SEVEN MOUNTING HEAVENS OF CELESTIA

It is the land of splendor.

It is where ultimate goodness is idealized.

It is law and good, understanding and mercy.

The single sacred mountain of Celestia rises from an
infinite sea of holy water to incomprehensible heights.
Here, justice, kindness, order, celestial grace, and mercy
are the rules. Here, watchful eyes hold the ramparts
against evil in all its many forms. Here, all things are
beautiful.
The Seven Mounting Heavens are the planar home for
mortal souls of kindness and empathy for their fellow
creatures. But it is a paradise that fiends of the lower
planes would conquer if they could Mount Celestia is a
promise of betterment and ultimate union with the
powers of good and law for those worthy. So supplicants of
every snipe ascend the layers, one after the other, to the
ultimate height of the Heavenly City, and from thence
into the Illuminated Heaven.
Bahamut, lord of kindly dragons, resides on Celestia, as
well as Heironeous, the god of valor, Moradin, the lord of
dwarves; and Yondalla, the goddess of halflings.

CELESTIA TRAITS

Celestia has the following traits.

• Normal Gravity.
• Normal Time.
• Infinite Size: Each layer of Celestia is infinite, though
  each layer is but one portion of the greater mountain,
  each higher than the last.
• Divinely Morphic: Celestia is morphic for entities of at
  least lesser deity power. It is alterable in the normal
  manner for more ordinary creatures.
• No Elemental or Energy Traits.
• Mildly Good-Aligned and Mildly Law-Aligned: Evil
  or chaotic characters on Celestia suffer a –2 penalty on
  Charisma-based checks. Chaotic evil characters suffer a
  –4 penalty on Charisma-based checks.
• Normal Magic.

CELESTIA LINKS

The only way to reach Celestia is by entering its first and
lowest layer, Lunia, also called the Silver Sea. Visitors
always find themselves in the surf of an ocean surrounding
Mount Celestia. Very few portals from other planes
lead anywhere on Celestia other than to the Silver Sea.
A sequence of portals connects Celestia’s seven layers.
Each portal to a higher layer sits at the highest physical
point of the next lower layer. Moving through the layers is
one and the same as ascending Mount Celestia.
But what makes ascending Mount Celestia more than
just a matter of climbing is that each layer has many paths
leading to the next layer. Only those who have found
some truth regarding law and goodness can find the path.
Thus, attaining the pinnacle involves a series of trials during
which the supplicant is slowly washed of ideals that do not conform to the plane.
However, there are rumored
to be nonspiritual shortcuts for the traveler who knows
where to look or whom to talk to.

CELESTIA INHABITANTS

Celestia is home to many creatures of good, such as
aasimars, devas, planetars, and solars. In addition, several
groups of good-aligned natives of the Material Plane have
set up residence on the lowest slope, along the beach of
the Silver Sea.
Celestia’s primary residents, the archons, are to Celestia
what the devils are to the Nine Hells: natives of the plane
and purveyors of its ideals. Archons come in many types;
most common are lantern archons, hound archons, and
trumpet archons (see the Monster Manual). Most petitioners of Celestia are lantern
archons. More
so than most petitioners on other planes, they are graced
with both knowledge and power. Every petitioner’s goal is
to ascend through the layers of Mount Celestia and evolve
into a more glorious archon type. Other archons treat
lantern archons like children, forgiving their errors and
guiding them onto paths of virtue. Lantern archons appear
as floating balls of light that glow like a torch.
Lantern archon petitioners have the following special
petitioner qualities:

Additional Immunities: Electricity, petrification.

Resistances: None.

Special: Hit Die d8, Improved Initiative feat.

Other Special Qualities: Damage reduction 20/+1; light ray; spell-like abilities,
celestial qualities, no planar commitment.

Light Ray (Ex): A lantern archon can attack with two
light rays as +2 ranged touch attacks that deal 1d6 points of
damage each, with a range of 30 feet.

Spell-like Abilities: At will—aid, continual flame, detect evil.
These abilities are as the spells cast by a 3rd-level sorcerer.

