Mabar
A sea of liquid shadows laps against black sands and basalt cliffs. A skull lies half-buried in the sand, empty sockets gazing into the roiling mist. The bone isn’t sun-bleached, for there is no sun here—only a faint glimmer from the smoky gray moon that hangs in the sky.
Early scholars studying reports of Mabar concluded that it was the Plane of Darkness— that this physical property is its defining concept. However, the plane’s eternal gloom is just a symptom of its true nature. Even the brightest day eventually ends in darkness, and Mabar embodies this idea. It’s the shadow that surrounds every island of light, patiently waiting to consume it. It’s entropy, despair, and loss. This isn’t the place where the souls of the living go after death, but rather, it’s the plane of death itself—the hunger that consumes both light and life.
Mabar is the source of negative energy, and the origin of most undead. Manifest zones—and most undead—tied to Mabar consume the life force from the world around them. However, some people maintain that negative energy itself is just a tool, and that the power of Mabar can be harnessed for good.
Geography
It’s always night in Mabar, and its shadowy moon, Sypheros, remains fixed in the sky. While the setting varies across its countless layers—a desert, a ruined city, the withered remains of fertile farmland—the story is always about loss, entropy, despair, and death. A layer might contain a massive battlefield filled with the intertwined bones of dragons and giants. Ossuaries and catacombs. Crumbling memorials, with names too faded to read. Barren orchards and dried riverbeds. And tombs, from tiny unmarked crypts to the death-palaces of fallen rulers, necropolises filled with traps and treasures. And this being the Endless Night, some of those dead rulers still dominate their domains, whether they take the form of undead or simply malevolent will.
Layers are linked in domains, and each one is bound to one of the Dark Powers. The denizens of the layers and the overall themes reflect the influence of that Dark Power, so layers in the Kingdom of Bones are largely inhabited by undead, while yugoloths dwell in layers bound to the Amaranthine City. Some layers are bounded by physical barriers, but most either loop back on themselves or end in walls of fog—not unlike the dead-gray mists of the Mournland—and any who wander into the mists reemerge elsewhere in the layer. Within domains, layers are often connected by physical portals—perhaps a massive gate or a pool of shadows. Moving between domains requires plane shift or performing a ritual tied to that domain. These rituals need not be magical; they’re simply secrets that have to be learned. If you’re in the Kingdom of Bones and you want to get to the domain of the Queen of All Tears, the answer is simple: All you have to do is sincerely cry, and your tears will take you there.
Ecosystem Cycles
The Consuming Darkness
The planes don’t usually interact with one another. The armies of Shavarath endlessly battle each other; they don’t lay siege to Xoriat. Each plane is an isolated, perfect vision of a particular concept. But the concept that defines Mabar is the hunger to consume all light and life, along with the inevitable downfall of all things. When the proper forces align, Mabar pulls fragments of other planes into the Endless Night; over time, these are drained of light and hope and transformed into new layers of Mabar. Initially, these captured planar fragments become part of the Hinterlands and night falls in the region, but they don’t yet have any of Mabar’s universal properties. Over time, the fragment’s properties from its previous plane are replaced by the properties of Mabar. Once the fragment acquires the last property in this process, the Hunger of Mabar, it’s fully assimilated into the Endless Night as a new symbol of entropy and despair. Mortal inhabitants of the fragment are typically transformed into shadows or other forms of undead, while immortals might become yugoloths, or twisted into dark mockeries of their former selves. The conversion is slow and inevitable, and the Dark Powers of Mabar don’t have to take any action—but regardless, most enjoy tormenting the fragments. Undead prey on the edges of fragments besieged by the