DISCLAIMER: Important text is bolded for skimming purposes. Feel free to skip to the sections you're most interested in.
The Upper Planes, as a piece of worldbuilding, are currently very flawed. The Upper Planes have a lack of distinct and inspiring inhabitants, conflict, and storytelling opportunities for players and DMs to use in their characters or campaigns. But, these realms are not fundamentally flawed, and there is plenty of room for growth. In this post, I’m going to detail some ways to expand upon the Upper Planes and revise existing content to make it more usable for players and DMs while preserving what already makes the Upper Planes unique from each other. But before we dive into the individual realms, we need to set some themes, and answer some questions: like, what does ‘good’ mean in DnD?
What’s ‘Good’?
According to the 2003 DnD book titled the ‘Book of Exalted Deeds’, a ‘good’ act is one that includes acts of charity, mercy, forgiveness, selflessness, bringing hope and healing wounds. In this way, it becomes clear as to why the Upper Planes have such an issue with storytelling, while the Lower Planes are rife with storytelling opportunity; the ‘good’ alignment isn’t designed to be the action of the story, it’s designed to be the solution. The thing that’s happening is ‘evil,’ and the ‘good’ alignment is called on to solve that. And while this is great for adventures where the player characters bring ‘good’ to an ‘evil’ situation, it fails to provide storytelling opportunities where the actions of the ‘good’ are the initiating event in the story, leading to the ‘good’ alignment to being generally reactionary and passive. Now, it of course should be the case that a person would rather be in a ‘good’ aligned realm than an ‘evil’ aligned realm, but if the idea of ‘good’ is a perfect idea of good, then we’re left stuck in a corner. How do we make the idea of ‘good’ into something conflicting, without it becoming ‘bad?’ The answer is: we can’t. The idea of a ‘perfect good’ simply cannot work. But how can we have these planes be 'good' planes without an idea of 'perfect good'? Simple: the planes aren't perfect good, they're striving for perfect good. This not only allows these planes to do wrong while still being good planes, but they also instantly give each of the Upper Planes a goal, which they were in desperate need of. But, there's other big problems we have to tackle outside of revising our idea of 'good', such as:
How do the Upper Planes create Celestials? This is a question that I have difficulty answering using the Forgotten Realms wikis. In the Lower Planes, mortal souls could be transformed into Fiends, instantly creating a connection between mortals, these planes, and their inhabitants that could be expanded in all sorts of ways. But it seems that Celestials simply create more Celestials via normal reproduction, and the souls of people who move on to the Upper Planes remain preserved. Here’s an idea: Celestials also convert mortal souls into Celestials to reproduce.There is no permanent existence in the realms, except godhood, perhaps. This small change does a number of things:
It forces the idea of ‘good’ in these realms to become more complicated. How can they essentially destroy the identities of these souls while maintaining their ‘goodness’? Why would they?
It makes the Upper Planes interact directly with other parts of the worldbuilding, especially mortals. Each Upper Plane will basically have some kind of agenda that they pursue, leading to storytelling opportunities.
It forces the inhabitants to be more complicated.
So, we have a starting point; fleshing out how the planes create Celestials. That’s a good starting point for its inhabitants, but what about the realms themselves? My proposal is that the Upper Planes each demand something of mortal souls before they can be transformed into Celestials and serve their Upper Plane - without achieving it, these mortal souls are left wandering in a kind of Celestial Aether. With that, I introduce the idea of: The Celestial Mantra.
‘Celestial Mantra’ and ‘Affiants’
When a mortal soul dies, depending on their actions in life or which deity they worshipped, their soul will be sent to one of the 17 Outer Planes. If they were morally evil, they’d be cast down to the Lower Planes, where their souls would be put through torment, eventually being mangled into the forms of fiends. But if a mortal soul has lived a good life, they’d be sent up to one of the Upper Planes, getting to enjoy the paradise-like existence the planes would offer to them. However, this paradise cannot last forever. Throughout the multiverse, there is not such a thing as an infinite mortal soul. No matter where it spends its afterlife, as a Mortal Soul ages after its death, it will gradually fade and dissipate, turning into pure positive and negative energy that is absorbed into the realm it inhabits. While this is a slow process, sometimes taking several thousand years, a mortal soul’s disintegration is inevitable.
Out of mercy and pity for these souls, the Upper Planes provides them with a paradise, and a choice: a soul may either spend its remaining time enjoying paradise before becoming nothingness, or it may submit itself for a transformation into a Celestial. As a celestial, it will still lose its memories and identity, but it will be able to survive indefinitely, until it is killed. And, with its newfound life and divine power, it can work towards the Celestial Mantrathat it has pledged its life to pursue. A Celestial Mantra is, simply put, the ideal of ‘Perfect Good’ a Celestial hopes to strive for. Each type of Celestial has a different ‘Mantra’, since each realm considers ‘perfect good’ to be a different thing. The Celestial inhabitants of a realm will work in unison to achieve this Mantra with complete dedication, drawing life from these Mantras (rather than food or water) in order to continue their work.That means that, as a Celestial makes progress towards their Mantra, their lifespan will increase and their power will grow stronger; but should they lose progress on their Mantra, they’ll become weaker, to the point where a Celestial who fails to achieve their Mantra in any sense will die from a lack of energy.
A Mortal Soul will be offered the chance to become a Celestial only if they’ve successfully proven to the Upper Plane itself that they’ve dedicated their soul, in some way, to this Mantra; if a person has already proven this through their life, then upon their death, they will be instantly offered the chance to transform. Otherwise, they must spend their afterlife not living in paradise, but as an “Affiant”, a form of Mortal Spirit that works under true Celestials and follows their commands. They are essentially ‘good’ ghosts working under a Celestial master. If they prove themselves as a Celestial Affiant, then they are transformed into a Celestial, losing their memories but fully joining the Upper Planes. To indicate that they are not quite Celestial, Affaints could be classified as Undead, giving Celestials a more complicated relationship with the creature type and further justifying the ‘Turn Undead’ ability innate to most Clerics.
The establishing of ‘Celestial Mantras’ and ‘Affiants’ as a major worldbuilding element is the main revision to Celestials as a whole that changes the Upper Planes into something more complicated. This makes transforming into a Celestial a selfless act that a creature chooses to do or is tasked with undergoing, rather than an unfortunate fate a soul is doomed too, as with the fiends. And, souls can choose not to undergo this act, maintaining their sense of self but dooming themselves to an inevitable destruction. Most of all, these two additions to the Celestials’ lore acts as a building block for more worldbuilding developments!! But from here, we can no longer work with broad systems - it’s time to get into the specifics of each Upper Plane and their inhabitants!
Diving into the Upper Planes
In this section, we’ll be taking a look at some ways that each of the Upper Planes could be expanded upon, including varying their visual identities, revising their inhabitants, and centralizing their conflicts around a specific idea. In general, each of the Outer Planes represents one major moral ideal; Gehenna is greed, the Nine Hells is tyranny and ambition, Mechanus is total order… so what do the Upper Planes represent? Well, as a starting-off point:
Mount Celestia represents law, order, and justice.
Bytopia represents compassion and community.
Elysium represents peace.
The Beastlands represent natural life.
Arborea represents self-expression.
From these vague descriptions, we can piece together a bold representation of each of these ideals within their respective realms, and create Celestials centered entirely around these ideals. Feel free to skip to whatever plane you’re interested in reading about.
Mount Celestia - The Celestial Archons.
In contrast to the Abyss’ chaos and the Nine Hells’ tyranny, Mount Celestia represents just and fair institutions that defend against criminal cruelty and support the average citizen.
