The multiverse of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fundamentally changed from Gary Gygax’s perspective in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. Let’s learn about Baator where Takhisis the Queen of Darkness resides. Buy Planescape Campaign Setting (2e): https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17267/planescape-campaign-setting-2e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
If you thought Takhisis was in the Abyss, you are among the clueless of Krynn.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Planescape and the plane of Baator, the Nine Hells. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the Planescape Campaign Setting boxed set, and the Planes of Law supplement for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
Published in 1994, Planescape campaign setting by David ‘Zeb’ Cook was an extension of TSR’s attempt at expanding AD&D 2e via annual boxed sets. This particular setting was inspired by Slade Henson wanting to revamp the Manual of the Planes from AD&D for 2e. But it never really grew legs until the demise of Spelljammer. The game designers at TSR Inc. wanted to have players travel the planes. They wanted an actual setting, not just a way to pop into other worlds like Spelljammer offered. It needed a home base as it were. Hence Cook created Sigil, the city of Doors at the center of the multiverse. While I am not going into the whole of Planescape as a setting but rather the Dragonlance connections to it, I will be skipping past Sigil entirely and the vast majority of the planes of existence, focusing today on the plane of Baator, the Nine Hells.
According to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which Dragonlance came out of, the planes were also a central aligned place, based on Gary Gygax’s depiction in the Players Handbook, and Manual of the Planes. In the Age of Starbirth, the gods came from ‘Beyond’ out of chaos and Reorx created the world. Once the gods created Krynn and Dragons, they warred against Takhisis’ corruption of them in the All-Dragons War. In the fallout, after witnessing the chaos, the gods created The Dome of the Heavens, the Hidden Vale, and the Abyss, which they all retreated to. These names were presented when WotC took over the IP and created the 3rd edition of D&D. So the abstract idea of Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness dwelling in the Abyss was only referenced in the novels, and DLA Dragonlance Adventures. This actually lines up perfectly with the original intent of Dragonlance, to be separate from the other Prime Material worlds, with Paladine or Bahamut and Takhisis or Tiamat being separate entities, rather than aspects or avatars of them.
In Planescape, and lesser so with Spelljammer, the TSR Inc. team tried their best to unify the Great Cosmic Wheel and thus when they had to place Takhisis into the new multiverse, which was largely changed as aforementioned from the AD&D version, they couldn’t place her in the Abyss. Why? I suspect because much of the great cosmic wheel is intentionally connected to alignments, which were an important facet of AD&D. The Queen of Darkness was Lawful Evil, The Abyss was Chaotic Evil. And while Cook did his best to maintain elements of Jeff Grub’s Manual of the Planes, he felt the need to change many of the outer planes names away from existing religious nomenclature. And thus changing Takhisis’ home was a byproduct of his unification. I mean, even in the Tales of the Lance boxed set, Takhisis was mentioned as dwelling in the 1st plane of the Infernal Realms (Nine Hells), which is not the Abyss.
As today’s video is largely an introduction to Baator, the Nine Hells, we should mention the Planes of Law was the second Planescape supplement for 2e which detailed out Baator in it’s own splatbook, and it would largely receive the most attention with adventures like Fires of Dis in 1995 and Guide to Hell in 1999. So what is Baator and in which of the nine layers does Takhisis dwell? Let’s take a look!
Baator has an infinite number of names, The Big One, The Nine Hells, The Pit of Darkness, the Stinking Mire, etc. It’s clearly based on Dante’s Inferno from his Divine Comedy, and the Catholic view of Hell, just with a different name. It’s home to the Baatezu, famously pictured as the Pit Fiend. The most vile of petitioners consigned here are transformed into Larvae, suffering endlessly at the hands of the Baatezu. Their only hope is to one day advance and become a torturer themselves. As mentioned there are nine hells, or nine layers. While the Tales of the Lance boxed set claims Takhisis dwells in the 1st plane or layer, Planescape clearly places her there as well, but as a watchdog of the second layer, but we’ll get to that shortly.
The first layer is Avernus. It’s a rocky wasteland with a dark red and starless sky, sound familiar? The similarity to the Dragonlance novels version of the Abyss ends there however. It contains spheres that weave and flare into explosions which illuminate the landscape. It is filled with savage legions led by Bel, a pit fiend. The River Styx flows through this layer, and Tiamat, the Queen of Darkness guards the entrance to the next layer. But before we get to the second layer called Dis, let’s address the elephant or Queen in the room shall we? As mentioned, the original Dragonlance design team wanted to keep Takhisis and Tiamat separate, so any meta plots or events that happen in and out of the Dragonlance campaign setting wouldn’t affect the story. Cook did a great job of maintaining that connection by making some abstract claims in the Planes of Law, Baator splatbook.
He posited the conundrum of Takhisis and Tiamat being awfully similar, but some assert that Takhisis and Tiamat, other than their appearance, are completely different, as night and day, as he puts it. Tiamat is a glorified watchdog to the second layer of Baator, while Takhiss is revered as a greater power. This presents Tiamat as merely a reflection of Takhisis, but leaves it open so that no one really knows. I like this view, leaving it up to the game table rather than throwing down the gauntlet and flat out either elevating Tiamat a watchdog to godly levels, or dragging down Takhiss, denigrating her entirely.
Returning to the nine levels, Dis is the second layer. It features an iron city with smoking black walls with the same name. The ash green sky looms over narrow streets and the petitioners work endlessly at tearing down and building up its structures. Their flesh burns and their screams echo across the city as they toil without tools. Its archduke rules from a tower of lead and stone. Minauros is the third layer. It’s known as the layer of greed with foul rain, oil sleet and razor sharp hail. The only city is Minauros amidst the volcanic glass landscape. It’s built of black stone. Fiends drive petitioners onto the bog for rare stone, who drag up diseased bodies. The fourth layer is Phlegethos, the legendary realm of fire. It is filled with volcanoes and appears much like the Plane of Fire. The only city, Abriymoch, is built in the caldera of an extinct volcano.
Stygia is the fifth layer and known as the realm of ice. It is a great frozen sea, save where the river Styx passes through. Lightning scores the sky above the ice-crusted city of Tantlin, perched on a great ice flow. Malbolge, the sixth layer, is a massive rockfall. Travelers must scale its massive boulders or tunnels carved from wind. The sky is filled with red colored steam above a series of copper-clad fortresses. The seventh layer is Maladomini. Known as the plane of ruins. Its mining pits, slag heaps and brackish canals are remnants of the building of its cities upon cities. Malagard, its newest, stands above its surface. Cania is the eighth layer and it’s worse than Stygia. It is much like the plane of Ice with massive glaciers and jagged mountains. The citadel of Mephistar overlooks the glacier of Nargus. The last and final layer of Baator is Nessus. In the deepest trench sits the overlords citadel. Unmapped and undescribed, it stands on the shore of a lake of fluid ice, feeding the River Lethe. It is a realm of the most extreme elements.
Outro
I may delve deeper into different layers of Baator and its denizens, but for now that is all I have to say about Baator, the Nine Hells. Did you like how the D&D cosmology changed in 2nd Edition? Do you think Takhis is is Tiamat? And finally have you ever taken a group into the planes? Leave a comment below.
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