BLESSED FIELDS OF ELYSIUM

It is the source of the River Ocean.

It is a place of ultimate goodness.

It is a land so pleasant you may never want to leave.

Elysium is the most strongly good-aligned plane of the
Great Wheel, a place of good untrammeled by issues of law
or chaos. On this plane doing well by others is more
highly valued than any other ideal.
The first layer of the plane is a riot of color. Visitors
marvel at brilliant green meadows dotted with starburst
flowers, pools as deep blue as a jay’s plumage, and silver
clouds drifting against a perfect sky. The plane itself seems
to vibrate with its own sense of life and intensity. It is
usually a peaceful place, and tranquility seems to seep into
the bones and souls of those that cross it.
Elysium consists of four layers strung together by the
myriad courses of the River Oceanus. The first layer is
most like the Material Plane, with sweet-smelling pines
and flowering trees along its banks giving way to open
meadows and rolling fields. The second layer is rougher
and more mountainous, and rapids and falls are common
along the channels of the river. The third layer is a great
marsh awash with life. The deepest layer is the sea itself
and the headwaters of the great river, dotted with islands
where veteran heroes of good relax for eternity.
The size of the River Oceanus varies from a braid of
smaller side channels to a mighty flow that tops its banks
and floods the surrounding area. Along the river ate
islands, low gravel bars, and rocky promontories, which
are often the homes of petitioners and other more powerful
denizens.

ELYSIUM TRAITS

Elysium has the following traits.

• Normal Gravity.
• Normal Time.
• Infinite Size.
• Divinely Morphic: Elysium is easily altered by deities.
  Other creatures find that their spells and physical efforts
  work normally here.
• No Elemental Traits.
• Minor Positive-Dominant: Characters on Elysium
  gain fast healing 2.
• Strongly Good-Aligned: Non-good characters suffer a
  –2 penalty on all Wisdom-, Intelligence-, and Charismabased
  checks. As a result, neutral and evil creatures shun Elysium except in dire
  emergencies.
• Entrapping: This is a trait unique to Elysium, although
  Hades has a similar entrapping trait. A nonoutsider on
  Elysium experiences increasing joy and satisfaction while there. Colors become
  brighter and more vivid
  than on the Material Plane, sounds more melodious and
  soft, and the nature of others seems more pleasant and
  understanding. At the conclusion of every week spent
  on Elysium, any nonoutsider must make a will saving
  throw (DC 10 + the number of consecutive weeks on
  Elysium). Failure indicates that the individual has fallen
  under the control of the plane, becoming a petitioner of
  Elysium.
  Travelers entrapped by the inherent tranquility and
  good of Elysium cannot leave the plane of their own
  volition and have no desire to do so. Memories of any
  previous life fade into nothingness, and it takes a wish or
  miracle spell to return such characters to normal.
• Normal Magic.

ELYSIUM LINKS

Elysium borders the neighboring Outer Planes of Bytopia
and the Beastlands. Natural portals exist between these
locations, and the shifting borders between Elysium and
its neighbors mean that travelers may find themselves on
another good-aligned plane without realizing it. Portals
from Elysium to other planes often take the form of
caverns.
Elysium has four layers, each with a radically different
type of terrain. Inhabitants move between layers through a
portal, or by following the River Oceanus—probably the
easiest method.
The River Oceanus originates in the deepest layer of
Elysium and flows through all four layers, emptying from
the first layer, Amoria, into the Beastlands. There are
rapids at the border where the river crosses the boundary
between layers, but no serious waterfalls or other perils.
Most of the activity on Elysium takes place along the
borders of the great river.

ELYSIUM INHABITANTS

All types of good-aligned outsiders can be found on Elysium,
including those of lawful or chaotic disposition and
even natives of the Elemental planes such as djinn. While
all types of celestials can be found here, the dominant type
is the guardinal, which includes the winged avoral
guardinal and the powerful leonal guardinal.
The plane is also aswarm with celestial creatures and
half-celestials. Celestial creatures have golden skin and
silvery eyes, and they seem to shine with power and
nobility. Unlike the creatures of the neighboring Beastlands,
celestial creatures have the same Intelligence scores
as their counterparts on the Material Plane, although they
seem more empathic and understanding.
Elysium is also the home of deities devoted to the cause
of good. The most powerful of these deities is Pelor, the
sun deity, who rules from a gold-plated fortress on the
fourth layer of Elysium.