Mount Celestia’s structure will be similar to the original realm’s design, with each of its layers coming together to form a giant mountain-like structure. It will still be known as the Seven Heavens, with its main inhabitants being the Celestial Archons and Mortal Souls. There will be notable differences, however: Mortal Souls are allowed only on the beaches of Lunia, Mount Celestia’s first layer. There, they get to enjoy existence within a structured and civilized society, living lavish lifestyles, feasting on expensive foods, and wearing expensive jewelry. In Mount Celestia, Mortal Souls get to enjoy all the comforts of a wealthy lifestyle, with limit; everyone has similar wealth to each-other, and it is not a lifestyle free of work. If one is greedy, a soul may be tempted to steal from their neighbors, letting them enjoy a gluttonous lifestyle rather than a simply wealthy one; but if caught, these criminals will face heavy punishment. In the same way, inhabitants are charged with misdemeanors for disrupting the peace in one of any number of ways, including being obnoxiously loud, crude, getting into public arguments, dressing unfashionably, being overly intoxicated, etc. Fortunately, courts are very fair within Mount Celestia, and a first-time breaching of the law will most likely land you nothing more than a public apology as punishment. In Mount Celestia, most problems are expected to be handled through court, with Celestial Archons as judges and Mortal Souls as the jury. This can sometimes be jarring for newly arriving mortals, as even petty arguments and disagreements over opinions are often settled in this way, with there being a legal process and precedent for even the most obscure and niche of situations.
Speaking of inhabitants, Mount Celestia is home to the Celestial Archons. These winged, metallic celestials act as judges, referees, policemen, and moderators of Mount Celestia, and are known for travelling in groups outside of their home plane to enforce the law. While Archons can vary greatly in appearance, they are mostly unified by their metallic and hollow bodies, holding glowing torch-lights within. These metallic bodies bend and shape into several different forms, visually similar to blades, animals, or humans. One may describe these celestials as looking like a mixture between constructs and holy spirits, in this way. Envision the current designs of the Celestial Archons, but ran through a filter to make them all look more similar to Lantern Archons.
The Mantra of Mount Celestia is “A fair, just, and undisrupted society for all.” Celestial Archons swear to enforce a moral law without bias, judge all equally, and defeat those that would disrupt a fair and just society. Lawmen, doctors, judges, and kings who treat their subjects equally and decently are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by taking down a vicious criminal or fiend, defending a mortal’s rights, or bringing deserved justice to people by killing a corrupt king. A Celestial Archon is prone to demotion when they look the other way while witnessing injustice, lash out unjustly at a mortal, or act upon a supposed criminal without due process or without restraint.
Bytopia - The Uniovels
In contrast to Gehenna’s greed and Carceri’s resentment, Bytopia is now the representation of compassion and well-knit communities that share resources, forgive mistakes, and work together to support a simple and comfortable lifestyle. This is a change from Bytopia’s original meaning, which generally fell along the lines of ‘an honest day’s work’. Aspects of that moral will be incorporated into this version of the realm, but will not be the focus.
Like Mount Celestia, Bytopia will preserve its general realm design, still consisting of two infinite landscapes positioned facing each-other, each one glowing brightly, with large mountains connecting each landscape. However, a new kind of contrast will be drawn between the two layers; rather than one being of moderate climate and the other of extreme climate, the two layers will be constant opposites of each-other in climate. Where there is a desert on one layer, one may look up to see a frozen tundra on the opposite layer. This can be simplified in understanding that Dothion is home to polar, temperate, and continental climates, while Shurrock is home to continental, dry, and tropical climates. When it comes to plantlife, Bytopia’s plants are generally comparable to those found within the Material Plane, except that the fruits and flowers of this plant life are often luminescent, as well as incredibly tall. Most things in Bytopia are incredibly tall and thin, with both plantlife and rock stretching upwards as if hoping to someday connect with something on the opposing layer; things in Bytopia are constantly growing upwards, and its inhabitants must work diligently to farm, mine, or otherwise whittle down the realm so that its two layers do not meet each other, squashing the realm completely; however, some mountains have been allowed to grow so that they may connect with mountains on the other sides, forming bridges that allow commerce from one layer to the other. While this diligent upkeep of the realm may seem difficult, it is very rewarding, with the inhabitants of the realm working together to not only survive, but live comfortably in this realm, making community life into its own kind of paradise!
Bytopia’s main inhabitants are Mortal Souls and Uniovels, who formed communities ranging from villages to kingdoms. It was usually the case that there would be a kingdom on each of Bytopia’s two layers, positioned exactly above each-other. These two kingdoms would trade resources with each-other regularly, as Bytopia’s climates were often so harsh that a community could only prosper by collaborating with their neighbors in the opposite layer. A desert kingdom in Shurrock could preserve food and avoid starvation by trading with a polar kingdom in Dothion, for instance.
Speaking of inhabitants, this revised version of Bytopia comes with a new kind of Celestial, which I’ve already namedropped; the Celestial Uniovels. These tall, plant-like humanoids often sport multiple sets of limbs, optimal for physical labor and fine craftsman work. As a rule, each Uniovel is one mind existing in two opposite bodies, with each body taking being a fleshy, humanoid form growing plant life from it native to an ecosystem opposite of the other. At any given moment, a Uniovel sees through and controls both of its bodies at once. One of its bodies may appear as a winter fern in one body and a desert cactus in another, and so long as one body is alive, that Uniovel is alive. Should one body die, the other can use its celestial power to bring forth another body, once again balancing the Uniovel across two forms. Generally, a Uniovel will keep the two bodies in two different settlements, essentially acting as a messenger and diplomat between the two towns; but it is also common for a Uniovel to bring their two bodies together so that they may work at greater efficiency at one particular problem.
The Mantra of Bytopia is “a connected and compassionate community.” Celestial Uniovels use their multi-bodied forms to encourage goodwill acts of kindness, including sharing, forgiveness, and uniting communities to solve a common problem. Village leaders, diplomats, and especially generous mortals are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by saving communities from threats like starvation and plague, ending conflicts between communities, or reuniting separated families. A Celestial Uniovel is prone to demotion when they greedily hoard resources for themselves, solve a problem at the expense of others, or divide communities.
Elysium - The Celestial Guardinals
In contrast to Hades’ apathy and misery as well as the Lower Planes’ constant war, Elysium represents peace and calmness, a space where one is able to rest from their long travels.
Elysium is going to be the first realm to face incredibly drastic changes; rather than simply be four layers filled with wondrous plantlife and natural perfumes, each of Elysium’s finite layers exists on the backs of giant astral turtles, except for its first layer - Thalasia. Thalasia, in this iteration, exists as a giant ocean floating in a ‘cup’ of pearly white clouds. From this ‘cup’, known as Elysium’s Challice, spreads out several ‘rivers’ of white clouds, carrying the River Oceanus across the Upper Planes.
Elysium is not reachable via regular means. The entire realm is constantly travelling across a vast expanse of nothingness, with its Astral Turtles following behind the ever-moving Thalasia as it drifts across the aether. Rather than taking any regular portal to Elysium, one can only reach Elysium through the River Oceanus, which is forever flowing through the Beastlands and Abrorea, but also periodically dips into any one of the Inner Planes, the Astral Sea, Mount Celestia, Ysgard, and the Outlands.
Rather than have four layers, Elysium’s layers reach a count of about a dozen, including Thalasia. These realms each vary in size and have one predominant ecosystem, with each realm resting on the back of a giant turtle; sometimes, as one Astral Turtle approaches another, or the waters of Thalasia, the realms overlap enough to make travel between them possible, without use of any kind of portal. Across these realms lies many kinds of fantastical and wondrous plant species that are incomparable to those found within the Inner Planes - trees sprout into massive flowers, ferns are weighed down by large fruits growing from their tips, etc. etc. In these lush environments, many settlements of both Mortal Soul and Guardinals have been built, cultivating these wonderland-like plants and taking care of the Astral Turtles that these realms are built upon. No matter where you are, whether in the wilderness or in the center of the Guardinal cities, there is always the scent of sweet perfume and the sound of soothing music floating in the air, with the very realm itself emanating relaxation.
