The two layers of the Twin Paradises of Bytopia are similar yet opposite: one is a tamed, pastoral landscape and the other an untamed wilderness, yet both reflect the plane's goodness and its acceptance of law and order when necessary. Bytopia is the heaven of productive work, the satisfaction of a job well done. The goodness flowing through the plane creates feelings of goodwill and happiness in creatures dwelling there.
Optional Rule: Pervasive Goodwill
At the end of each long rest taken on this plane, a visitor that is neither lawful good nor neutral good must make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature's alignment changes to lawful good or neutral good (whichever is closer to the creature's current alignment). The change becomes permanent if the creature doesn't leave the plane within 1d4 days. Otherwise, the creature's alignment reverts to normal after one day spent on a plane other than Bytopia. Casting the dispel evil and good spell on the creature also restores its original alignment.
Physical Conditions
During the daylight shared by Dothion and Shurrock, thesky that lies between the two layers of Bytopia is aglow with warm, ambient light. This light fades as night falls. The "stars" seemingly in the "heavens above" are merely the lights and fires visible from the plane's opposite layer.
The source of the day's light isn't certain. Some bashers claim that there's another power, an unnamed sun god, trapped in the sky between the two layers. Others shake their heads and say that the East Indian power Savitri lights the daytime sky. One chant goes that ageless eons ago, Savitri had a large realm on Byropia where be lived with his pious and gentle wife. It seems that Savitri was a noble and wise prince who sought not wealth in a wife, but love. (In some versions of this legend, Savitri was a noble princess married to a wise hermit. Considering the powers may take any aspect they choose, both or neither versions may be true.) Upon finding such a woman, Savitri fell in love and they were soon married. But only one year after their marriage, Savitri's wife fell dead, the cause of her death unknown. When Yama, the god of the dead, arrived to claim his wife, Savitri followed Yama to the underworld, leaving his realm on Bytopia. Savitri convinced Yama of his deep love for his wife and the god of the dead relented, returning the woman to life.
Each morning's daylight means Savitri is still committed to his old home, and, though he's not returned to again live in Bytopia, the petitioners also say that Savitri's light proves that true love is stronger than death. The god of the day-long sun now spends most of his time on Elysium - due in no small part to his conquest over the power of death.
Each day is the same length as every other day on Bytopia, but both layers do experience all four seasons. Dothion's are mild, the winters never getting bitterly cold or the summers unbearably hot. The same cannot be said for Shurrock. There, chilling, blustery winds herald the arrival of charcoal-black storm clouds, driving sheets of rain, or snow that whips through the air stinging and cutting exposed skin.
Rivers, streams, and ponds are abundant on both layers. Also true of both layers is that pastures and meadowlands lie in the center. As a body moves farther from the center, the terrain becomes progressively rolling, hilly, rocky, and finally, mountainous. But Dothion's most rugged mountains are minor peaks when compared to the jagged summits, sheer cliff faces, and dangerously narrow ridges of Shurrock.
Magical Conditions
Bytopia may well be the least restrictive plane for planewalkers, at least as far as spellcasting goes. There're no overreaching conditions that affect the entire plane. Most magic functions as intended, with only the following few exceptions.
Conjuration
The only items and creatures that can be summoned co the caster are those that already exist on the plane. Evard's black tentacles, for example, automatically fails, since "black tentacles" are not found normally on Bytopia (not that they're normally found anywhere, as they're purely magical creations!). A body should keep in mind when judging such spells that this is a plane of artisans and craftsmen, but not one of mechanized machinery.
Divination
While divination spells function normally, a slightly modified procedure must be followed. All scrying spells (clairvoyance, clairaudience, and so on) must involve the elements of this plane or its products. For example, if a caster were to use clairvoyance, he'd need to look in some reflective surface (a pond in Dothion or Shurrock, or a mirror crafted on the plane) to receive the information. If the caster wanted to use clairaudience on a group of NPCs in a thicket of trees, he'd need to place his ear up against a tree in order to hear the distant NPCs' conversation.
Necromancy
Life-sustaining spells of this school are enhanced. Damaging or killing spells are diminished on Bytopia.
Elemental
Bytopia's a plane that doesn't seem to change much over time. Any elemental spell with wideranging effects (control weather, part water, move earth, and so on) requires a successful saving throw versus spell on the part of the spellcaster to succeed. If the saving throw is failed, the spell has no effect. Otherwise, elemental spells are ca.st normally in Doth ion, but are enhanced in Shurrock due to its more raw, elemental nature.
