Arborrea

The **Olympian Glades of Arborea**, sometimes simplified to just **Olympus** or **Arborea**, was the Outer Plane in the Great Wheel cosmology model embodying the chaotic good alignment. A plane of joy as well as sorrow, Arborea was the home of the dreamers,  a seemingly delicate sylvan realm of astounding heartiness and deep-seated enchantment. Its beauty was almost overwhelming, the landscape embodying the lovely and peaceful, and the passionate and wild, all at the same time.

Arborea was first and foremost a land of emotions, running high, deep, and far. These were not all positive emotions; Arborea was a place of powerful love and hate, where rage and joy were equally common and equally honored. Like Limbo, it could be considered the opposite of Mechanus, not in the sense that it countered rigid order with formless chaos, but in that its deep-seated feelings were the antithesis of Nirvana's mechanical logic.

Arborea was most accurately described as "boisterous", favoring melodrama as opposed to stoicism. Vibrant energy filled the plane, the air tingling with excitement and constant anticipation in the literally emotionally charged atmosphere. It was not merely a place where the emotional gathered, but a place that *made* those present short-tempered, passionate, and, at times, hammy. It was a larger than life realm of huge appetites that changed as quickly as the heart, where the violent moods and whims were backed by steel and the fervent affections and passions blazed bright before burning out.

Greed, envy, lust, and wrath were strong on Arborea, and emotions could be released with dangerous consequences, but that was not to say that the plane was an evil one. Arborea was as much a plane of good as it was one of chaos, disavowing the notions of those who saw chaos as destructive disharmony or a tumultuous maelstrom. Rather, the Olympian Glades were a realm of individuality and independence, a good-natured place of celebrations and strong desires where personal freedom was paramount. As strong as the vices were, charity, justice, love, and kindness were equally rampant on Arborea.

Despite their rowdy and chaotic nature, Arboreans were bound by superstitions, ancient tradition, codes of conduct, and systems of respect that no one would dare violate. All Arborea was permeated by a supernatural power of oath-binding, more concentrated in some places than others, that prevented others from going back on their word lest they suffer horrible consequences, the worst of which could include a painful death.

One of Arborea's more subtle aspects was its addictive quality. The longer one stayed, the more likely one would never want to leave, and after about a month would possibly need to be dragged back home by well-meaning friends. Just because they left Arborea however, didn't mean they had escaped its pull; they would need to be confined until the intense yearning subsided and its influence had waned.

### Geography

Compared to its depraved counterpart in the Abyss, which had, if not literally then effectively, an infinite number of foul layers, Arborea could seem small since it possessed only three. However, while the Abyss was a chaotic cluster of miniature realms, its individual, warring worlds each horrific and harsh in their own unique ways, the comparative cohesiveness of Arborea's layers was not to be mistaken for a lack of diversity.

In truth, Arborea was a fantastically patchwork plane, a crazy quilt of thriving climates and environments with endless abundance. Though named after its endless, rolling forests, that was a mere fraction of the plane. Settled landscapes were pleasant and pastoral, with gently rolling hills, meadows, vineyards, fruit orchards, and fields of oats, barley, wheat, and millet, all passing by in quaint succession. Unlike the neighboring Beastlands it was not totally given over to wilderness, and it wasn't an obvious deathtrap like the Abyss, the emotional journeys likely being more dangerous than the virtually harmless environment.

However, in the hinterlands between settlements, Arborea's wilderness could be almost impassable, increasing in hostility the deeper in one went and not just because of prowling predators. Normally even the Arborean winter was mild, but the weather of the plane was as whimsical and unpredictable as the inhabitants. The plane lacked the serenity of its lawful counterpart Mount Celestia, its pleasant breezes turning to violent storms in an instant and death on the plane coming mostly from lightning and hail. Still, one normally had to go looking for trouble in Arborea to find it, and even the weather at its most extreme didn't soil the overpowering and bewildering beauty of the plane.