The inhabitants of Elysium are the Guardinals, as well as all manner of celestial animals or beings, including hollyphants, solars, etc. These animal-like humanoid celestials are beings of pure love and homeliness, revelling in providing relaxation and comfort for others. Carrying a degree of unconditional love for all things in existence, with very little exception, these celestials like to spend their long lives expressing that love in every way they can through acts of kindness and generosity. Thanks to this, Guardinals have a tendency to learn useful skills used to better another person’s day or help solve their problems, like cooking, flower arrangement, painting, weaving, carpentry, and on and on and on. Each Guardinal has a particular way that they like to express their love, and will spend their existence improving the craft of expressing love.This nature of theirs has led to them turning their homeland into a relaxing paradise unlike any other, a place where the Guardinals will cater to your every need and provide you with a peaceful existence. Their love-filled existence is so extreme that, unlike other Celestials, they do not hate fiends; rather, they pity fiends as beings incapable of existing with the rest of the world and experiencing its love because of their destructive natures. There are many stories of Guardinals trying to interact humanely and peacefully with all manner of fiends, getting varying results; against demons and devils, the efforts usually fail, but there have been rare cases of a Guardinal successfully reaching out to Hordlings. Often, a Guardinal will be left heartbroken by their interactions with Fiends, as their boundless amounts of love makes them very vulnerable to rejection, and very few Fiends will be swayed by a Guardinals words.
The strongest and oldest of all the Guardinals are the Astral Turtles, who have taken the expression of their love to a level beyond any other by providing entire realms for people to take safe haven in; baby Astral Turtles, for instance, are known to provide demiplanes to select mortals with entire demiplanes used for escaping danger, while the adult Astral Turtles are the ones which carry Elysium itself (originally, there was only Thalasia and some sparse islands within its ocean; as more Guardinals appeared, the realm got bigger with the addition of the Astral Turtles). Outside of their home plane, Guardinals will often adamantly protect even total strangers from danger as if protecting a loved one, although even while protecting people they are very slow to harm even fiends, out of a basic love for all beings. Guardinals will only enact violence against a creature if they will or already have caused large amounts of harm to those the Guardinal cares about - at that point, Guardinals change from soft-hearted creatures of love into vengeful and raging beasts of slaughter and grief. But usually, instead of resorting to violence, a Guardinal will prefer to summon a baby Astral Turtle and provide an escape for victims of tyranny.
The Mantra of Elysium is “a peaceful and loving people.” Guardinals strive to foster love and kindness amongst individuals, end wars without bloodshed, solve problems in a way that satisfies all parties involved, and connect deeply with mortal beings. Loving parents, dutiful partners, peace-bringers, and those who harbor a deep respect for their fellow man are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by forgiving and showing kindness to enemies, bringing peace to a land, and solving great conflicts with as little bloodshed as possible. A Celestial Guardinal is prone to demotion when they allow senseless violence, take other people’s kindness for granted, or act cruelly towards those most in need of love.
The Beastlands - The Morphon
Contrasting Gehenna’s cruelty and Carceri’s sadism, the Beastlands will be a representation of living in a natural state of life, present in the current moment without lingering on the past or fearing the future.
The Beastlands will also be undergoing major changes to their worldbuilding, but these changes are more difficult to make, as the giant natural wildernesses forever caught in a specific time of day is mighty appealing as a realm. The new Beastlands will take the form of several ‘threads’, infinitely long cylindrical stretches of earth that house all manner of ecosystems. Each ‘thread’ is a single layer, housing all manner of ecosystems, with there being three ‘threads’ in all; these threads intertwine into a kind of ‘rope’, although there is large amounts of open space between them so that each layer has open space for plants and animals to exist within. These three ‘threads’, or layers, will function identically to the current Beastlands, with each one being a completely uncontrolled wilderness caught forever in a specific time of day. However, these Beastlands will be home to all manner of habitats, from deserts, to oceans, to forests, rather than only jungles;however, none of these habitats are quite the same as their counterparts within the material plane. Each of these habitats are brought to their most extreme state; with massive mountains and deep gorges filled to the brim with thick jungles, or left completely empty with wide expanses of nothing but sand, there is no moderate environment within this realm.
The inhabitants of this plane are in a constant, never-ending migration from one end of the eternal threads of the Beastlands to the other, never settling in one place for any longer than a week before setting off again to continue their migration. In this infinite migration, one has no choice but to exist only in the present moment, letting time slip away as a creature’s judgement clears and their inner animal begins to shine. This realm awakens a keen awareness of one's present self within a person, opening a creature’s eyes to the reality of their existence; they are an animal, a creature of nature who exists only in the present moment. They eat what they catch, and they know that one day, they will be caught. All beings support all other beings' lives, in perfect harmony; such is the cycle of life.
This plane is inhabited by very few humanoids. Humanoid Mortal Souls do live in the Beastlands, travelling in packs along its threads, but a majority of the Beastlands’ inhabitants are the incarnations of mortal beast souls, and some animal-like celestials. The predominant celestial race of this plane are the Celestial Morphon. These animal-shaped celestials can take the form of several kinds of animals, depending on what type of Morphon it is, with one unifying aspect being shared amongst all morphons: no matter the form they take, a Celestial Morphon will always maintain two angelic wings sprouting from their back. All Morphons could take on a humanoid form, but most of their other forms would be centered around a species of animals; Felid Morphons have the power to transform into various kinds of large wild cats, or a small housecat. There are two main types of Morphons; Greater Morphons, who retain this shape-shifting ability, and Lesser Morphons, who simply retain a single animal form and cannot shapeshift. Pegasus have been turned into a type of Lesser Morphons in this revision, tracing their origins to the Beastlands rather than its neighboring realm of Arborea.
The Mantra of the Beastlands is “living in harmony with the natural world.” Morphons encourage others to coexist with nature, shed societal expectations in favor of living in the moment, honor the lives that are taken to support one's own, and not to take more than they need or give too little in return. Druids, all manner of beasts, farmers, doctors, and those with a deep respect for their fellow living beings are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by preserving wildlife, defeating those who would spoil the natural world and forsake the future for selfish gains, and for protecting the natural cycles of the world. Morphons are prone to demotion if they kill or eat more than is necessary, disrupt the natural cycles of the world, harm nature, or take away a creature’s power to sustain their natural life.
Arborea - The Celestial Eladrin
Contrasting the Nine Hells’ oppressiveness and the Abyss’ selfish indulgence, Arborea represents pure self-expression and freedom.
Arborea will be remaining very similar to its original iteration, being visually similar to the Material Plane, with the exception of size; apart of its inhabitants, everything in Arborea is dozens to hundreds of times larger than its Material Plane counterparts, varying wildly in size even from identical objects. Two apples growing from the same tree might be the size of a watermelon or a horse, respectively. Structured societies do exist in this realm, though they are simple, and the law does not have as much power over this realm’s celestials; rather, balance is kept through promises and decency. As a whole, this plane is one of pure energy, although not always in the literal sense of the world. Everything within the realm is full-force and unpredictable: a winter storm may be somewhat mild, or a blizzard like nothing else in history. Something is always happening in Arborea: landslides, thunderstorms, and stampedes are balanced out by sunny days, parties, and sudden spring temperatures. It makes sense for Arborea to go mostly unchanged and retain its hyperbolic depiction of the material plane, since the other Upper Planes that were looking too similar to it have already been changed.
The main inhabitants of Arborea are the Celestial Eladrin, who will also go mostly unchanged from their original depictions. These beings of energy are high in emotion, shifting from completely vengeful to endlessly joyous at the drop of a hat. Each Celestial Eladrin maintains both an energy and physical form, and even while in their physical forms one can feel a constant hum of pure excitement surrounding these animated beings. Honestly I would change very little about Arborea and the Celestial Eladrin, except for adding the fact that they may really hate Archons.
The Mantra of Arborea is “a life of total freedom and passion.” Eladrin fights fiercely for expressing one’s truest self in any way one sees fit, toppling governments and social structures that impede a person’s ability to live how they’d like, and having the most fun one can have. Bards, rebels, anarchists, and those who fight for the oppressed are all considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by bringing down tyrants, majorly impacting a civilizations culture through art, or by freeing themselves or others from oppressive societies and showing pride for aspects of oneself that evildoers would try to shame them for. A Celestial Eladrin is prone to demotion if they oppress others, silence a people’s voice, act dishonestly, or prioritize social standards and the law over others’ or their own happiness.