Spell Keys
Spell keys on Bytopia take the form of hand-crafted items or tools, usually a form that can be associated with the school of magic it's restoring. All spell keys must be manufactured .items native to Bytopia. A nonnative mage with the carpentry proficiency, for example, cannot simply carve himself a spell key for this plane. He needs to purchase or otherwise acquire a spell key that was created by Bytopian hands on one of the plane's two layers.
Conjuration/Summoning keys are rare, since the restrictions on them don't easily lend themselves to the form of hand-crafted items. Divination spell keys could be in the form of a spyglass or ear trumpet (both items that help the user discern more information). The key to restore Necromancy is kept dark, as none of the inhabitants here want such evil magic freely available. Wide-ranging elemental spells can be restored by mimicking the effect the caster wants to generate; for example, a mage may have to dig up a portion of ground with a shovel in order to successfully move earth.
Power Keys
The gnomish gods are more involved with their worshippers than most of the pantheons on the Outer Planes. As such, these powers are more likely to pass out power keys to gnomes who need them. Most often, the power keys are limited in duration; they last long enough to help the gnome give the laugh to whatever's dogging him. Once the cutter's safe, the key stops working. The form of the power key varies with the power's portfolio. Garl Glittergold's usually are in the form of gold or jewelry, Flandal Steelskin's are small hammers engraved with flames, and so on. The spell spheres that the power key grants vary with the power that issued the key, but virtually every gnomish power key grants the user Major access to the Protection and Elemental spheres.
The Torilian power Ilmater also is generous with power keys. His usually take the form of a strong, blood-red cord that must be wrapped around the priest's wrist to activate it. Ilmater's power keys normally grant access to the All, Healing, and Protection spheres, though keys granted for specific reasons (quests or special missions for the power) need not be limited only to those spheres.
The Krynnish deity Kiri-Jolith also grants power keys, especially to the Knights of Solamnia and his own order within the knights, the Order of the Sword. If a knight or paladin is off on a quest to bash some heads in Baator or Gehenna, he'll be taking the power of his god with him, represented by access to the All, Combat, Healing, and Sun spheres.
Inhabitants of Bytopia
The pastoral beauty of Bytopia is reflected in its residents. Lone mountain cabins, quaint woodland villages, mining burgs, craft communities, and bustling port towns - all are built in accordance with nature. If a body needs water for his crops, he'd better hope his farm or orchard is near enough to a river or stream so he can divert a bit of it. There's no damming up whole rivers for irrigation or plowing entire meadows under for fields. Each body and each burg on Bytopia works its craft or business wilthin the system set up by nature. The cutters do take advantages when such present themselves, such as crafting a water wheel to turn the mill stone that grinds wheat into flour for the burg's bakery or connecting two streams with a canal to allow for quicker transport of goods. But no wanton destruction of the rugged wilderness takes place - at least not without attracting the eyes of some high-ups.
The Powers
The sole greater power on Bytopia is Garl Glittergold, the leader of the gnomish pantheon of deities. All the gnomish deities (except one) call Garl's realm on Dothion, The Golden Hills, home. The intermediate powers of the gnomish pantheon are Baervan Wildwanderer, the power of the forests, nature, and travel; Fland al Steelskin, the power of mining and smithing; and Segojan Earthcaller, a great foe of Urdlen's and the god of the deep earth and the animals that live there.
Urdlen, the Crawler Below, is an evil intermediate power and the sole gnomish power who doesn't associate with his better-behaved brethren. The great white, hairless mole with claws of steel is much more suited lo his tunnels in the Abyss. The gnome petitioners of the plane are still plenty afraid of him, as the sexless mole reminds all gnomes of the clanger of greed. Some say Urdlen's got a conduit that allows him to move freely between the Abyss and the ground deep beneath Bytopia's surface. A further chant says that since the other gnomish deities spend most of their time at The Golden Hills, Urdlen prefers to burrow deep under the mountains of Shurrock, consuming the valuable ores and minerals that lay deep beneath that layer's rugged surface. Other cutters add lo the story by claiming that it's Urdlen's presence deep under the ground that makes Shurrock's terrain so much more craggy and rough and the storms darker and more dangerous.
