Hades
The Grey Gloom of Hades is a bleak waste, devoid of sun, sky, or season. It saps all liveliness and vibrance from creatures who venture within.
Geography
The River Styx flows through Hades, idling despondently through its grey and rocky plains. The realm manifests curious natural portals above these plains, gates to various points in Gehenna and Carceri which resemble huge metal coins spinning in the air.
These portals are often defended by iron fortresses that cling to their edges, though guardians who can handle the inertia are hard to come by.
Beyond these flats, the rocky terrain occasionally gives way to hills not high enough to be termed 'mountains,' more like lopsided piles of rocky stone. In one of the valley between such ridges, Ygdrassil has its roots.
Localized Phenomena
The gloom of Hades saps the vibrance and vivacity of all that enter it. Beyond the blood frenzy its fiendish inhabitants experience by inflicting pain and violence, all passion and emotion is sapped to antipathy by the Realm.
Colours also fade to shades of grey over time here, and neither bright light nor deep shadows can exist, with all lightforms being diffuse and dim.
Perhaps due to its proximity with the Realm of Earth, the north and central reaches of Hades do support plant life. Granted, these plants are cutting sawgrass, Razorvine, and scrubby, twisted stands of poplars, black willows, and black spruce. Various forms of thistle and sticking nettle can also be found across this realm.
Climate
Hades' realm magic precludes sight of the sun, moon, or any other celestial body, leading to an endless gloom of dusk that has the appearance of being constantly overcast. Occasionally, dreary fogs and mists descend across the plain, but these are the most dramatic of its weather events.
Fauna & Flora
In terms of creatures one might encounter, it is critical for visitors to remember that Hades is a front of the The Blood War. As the birthplace and headquarters of Yugoloths, securing Hades for Baator would bend the neutral daemons permenantly to the Hell's service, granting devil forces an asset while denying one to the Abyss. The Abyss, being chaotic entropy, has no such tactical stake in the plane, save that it is a neighbour, and has life and structure to wreak havoc upon. Regardless, it stands that various forms of Demon and Devil are the single most populous creatures on the plane.
Hades is also the native plane of all Yugoloths, and these fiends are bound to it, reappearing there if killed elsewhere. The only other creature native to this gloomy plane of ashen barrens is the repugnant Soul Larva. Formed by the influence of Hades' exhausting and vile Realm Magic, these wormlike creatures are abundant as maggots in a midden-heap, and are often fed upon by more powerful creatures.
Other inhabitants include Achaierai, who are native to Acheron but who find favourable hunting on the barrens, and Rust Dragons. Night Hags are also common here, as the creators and arbiters of Yugoloth existence.
Alternative Name(s)
The Grey Wastes of Hades
Type
Badlands
Location under
Included Locations
Inhabiting Species