The Revised Aasimar
Finally, with the designs, inhabitants, and Mantras of all the main 5 Upper Planes detailed, there’s one last piece of content related to the Upper Planes that desperately needs some tweaking; Aasimar. As we know, the Aasimar’s main problems are its poor visual design and its lack of compelling conflict. But with the adjustments we’ve already made to the Upper Planes, and with the addition of Celestial Mantras, we can absolutely improve both the Aasimar’s conflict and design!
First and foremost: visual design. This revised version of the Aasimar is going to have several attributes of itself shared amongst all Aasimar. These attributes include:
Halo Markings. These patterned glowing lines stretching across an Aasimar’s body are different for each Aasimar and share a resemblance with the Celestials connected to the plane the Aasimar is most closely related to. At moments of high stress, such as when casting powerful spells or using immense physical force, these markings glow brighter, projecting a unique halo around the Aasimar’s head, as well as an aura around their body.
Vestigial Wings. These small wings can also be unique in looks, placement, and number depending on the Aasimar.
Technicolor Skin. An Aasimar’s skin may look like their root species’ skin, or it may look metallic or marble-like in gloss.
As for conflict, these new Aasimar will face the danger of having a Celestial Mantra thrust upon a creature that isn't worthy or wanting of one. Each Aasimar has one of the Celestial Mantras from one of the Upper Planes constantly pulling at them, like a Jiminy-Cricket conscious-on-your-shoulder type deal. Except rather than hearing a voice or seeing messages, these mantras pull at Aasimar’s hearts, giving instinctual gut feelings that push them to act in certain ways. An Aasimar who does not follow this Mantra puts their life in danger as the Mantra saps their soul away; meanwhile, an Aasimar who follows the Mantra may be driven mad by having their mind be constantly pulled at by this divine oath that they never even agreed to make.
That sounds like a pretty compelling conflict to me! The ‘Celestial Mantra’ can be any one of a dozen things, and the conflict of being driven mad by one’s own divinity certainly feels fresh and distinct for the Aasimar, but it doesn’t really work as a conflict unless it functionally impacts the Aasimars in question. At the same time, there’s some people who wouldn’t want to be playing with this whole ‘Celestial Mantra’ idea, so if it does functionally impact the Aasimar, it has to be flexible enough so that the player may choose how it plagues their character. It’s definitely clear that this revised version of the Aasimar will be needing its own species traits, but those are coming another day!!
So, in the end, those are my revised versions of the Upper Planes. Or at least some ideas I've thrown out there. The main additions are the Celestial Mantras, ideals of perfect good that Celestials haven't achieved, but are striving for, as well as new visual identities and an overhaul of the current Celestial types as well as the addition of 2 new Celestial types, the Uniovels and the Morphons.
What additions do you like? What else could be changed to further improve the Upper Planes? Are the current revisions moving in the right direction? How would the revised Aasimar function, ability-wise?
In relation to the revised Aasimar species traits, I'm having a bit of trouble. I'm hesitant to remove any of its abilities, as they're all pretty interesting - but I do have one ability that I think should be added to connect the revised Aasimars abilities to their storytelling. So at the moment, I'm proposing an optional species trait that can be added onto the existing 2024 Aasimar species. This trait will represent the conflict of Aasimar suffering under their Celestial Mantra functionally, hopefully giving people further inspiration for what kind of conflicts their Aasimar characters could have.
Optional Aasimar Species Trait: Celestial Burden.
Your connection to the Upper Planes has placed a divine weight on your soul that can sometimes be too much to bear. This Celestial Burden can grant you strength, but also comes at a heavy toll. Roll for or select a Celestial Burden - a specific goal, agenda, or ideal that your divine essence pulls you towards - from the below table, and work with your DM to determine the specifics of your Celestial Burden or create one not found on the table.
d8
Celestial Burden
1
Your Celestial Burden demands vengeance against sources of evil. It compels you to smite a specific type of being when you meet them, such as fiends, goblins, or criminals.
2
Your Celestial Burden compels you to save or help innocent lives, at all costs.
3
Your Celestial Burden is the tenets of a particular god, or the mission of a particular organization.
4
Your Celestial Burden is a prophecy you must bring to fruition - or thwart.
5
Your Celestial Burden pushes you to defeat a specific being or organization - such as the king of a certain kingdom, a particular archfiend, or your own sibling.
6
Your Celestial Burden compels you to protect a particular object or person at all costs, or to deliver said object to a particular place.
7
Your Celestial Burden binds you to find a particular location, object, or person.
8
Your Celestial Burden compels you to be forever moving, urging you to discover new places, learn new things, and train new crafts. You can stay settled at one place for only so long before it demands you get on the move again.
Every time you complete a Long Rest, you may attempt a Wisdom saving throw (DC 10 + your PB) to suppress your Celestial Burden. On a successful save, your Celestial Burden is suppressed until your next Long Rest, or until you take a Magic Action to unsuppress it. While your Celestial Burden is not suppressed, you gain the following effects:
Burden’s Reward. If you have the opportunity to act in alignment to your Celestial Burden and you do so, you must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, nothing occurs. On a successful save, you gain a Heroic Inspiration and Temporary Hit Points equal to your character level.
Burden’s Consequence. If you act contrary to your Celestial Burden or try and fail to achieve it, you must succeed in a Charisma saving throw or take a level of Exhaustion. This effect does not activate if your Exhaustion level is 3 or higher.
Angelic Heroism. When you spend a Heroic Inspiration gained by this trait, you regain a usage of Healing Hands or Celestial Revelation.
The DC for your Celestial Burden effects is 8 + your Proficiency Bonus. Every time you make a saving throw against these effects, the saving throw’s DC is increased by +2 for all future saves, as the pull felt by your soul strengthens; this DC resets after a long rest. After succeeding or failing on a saving throw for your Celestial Burden’s effects, you can not make a saving throw for it again for 1 hour, as the burden momentarily lifts.
Now, this can definitely use some tweaking. So should this stay as an optional trait/rule? Should this trait be different somehow? If we were to revise the whole of the Aasimar species, what traits should stay or go?
Throughout the multiverse, there is not such a thing as an infinite mortal soul. No matter where it spends its afterlife, as a Mortal Soul ages after its death, it will gradually fade and dissipate, turning into pure positive and negative energy that is absorbed into the realm it inhabits. While this is a slow process, sometimes taking several thousand years, a mortal soul’s disintegration is inevitable.Out of mercy and pity for these souls, the Upper Planes provides them with a paradise, and a choice: a soul may either spend its remaining time enjoying paradise before becoming nothingness, or it may submit itself for a transformation into a Celestial.
Well, something like that but not exactly. I have been using the term "mortal soul" in the sense of "the soul of a mortal creature" but I think it is a bit of a cop-out if the soul itself has a limited lifespan. I prefer the notion that a person in a good afterlife would eventually, not so much get bored of existence, but feel content with their time and desire no more. The afterlife, being good, would offer options for a dignified end. One option would be to dissolve into the plane, strengthening what isn't just a place but the very spirit of an alignment. Another option would be to fuel the birth of a celestial. Both options would be seen as helping current and future generations know the same happiness.
Mount Celestia represents law, order, and justice.
Bytopia represents compassion and community.
Elysium represents peace.
The Beastlands represent natural life.
Arborea represents self-expression.
I would make compassion the common denominator between the Upper Planes, the thing they can all agree is essential to achieve an ideal state of goodness. The words you bolded, I fully agree with. Mount Celestia would believe that good flourishes best in a highly structured environment with clear edicts, while Arborea would insist that good is best expressed with complete freedom.