Elysium Petitioners

The petitioners of Elysium either venerate a particular
deity of that plane, or are merely souls that naturally
gravitated to the plane of ultimate goodness and peace. Petitioners appear as
they did in life (goodness cares little
for outward appearance), but most have a nobler and
calmer demeanor as petitioners.
Only when evil actions besmirch the plane do the
petitioners of Elysium take up arms, and then they are
more dangerous than most other petitioners. Unlike other
petitioners, those who call Elysium home retain some
knowledge of their past, which usually manifests itself as
wistful nostalgia. Sometimes their memories are more
practical: Petitioners who had character levels before they
became petitioners retain up to four character levels
(multiclass characters can choose levels from any classes
they held in life).
Petitioners of Elysium have the following special
petitioner qualities:

Additional Immunities: Electricity, cold.

Resistances: Cold 20, fire 20.

Other Special Qualities: Retain up to four character
levels acquired prior to becoming a petitioner.
Planar travelers are common on the shores of the River
Oceanus, and merchants ply their wares up and down the
river between towns inhabited by petitioners and halfcelestials.
Evil and morally neutral creatures tend to become lost
along the riverbanks, unable to cope with the goodness
that infuses the landscape. This makes such interlopers
prime targets for avoral scouts. If the scouts face determined
evil foes, they’ll call on the more august leonals to
join the battle; evil creatures are slain on Elysium. Morally
neutral visitors are often questioned closely by the avorals,
who determine their intentions and then either aid or
expel them. Aid or expulsion is accompanied by a gentle
(but long) lecture.

MOVEMENT AND COMBAT

The Great River Oceanus and its side channels dominate
much of the plane, so boat traffic is common. The Oceanus
current is normally 3 miles per hour and flows from the
deepest layer, Thalasia, through Belierin and Eronia to
Amoria.
Celestial animals haul rafts and keelboats upstream, and
all manner of mundane and fantastic seagoing vessels stray
into deeper waters. In places, the Oceanus widens to a
great, calm lake or fen with no appreciable current, while
in others, the river splits and tumbles through sharprocked
rapids, particularly on the mountainous second
layer.

Elysium Combat

Elysium does not present any inherent benefit or penalty
to combat. There is very little tolerance for evil, and most
of the celestial natives have the ability to smite evil. Fights
tend to last longer and be less often fatal due to the
positive energy that infuses the entire plane.

FEATURES
OF ELYSIUM

The top layer of Elysium is Amoria; it is more like the
Material Plane than the other levels. Upstream on the Oceanus, the land becomes
rougher and more mountainous
until the traveler reaches the cascades of Eronia, the
second layer. Here, steep valleys flank the river, which
surges through narrow passages.
Eventually the mountains diminish and the river
spreads into a great marsh alive with insects and reptiles.
This is Belierin. Finally the bottom of the marsh deepens
and the traveler passes into the fourth layer of the plane,
Thalasia, the headwaters of the Oceanus among the Isles
of the Blessed.
While the Oceanus flows between the layers of the
plane, it is not a straight journey. The great river splits into
myriad smaller flows, recombines, and splits again.
Occasionally an offshoot of the river curls around and
reenters the layer it just left.
Vision on Elysium is just as on the Material Plane at that
particular time of day. Elysium shares a day and night
cycle with the Material Plane and has similar (if gentler)
weather. The days are warm and calm, the nights cool and
comfortable.
The nights are also alive with small lights. Not only is
there a river of stars overhead in imitation of the River
Oceanus, but fireflies dance among the trees and fields,
and luminous jellyfish swim beneath the surface of the
Oceanus.

Amoria

Amoria is the topmost layer of Elysium and one of the
most hospitable places on the Outer Planes—if you ignore
the plane’s tendency to convert long-term visitors to fulltime
petitioners. Small towns dot the banks of the River
Oceanus, and islands of rolling hills rise from the river
itself. Boat travel is common, and the bulk of the
population of Elysium lives on this layer.
Amoria is a relatively peaceful place, but it also a place
where those who live have ample opportunities to aid
others and demonstrate goodness. There is still misfortune
on Elysium, but it seems to exist only to show the
collective power of goodness. Calamities here, such as a
village fire or a capsized boat, test and identify those who
are from other planes. Travelers to Amoria are besieged by
small errands and tasks, but if they complete them, they
find powerful allies at their side.
Amoria has seasons, though they are so timid that
visitors from the Material Plane hardly notice them. It is
neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter, and it
rarely rains without a rainbow appearing immediately
afterward. The guardinals often upbraid storm giant druids
and other creatures who can control weather for causing
sudden rainstorms, even if they had a good reason to do so.
The rulers of the guardinals also live on Amoria. These
supremely powerful guardinals are as powerful as the
archdukes of the Nine Hells or the demon princes of the
Abyss. First among their number is Prince Talisid, the
wisest and most powerful of leonals. Talisid’s lieutenants
are known as the Five Companions: the lupine Duke
Lucan, the bearlike Duchess Callisto, the winged Duke
Windheir, the equine Lord Hwyn, and the antlered Lord Rhanok. Together they
organize the efforts of the
guardinals, sending them on missions against evil and
even striking into the lower planes to recover those
captured by the forces of evil.

