The Abyss
The Abyss is the embodiment of chaotic evil in the Lower Planes, and the heart of the territory of Demons. Souls of the most evil and damned make their way into its clutches, as well as those who are destroyed in the Blood Wars. Here, they are tortured endlessly, constantly bouncing between different layers to be destroyed over and over again and reformed under the rule of a new demon lord.
The Abyss is a seven-layered, ever-descending spiral, with each layer rotting, crumbling, corroding, or decaying in a different way. Each layer is also ruled by a Demon Lord who shapes the horrible physical and psychic environment around them.
The Gaping Maw is the realm of the Demogorgon, a dense jungle where carnivorous demon-plants endlessly trap and dissolve the souls and lesser demons lost in its depths. Two black towers that grow and twist together serve as the palace of the Demogorgon, Prince of Demons, and trap anyone who enters into a state of indefinite, frenzied madness.
Thanatos, the Realm of the Black Sky, is the bleak and crumbling land of Orcus. Visions of derelict tombstones and ruined cities cover the desolate, rocky landscape in which no living thing can grow. Orcus's palace, the Lost Redoubt, is a pagoda of obsidian and bone built on the tallest peak. It appears fragile and easily destroyed, though anyone who tries to knock it down is swallowed by the bedrock beneath it.
The Demonweb is a catacomb choked with dense webbing. Within the webs, Lolth weaves portals through time and space, drawing both objects and mortal prey into the inescapable web. Husks of buildings and even entire ships hang precariously in the webbing, now inhabited by her legions of spider-legged servants and even cultists who undergo horrible transformations to serve her dark desires.
The Death Dells are an oozing quagmire of filth and rot. Many-toothed predatory beasts lurk among the fungus, hunting each other with little regard for order or mercy. Yeenoghu the Gnoll King rules from a hidden pit within the muck whose location seems to change at random. His consort Zuggtmoy, Demon Queen of Fungi, rules alongside him in a twisted symbiotic relationship that begets ever more and more death.
The Crawling Caverns are home to Akyishigal, Demon Lord of Cockroaches. Every surface crawls with bloodthirsty roaches that swarm and devour anything that moves. The sky is a dim, sickly green. The Lord keeps no palace of his own, but skitters tirelessly through the layer, his clacking mandibles grasping at any soul unlucky enough to float into his grasp.
The Camouflet is home to Alquam, Demon Lord of Night, and his gruesome winged beasts. Legend holds that the Sluagh of the Feywild took form and inspiration from Alquam's endless flock of dark carrion birds, escaping into the world when the Caorthannach tunneled her way out of the Abyss.
Etzilioch is a constantly smoldering cave of pure coal that has been burning since the beginning of demons themselves. Camazotz the Blind King, Lord of Bats and Fire, lurks in its highest recesses, wrapped in his enormous, leathery wings. Souls shimmer and waver like the air above a hot fire, slowly dissolving in the unbearable heat.
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Plane of Existence
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