Arborea's larger than life aspect was both figurative and literal, the big emotions reflecting the big plane. The sheer extravagant size of everything simply couldn't be understated: every craggy mountain was stupendous, every ravine unbelievably deep, every lush forest filled with monstrously huge trees, every ocean unimaginably deep, every river mighty, and every plain a wild stretch. Never doing small, Arborea's immensity made it difficult to traverse due to steepness and distance. Realms aside from those of common knowledge potentially laid hidden, ruled over by unknown beings. A certain plant found only here produced the so-called brightly-colored Arborean fireseeds, a delicacy sold as far as the planar city of Sigil. They were sweet and cinnamony to taste and warmed with tingle in one's mouth. The seeds were to be spit out after their heat dissipated, and never swallowed, as they actually burst into flames. Fireseeds were often taken with a swig of Arborean heartwine, of deepest red color.

#### Nature Spirits

The Abyssal layers were said to be sentient, though unintelligent and dormant, each with their own primal urges and hungers (other layers not precluded from their tastes). Likewise, Arborea itself was determined to remain true to itself, wild and pure. Though most visitors to Arborea were unaware of it, the very land was alive with nature spirits. Some of these were the better known sylvan guardians such as dryads, sylphs, and sprites, but the actual spirits of the land itself were far greater. Every forest, glade, mountain, stream, and cloud had a guardian, and carving through virgin lands before polluting the environment was sure to provoke a reaction.

Exactly what that reaction would be varied from place to place, but the less tame the terrain, the more severe the results would typically be. A river might flow backwards or simply vanish and an angered spirit of a grove might move all the landmarks around while the offender slept. Spirits were immortal unless one planned to destroy the entire land they were protecting, but luckily such things weren't likely to be needed. Though they tolerated no infringement, the nature spirits were typically either too shy or too benevolent to actually be dangerous, and could instead be reasoned with. Most of them would create a shape to communicate through resembling the other party, a forest for example taking on a humanoid form with leafy hair, twigs for fingers and eyes of sap.

## Layers

Arborea's three layers each had unique landscapes, the first being the most well-known and the others being difficult to get to, with most travelers not bothering to.

#### Arvandor

The layer of Arvandor was sometimes referred to as Olympus. Its two realms—so vast and influential that their names became synonymous with the plane and the layer they occupied—coexisted with little conflict: Olympus, home of the Greek pantheon, and Arvandor, domain of the Seldarine. Even before the World Tree cosmology became popular, the influence of the Greek pantheon was primarily focused on other Prime Material Planes and had minor contact with the Forgotten Realms. Indeed, the two domains were separated by thousands of miles/kilometers of unclaimed wilderness and, due to the slight curvature of the landscape, were not visible to each other despite being located at the highest peaks of their respective lands.

Arvandor contained the great forests for which Arborea was known, towering assortments of monstrous maple, birch, oak, lindens, and other deciduous, broadleaf trees rivaling the redwoods of the Material Plane in height. The height of the trees left the forest floor relatively bereft of brush, the rolling land beneath the canopies a great open space of velvet moss and ferns. Clear glades were as common as briar patches and tangles, but paths snaked through what undergrowth existed, and even without it one could climb and brachiate (swing from branch to branch) through the trees without touching the ground.

Various plant-life was exclusive to Arvandor, such as *serren* trees, vessels for nature spirits with branches that, once fallen, could be used to create bows, arrows, and bolts imbued with a portion of the spirit, granting them the *ghost touch* property. Also rare were a kind of large reddish fruit known as thane's pears, which could cure various maladies including viruses and infections when eaten.

While not as wild as the Beastlands, Arborea still had its share of ancient groves, and would quickly grow untamed away from claimed territories. Towns were rarely needed either way, for the lush layer was almost paradoxically bountiful, far more so than most planes. Flowers bloomed and bore fruit simultaneously, and even in the wildest regions plentiful food could be found if one was clever.

Generally even an urbanite could live off the land so long as they could pluck fruit from the bushes (which were almost invariably edible) and summon the will to climb trees. Where the forests broke away were open glades of wildflowers, naturally neat rows fruit trees, fields of swaying, wild wheat and barley, and untended orchards heavy with bounty. The naturally fertile climate gave Arborea its reputation for first-quality foodstuffs as the "breadbasket" of the planes.