Celestial Qualities: Aura of menace (save DC 11), magic
circle against evil, teleport, tongues, +4 racial bonus on
saves against poison.

No Planar Commitment (Ex): Unlike most other petitioners,
lantern archons can leave their home plane.

FEATURES
OF CELESTIA

From the seashore at the bottom of the first layer to the
heights of the seventh, paths wind up the many peaks, ridges, canyons, and passes
of Mount Celestia. Somehow,
every incline looks up to the next layer, which shines like
the sun on the layer below. Each rift eventually leads
down past arching waterfalls and rushing brooks to the
Silver Sea. Even from many layers above, the ringing
chimes of each wave breaking on the shore of Lunia are
faintly, reassuringly audible.

Lunia

The first and lowest layer of Celestia is also called the
Silver Heaven. Portals from other planes connect to Lunia
at the edge of the wine-dark Silver Sea, a vast gulf of holy
water. The Silver Sea is salt-free and contains all manner of
aquatic life, from tiny schools of silvery fishes to leviathans
moving in the depths.
Lunia’s sky is dark but filled with silvery stars bright
enough to illuminate the shore of the Silver Sea where it
runs up against the base of the mountain. The shore is
dotted with citadels and redoubts of polished white stone
of various architecture and inhabitants. Many are open to
trade from sea elves from the Material Plane.

Castle Mahlhevik: The wonders of Lunia offer much,
even for a chaotic evil wizard committed to learning the
paths of goodness. Calling in favors from various demideities
and revealing his sincerity to highly placed
archons, the wizard Mahlhevik built his castle on the
shore of the Silver Sea in peace. While he’s sincerely
attempting to reform, he’s got a long way to go, and retains
many instincts and notions of his former lifestyle.
Mahlhevik welcomes visitors and allows travelers of any
alignment to stay in Castle Mahlhevik. Some of
Mahlhevik’s “old friends” such as Sytris, once called the
Soul Reaver, and Japheth, formerly known as Lifeleech,
visit from time to time. Arriving onto the plane waist deep
in the holy water of the Silver Sea has a way of scarring
and frightening away Mahlhevik’s old friends, so they
don’t visit often. Interesting trades and even more
interesting stories can be had at Mahlhevik’s castle, and
travelers who don’t want to deal directly with archons
regard it a good place to stay.

Mercuria

The second layer of Celestia is also called the Golden
Heaven. It is a place of thin air and high hopes, where
golden light suffuses everything. Here, the slopes are
tame, the valleys lush, and the streams fast-running.
Plateaus and passes provide spaces for small settlements of
archons and other goodly beings.
Great tombs and wondrous mausoleums on Mercuria
grant eternal rest to the noblest of fighters. Here, the
inhabitants of Celestia honor their deeds during an annual
Day of Memory.

Bahamut’s Palace: This glittering wonder is built
entirely from the treasure hoard of Bahamut the Platinum
Dragon, ruler of good dragons and a paragon of wisdom,
knowledge, prophecies, and song. The palace’s windows
are gemstones in settings of gold and silver, its walls are
inlaid with copper and jade, and its floors are beaten mithral. Within, seven
great wyrms attend Bahamut amid
treasure gathered over eons—and the bones of a thousand
failed thieves.
Bahamut’s Palace moves among the first four layers of
Celestia at Bahamut’s will, carried aloft by a whirlwind.
For travelers friendly to the Platinum Dragon, the palace
offers an alternative method for traveling Celestia without
using the paths.

Venya

The third layer of Celestia is also called the Pearly Heaven.
The slopes of Venya are old, rounded, and occasionally
laced with snow. The brooks run warm and clear, though
ice often forms on the banks in winter. Terraced fields and
carefully tended woodlands are common sights on the
slopes.

The Glass Tarn: This mountain lake of icy water is
nestled in a bowl-shaped valley between three peaks, fed
by the runoff from a glacier of blue ice high above. When a
believer throws something truly important and valuable
into the tarn as an offering, a light rushes up from the
incomprehensible depths. When the light reaches the
surface, it takes the form of a prophecy featuring the
supplicant-or a powerful archon to deal with the intruder
if the offering was not sincere.

