of Dolurrh won’t have the entrapping effect of Dolurrh itself.
Ecosystem Cycles
Planar Rebirth
Most of the planes are fixed in their form; for example, every mortal brings new dreams to Dal Quor, but the plane’s structure doesn’t change. Mabar is an exception: the Endless Night steals and corrupts fragments of other planes, adding them to its layers. Left unchecked, Mabar would consume reality. But as the Endless Night consumes, the Eternal Dawn creates. Whenever Mabar tears a fragment from another plane, a new planar seed appears in Irian. Initially, this is a small layer, populated by embers and lumi, that has Irian’s planar properties. Over time, the layer grows and evolves, and the environment and its inhabitants take on the appearance of the void it’s to fill. Little by little, it loses the properties of Irian and adopts the properties of its destination plane; when it finally loses the Light of Life property, its ties to Irian are severed and it fully becomes part of the other plane, replacing the region lost to Mabar. The planar seed is rarely a perfect match for the fragment that was lost. The embers take the form of local life, but especially for fragments torn from the Material Plane, a planar seed doesn’t replace sentient creatures or buildings; it simply restores land and wildlife. If the Mourning had been the work of Mabar—which is unlikely for many reasons, but not impossible—Irian wouldn’t restore the people killed in the Mourning or the destroyed structures, but it would restore life to the land and make it a welcoming environment. In most planes, immortals can’t reproduce, but they’re reborn if they die, and their numbers remain constant. Irian breaks that rule, because it creates new immortals to replace those corrupted by Mabar. These begin as lumi and angels, but as the seed loses its properties, these immortals evolve into the denizens of that plane, drawing their personalities from the template for the new immortals. Irian makes no judgment about the spaces it fills, and it may create a squad of bloodthirsty demons when it replaces a lost fragment of Shavarath. These seed immortals can’t leave their layer until it’s fully bound to their final plane, so they can’t wreak havoc in Irian, but it would be quite a surprise for nosy adventurers that stumble into that layer! The creation of seeds is an important drive for the inhabitants of Irian. Immortals monitor and guide the formation of the seeds, while lumi tend the embers and prepare to become inhabitants of the new plane. Irian immortals rarely interfere in other planes, because what they’re already doing is the most important task they could perform.Localized Phenomena
The light of the Eternal Dawn strengthens the living. Darkness and disease have no place here, and minor injuries melt away. Irian has the following universal properties.
Radiant Power. When a creature casts a spell of 1st level or higher that restores hit points or deals radiant damage, it’s treated as if it were cast at a level one higher than the spell slot that was expended.
Necrotic Void. In order to cast a spell that deals necrotic damage, a creature must succeed on a spellcasting ability check with a DC equal to 10 + the level of the spell. On a failed check, the spell is not cast and its spell slot is not expended, but the action is lost.
Pure Light. There is no darkness in Irian. Any spell, effect, or other situation that would usually create darkness only reduces the lighting to dim light.
Life Triumphant. Undead creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. This has no effect on undead creatures that are sustained by Irian, such as the deathless elves of Aerenal.
The Light of Life. The light of Irian restores vitality, granting the following benefits to all living creatures. These have no effect on undead or constructs; however, undead creatures that are sustained by Irian, such as the deathless elves of Aerenal, benefit from these effects as if they were living creatures.
• On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), a living creature with at least 1 hit point regains 3 (1d6) hit points.
• A living creature with 0 hit points becomes stable at the end of its turn.
• A living creature has resistance to poison damage.
• A living creature has advantage on saving throws against poison, disease, and fear.
Standard Time. Time passes at the same pace as on the Material Plane, and is consistent across its layers.