The day and night cycle of mimicked that of the Material Plane, a crystal blue sky with a golden sun above the trees in the day and a white moon amongst a river of stars on the warm nights. Arvandor's unpredictable weather might manifest as sudden squalls beating the paths with heavy winds, leaving sunny arcs of warm light filtering down from above minutes after it passed. There was seemingly always the faint sound music in the distance, as often the playing of instruments as the tune of wind curling through the holes in the trees.

Arborea was also a layer of steep mountains cut by great passes, all massive enough to make those from the Prime Material Plane stare slack-jawed. What would be mountains there were hillocks in Arborea, the actual mountains larger than all but the floating earthbergs of Ysgard. The uplands were covered in snow that shined beautifully beneath the sky.

#### Aquallor

The second layer of Arborea was also known by many names; it was Ossa to the Olympians, Aquallor to the elves, the Endless River to the selkies and the Green or Abiding Sea to those of Araunthys. Regardless, the layer was an endless, emerald ocean, an entirely aquatic plane that few travelers could make their way through. It was disputed whether or not the plane had any land above surface, whether in the form of scattered islands or coastlines, but even stranger was the depths.

Unlike Lunia's Silver Sea or Thalasia in Elysium, the seas of Ossa were ironically shallow for a plane of otherwise great size, no more than 3 ft (0.91 m) deep over most of the realm. The shallow seabed was occasionally broken by cavernous trenches that opened up in random places, and the lower depths of the plane were pitch-black. By traveling through the underwater chasms, one could reach the undersea domains of various sea gods. The weather changes in Aquallor were as quick as those in Arvandor, taking the form of titanic storms that wracked the surface of the mighty sea, as well as great undersea currents that threw travelers miles off course.

#### Mithardir

Also known as Pelion, Mithardir was a fitting name for the third and deepest layer of Arborea, its name meaning *white dust* in the Elven language.  It was a borderless plain of fine, chalky grit, a white desert nearly devoid of all life. The particles in the air were as cold as ice and so easily mistaken for snow at first glance, though snow was also potentially present along with the sand. The desert was neither hot nor particularly cold either way, just temperate in most places, but it was extremely dry. So long as the air was still, not much of the choking grain would lift off the ground, but more often than not the incessant winds ended up grinding the bones of unprepared explorers to powder. Mithardir's dramatic weather manifested as lightning storms that regularly swept the desert, driving huge storms of dust ahead of them that could bury travelers alive.

Pelion was sometimes called 'the realm now known only for dust" and for good reason. Once upon a time, like Arborea above it, the layer was a great forest, home to beings alternately described as giants or titan-like gods. Whatever powers once dwelt there had long since died or departed to elsewhere in the multiverse, the remains of their disintegrated domain little more than a few scattered ruins of towers and tombs peeking out from the ever-shifting sand. Those of Olympus believed Pelion was once home to the entire Mulhorandi pantheon before their followers faded away, their realms withering with them. Seladrine stories said Mithardir was once under the complete control of the Animal Lords before they lost the most vital parts of their realms to the Beastlands and so eventually migrated there, leaving only badlands behind.

The time of the ancient powers of Pelion had long since past, and the whole layer projected a sense of emptiness, like an abandoned house. Whole ages had gone by, with entire races having completely disappeared since they vanished, and even in those eras Pelion had been a land of legends and dust for untold centuries. Whoever they were, they were undoubtedly might beings with great powers of divination and access to True Words, words of power so potent that to utter them could destroy mountains, create life, and slay anything (though even the words predated them). Their realms, treasures, and ancient secrets laid hidden beneath Pelion's surface, the remnants of their once great cities consumed by the march of time, but perhaps still uncoverable by those with the foreknowledge and patience.

Though their recklessly released emotions sometimes had devastating consequences, the denizens of Arborea were mostly good-natured and dedicated to fighting the forces of evil. Often the Arboreans enjoyed lives of unrestrained hedonism, and they valued emotional reactions over more sober responses. They played, fought, lived, and loved hard, and depending on how they felt about a given individual, that person would either be in serious trouble or great success.