Eronia

Eronia is a rising land of steep hills, sharp-toothed
mountains, and white granite valleys, which divert the
river again and again. Rugged foothills coil at the bases of
these mountains, high bluffs, plateaus, and mesas. Communities
tend to congregate on the plateaus or in small
towns hunched between the mountains and the River
Oceanus.
The weather is fierce on Eroniai great windstorms and
snowfalls with lightning are common. The summers are
honer and the winters more bitter than on the Material
Plane. Eronia is for the good souls who still want to be
challenged in their afterlife.
Those who live here do so at the whim of the mountains
themselves. Often parts of great hills slide into the river,
blocking it in some locations and forcing it into new
channels in others. Eronia is a place of rugged peace, its
mountains lost in luminous clouds above and a challenge
to any climber. Here the wind whips around mightily, and
even the winged avoral guardinals have some difficulty
flying. All creatures with a fly speed have their maneuverability
reduced to the next lower category (perfect to good,
good to average, average to poor, poor to clumsy). Clumsy
fliers remain clumsy.

Belierin

Belierin is a land of misty swamps and fog-bound marshes, quite the opposite
of what one might expect in a plane of ultimate goodness. Here the river is
no more than a tangled braid of slow-moving water through uncountable channels,
with low, flooded sandbars and tangles of mangrove rising from it. Still, the
positive nature of Elysium shines through this desolate place. The fog itself
seems to spread light with each wispy tendril, surrounding every torch and lantern
with a luminous nimbus. The few communities that exist on Belierin rise from
rocky spurs that jut from the swamp. These small towns are usually built around
a cathedrallike lighthouse whose beacon pierces the mildly luminous fog, bringing
travelers to dock safely. Belierin is the prison of some deadly creature or
creatures. Some tales say the prisoner of Belierin is a powerful monster along
the lines of the tarrasque or monster of legend. Others say that it is a deadly
archduke of the lower planes, a deposed elemental prince, or even a wounded
deity. The indisputable fact is that evil creatures are sometimes caught lurking
here, and the native guardinals are constantly fighting back attacks against
this layer. The true nature of the prisoner of Belierin depends on your cosmology
and your campaign. The layer does make a dangerous prison and is a perilous
region to cross.

Thalasia

This layer is the headwaters of the River Oceanus, the start of the great
river that flows through the layers of Elysium, dodges the sun-dappled trees
of the Beastlands, and plunges into Arborea. Thalasia is dotred with islands
and sprinkled with small communities. These islands are variously known as the
Isles of the Holy Dead, the Isles of the Blessed, the Hills of Avalon, the Islands
beyond the world, and the Heroic Isles. Here the best of the good-aligned petitioners
make their homes, retaining some knowledge and perhaps some power from their
previous lives. Here hero-kings wait for the day when their nations need them
again, and religious scholars research great mysteries in huge libraries. Often
these great petitioners made the journey to Thalasia while still alive but approaching
death, whether from age or from wounds taken in noble battle. Elysium then slowly
converted them to powerful petitioners, and they scarcely felt the pang of death.
In Thalasia they retain their powers and memories but are at peace with themselves
and with others, the ultimate reward for good. The purpose of Thalasia may be
to provide a good and just reward. It may also be to produce recruits to become
guardinals, to create wardens for whatever is locked up in Belierin, or to muster
an army of goodness for an eventual last battle against the forces of evil.

The Fortress of the Sun: Once known as Light’s
Blessing, this stronghold is the domain of the deity Pelor, also known as the
Sun Father and the Shining One. This greater deity is the master of sun, light,
strength, and healing. Pelor’s realm, once a vast manor surrounded by orchards,
vineyards, and farmland for miles, is now a goldplated citadel that forms a
beacon atop Krigala, the largest island in Thalasia. The Fortress of the Sun
dominates the land for a hundred miles around and is clearly visible from the
shores of the Oceanus. It glows like a beacon day and night, providing continual
daylight for a hundred miles in every direction. Creatures are affected as if
in full daylighr within Pelor’s realm, regardless of where they hide. Pelor
sits in a great audience chamber at the highest spire, where he confers with
guardinals, planetars, and solars, dispatching them to deal with the forces
of evil. Because Pelor is one of the most powerful deities on the Great Wheel,
he has correspondingly more control over Elysium’s morphic nature. Everywhere
his golden light reaches has the light gravity trait. Within the same range,
the enhanced magic trait maximizes (as the Maximize Spell feat) all spells of
the Sun domain and those with the light descriptor. The impeded magic trait
affects all illusions of the figment, pattern, or glamer subschools. Pelor has
the power to make additional changes in the magic trait if he wishes.