While Archons can vary greatly in appearance, they are mostly unified by their metallic and hollow bodies, holding glowing torch-lights within. These metallic bodies bend and shape into several different forms, visually similar to blades, animals, or humans. One may describe these celestials as looking like a mixture between constructs and holy spirits, in this way. Envision the current designs of the Celestial Archons, but ran through a filter to make them all look more similar to Lantern Archons.
This is how I have been picturing the exemplars of Arcadia, the plane between Mount Celestia and Mechanus. If the game allowed it, they would count as both celestials and constructs, much like the cadaver collectors of Acheron should count as both fiends and constructs. Now, if archons are redesigned like this, what of devils? Are they now all similar to hellfire engines?
While Archons can vary greatly in appearance, they are mostly unified by their metallic and hollow bodies, holding glowing torch-lights within. These metallic bodies bend and shape into several different forms, visually similar to blades, animals, or humans. One may describe these celestials as looking like a mixture between constructs and holy spirits, in this way. Envision the current designs of the Celestial Archons, but ran through a filter to make them all look more similar to Lantern Archons.
This is how I have been picturing the exemplars of Arcadia, the plane between Mount Celestia and Mechanus. If the game allowed it, they would count as both celestials and constructs, much like the cadaver collectors of Acheron should count as both fiends and constructs. Now, if archons are redesigned like this, what of devils? Are they now all similar to hellfire engines?
That's a good thought. Before deciding how devils would look compared to these redesigned archons, I'm interested in seeing what the 2024 Monster Manual has in mind for their redesign. I've heard that the fiends are being made more distinct from each-other, so I'm wondering what kind of ideas they come up with
Mount Celestia represents law, order, and justice.
Bytopia represents compassion and community.
Elysium represents peace.
The Beastlands represent natural life.
Arborea represents self-expression.
I would make compassion the common denominator between the Upper Planes, the thing they can all agree is essential to achieve an ideal state of goodness. The words you bolded, I fully agree with. Mount Celestia would believe that good flourishes best in a highly structured environment with clear edicts, while Arborea would insist that good is best expressed with complete freedom.
This is also a pretty good idea, though I'd argue there's good standing for Bytopia to be representative of community and compassion. The current Bytopia revolves around an honest days work - its a heaven for the working man. Although that idea could have merit, I personally believe that it doesn't have standing as an entire realm. Something like that could be found in Mount Celestia, for instance. Rather, I believe that Bytopia would work better if it were centered around community - perhaps I should shift the focus of Bytopia's representation from compassion to community to make that more clear. After all, Bytopia is the LG/NG realm, so it needs to answer the question of what a realm that is balanced between lawful goodness and neutral goodness would be. I believe the answer to that is a realm based around structure, but not the structure of law or a government-ran society, but rather the social structure of a close-knit and compassionate community. Hence the choice to change Bytopia from its original meaning to one centered around community
It is a good point that, in a way, all the realms are about compassion. So it may be smart to clear up that confusion and make it clear what Bytopia specifically is about
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DISCLAIMER: Important text is bolded for skimming purposes. Feel free to skip to the sections you're most interested in.
The Upper Planes, as a piece of worldbuilding, are currently very flawed. The Upper Planes have a lack of distinct and inspiring inhabitants, conflict, and storytelling opportunities for players and DMs to use in their characters or campaigns. But, these realms are not fundamentally flawed, and there is plenty of room for growth. In this post, I’m going to detail some ways to expand upon the Upper Planes and revise existing content to make it more usable for players and DMs while preserving what already makes the Upper Planes unique from each other. But before we dive into the individual realms, we need to set some themes, and answer some questions: like, what does ‘good’ mean in DnD?
What’s ‘Good’?
According to the 2003 DnD book titled the ‘Book of Exalted Deeds’, a ‘good’ act is one that includes acts of charity, mercy, forgiveness, selflessness, bringing hope and healing wounds. In this way, it becomes clear as to why the Upper Planes have such an issue with storytelling, while the Lower Planes are rife with storytelling opportunity; the ‘good’ alignment isn’t designed to be the action of the story, it’s designed to be the solution. The thing that’s happening is ‘evil,’ and the ‘good’ alignment is called on to solve that. And while this is great for adventures where the player characters bring ‘good’ to an ‘evil’ situation, it fails to provide storytelling opportunities where the actions of the ‘good’ are the initiating event in the story, leading to the ‘good’ alignment to being generally reactionary and passive.
Now, it of course should be the case that a person would rather be in a ‘good’ aligned realm than an ‘evil’ aligned realm, but if the idea of ‘good’ is a perfect idea of good, then we’re left stuck in a corner. How do we make the idea of ‘good’ into something conflicting, without it becoming ‘bad?’ The answer is: we can’t. The idea of a ‘perfect good’ simply cannot work. But how can we have these planes be 'good' planes without an idea of 'perfect good'? Simple: the planes aren't perfect good, they're striving for perfect good. This not only allows these planes to do wrong while still being good planes, but they also instantly give each of the Upper Planes a goal, which they were in desperate need of. But, there's other big problems we have to tackle outside of revising our idea of 'good', such as:
How do the Upper Planes create Celestials? This is a question that I have difficulty answering using the Forgotten Realms wikis. In the Lower Planes, mortal souls could be transformed into Fiends, instantly creating a connection between mortals, these planes, and their inhabitants that could be expanded in all sorts of ways. But it seems that Celestials simply create more Celestials via normal reproduction, and the souls of people who move on to the Upper Planes remain preserved. Here’s an idea: Celestials also convert mortal souls into Celestials to reproduce. There is no permanent existence in the realms, except godhood, perhaps. This small change does a number of things:
So, we have a starting point; fleshing out how the planes create Celestials. That’s a good starting point for its inhabitants, but what about the realms themselves? My proposal is that the Upper Planes each demand something of mortal souls before they can be transformed into Celestials and serve their Upper Plane - without achieving it, these mortal souls are left wandering in a kind of Celestial Aether. With that, I introduce the idea of: The Celestial Mantra.
‘Celestial Mantra’ and ‘Affiants’
When a mortal soul dies, depending on their actions in life or which deity they worshipped, their soul will be sent to one of the 17 Outer Planes. If they were morally evil, they’d be cast down to the Lower Planes, where their souls would be put through torment, eventually being mangled into the forms of fiends. But if a mortal soul has lived a good life, they’d be sent up to one of the Upper Planes, getting to enjoy the paradise-like existence the planes would offer to them. However, this paradise cannot last forever. Throughout the multiverse, there is not such a thing as an infinite mortal soul. No matter where it spends its afterlife, as a Mortal Soul ages after its death, it will gradually fade and dissipate, turning into pure positive and negative energy that is absorbed into the realm it inhabits. While this is a slow process, sometimes taking several thousand years, a mortal soul’s disintegration is inevitable.
Out of mercy and pity for these souls, the Upper Planes provides them with a paradise, and a choice: a soul may either spend its remaining time enjoying paradise before becoming nothingness, or it may submit itself for a transformation into a Celestial. As a celestial, it will still lose its memories and identity, but it will be able to survive indefinitely, until it is killed. And, with its newfound life and divine power, it can work towards the Celestial Mantra that it has pledged its life to pursue.
A Celestial Mantra is, simply put, the ideal of ‘Perfect Good’ a Celestial hopes to strive for. Each type of Celestial has a different ‘Mantra’, since each realm considers ‘perfect good’ to be a different thing. The Celestial inhabitants of a realm will work in unison to achieve this Mantra with complete dedication, drawing life from these Mantras (rather than food or water) in order to continue their work. That means that, as a Celestial makes progress towards their Mantra, their lifespan will increase and their power will grow stronger; but should they lose progress on their Mantra, they’ll become weaker, to the point where a Celestial who fails to achieve their Mantra in any sense will die from a lack of energy.
