Plane of Water

The Endless Blue

In many ways, the Plane of Water is the most supportive of life, taking the form of an infinite ocean. At the same time, this can be exactly what makes it a hostile and unsettling place. Rather than the environment itself, the plane's denizens are often the greatest danger.

Traits

• Gravity: Beings with souls and will decide where 'down' is (in other words, Subjective Directional Gravity). Certain areas have an obvious 'preferred' down, and the GM may require a Willpower check of difficulty 5 or 10 in these cases to choose a different one.
• Time: Some colder regions of the plane are effected by temporal effects that slow the flow of time, as the Slow Time spell, to the point of almost a complete standstill on some areas. These areas are thankfully easy to locate at a distance, due to the myriad beings and flotsam already frozen in them.
• Magic: Spells of the Path of Water (including subpaths or free access spells a caster uses with it) take effect at one level higher than they are cast at, while spells on the Path of Fire suffer the opposite effect.

Geography

Given its structure, the Endless Blue does not have any real 'geography' to it, but a variety of regions and biomes exist. Some areas are unsuited to recognizable life, being utterly frozen, acidic, or salt-laden. Powerful currents or perpetual whirlpools make some regions stand out. The closest to geographic features, however, are the floating chunks of ice, earth, or Darkness that form solid features for life to converge around.
These features vary in size, some supporting flooded cave systems or reefs and others even being large enough for cities to be built upon them. Most of the plane's civilization converges around these, especially those that contain air pockets or bubble streams thanks to spontaneous planar portals with the Plane of Air. Closer to the Plane of Earth, some regions contain geothermal properties not unlike The Eye's deep seas, allowing for even stranger life in its hottest regions. Stranger still are the cold, poisonous bogs formed on the border with the Plane of Darkness, where dark stonelike spires erupt from the corrupted waters.

Fauna & Flora

Much of the aquatic life of the Endless Blue is actually relatively mundane, with fish, eels, shrimp and lobster proving abundant. Some species are blind or capable of seeing in the dark, and others use light as lures as with deep-sea fish. Coral and seaweed grow from the nutrients and support of chunks of Earth, along with the ecosystems secluded within them, and stranger types grow from hot vents near the planar border. Near Air bubble streams, even more terrestrial life flourishes, such as turtles and tortoises.
At the same time, the lack of need for flotation and weight mean many species with passing outward similarities grow much larger or more durable than their terrestrial counterparts. Despite a lack of real supernatural traits, massive sharks and squid can still be dangerous predators to much of the plane's more elemental life. Some of the most hostile ecosystems form around the carcasses of such colossal sea life, where carnivorous fish congregate around the ample nutrients. Majestic, serpentine ice dragons that freeze their prey solid with a breath stay near the top of the organic food chain, but even they are not immune to this treatment upon death.
Elementals of ice and water vary in intelligence and appearance, with some taking the form of massive beasts and others maintaining more humanoid ones. Icy giants dwell on some of the largest bergs, forming rare pockets of magically advanced civilization. Merfolk and other piscine humanoids are also present, both in settlements and hunting bands. Occasionally, elementals of Earth, unhindered by the lack of air, roam the reef-laden waters near their home, though it is an unfamiliar experience for most.
In the dark bogs, life takes a much different turn. Atrocious beasts roam the blackness, some swimming and others clinging to the colorless spires. Massive leeches, poisonous, violent fish, and ghoulish humanoids that utilize the bog's filth to dispatch trespassers are all known to be present in these depths. As with the Plane of Darkness itself, this is likely only a small fraction of the beings that may roam this lightless region, however.

Natural Resources

While much of the plane's elemental matter is not inherently valuable, there are notable exceptions. Some of the ice in the coldest and most frozen reaches can slow time itself, and in small amounts this can be used to preserve important items for centuries or more. Some of the purest waters have inherent healing or cleansing properties, while the most poisonous are just the opposite, providing brutal tools for assassins. A considerable amount of the ice and water of the realm is also inherently capable of interacting with energy, so even intangible beings and spells cannot pass into it.
An entirely different category is that which can be harvested from endemic life. Bioluminescent organs and glowing corals often find their way into the lamps used in the plane's civilizations, and can generally prove a useful light source underwater for the less magically inclined. The hardened scales of many fish can prove useful for armor that will not rust, though only some rare specimens truly reach the durability of metal. Perhaps most obviously, bones and fish meat can also be acquired in abundance, with some finds forming parts of the rarest and most expensive planar delicacies.

Type

Dimensional plane

Owner/Ruler

Keeper of Balance