Bone King, and yugoloth soldiers raid fragments claimed by the Empress of Shadows. As an example of a converted fragment, consider the Drifting Citadel. This floating tower was once a library in Syrania. Now it drifts through an icy void, grand windows shattered and books fallen from their shelves. Shadows of sages clutch at books with insubstantial fingers, never able to turn a page. The angelic librarians have become tormented spirits who hunger for knowledge, draining the memories from any creature unfortunate enough to fall into their grasp. At times, the great powers of other planes have tried to stop Mabar from capturing fragments of other planes—but to no avail. The darkness can’t be stopped, as it’s part of the machinery of reality—the Endless Night consumes and fragments are lost. Those pulled into the darkness can fight against it, but the ultimate outcome is inevitable. Were it not for Irian, Mabar would eventually consume everything. But as the Night consumes, the Dawn restores, and so balance is ultimately maintained. The process of consumption is slow and ongoing, and there are always multiple fragments in the Hinterlands. It may take Mabar months, years, or even centuries to consume a fragment. As the properties are replaced, the landscape of the fragment changes to reflect it. In a former fragment of Lamannia, the vegetation around the borders begins to wilt. Creatures become sickly, and totems may not be seen at all, or they might be terrifying shadows, killing the grass they walk on. Mabar typically targets other planes, but it can claim pieces of the Material Plane as well. This initial effect is reminiscent of the Mourning; gray fog rolls over the region that’s affected, and all that’s caught within the fog is lost. However, Mabar typically claims a region the size of a town, or perhaps a county; it’s never been known to claim an entire country. Typically the fog fades within a day, leaving a barren region stripped of vegetation and structures. Mabar’s power is such that it also consumes the memories of the place; most mortals simply forget that the affected region ever was anything but barren, and forget the people consumed in the process. This process isn’t perfect or absolute, but when contradictory information is presented, people instinctively try to rationalize it. Maybe they heard a story about the lost town? The uncle who lived in that town? Didn’t he die in the war? In short, player characters might realize something is wrong, but be unable to convince others of it. Because of this magical effect and the fact that it happens so rarely, the common people of Khorvaire don’t know about this aspect of Mabar. But if a group of strong-willed player characters investigates it, they might be able to discover the cause of lost colonies and other mysteries.Localized Phenomena
The Endless Night consumes life and light. It’s a wellspring of necrotic energy, where light is swallowed by gloom, and unprotected creatures quickly die. Mabar has the following universal properties.
Necrotic Power. A creature has disadvantage on saving throws against necromancy spells. An undead creature has 2 extra hit points per Hit Die and advantage on saving throws against being turned or frightened.
Radiant Void. In order to cast a spell that deals radiant damage or restores hit points, 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.
Eternal Shadows. There is no bright light in Mabar. Any object or effect that would usually create bright light only creates dim light.
The Hunger of Mabar.
Mabar consumes the life force of living things. For every minute a living creature spends in Mabar, it takes 10d6 points of necrotic damage. If this damage reduces a creature to 0 hit points, it immediately dies and its body crumbles into ash. Natives of Mabar, creatures that have resistance or immunity to necrotic damage, and creatures under the effects of a death ward spell are immune to the effects of this property.
Standard Time. Time passes at the same pace as on the Material Plane, and is consistent across its layers.
Fauna & Flora
From shadows of mortal souls to Mabar’s Dark Powers, the Endless Night’s inhabitants all embody aspects of darkness, despair, and death. The plane’s denizens fall into these five general categories.