A Mortal Soul will be offered the chance to become a Celestial only if they’ve successfully proven to the Upper Plane itself that they’ve dedicated their soul, in some way, to this Mantra; if a person has already proven this through their life, then upon their death, they will be instantly offered the chance to transform. Otherwise, they must spend their afterlife not living in paradise, but as an “Affiant”, a form of Mortal Spirit that works under true Celestials and follows their commands. They are essentially ‘good’ ghosts working under a Celestial master. If they prove themselves as a Celestial Affiant, then they are transformed into a Celestial, losing their memories but fully joining the Upper Planes. To indicate that they are not quite Celestial, Affaints could be classified as Undead, giving Celestials a more complicated relationship with the creature type and further justifying the ‘Turn Undead’ ability innate to most Clerics.
The establishing of ‘Celestial Mantras’ and ‘Affiants’ as a major worldbuilding element is the main revision to Celestials as a whole that changes the Upper Planes into something more complicated. This makes transforming into a Celestial a selfless act that a creature chooses to do or is tasked with undergoing, rather than an unfortunate fate a soul is doomed too, as with the fiends. And, souls can choose not to undergo this act, maintaining their sense of self but dooming themselves to an inevitable destruction. Most of all, these two additions to the Celestials’ lore acts as a building block for more worldbuilding developments!!
But from here, we can no longer work with broad systems - it’s time to get into the specifics of each Upper Plane and their inhabitants!
Diving into the Upper Planes
In this section, we’ll be taking a look at some ways that each of the Upper Planes could be expanded upon, including varying their visual identities, revising their inhabitants, and centralizing their conflicts around a specific idea. In general, each of the Outer Planes represents one major moral ideal; Gehenna is greed, the Nine Hells is tyranny and ambition, Mechanus is total order… so what do the Upper Planes represent?
Well, as a starting-off point:
From these vague descriptions, we can piece together a bold representation of each of these ideals within their respective realms, and create Celestials centered entirely around these ideals. Feel free to skip to whatever plane you’re interested in reading about.
Mount Celestia - The Celestial Archons.
In contrast to the Abyss’ chaos and the Nine Hells’ tyranny, Mount Celestia represents just and fair institutions that defend against criminal cruelty and support the average citizen.
Mount Celestia’s structure will be similar to the original realm’s design, with each of its layers coming together to form a giant mountain-like structure. It will still be known as the Seven Heavens, with its main inhabitants being the Celestial Archons and Mortal Souls. There will be notable differences, however: Mortal Souls are allowed only on the beaches of Lunia, Mount Celestia’s first layer. There, they get to enjoy existence within a structured and civilized society, living lavish lifestyles, feasting on expensive foods, and wearing expensive jewelry. In Mount Celestia, Mortal Souls get to enjoy all the comforts of a wealthy lifestyle, with limit; everyone has similar wealth to each-other, and it is not a lifestyle free of work. If one is greedy, a soul may be tempted to steal from their neighbors, letting them enjoy a gluttonous lifestyle rather than a simply wealthy one; but if caught, these criminals will face heavy punishment. In the same way, inhabitants are charged with misdemeanors for disrupting the peace in one of any number of ways, including being obnoxiously loud, crude, getting into public arguments, dressing unfashionably, being overly intoxicated, etc. Fortunately, courts are very fair within Mount Celestia, and a first-time breaching of the law will most likely land you nothing more than a public apology as punishment. In Mount Celestia, most problems are expected to be handled through court, with Celestial Archons as judges and Mortal Souls as the jury. This can sometimes be jarring for newly arriving mortals, as even petty arguments and disagreements over opinions are often settled in this way, with there being a legal process and precedent for even the most obscure and niche of situations.
Speaking of inhabitants, Mount Celestia is home to the Celestial Archons. These winged, metallic celestials act as judges, referees, policemen, and moderators of Mount Celestia, and are known for travelling in groups outside of their home plane to enforce the law. While Archons can vary greatly in appearance, they are mostly unified by their metallic and hollow bodies, holding glowing torch-lights within. These metallic bodies bend and shape into several different forms, visually similar to blades, animals, or humans. One may describe these celestials as looking like a mixture between constructs and holy spirits, in this way. Envision the current designs of the Celestial Archons, but ran through a filter to make them all look more similar to Lantern Archons.
The Mantra of Mount Celestia is “A fair, just, and undisrupted society for all.” Celestial Archons swear to enforce a moral law without bias, judge all equally, and defeat those that would disrupt a fair and just society. Lawmen, doctors, judges, and kings who treat their subjects equally and decently are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by taking down a vicious criminal or fiend, defending a mortal’s rights, or bringing deserved justice to people by killing a corrupt king. A Celestial Archon is prone to demotion when they look the other way while witnessing injustice, lash out unjustly at a mortal, or act upon a supposed criminal without due process or without restraint.
Bytopia - The Uniovels
In contrast to Gehenna’s greed and Carceri’s resentment, Bytopia is now the representation of compassion and well-knit communities that share resources, forgive mistakes, and work together to support a simple and comfortable lifestyle. This is a change from Bytopia’s original meaning, which generally fell along the lines of ‘an honest day’s work’. Aspects of that moral will be incorporated into this version of the realm, but will not be the focus.
Like Mount Celestia, Bytopia will preserve its general realm design, still consisting of two infinite landscapes positioned facing each-other, each one glowing brightly, with large mountains connecting each landscape. However, a new kind of contrast will be drawn between the two layers; rather than one being of moderate climate and the other of extreme climate, the two layers will be constant opposites of each-other in climate. Where there is a desert on one layer, one may look up to see a frozen tundra on the opposite layer. This can be simplified in understanding that Dothion is home to polar, temperate, and continental climates, while Shurrock is home to continental, dry, and tropical climates. When it comes to plantlife, Bytopia’s plants are generally comparable to those found within the Material Plane, except that the fruits and flowers of this plant life are often luminescent, as well as incredibly tall. Most things in Bytopia are incredibly tall and thin, with both plantlife and rock stretching upwards as if hoping to someday connect with something on the opposing layer; things in Bytopia are constantly growing upwards, and its inhabitants must work diligently to farm, mine, or otherwise whittle down the realm so that its two layers do not meet each other, squashing the realm completely; however, some mountains have been allowed to grow so that they may connect with mountains on the other sides, forming bridges that allow commerce from one layer to the other. While this diligent upkeep of the realm may seem difficult, it is very rewarding, with the inhabitants of the realm working together to not only survive, but live comfortably in this realm, making community life into its own kind of paradise!
Bytopia’s main inhabitants are Mortal Souls and Uniovels, who formed communities ranging from villages to kingdoms. It was usually the case that there would be a kingdom on each of Bytopia’s two layers, positioned exactly above each-other. These two kingdoms would trade resources with each-other regularly, as Bytopia’s climates were often so harsh that a community could only prosper by collaborating with their neighbors in the opposite layer. A desert kingdom in Shurrock could preserve food and avoid starvation by trading with a polar kingdom in Dothion, for instance.
Speaking of inhabitants, this revised version of Bytopia comes with a new kind of Celestial, which I’ve already namedropped; the Celestial Uniovels. These tall, plant-like humanoids often sport multiple sets of limbs, optimal for physical labor and fine craftsman work. As a rule, each Uniovel is one mind existing in two opposite bodies, with each body taking being a fleshy, humanoid form growing plant life from it native to an ecosystem opposite of the other. At any given moment, a Uniovel sees through and controls both of its bodies at once. One of its bodies may appear as a winter fern in one body and a desert cactus in another, and so long as one body is alive, that Uniovel is alive. Should one body die, the other can use its celestial power to bring forth another body, once again balancing the Uniovel across two forms. Generally, a Uniovel will keep the two bodies in two different settlements, essentially acting as a messenger and diplomat between the two towns; but it is also common for a Uniovel to bring their two bodies together so that they may work at greater efficiency at one particular problem.
The Mantra of Bytopia is “a connected and compassionate community.” Celestial Uniovels use their multi-bodied forms to encourage goodwill acts of kindness, including sharing, forgiveness, and uniting communities to solve a common problem. Village leaders, diplomats, and especially generous mortals are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by saving communities from threats like starvation and plague, ending conflicts between communities, or reuniting separated families. A Celestial Uniovel is prone to demotion when they greedily hoard resources for themselves, solve a problem at the expense of others, or divide communities.