Fauna & Flora
Embers
Irian is bursting with life. Songbirds, rabbits, and other creatures roam the Garden. The streets of the Amaranthine City are filled with happy people. But the Garden never has too many rabbits, and there’s no risk of the citizens of the Amaranthine City starving—or needing to go on strike to prevent it. Sometimes, if you glimpse one out of the corner of your eye, you might see them differently, as an outline of pale white light—a glowing shadow. These are manifestations, not living creatures. Called embers, each one is linked to a spark—a tiny echo of a soul, each one tied to a living creature. Through this connection, mortals draw inspiration and hope, and remain linked to the positive energy that flows to and from all living things. An ember resembles the mortal whose spark fuels it, but it isn’t fully conscious and doesn’t have any complete memories, merely echoes of that mortal’s brightest joys, deepest hopes, and greatest deeds. There are many more sparks in Irian than there are embers at any given moment; Irian simply dips into the pool of sparks, manifesting as many embers as the scene calls for, shaping the light of each soul into something that looks like them. Embers don’t need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. They follow basic scripts, but can’t improvise and don’t have much knowledge beyond what they need for their role. As a rule, embers are happy, for they don’t know any other way to be. An ember can’t be truly killed; its body dissolves, but the spark that fueled it remains safely within Irian’s deep well of light. While adventuring in Irian, you might see an ember that resembles you—but it won’t recognize you, and might not even appear the same age. This ember is merely your light-shadow, manifested by Irian and channeling your life force. It holds the essence of your best moments and emotions, the light within you that drives you to goodness—but merely as a spark, not the fire of a living creature.Lumi
When a mortal dies and their soul goes to Dolurrh, the thread connecting them to Irian is severed. Any ember fueled by their spark dissolves and the spark—the essence of the hopes and brightest moments of the mortal’s life—begins to fade. But the sparks of the dead can merge together before they’re lost completely, creating a new, unique entity—a lumi, formed from the same positive energy as the embers, but possessing true consciousness and life. Unlike the embers, who aren’t fully conscious or aware of the memories they hold, luminare sentient creatures, each with a unique identity, though their sparks give them fragments of many mortal lives. So adventurers may meet a lumi who recognizes them, and who has a few memories and traits of a fallen friend. Lumi appear to be formed from solidified light, and generally take a body shape similar to the strongest of the sparks that formed them—usually those of sentient creatures. Their most distinctive feature is their head—a sphere of light suspended a few inches above their torso. Normally this is pure light, but with conscious effort, a lumi can sculpt and maintain a face. Their statistics can be represented by the priest in the Monster Manual (or an exceptionally powerful one might use the statistics of the war priest in Volo’s Guide to Monsters), but they don’t need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep, they don’t age, and they’re immune to poison and disease. When a lumi reaches 0 hit points, its body dissolves and its sparks fade. If an angel of Irian is nearby, it can consume these sparks; this won’t save the lumi, but at least those memories are preserved. While most lumi are humanoids, there may be lumi formed from the sparks of other creatures, like giants or dragons, that dwell in layers of their own kind. Lumi serve as the caretakers of the embers, and believe that by helping the embers play their roles, they’re strengthening the light in the mortals the embers are connected to. Lumi help develop and maintain the planar seeds, and some even surrender their identity in order to become new creatures within that seed; they believe that in doing this, they’re sowing the new layer with light. On rare occasions, lumi travel to other planes in service of the Architects. They are brave and compassionate, seeking always to spread hope, and ever prepared to lay down their lives for the greater good. Lumincan defend themselves, but they prefer to inspire others when possible, rather than resort to violence.Celestials