Shadows
Shadows are the most numerous inhabitants of Mabar. These semi-sentient spirits linger in places where you might expect to find people, forlornly pantomiming the roles of the absent inhabitants. You’ll find the shadows of children playing on the corner of a Mabaran street, and the shadow of a priest silently praying to an absent and unknown god in a shattered temple. In his Planar Codex, Dorius Alyre ir’Korran asserts that every mortal has a shadow in Mabar, much like the conscripts of Shavarath; this theory is supported by the shadow-gardeners of the Amaranthine City. However, the shadows of Mabar don’t speak, and they’re driven by impulse and instinct; if they’re tied to living creatures, they’re just a dark sliver of each soul. The shadows hunger for the lifeforce of mortals, but they ignore creatures that have resistance or immunity to necrotic damage or that are shielded by the death ward spell.Yugoloths & Other Immortals
The immortals of Mabar are spirits of darkness. The yugoloths—embodiments of hunger, despair, and death—are the citizens of a vast empire centered on the Amaranthine City, most serving as soldiers. In the Hinterlands, yugoloths battle celestials and fiends trapped in these doomed fragments, until the fragments are ultimately fully drained, assimilated, and their immortal inhabitants converted to a form more suited to the Endless Night. It’s questionable if these battles actually speed up the assimilation, or if they’re simply a way for the yugoloths to pass the time. If there are no immortals to battle, the yugoloths simply spread despair; an oinoloth may spread plague through a fragment of the Material Plane, then spend a year watching the result. Some yugoloths are gardeners, but what they cultivate are shadows. By shaping a mortal’s shadow, a fiend can fill that mortal with despair or drive them down dark paths. When the associated mortal eventually dies, the yugoloth can refine that shadow into quintessence; this substance is crafted by yugoloth artists and artisans into tools and weapons that can cause death and despair, should they make their way to the mortal world. While most gardeners work with shadows, some go into the fragments of the Hinterlands to directly torment the hostages in slow and subtle ways. Other yugoloths are philosophers and oracles who contemplate the nature of entropy and the way in which all things will end. And some serve menial roles in the Amaranthine City. The yugoloths make up the majority of the immortals of Mabar, but there are others. Mabaran incubi and succubi embody emotional pain and loss. Some prey on hostages in fragments, while others live alongside the yugoloths and ply their wiles on them; the suffering of a fiend is just as satisfying to them as that of a mortal. Other incubi and succubi are gardeners, and some believe that these can drain the love from a mortal heart by bleeding it from their shadow. There are alsoimmortals from other fragments that have been transformed—angels and devils reshaped by the Endless Night.Undead
Mabar is the origin of most undead. Sentient undead are created when a dying creature’s soul is bound to Mabar instead of passing to Dolurrh. The energy of Mabar sustains the creature—be it wraith, mummy, or vampire—while the creature serves as a conduit to the Endless Night. This is why many undead directly consume the life force of other creatures. Even those who don’t do so directly may drain life from the world simply by existing; this is why plants are often withered in areas frequented by the undead. Likewise, this connection to Mabar has a corrupting effect that pulls most intelligent undead toward evil alignments. Even people who were good in life find that Mabar erodes their empathy and compassion; it’s a struggle to maintain your humanity when your existence is bound to the Endless Night. There are also many undead in Mabar itself. Many of these are merely symbolic manifestations of Mabar, not actually the remains of mortal beings; the endless skeletal armies of the Bone King are manifestations and the Bone King himself was likely never mortal. Specters and wraiths are especially powerful shadows; some are the work of gardeners, while others emerge from the pure darkness of Mabar. The more desolate planes, like the Obsidian Desert, are ruled nightwalkers, powerful conduits of negative energy; they often attack fragments, feeding on the energy of the fragment and accelerating its assimilation. Beyond this, the souls of sentient undead are bound to Mabar. When a vampire, mummy, lich, or similar creature is physically destroyed, it doesn’t get the release of Dolurrh; instead, the soul becomes a wraith in Mabar, forever driven by the hunger of the Endless Night. Most are driven mad by this process, but perhaps the adventurers might once again encounter a vampire they previously killed, now a spectral lord in the Endless Night.The Dark Powers
The mightiest and most malevolent beings in Mabar are known as the Dark Powers. Each embodies a particular aspect of Mabar and rules a domain of linked layers. Some have been part of Mabar since the beginning of time, while others have risen from the fragments consumed by the Endless Night. Most of the Dark Powers are equivalent in power to archfey or archfiends, though they’re even stronger in the layer they’re bound to, their seat of power. However, they have a limited ability to act beyond Mabar, and can only affect the Material Plane through warlocks or undead servants.Hostages