Elysium - The Celestial Guardinals
In contrast to Hades’ apathy and misery as well as the Lower Planes’ constant war, Elysium represents peace and calmness, a space where one is able to rest from their long travels.
Elysium is going to be the first realm to face incredibly drastic changes; rather than simply be four layers filled with wondrous plantlife and natural perfumes, each of Elysium’s finite layers exists on the backs of giant astral turtles, except for its first layer - Thalasia. Thalasia, in this iteration, exists as a giant ocean floating in a ‘cup’ of pearly white clouds. From this ‘cup’, known as Elysium’s Challice, spreads out several ‘rivers’ of white clouds, carrying the River Oceanus across the Upper Planes.
Elysium is not reachable via regular means. The entire realm is constantly travelling across a vast expanse of nothingness, with its Astral Turtles following behind the ever-moving Thalasia as it drifts across the aether. Rather than taking any regular portal to Elysium, one can only reach Elysium through the River Oceanus, which is forever flowing through the Beastlands and Abrorea, but also periodically dips into any one of the Inner Planes, the Astral Sea, Mount Celestia, Ysgard, and the Outlands.
Rather than have four layers, Elysium’s layers reach a count of about a dozen, including Thalasia. These realms each vary in size and have one predominant ecosystem, with each realm resting on the back of a giant turtle; sometimes, as one Astral Turtle approaches another, or the waters of Thalasia, the realms overlap enough to make travel between them possible, without use of any kind of portal. Across these realms lies many kinds of fantastical and wondrous plant species that are incomparable to those found within the Inner Planes - trees sprout into massive flowers, ferns are weighed down by large fruits growing from their tips, etc. etc. In these lush environments, many settlements of both Mortal Soul and Guardinals have been built, cultivating these wonderland-like plants and taking care of the Astral Turtles that these realms are built upon. No matter where you are, whether in the wilderness or in the center of the Guardinal cities, there is always the scent of sweet perfume and the sound of soothing music floating in the air, with the very realm itself emanating relaxation.
The inhabitants of Elysium are the Guardinals, as well as all manner of celestial animals or beings, including hollyphants, solars, etc. These animal-like humanoid celestials are beings of pure love and homeliness, revelling in providing relaxation and comfort for others. Carrying a degree of unconditional love for all things in existence, with very little exception, these celestials like to spend their long lives expressing that love in every way they can through acts of kindness and generosity. Thanks to this, Guardinals have a tendency to learn useful skills used to better another person’s day or help solve their problems, like cooking, flower arrangement, painting, weaving, carpentry, and on and on and on. Each Guardinal has a particular way that they like to express their love, and will spend their existence improving the craft of expressing love. This nature of theirs has led to them turning their homeland into a relaxing paradise unlike any other, a place where the Guardinals will cater to your every need and provide you with a peaceful existence. Their love-filled existence is so extreme that, unlike other Celestials, they do not hate fiends; rather, they pity fiends as beings incapable of existing with the rest of the world and experiencing its love because of their destructive natures. There are many stories of Guardinals trying to interact humanely and peacefully with all manner of fiends, getting varying results; against demons and devils, the efforts usually fail, but there have been rare cases of a Guardinal successfully reaching out to Hordlings. Often, a Guardinal will be left heartbroken by their interactions with Fiends, as their boundless amounts of love makes them very vulnerable to rejection, and very few Fiends will be swayed by a Guardinals words.
The strongest and oldest of all the Guardinals are the Astral Turtles, who have taken the expression of their love to a level beyond any other by providing entire realms for people to take safe haven in; baby Astral Turtles, for instance, are known to provide demiplanes to select mortals with entire demiplanes used for escaping danger, while the adult Astral Turtles are the ones which carry Elysium itself (originally, there was only Thalasia and some sparse islands within its ocean; as more Guardinals appeared, the realm got bigger with the addition of the Astral Turtles). Outside of their home plane, Guardinals will often adamantly protect even total strangers from danger as if protecting a loved one, although even while protecting people they are very slow to harm even fiends, out of a basic love for all beings. Guardinals will only enact violence against a creature if they will or already have caused large amounts of harm to those the Guardinal cares about - at that point, Guardinals change from soft-hearted creatures of love into vengeful and raging beasts of slaughter and grief. But usually, instead of resorting to violence, a Guardinal will prefer to summon a baby Astral Turtle and provide an escape for victims of tyranny.
The Mantra of Elysium is “a peaceful and loving people.” Guardinals strive to foster love and kindness amongst individuals, end wars without bloodshed, solve problems in a way that satisfies all parties involved, and connect deeply with mortal beings. Loving parents, dutiful partners, peace-bringers, and those who harbor a deep respect for their fellow man are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by forgiving and showing kindness to enemies, bringing peace to a land, and solving great conflicts with as little bloodshed as possible. A Celestial Guardinal is prone to demotion when they allow senseless violence, take other people’s kindness for granted, or act cruelly towards those most in need of love.
The Beastlands - The Morphon
Contrasting Gehenna’s cruelty and Carceri’s sadism, the Beastlands will be a representation of living in a natural state of life, present in the current moment without lingering on the past or fearing the future.
The Beastlands will also be undergoing major changes to their worldbuilding, but these changes are more difficult to make, as the giant natural wildernesses forever caught in a specific time of day is mighty appealing as a realm. The new Beastlands will take the form of several ‘threads’, infinitely long cylindrical stretches of earth that house all manner of ecosystems. Each ‘thread’ is a single layer, housing all manner of ecosystems, with there being three ‘threads’ in all; these threads intertwine into a kind of ‘rope’, although there is large amounts of open space between them so that each layer has open space for plants and animals to exist within. These three ‘threads’, or layers, will function identically to the current Beastlands, with each one being a completely uncontrolled wilderness caught forever in a specific time of day. However, these Beastlands will be home to all manner of habitats, from deserts, to oceans, to forests, rather than only jungles; however, none of these habitats are quite the same as their counterparts within the material plane. Each of these habitats are brought to their most extreme state; with massive mountains and deep gorges filled to the brim with thick jungles, or left completely empty with wide expanses of nothing but sand, there is no moderate environment within this realm.
The inhabitants of this plane are in a constant, never-ending migration from one end of the eternal threads of the Beastlands to the other, never settling in one place for any longer than a week before setting off again to continue their migration. In this infinite migration, one has no choice but to exist only in the present moment, letting time slip away as a creature’s judgement clears and their inner animal begins to shine. This realm awakens a keen awareness of one's present self within a person, opening a creature’s eyes to the reality of their existence; they are an animal, a creature of nature who exists only in the present moment. They eat what they catch, and they know that one day, they will be caught. All beings support all other beings' lives, in perfect harmony; such is the cycle of life.
This plane is inhabited by very few humanoids. Humanoid Mortal Souls do live in the Beastlands, travelling in packs along its threads, but a majority of the Beastlands’ inhabitants are the incarnations of mortal beast souls, and some animal-like celestials. The predominant celestial race of this plane are the Celestial Morphon. These animal-shaped celestials can take the form of several kinds of animals, depending on what type of Morphon it is, with one unifying aspect being shared amongst all morphons: no matter the form they take, a Celestial Morphon will always maintain two angelic wings sprouting from their back. All Morphons could take on a humanoid form, but most of their other forms would be centered around a species of animals; Felid Morphons have the power to transform into various kinds of large wild cats, or a small housecat. There are two main types of Morphons; Greater Morphons, who retain this shape-shifting ability, and Lesser Morphons, who simply retain a single animal form and cannot shapeshift. Pegasus have been turned into a type of Lesser Morphons in this revision, tracing their origins to the Beastlands rather than its neighboring realm of Arborea.