Irian’s immortals are spirits of light and hope. Irian is noteworthy for being the home of the ki-rin. These majestic creatures often act as emissaries for the Architects. Each planar seed has a ki-rin assigned to monitor it, help the lumi, and ease transition. Irian is also home to angels. Not as violent as the angels of Shavarath or as individualistic as the angels of Syrania, the angels of Irian embody the general principles of hope and compassion. Irian devas assist the lumi and help sustain the different layers; they are the knights and scholars of the Amaranthine City. Devas often change their form to play multiple roles within a layer, and adventurers may think that they’ve encountered multiple people, when in fact it’s a single deva. Meanwhile, planetars act as champions and ministers, and each of the Architects has a single solar that serves as its right hand. The angels of Irian have wings formed of light, which they can conceal if they wish. In their true form, they’re luminescent humanoids of indeterminate species, but can choose to appear to mortals as a generic member of the viewer’s species. Devas also possesses the ability to change into specific forms at will.The Architects
The Architects are the most powerful spirits of Irian. Each embodies an aspect of the plane, and oversees a region within it. They’re unique celestials with great wisdom and power, but most of their time and energy is devoted to the planar seeds—guiding the growth of the seed, smoothing over problems, and adding a few personal touches. Planar seeds emerge within an Architect’s realm, expanding until they break off and join their new planes. The power of the Architects is largely bound to their realms. They can’t directly intervene in the Material Plane, though they can work with warlocks (as Celestial patrons) or send lumi. Often this involves the reintegration of a planar seed, or examining regions where Mabar has removed a fragment.History
Manifest Zones
Manifest zones tied to Irian are wellsprings of positive energy. Plants and animals thrive in these zones, while people are less likely to dwell on negative emotions and find it easier to embrace hope and joy. Irian zones often have one or more of the plane’s universal properties. Irian zones with the Radiant Power property support spells of healing and may enable rituals or support eldritch machines that can’t be built anywhere else. In particular, the City of the Dead in Aerenal is built on a strong Irian manifest zone, which sustains the deathless councilors. Irian zones rarely extend the full swift healing effect of Irian’s Light of Life property. However, all of the following benefits are common when in an Irian zone: •You have advantage on Wisdom (Medicine) checks. •Whenever you spend Hit Dice to regain hit points, use thehighest number possible for each die. •You have advantage on saving throws against disease,poison, and fear. For all these reasons, Irian manifest zones are a valuable natural resource, and often become the foundations of villages, towns, or Jorasco healing houses. Irian manifest zones rarely serve as gateways to the plane, and traveling to Irian usually requires plane shift or similar magic.Coterminus & Remote
Life blossoms when Irian is coterminous. Health and fertility are enhanced, positive energy flows freely, and living creatures are infused with an abundant sense of hope. While Irian is coterminous, the Radiant Power property applies across Eberron and all creatures have advantage on saving throws against disease, poison, and fear. When Irian is remote, colors seem to fade and a sense of psychic numbness pervades the world. All creatures have disadvantage on saving throws against fear and resistance to radiant damage. In addition, any effect that restores hit points—including spells and spending Hit Dice—only restores half the usual amount. However, creatures still regain full hit points after completing a long rest. Traditionally, Irian is coterminous for ten days in the month of Eyre and remote for ten days in the month of Sypheros. These effects occur once every three years; the remote cycle comes a year and a half after it is coterminous.Irian Artifacts
The Aereni harness Irian’s energy, using it to create many of their tools, but industry isn’t one of the core concepts of Irian and relics from the plane itself are relatively rare. Whether from the plane itself or simply drawing on its power, items tie to the effects of positive energy: healing, dealing radiant damage, generating light, bringing hope, or overcoming fear. A scroll that provides a single trip to the Refuge would be an invaluable boon. Plants that grow in Irian manifest zones can often have remarkable properties. Many of of Aerenal’s exotic lumbers—notably livewood—only grow in Irian zones. Araam’s crown is a flower with remarkable medicinal properties; House Jorasco requires a steady supply of it for their healing potions. Another flower, dawn’s glory, has euphoric properties and is used to make a drug often called fool’s hope or liquid courage. This drug grants temporary immunity to fear, but with the side effect of encouraging dangerous and foolhardy behavior; it’s strictly illegal in Sharn, due to the risk of users jumping off bridges.
Alternative Name(s)
The Eternal Dawn
Type
Plane of Existence
Included Locations