The fragments in the Hinterlands hold all the creatures that dwelled in each before they were captured. When a mortal dies there, they return as a shadow or undead. Immortals are bound to their fragment; they can’t leave it, and if they die, they’re reborn there. So creatures from any plane could be found here, including the Material Plane. A chunk of Risia might hold frost giants. A fragment of the Endless Ocean might have a pod of merfolk. But the longer they remain in Mabar, the more the plane corrupts the fragment and the creatures in it, until they become shadows, undead, or something worse. A mortal creature that lives through this process may have all the light drained from its soul or be consumed by despair. While it might retain its original appearance, it should be considered an aberration; in the end, it will seek to spread misery and extinguish both light and life.History
Manifest Zones
Mabaran manifest zones are infamous and almost universally shunned, for nearly all are harmful to the flora and fauna of the region. In some zones, life withers and dies. In others, it’s twisted in strange ways; plants may seek the blood of living creatures, or grow unnaturally pale and cold. Rot and decay are often accelerated, and disease can thrive. However, such regions are also often powerful sources of negative energy. Mabaran zones often possess the Necrotic Power universal property, and there are epic rituals and eldritch machines that require a Mabaran manifest zone. The Odakyr Rites that create Karrnathi undead are an example of this, and the Karrnathi city of Atur is built on a Mabaran zone. This often has a curious synergy: if the negative energy of a Mabaran manifest zone is regularly channeled into rituals or spells, it prevents that energy from spreading disease or killing vegetation. In his War and Death: A History of Karrnathi Necromancy, Jolan Hass Holan asserts that the plagues and famines Karrnath suffered early in the war were due to the Seekers who normally tended those zones being pushed out of them due to strategic concerns—which, in turn, forced Karrnath to embrace necromancy to counter the effects of those famines. While Mabaran manifest zones rarely serve as gateways to the plane, they are powerful sources of negative energy and produce undead. Skeletons, zombies, and ghouls can all spontaneously rise in Mabaran manifest zones, and more powerful undead can be created under the proper circumstances.Coterminus & Remote
On nights when Mabar is coterminous, the Necrotic Power property encompasses the entire world, and the radius of all light sources are halved. During these periods, regions of deepest darkness can serve as gateways to Mabar, releasing shadows or other foul things into the world. This primarily occurs in regions that are suffused with despair or misery, and only at night, ending as soon as dawn breaks. As a result, during coterminous periods, friends and family usually huddle together indoors, keeping the lights burning and telling cheerful tales. When Mabar is remote, all creatures have resistance to necrotic damage, and undead have disadvantage on saving throws against being turned or frightened. Traditionally, Mabar is coterminous for three nights in the month of Vult—the nights of the new moon closest to the winter solstice. The people of the Five Nations call this time Long Shadows. Mabar is remote less frequently, for a period of five days around the summer solstice, but only once every five years.Mabaran Artifacts
Mabaran artifacts are formed from quintessence, the solidified energy of Mabaran shadows. This matte black substance can be used in a similar way to wood, metal, or cloth. Quintessence items are powerful conduits for necromancy and necrotic energy; a staff of withering, sword of wounding, or sword of life stealing might be made from Mabaran quintessence. Items that create undead or consume light might also be crafted from quintessence; such items drain joy and empathy from those that carry them, and those who wield such items often become cold and cruel. Yugoloth artisans can create unique items with even greater powers, but the purpose of these tools is to spread despair and misery. Some drain Hit Dice from their wielders to pay for their deadly abilities; others cause the bearer to rise as an undead creature after death. The most powerful Mabaran artifacts are battleloths— yugoloths that have allowed themselves to be forged into objects to spread death and despair. These are intelligent and powerful, but drive their wielders down dark paths. When plants do grow in Mabaran manifest zones, they’re often poisonous; bloodvine can produce a variety of deadly venoms. However, the elves of the Bloodsail Principality have mastered the art of gardening in Mabaran zones, and there, you can find wondrous plants that feed on shadows instead of sunlight—darkwood trees, ebon sedge grass, and more. Here, they produce spices and wines unlike any others in the world.
Alternative Name(s)
The Endless Night
Type
Plane of Existence
Included Locations