Segojan Earthcaller is on good terms with Callarduran Smoothhands, the intermediate power of the svirfnebli, also known as the deep gnomes. Callarduran is sociable with the whole gnomish pantheon, with the notable exception of Urdlen. Callarduran's enmity for the Crawler Below rivals that of Segojan or even Garl himself.
Other intermediate powers include Tefnut, the Egyptian lioness-headed goddess of rain, storms, and running water; the Japanese powers of blacksmithing and the rice plant, Arna-Tsu-Mara and lnari; Umater, the god of endurance, martyrdom, and perseverance on the prime- material world of Toril; and Kiri-Jolith, the Krynnish power of righteous battle, justice, and heroism.
The lesser powers include the gnomish deities Baravar Cloak.shadow, the god of illusion, protection, and deception; Gaerdal Ironhand, the power of protection, vigilance, and combat; and Nebelun the Meddler, a former gnomish hero who ascended from mortal to his present status as the purveyor of gnomish invention and good luck. Though he keeps his realm here, Nebelun's more often found wandering the planes and has recently set up camp on Arborea, in the workshop of the Greek power Hephaestus.
One last lesser power dwells here: the foolish Greek titan Epimetheus (which some bashers say translates as "afterthought"), who senselessly wanders both layers of Bytopia. On a recent visit to Yeoman, the 20-foot figure attracted the attention of some Ciphers in from Elysium. Upon noticing Epimetheus' "action without thought" mentality, these members of the Transcendent Order look to rattling their bone-boxes with him. Having seemingly attained the thoughtless life all Ciphers aspire to, they've taken to studying the titan and his actions. What this bodes for the Ciphers or the titan is a dark nobody's got.
The Proxies
The powers of Bytopia are much more likely to send out proxies than the powers on the Beasrlands. The gnomish gods all have proxies dashing about on some errand for the powers or their worshipers. Gari Glittergold's most powerful proxy is Gemma Feldspar (Px/♀ gnome/Ill 10, T11/NG). She's a handsome figure, with golden tresses braided down her back, and dressed all in silks and gold. She's the wife of Flandal Steelskin's most widely known proxy, Zarban Flamehair (Px/♂ gnome/F 10/NG). a large gnome with fire-red hair and beard and a monstrous war hammer on his belt. This couple has been married for over 100 years and has had over 30 children. The gnomes also use the creatures called hollyphants as messengers and minor proxies from the prime-material worlds where the gnomes've settled.
Ilmater of Toril has a regular stable of proxies, most of them priests from his prime-material realm. One of the foremost is Amanthuras the Beneficent (Px/♂ human/P13/NG). Clad in gray robes with a blood-red skullcap and similarly colored cords wound about bis wrists, this proxy goes where his ministrations are most needed, be that on some remote area of the prime world his power's worshipers call home or in the heart of the Cage.
Kiri-Jolith of Krynn has many knightly servants. One of his most favored proxies is Sargeantus Golden hilt (Px/♂ human/Pal14/LG) who was brought from the Prime to serve bis power directly. This rall, handsome, goldenhaired paladin and knight splits his time between carrying out missions for his power and instructing the students at his realm, the Heart of Justice. His instincts've told him that the cutlers of the Planes-Militant (see "The Factions" below) may have ulterior motives on Bytopia, but he has not spoken against them as he has no proof of any less than noble intentions - yet.
Of the remaining powers, only Tefnut uses proxies with any regularity. Feleena the Oawed (Px/♀ tiefling/R9/N) is typical of them. With a dark olive-skinned human body and a head resembling that of a Siamese cat. Feleena cuts a figure most bashers never forget Aloof, she sees little need in socializing outside the community of Tefnut's worshipers, unless a basher can do something for her.
The Petitioners
The vast majority of petitioners on Bytopia are gnomes. Kiri-Jolith, Ilmater, and Tefnut all support their own groups of petitioners, but their totals are small when compared to the sheer number of gnome petitioners scurrying hither and yon. If a basher closed his eyes and took a wild swing with his chiv, he'd likely stick it in a gnome - if he swung low, that is.
Unlike those of the Beastlands, the wild things that inhabit the dual layers of Bytopia are not petitioners, but normal (or giant-sized) creatures with no special abilities.
