| "The Gray Waste" is
universes of outer darkness and utter tedium, where all colors fade, all lights are
dimmed, the sky is empty, and no semblance of love is to be found. Colors, even dimmed,
hurt the eyes of the locals. This is the spiritual home of creatures that are utterly
vicious and without love, who seek power through sheer cruelty and intimidation. As on all
the evil planes, the locals say that love is a cruel charade. Instead, they like making
others miserable for its own sake. The spiritual powers of the Gray Waste seek to corrupt
souls in the most primitive ways, appealing to vanity, lust, greed, and cynicism. Here
they are addictive, and will quickly destroy the ability to be happy. In the Gray Waste,
even the things here which may once have brought joy now no longer do. The most cynically
evil creatures have their lairs here. Some visitors seek out the plane as the ultimate
test of one's strength of body and soul. Any un-repented crimes which visitors may have
committed may prove to be public knowledge here. New arrivals have vivid dreams of their
most intense feelings. Upon awakening, they find the feelings gone. Monoliths flash
brilliantly-colored searchlights, and those upon whom the beams fall lose the emotions or
memories which are most precious. Visitors must save vs. wisdom at the end of every week
or become insane and despair of ever leaving. They will find their power to love others,
and to create and to enjoy beauty and goodness, is being drained from them. However,
alignment will not be compromised. Having a good cleric in the party, and accepting this
cleric's ministry and struggling to be kind and generous, might prevent this -- provided
that this is an actual role-playing focus. If you have not yet despaired, you will reach
any destination in three times the normal time. Yet if you have given in, you probably no
longer seek to travel. A referee might reasonably decide that no healing or restorative
magic of any sort works here. All creatures look more or less dead. The locals seldom show
feelings, and never show love. Because evil is so powerful here, the locals lack even the
ordinary loves of our world -- family, friendship, romance. These instead become ways in
which a stronger being preys on a weaker being. Open-faced evil is poor politics. Instead,
the locals will present themselves to outsiders as people who "seek to be the very
best", without illusions that make people weak or foolish. The locals will talk about
cruelty only as a way of "building character" or "promoting peace and
development". There are many models for this in the non-ideological dictatorships of
our own world. The locals will talk a lot about cruelty as a way of "building
character." Evil deeds, or any use of death magic or necromancer's spells might tend
to transform the character progressively (1-10% chance each time, DM decides how to check,
and what result.) Those who persist (i.e., six failed checks) become NPC permanent
residents. Primitives will find ice-cold realms of utter boredom, populated by owls and
spiders. Mottos mostly involve "promoting excellence". Public portals between
the layers and to remote planes appear as temples to the idols of ignorance, sensuality,
lust, greed, vanity, bigotry, bad magic, and hate. In some liturgies, worshippers
renounce, or reaffirm their renunciation of, "the glamour of evil." On the Gray
Waste, the glamour of evil is the satisfaction that comes from a conscious decision not to
care about others. Ego satisfactions come from owning things you don't need, enjoying a
range of sensual experiences that degrade you and others, and simply hurting others for
fun. In our own world, some people think this is what they really want. Oinos is a universe of filth, disease and sick minds, where
Anthraxus and the other bestial lords of disease maintain their tower. The theme here is
depravity. The spirits of the most flamboyantly evil suffer from grisly diseases as a sign
of spiritual sickness. This is the spiritual home of the most cruel of the sensualists and
the sorcerers. At the center, a whirlpool in the Styx returns the evil of evil visitors
dying on the plane to their planes of origin. Perhaps this route, or other routes, offers
safe passage to those seeking to be rid of their own darker sides. This is a common
location for the headquarters of evil cults devoted to disease or magic. The Stamphalian
birds flock in the foul and rotting marshes. Burnt orange pools into the astral appear in
the filthy swamp waters, and can be moved wherever the ground is swampy. The sight of
these patches of color, leading to an alien world, makes the locals uncomfortable. Known
Portals to the Outlands, Gehenna or Carceri (Tartarus) are often holes in gigantic
spinning coins. This is a common location for the headquarters of evil cults devoted to
disease, drugs, or dark sensuality.
Niflheim is an arctic universe of blighted,
colorless pines, icefields, snows, frost, fogs and mists. The theme here is hate and
meaninglessness. The spirits of the most cold-hearted dead are locked into the trees and
ice. The roots of the World Ash are gnawed here by the dragon Nidhogg and her loathsome
spawn. The tree might offer escape to those who seek a better life, as it leads to the
Viking Heavens, where warriors bear each other no grudges but rejoice in
camaderie-in-arms. There are palaces here, where the walls and ceilings drip poison and
the floors crawl with venomous snakes. This is the spiritual home of all who consciously
decided to live without loving others. The Legion of Merit, from Li Po's world, has its
headquarters here. ("Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
shall fear no evil, for I am the meanest son of a bitch in the valley." "If you
love a thing, let it go. If it comes back, it is yours forever. If it doesn't come back to
you, hunt it down and kill it.") This is a common location for the headquarters of
evil cults devoted to cold or hate.
Pluton is a stately, ruined universe of graves,
black willows, dry poplars, fields of asphodel, classical sculptures, and black marble
interiors, all dying or in disrepair. Souls are locked into the treasures of the realm.
All entrances are guarded by Cerberus. The blight-ridden grove of Persephone is here, and
the wealthy house of Hades. The Coagulated Sea is here, filled with dread monsters and
cluttered with gold-laden, becalmed ships whose pirate crews are locked in immobility.
There is a realm in which souls are twisted into gold bullion, stock certificates, and so
forth; brilliant jewels might retain their color here and torment the eyes of the greedy
shades. This is the spiritual home of all who made money their god. The love of wealth is
displayed here as the root of all evil, and here one can sell one's abilities, virtues,
and soul, provided one is acting of one's informed free will. The roots of Mt. Olympus lie
here, perhaps offer escape when visitors realize that happiness is not to be found in
material things, but in pursuing the transcendent and the good. This is a common location
for the headquarters of vile cults devoted to death, darkness, greed, robbery, and wealth.
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