Green Fields: Here crops never fail, the weather is always mild, and plentiful
harvests are a blessing. This is the realm of the halfling deity Yondalla, and
that means comfort. The realm is a combination of burrowed households, small
rustic buildings, and endless fields. No large predators live in the Green Fields;
moles, rabbits, and badgers are common.

Solania

The fourth layer of Celestia is also called the Crystal Heaven. A sky that
shines with the glow of burnished silver hangs above the quiet slopes of Solania.
Luminescent fogs and invigorating scents shroud the valleys. Many of the slopes
hold mighty glaciers above, and they remain rich in ore and precious minerals
below. Solania’s peaks are home to monasteries, cathedrals, and other holy shrines.
Often, these structures are the destinations of interplanar pilgrims seeking
answers to questions of creation, toil, and love.

Erackinor: The slopes of Solania are deeply tunneled
with a vast dwarven mansion called Erackinor. None but
dwarves and dwarven petitioners are allowed within.
Those who enter and return speak in hushed tones of
stonework and craftsmanship that far surpasses anything a
dwarf might have seen on the Material Plane.
When Moradin fires up the deep Soul Forges below the
roots of Mount Celestia, all the halls rush with the noise of
the bellows. Dwarven clerics say Moradin uses the Soul
Forges to temper the spirits of his people and their
weapons. The forges may have other uses as well.
The armories of Erackinor are second to none, and the
combat-veteran dwarves and dwarven petitioners that fill
Erackinor’s halls make the mansion nigh impregnable.

Mertion

The fifth layer of Celestia is also called the Platinum
Heaven. The slopes of Mertion are gentle, leveling off in
great, sweeping plains dominated by citadels and domes.
The citadels of Mertion are marshaling grounds for
paladins, celestials, and other creatures of good and law.

Empyrea: Also called the City of Tempered Souls, Empyrea sits on the edge of
a cold, clear mountain lake. The many healing fountains and curative waters
in Empyrea can restore withered limbs, lost speech, derangement, and life energy
itself; those who ail need only find the right fountain. Empyrea is also known
for its healers and hospitals, and many a pilgrim seeks to reach this legendary
site of perfect health.

Jovar

The sixth layer of Celestia is also called the Glittering Heaven. The slopes
are strewn with great rubies and garnets twinkling with light so beautiful that
it steals the breath at first sight. Here, hosts of archons wander the gem fields,
lost in contemplation of the glory of their previous lives.

Yetsira, the Heavenly City: The Heavenly City is
visible from everywhere on Jovar and from vantage points
on lower levels. The city is a seven-layered ziggurat. An
enormous staircase on each of its four faces connects the
terraces. Gemstones of profound value make up every step
and every stone on the ziggurat, and all glow with an inner
light. Hosts of archons move up and down the stairs, but
the structure is so massive that the steps never grow
crowded.
On the lowest terrace sits the Exchequer of Souls, a
black marble building of graceful arches and onion domes
laced with threads of gold and silver. Here powerful
archons weigh the virtues of lower archons, elevating the
worthy to higher forms.
The Radiant Arsenal on the fourth terrace is a long,
narrow building with a vaulted ceiling and extensive
cellars. Here weapons both magic and mundane are stored
to arm the archon hosts if necessary. The most important
weapons are said to contain the essence of powerful
archons. They reside in pearl-lined vaults sealed by deityscribed
glyphs.
The Bridge of al-Sihal on the seventh, highest terrace is
a beam of blinding light. This is the portal to the seventh
heaven, Chronias, and it is guarded by a solar named
Xerona who turns aside the unworthy.

Chronias

The seventh layer of Celestia is also called the Illuminated
Heaven. Chronias is a mystery, though some say it is the
mystery. Those few who achieve the Illuminated Heaven
never return, so no account records Chronias’ true aspect.
Tales say that those who enter have their inherent goodness
magnified until their essence joins with Celestia
itself. Or, if they harbor evil, their souls are extinguished
and their existence is permanently erased from the
multiverse.