Planes of Monvesia: Liminal Companions

The dichotomy of Faerie and the Abyss was introduced in 4th Edition, when the Feywild was set up as a counterpoint to the Shadowfell (an evolution of the Plane of Shadow).  In Monvesia, this relationship is repeated by making these two planes the Limninal Companions.  As companions, these two planes share a connection to the Lithosphere and the Pyrosphere.

While Faerie is a realm of life and creation, the Abyss is a realm of death and decay.  They are bound by Vaspyron, the dominion of the morning and evening star--dawn and dusk as reflections of these two planes.  Monvesia's mortal inhabitants further bind these transitive planes:  While the elves of Prace (or haltias) retain the race's original connection to Faerie, the elves of Xahaca (or hulders) have abondoned that plane in favor of the darkness of the Abyss.

Undying of Monvesia

In some settings, the undead are the creation of bored, evil gods who seek to terrorize the mortal world.  In Monvesia, they are a natural offshoot of the transitive region of the Necrosphere.  This region goes by several names:  the Plane of Shadow, the Plane of Fear, the Domains of Dread, the Nightmare Realm.  All undead are powered by this place, and it is in this place that the most powerful of their kind have come to live eternally and rule over their fellows.  These are the Undying who make pacts with warlocks.

Classifying Monvesian Creatures

RETCON NOTE:  Portions of this posts are sysematically being replaced by a series of posts under the heading of "Classifying Monvesian Creatures":

• Aberrations, Celestials, Fiends
• Anachromisms, Doubles, Thoughtforms
• Beasts & Monstrosities
• Divinities
• Elementals
• Fey [& Plants]
• Humanoids & Giants
• Undead

General information about creature classification in this setting will remain in this post.

As has been pointed out in previous posts, the nature of Monvesia is different from that other D&D worlds.  To accommodate these differences, there needs to be some minor shuffling of creatures.  A few new monster types have even been created.  The creature types of Monvesia are listed below, showing those both new and altered.

Beasts

Many creatures normally classified as monstrocities are included among the beasts of Monvesia. 

• Catoblepas [beast]
• Roc [beast]

Daemons (Multiple Types)

Daemons are a family of several monster types, each tied to one of the three-Sphere transitive planes. Five of these types already exist in the game, and three are new: Aberrations, Anachronisms, Doubles, Celestials, Fey, Fiends, Thoughforms, and Undead.

Nefretic Cosmology

In my Nefret campaign, the souls of gods and mortals are inexorably tied to the structure of the planes they inhabit--for every being is composed of an aspect of each plane.  With a strong culture of life, death, and afterlife, it is important to establish the details of the soul and planar cosmology early on in the campaign.  The player experience interacting with these elements needs to be consistent.

Since I know my players follow the blog, I'll also point out that the information here isn't really privileged.  This is the basic knowledge that any character with 1 rank in an appropriate skill would know.

Nature of the Souls

All beings, mortal and immortal, are composed of several souls:  a body (khat), a spirit (ka), a mind (ba), a shadow (sheut), a heart (ib), and a name (ren).  In death, these components separate--and may be transformed and/or reunited in the afterlife.

Body - Material Form

A living body and a dead corpse both share the designation of khat. After death, the the corpse may be preserved as a mummy--which can be the result of natural forces or of artificial embalming.  The khat is a mortal, decaying body born of the mortal world of Gebeb.