The Mantra of the Beastlands is “living in harmony with the natural world.” Morphons encourage others to coexist with nature, shed societal expectations in favor of living in the moment, honor the lives that are taken to support one's own, and not to take more than they need or give too little in return. Druids, all manner of beasts, farmers, doctors, and those with a deep respect for their fellow living beings are considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by preserving wildlife, defeating those who would spoil the natural world and forsake the future for selfish gains, and for protecting the natural cycles of the world. Morphons are prone to demotion if they kill or eat more than is necessary, disrupt the natural cycles of the world, harm nature, or take away a creature’s power to sustain their natural life.
Arborea - The Celestial Eladrin
Contrasting the Nine Hells’ oppressiveness and the Abyss’ selfish indulgence, Arborea represents pure self-expression and freedom.
Arborea will be remaining very similar to its original iteration, being visually similar to the Material Plane, with the exception of size; apart of its inhabitants, everything in Arborea is dozens to hundreds of times larger than its Material Plane counterparts, varying wildly in size even from identical objects. Two apples growing from the same tree might be the size of a watermelon or a horse, respectively. Structured societies do exist in this realm, though they are simple, and the law does not have as much power over this realm’s celestials; rather, balance is kept through promises and decency. As a whole, this plane is one of pure energy, although not always in the literal sense of the world. Everything within the realm is full-force and unpredictable: a winter storm may be somewhat mild, or a blizzard like nothing else in history. Something is always happening in Arborea: landslides, thunderstorms, and stampedes are balanced out by sunny days, parties, and sudden spring temperatures. It makes sense for Arborea to go mostly unchanged and retain its hyperbolic depiction of the material plane, since the other Upper Planes that were looking too similar to it have already been changed.
The main inhabitants of Arborea are the Celestial Eladrin, who will also go mostly unchanged from their original depictions. These beings of energy are high in emotion, shifting from completely vengeful to endlessly joyous at the drop of a hat. Each Celestial Eladrin maintains both an energy and physical form, and even while in their physical forms one can feel a constant hum of pure excitement surrounding these animated beings. Honestly I would change very little about Arborea and the Celestial Eladrin, except for adding the fact that they may really hate Archons.
The Mantra of Arborea is “a life of total freedom and passion.” Eladrin fights fiercely for expressing one’s truest self in any way one sees fit, toppling governments and social structures that impede a person’s ability to live how they’d like, and having the most fun one can have. Bards, rebels, anarchists, and those who fight for the oppressed are all considered as following this Mantra, and an Affiant can prove themselves worthy of the Mantra by bringing down tyrants, majorly impacting a civilizations culture through art, or by freeing themselves or others from oppressive societies and showing pride for aspects of oneself that evildoers would try to shame them for. A Celestial Eladrin is prone to demotion if they oppress others, silence a people’s voice, act dishonestly, or prioritize social standards and the law over others’ or their own happiness.
The Revised Aasimar
Finally, with the designs, inhabitants, and Mantras of all the main 5 Upper Planes detailed, there’s one last piece of content related to the Upper Planes that desperately needs some tweaking; Aasimar. As we know, the Aasimar’s main problems are its poor visual design and its lack of compelling conflict. But with the adjustments we’ve already made to the Upper Planes, and with the addition of Celestial Mantras, we can absolutely improve both the Aasimar’s conflict and design!
First and foremost: visual design. This revised version of the Aasimar is going to have several attributes of itself shared amongst all Aasimar. These attributes include:
Here's a sketch of the revised Aasimar
As for conflict, these new Aasimar will face the danger of having a Celestial Mantra thrust upon a creature that isn't worthy or wanting of one. Each Aasimar has one of the Celestial Mantras from one of the Upper Planes constantly pulling at them, like a Jiminy-Cricket conscious-on-your-shoulder type deal. Except rather than hearing a voice or seeing messages, these mantras pull at Aasimar’s hearts, giving instinctual gut feelings that push them to act in certain ways. An Aasimar who does not follow this Mantra puts their life in danger as the Mantra saps their soul away; meanwhile, an Aasimar who follows the Mantra may be driven mad by having their mind be constantly pulled at by this divine oath that they never even agreed to make.
That sounds like a pretty compelling conflict to me! The ‘Celestial Mantra’ can be any one of a dozen things, and the conflict of being driven mad by one’s own divinity certainly feels fresh and distinct for the Aasimar, but it doesn’t really work as a conflict unless it functionally impacts the Aasimars in question. At the same time, there’s some people who wouldn’t want to be playing with this whole ‘Celestial Mantra’ idea, so if it does functionally impact the Aasimar, it has to be flexible enough so that the player may choose how it plagues their character. It’s definitely clear that this revised version of the Aasimar will be needing its own species traits, but those are coming another day!!
So, in the end, those are my revised versions of the Upper Planes. Or at least some ideas I've thrown out there. The main additions are the Celestial Mantras, ideals of perfect good that Celestials haven't achieved, but are striving for, as well as new visual identities and an overhaul of the current Celestial types as well as the addition of 2 new Celestial types, the Uniovels and the Morphons.
What additions do you like?
What else could be changed to further improve the Upper Planes?
Are the current revisions moving in the right direction?
How would the revised Aasimar function, ability-wise?
Thanks for reading y'all.
In relation to the revised Aasimar species traits, I'm having a bit of trouble. I'm hesitant to remove any of its abilities, as they're all pretty interesting - but I do have one ability that I think should be added to connect the revised Aasimars abilities to their storytelling. So at the moment, I'm proposing an optional species trait that can be added onto the existing 2024 Aasimar species. This trait will represent the conflict of Aasimar suffering under their Celestial Mantra functionally, hopefully giving people further inspiration for what kind of conflicts their Aasimar characters could have.
Now, this can definitely use some tweaking. So should this stay as an optional trait/rule? Should this trait be different somehow? If we were to revise the whole of the Aasimar species, what traits should stay or go?
Well, something like that but not exactly. I have been using the term "mortal soul" in the sense of "the soul of a mortal creature" but I think it is a bit of a cop-out if the soul itself has a limited lifespan. I prefer the notion that a person in a good afterlife would eventually, not so much get bored of existence, but feel content with their time and desire no more. The afterlife, being good, would offer options for a dignified end. One option would be to dissolve into the plane, strengthening what isn't just a place but the very spirit of an alignment. Another option would be to fuel the birth of a celestial. Both options would be seen as helping current and future generations know the same happiness.
I would make compassion the common denominator between the Upper Planes, the thing they can all agree is essential to achieve an ideal state of goodness. The words you bolded, I fully agree with. Mount Celestia would believe that good flourishes best in a highly structured environment with clear edicts, while Arborea would insist that good is best expressed with complete freedom.
This is how I have been picturing the exemplars of Arcadia, the plane between Mount Celestia and Mechanus. If the game allowed it, they would count as both celestials and constructs, much like the cadaver collectors of Acheron should count as both fiends and constructs. Now, if archons are redesigned like this, what of devils? Are they now all similar to hellfire engines?
Expanded 5e Spelljammer Cosmology
That's a good thought. Before deciding how devils would look compared to these redesigned archons, I'm interested in seeing what the 2024 Monster Manual has in mind for their redesign. I've heard that the fiends are being made more distinct from each-other, so I'm wondering what kind of ideas they come up with
This is also a pretty good idea, though I'd argue there's good standing for Bytopia to be representative of community and compassion. The current Bytopia revolves around an honest days work - its a heaven for the working man. Although that idea could have merit, I personally believe that it doesn't have standing as an entire realm. Something like that could be found in Mount Celestia, for instance. Rather, I believe that Bytopia would work better if it were centered around community - perhaps I should shift the focus of Bytopia's representation from compassion to community to make that more clear. After all, Bytopia is the LG/NG realm, so it needs to answer the question of what a realm that is balanced between lawful goodness and neutral goodness would be. I believe the answer to that is a realm based around structure, but not the structure of law or a government-ran society, but rather the social structure of a close-knit and compassionate community. Hence the choice to change Bytopia from its original meaning to one centered around community
It is a good point that, in a way, all the realms are about compassion. So it may be smart to clear up that confusion and make it clear what Bytopia specifically is about