The Factions
Except for the Ciphers' recent and notable interest in Epimetheus, most of the factions don't see much on Bytopia worth fighting over. However, one sect, hailing from Mount Celestia via a gate From the realm of Goldfire, has been actively recruiting cutters in Yeoman and most other burgs on the plane. The Order of the Planes-Militant is a lawful and good sect. Also known as the Brethren or the Faithful, they're seeking to increase the size of Mount Celestia by whacking chaos and evil ou many of the neutral planes such as Mechanus and Acheron. In Yeoman and other towns on Bytopia, they spout their beliefs to those who listen, and offer glory and eternal light to those who take the order's oaths of vigilance against evil.
The Brethren have a deeper motive than simply seeking recruits in Bytopia. The sect hopes to steal large chunks of the plane from Bytopia and add them to their own plane of Mount Celestia. The way the Brethren have it figured, if they recruit enough petitioners into taking the sect's oaths, parts of Bytopia and maybe even an entire layer will eventually slip over into the Seven Heavens. (As Dothion is more highly populated, the sect has been concentrating its efforts there rather than in the more rugged, less hospitable, and sparsely inhabited layer of Shurrock.)
Beyond "simple" recruitment, the Brethren also've begun to restrain those who speak against their "common good," in order to help speed the planar shift along. The Order demands incessant self sacrifice from its members, and tolerates no chaotic cutters in its ranks. The sect looks to Bytopia as its next "acquisition" due to the plane's slight lawful bent. This plan is the brainchild of the sect's most potent wizard, Indigo the Stutterer (Pl/♂ human/M22/ Order of the Planes- Militant/LG, but recently tending to lawful neutral). While the sect is acting with good intentions - the lessening of evil throughout the multiverse - its members are going about it in a mighty peery fashion. And some folks, especially in and around Yeoman, have begun to take notice.
Many of the merchants who trade with and in Bytopia have noted the increased Planes-Militant activity on Dothion. Some bloods among them even suspect the sect's true goal. Many of the traders and merchants are getting nervous that their best open market on the Upper Planes may become more and more restricted and restrictive. As a lawful sect, the merchants say, the Brethren are likely to clamp down on much of the free-wheeling business dealings that occur on the plane by instituting taxes, tariffs, forms, and a bureaucracy that'll slow trade to a comparative crawl. As a result, some of the wealthier caravaneers, traders, and merchants are starting to formalize opposition to the sect, praising the values of a free market economy and the easy access to products and raw materials, while dropping more-than-subtle hints that business, and the now of j ink through Bytopia, could be endangered.
Another potential foe of the sect is the Harmonium. Not all that long ago, the Hardheads lost an entire layer of Arcadia to Mechanus due to their regimen fed thinking and the numerous Hardhead training camps on the layer. Of course, the Harmonium doesn't see things this way. They correctly note that the Brethren were recruiting in Arcadia, just as they now are in Bytopia. The Hardbeads incorrectly point to the sect's presence as the true reason the layer shifted, feeling that the sect's militancy was the cause. (The Hardheads are just the group to accuse another of extreme unilateral thinking.) The Harmonium's previous loose alliance with the Brethren appears to be ending.
The sect's other allies, the Guvners, haven't lei on yet that they know of the Brethren's plan. What their reaction will be is a deep dark at the moment, but their inclination to learn the rules of a situation and then exploit the rules' loopholes for their own betterment could coincide snugly with the sect's plan.
There's also a chant that the sect is working with some of Kiri-Jolith's followers. In fact, the Heart of Justice has recently become one of the Brethren's strongest toeholds in Shurrock. Arkon Steel heart (Pr/♂ human/Pal9/Order of the Planes-Militant/LG), the camp's commandant, is a recent recruit of the Brethren. He doesn't know about the Brethren's plan and truly believes in their greater cause. With the similarity in overall philosophies and Commandant Steelheart's influence, it may be only a matter of time before all the students at the Heart of Justice have taken the oaths of the Planes-Militant sect.
The traditional foes of the Brethren - the Fated, the Doomguard, and the Athar - have not yet entered this game, although that may be simply a matter of time.
Other Encounters
Though more settled than the feral Beastlands, vast areasof Bytopia are still wilderness. Plants and animals thrive here. Almost any creature that inhabits temperate areas of prime worlds can be found in numbers on Bytopia. Probably due to the presence of the gnomish powers, this is especially true of those creatures that dig, burrow, or otherwise live in the earth. A basher ain't a blood on Bytopia till he comes eye-to-eye with a giant weasel or badger that's in a sodding bad mood - and the berk just better hope he ain't the cause of that critter's distemper. Most likely due to their mutual choice in homes, these big beasts have an affinity for the gnomes. The gnomes can even talk to these creatures and understand the beasties' grunts, barks, and squeaks. The gnomes consider these animals to be part of their communities, and the feeling's apparently mutual. The gnome petitioners of The Golden Hills delight in telling tales about how an animal neighbor or companion saved gnomes by digging them out of a collapsed mine shaft, or fighting off some predator or intruder.