## Inhabitants

### Celestials

Celestials were common in Arborea, though they were more unpredictable than their counterparts elsewhere and often kept to themselves unless asked to serve as an agent for a god or powerful entity. Agathia, devas, planetars, solars, hollyphants, and foo creatures formed the usual cohort of creatures ubiquitous to the Upper planes, and celestial lammasu, einheriar, and whole herds of buraq roamed the plane. Many lillendi thrived on the emotions rippling through the plane, and balaena could be found in the Oceanus, the Arborean stretch being their winter feeding grounds. They could be found on the coasts of Arvandor and were common modes of transport on Aquallor.

The most common celestials in Arborea were the eladrins, natives to Arborea just as demons were to the Abyss. The wild, fey-like celestials constantly moved from place to place on the plane, exulting in their own free existences. The best known and most commonly encountered breeds were the ghaeles, that were often found hunting through the wilderness. Coures, firres, ghaeles, shieres, and tulani all preferred the 1st layer of Arborea, while noviere favored Aquallor and the bralani raced across Mithradir.

### Monsters

Some of the most common creatures in Arborea were monsters from the legends of its most famous pantheons. Chimerae, gorgons, harpies, medusae, sphinxes, and pegasi all made nests or lairs in the mountainous terrain, or lived and lurked in the wilderness of the first layer. Fey spirits lurked everywhere, easily provoked and utterly unpredictable compared even to those who would draw blood at the smallest insult.

Titans dwelt and roamed in the hinterlands of the infinite plane, some rebellious and still bitter over past grudges, and some (in a few cases) completely oblivious to the fact that many of their kin had been imprisoned in Carceri. Giants (including giant-kin like cyclopses) also wandered the plane looking to challenge those seeking adventure, sometimes including various deities. Both the titans and giant gods made use of agents and proxies to torment and spy on their ancient enemies. The wilderness and size of Arborea, for both them and others, presented many hiding places and opportunities for vengeance.

Arborea's fauna was just as bountiful and abundant as its flora, and its game was both plentiful and trusting. Massive, wild cattle roamed free, herds of red deer and elk filled the meadows, The streams were brimming with enormous (but wily and not easy to catch) fish, and a trapper could always expect a fat hare or thick-furred fox in their snares. However, the great size didn't stop at the prey, for Arvandor was also the home of great beasts, including giant bears, boars, eagles, lions, serpents, and wolves. Ossa was filled with sea life, its larger beasts and even aberrations lurking in the depths. Even beneath the trees, great fireflies arranged themselves in ever-shifting constellations at night.

Though fell beasts stalked the plane and hungry predators would make easy prey out of injured travelers, the giant animals of Arborea were no more aggressive than usual varieties, and they typically left groups of mortals or petitioners alone. Celestial and anarchic monsters and animals were present there, the former fighting with relish only if disturbed and the latter being predictably unpredictable. In general, the creatures of Arborea were bigger, tougher, had more powerful bearing and demeanor, and, in the case of humanoid monsters, had a 5% chance of possessing incredible magical powers. However, those qualities were reduced when Arborean native creatures entered other planes.

### Petitioners

The petitioners of Arborea were as diverse as the trees to be found in a forest. Most were the elves of Arvandor or the humans of Olympus, but almost all sylvan races, including gnomes, centaurs, satyrs, nixies, and harpies, could be found there. Petitioners of Arborea were hearty folk, quick to react with personal vice and/or virtuous deed. They grinned wide, slapped backs, and sang epics when happy while excessively drinking and wailing like banshees when saddened. Though ready to fight without hesitation if angered, conflict in Arborea wasn't so much a matter of battle as it was brawl, since despite the violence, death was seldom the result. Never dull, with constant, swashbuckling bravado, the Arboreans always had hunts, fights, contests of strength, tests of bravery, and long, loud parties.

These were effectively the plane's commoners, and they tended to the woodlands and meadows of Arborea with the same care and diligence of a peasant anywhere else. Just because Arborea was lush didn't mean they didn't farm, for grain and hay was needed for livestock and the best and biggest bounty was more easily grown than gathered. The inhabitants liked to claim credit for Arborea's bounty; merchants went through the Outlands gate-town of Sylvania to bring various foods and stranger ingredients like ram's blood, fermented fish, and wine of oak sap to Sigil. Many ancient groves still needed care, and arsonists, woodcutters, sport-hunters, and even those who cut a path through untouched wilderness, could often find themselves suffering from lethal attacks by the protectors of the ancient wilds.