Creatures unique to Bytopia nourish, too. Ethyks, whose emotion-influencing abilities seem at odds with the nature of the plane, give evidence to the fact that not every creature native to the Upper Planes must be a benevolent or celestial being; many are planar animals whose abilities have developed simply to help them cope with the environment. An even better example is the ni'iaths, which thrive in the nullgravity zone between the layers and which also prove a hazard to travelers on the mountain spires.
A lot of treants call Bytopia home, as do a variant race of the psionic baku; the wooly baku roam the windy highlands of both layers of Bytopia, though they're more numerous in Dothion. The spirits known as air sentinels protect sods in Shurrock from the worst dangers of the weather and the terrain. No one's got the dark of why they do it, where they come from, or where they go after a few hundred years, but leave they do. The adamantite dragon Mercialla also makes her home somewhere on Bytopia - where depends on the cutter a body asks. It's likely she has more'n one lair; any dragon worth her scales does. Perhaps she's even got a case or two on both layers. She can fly to or from one layer or the other easily enough.
The Layers
The first layer of the plane is Dothion, the realm of pastoral industry. The layer's vast woodlands are home to woodcutters, hunters, trappers, rangers, and druids. Normal and magical forest creatures abound. Treants, the living tree creatures, have put down roots here - if a leatherhead's looking to chop down a tree for firewood, he'd better ask it for permission before he starts swinging his axe. Dothion's rolling meadows are the province of herders, ranchers, and farmers. A body can get some of the best woven cloth on all the planes in Dothion. The many rivers here support fishermen and traders alike. Some of the folks are even digging canals to make the transport of goods easier and cheaper. Most of the towns here are small farming communities, each organized enough to have its own militia and town council. Trading posts are common along the rivers and canals, and towns have sprung up around the most successful ones. The largest town on this layer is Yeoman, a decent-sized market burg. The merchants here can haggle the shirt off a hasher's back, but they do deal squarely.
Dothion also holds the entire gnomish pantheon of powers (though Urdlen knows better than to show his bleach-white mole face around often). They call their realm The Golden Hills, although nongnomes refer to it as Dothion, too. It causes a bit of confusion to the Clueless and other leatherheads when The Golden Hills get referred to as Dothion, but a body learns that if a gnome says Dothion, she means the layer; if a nongnome says it, she's probably referring to the gnomish realm.
Shurrock, the layer that faces Dothion, has rougher terrain and rougher weather to match. The land is mountainous, and the mountains are rich in ores and gems. Frigid, alpine rivers flow from the snow covered peaks and course through flower-filled mountain valleys, while farmland is sparse and rocky, and the forests are deep, dense, and foreboding.
Most towns in this layer are built around crafts or simple industry. Most every community has a loom in its town hall, a mill by the river, troughs to irrigate the orchards, a forge billowing fire, heat, and smoke, or a mine shaft in the hills nearby. Still, this industry is far from the ordered clockworks of Mechanus. Most folk work by themselves or with their family, unless the job's too big, such as mining ore or smelting out the valuable metals from the ore. In these cases, like-minded folks in a community work together.
More needs to be said on getting one's body from Shurrock to Dothion or vice versa. While there're paths and trails that lead up the spires (as the mountainous columns that join the two layers are called), a body has to make a few climbing proficiency checks to clamber up unruffled. How many depends on the mountain climbed, but three or four checks are not unreasonable. Sods without that skill need to make Dexterity checks al one-half their actual scores. All bashers making the climb need to make a Dexterity check at the spot where gravity changes its mind, up becoming down and down going up. DMs also might ask for a couple of Constitution checks (not more than two or three) during the excursion, due to the exceedingly thin air. Of course, the air's thinnest in about the same area as where gravity goes all barmy. Failed Dexterity checks at this point indicate the berk falls "up" for 10-60 feet, taking normal falling damage (1d6 per 10 feet fallen). Failed Constitution checks require the basher to rest for 1d3 turns or suffer a -2 penalty on all subsequent checks made during the climb. Penalties are cumulative if a leatherhead is addle-coved enough not to rest himself when he ought to.
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