Not all of the elven dead incarnated as elves again when they reached Arborea. Some, as happened to most petitioners at the end of their "lives" infused the plane itself, while others reformed into celestial or anarchic creatures. Worthy souls were rewarded by Corellon with elven form, and were known as the "Chosen of Arvandor". Within the canopied clearings where they made their settlements, the Chosen engaged in an idyllic elven life. Hunts and challenges, trysts and celebrations, feasts and tales around the fire, and other wondrous pastimes filled the afterlives of such elves. In a single day there, lifelong friends could laugh over a meal before fighting over a mutual lover, then end the evening celebrating each other's bravery and integrity. There was also service in Corellon's oak-lined halls, duty as scouts, wardens, and servitors in the magic glades and magnificent castles of the Seladrine.

The souls of elves in Arborea were similar to those elsewhere, differing only in the intensity of their emotions. In Arborea, their passions ran unrestricted, joy, love, and contentment on spectacular display in their myriad extremes as much as rage, lust, and jealousy. They expressed their elation and sadness by pouring it into heart-achingly beautiful music, and their rage with cold, hard vengeance. In the day, the splendor of the Seladrine illuminated the lives of the elves there, and their elven trances were intoxicating blissful due to their closeness to Corellon. Elves of all kinds could be found in Arborea, including seasonal fey eladrin, sea elves dwelling in Aquallor, and even a few special drow. Elves born on Arborea were celestial creatures, wild at heart and ready to fight evil in an instant, but the plane could be dangerous for mortal elves not born there. Their boisterous and mercurial native kin might wish to fight over the slightest lapse in tradition or ill remark.

Unique to Arborea were the petitioners known as the bacchae, the spirits of gluttons and gourmands, well-intentioned drunks, and those that otherwise relished living. Somewhere between man and animal, the satyr-like creatures were equal parts chaotic and good, for they lived in the moment and strove to make that moment the best. While not intentionally destructive, they were incredibly irresponsible in their pursuit of wanton pleasure, roving Arborea in wild mobs of revelry. Almost anything could provoke their ire, but they were generally nonviolent, more likely to offer bread and drink to an attacker if not simply flee, and they might suddenly stop a fight out of genuine appreciation of the opposition's skills (or to get a second-wind). If an outsider enjoyed their company and were accepted in turn, whether petitioner or planar traveler, they would be at risk of turning into a bacchae as well.

### Powers

If the petitioners of Arborea were its commoners, then the nature spirits were the rulers. The elfin asrai were water spirits that protected the watching over streams, rivers, springs, lakes, and seas of Arborea. Oreads were tied to mountains, protecting their peaks and valleys from harm, with the legendary snowhairs being the guardians of entire mountain ranges. Dryads were ruling protectors of whole oak forests and woods, and sylphs were the masters of the heights. The spirits required sacrifices in the many sacred groves, ancient caverns, and other natural landmarks of prophecy and judgement. Small shrines forewarned of nearby spirits; failing to appease them was to invite bad luck, and to not just ignore, but outright mock them, was sure to bring a price.

The feuding gods of Arborea were not ashamed to use their followers to settle vendettas, and though some would be flattered by the personal attention, being a pawn in such games could likely result in disappearance or a martyr's death. To avoid the attention of the gods, the Arbroean residents devised many elaborate rituals and tributes to appease and distract them, including libations poured from all cups onto the ground, gifts of gold, perfume, spice and impressive vegetables, and the sacrifice of animals (particular prize animals) at midsummer and midwinter.

The hedonistic lack of restraint of the Arboreans was partially due to the fact that even the rituals didn't always keep the powers that were from meddling. The gods, and even some nature spirits, could bring about curses on those that crossed them, including jinxes as benign as spoiled rations, spooked animals, untied knots, and as serious and tragic as blindness, exile, enslavement and death. To break a vow, compare oneself favorably to gods, or give an insufficient offering (if any), was an action with potential consequences, and anyone could make a mistake.