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| The '''Elemental Planes''' are a specific region of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] cosmology. In the [[Great Wheel]], they make up their own significant portion of the [[Inner Planes]]. In fact, they're such a prominent percentage of the Inner Planes - with the others being the [[Astral Plane]], [[Ethereal Plane]] and the [[Prime Material]] - that their [[Planescape]] sourcebook was actually ''called'' "The Inner Planes".
| | #REDIRECT [[Inner Planes#Elemental Planes]] |
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| As their name suggests, the Elemental Planes are the origin point for all of the various forms of elemental matter in the multiverse. Traditionally, this has made them... rather visually uninteresting. The Plane of Fire, for example, is either an infinite 3-dimensional expanse of roaring flames, or else an infinite expanse of ash fields, lava pools and roaring flames beneath a "sky" of heat waves and noxious combustible gasses. The Paraelemental and Quasielemental Planes tend to have somewhat more variety, as their "margin" status gives them distinctive regions - for example, the Plane of Ice is divisible into Core Ice, the Sea of Frozen Lives (Ice/Water), the Stinging Storm (Ice/Salt), the Frigid Void (Ice/Vacuum), the Precipice (Ice/Air), the Shimmering Drifts (Ice/Lightning), and the Fog of Unyielding Frost (Ice/Steam).
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| Another downside to their elemental nature is that, well, the Elemental Planes are downright hazardous for anything that isn't an [[elemental]] of the right type, and sometimes even for things that are. If being roasted in the Plane of Fire or drowned in the Planes of Water and Ooze doesn't interest you, how about visiting the Glowing Dunes (Magma/Radiance), a technically infinite expanse of ''radioactive dust'' that '''will''' give you incurable and fatal radiation poisoning? This hazardous nature to visit has also led to many DMs finding them less than interesting - even in Planescape, the Elemental Planes are considered the backwater boonies of the Great Wheel, only marginally better than the Prime.
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| This actually led to the decision to do away with the Elemental Planes and replace them with the [[Elemental Chaos]] in the [[World Axis]] in hopes of creating a more interesting, more survivable, and more plot-generating form for them. 5e linked them to the Prime in a way reminiscent of [[Exalted]], while also toning down the hastily by making it an actual plane people live in rather than just the place evocation wizards store their fireballs.
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| In their traditional layout, the Elemental Planes consist of six primary planes; Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Positive Energy and Negative Energy. These six planes are then bolstered by the four Paralemental Planes (convergences of two Prime Elemental Planes) and the eight Quasielemental Planes (convergences of the Prime Elemental Planes with the Energy Planes). Despite the occasional bit of idle fan speculation, there has never been any official word on what the "Paraquasielemental Planes", those meeting points of Paraelemental Plane and Energy Plane, would look like.
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| ==Planar Topography==
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| {| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 align=center
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| | rowspan=17 | '''''Positive<br>Energy<br>Plane''''' || colspan=3 | '''Air''' || rowspan=17 | '''''Negative<br>Energy<br>Plane'''''
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| |- align=center
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| | style="width: 150px;" | Shimmering Drifts || style="width: 150px;" | Precipice || style="width: 150px;" | Frigid Void
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| |- align=center
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| | || ''Ice'' ||
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| |- align=center
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| | Fog of Unyielding Frost || Sea of Frozen Lives || Stinging Storm
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| |- align=center
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| | colspan=3 | '''Water'''
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| |- align=center
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| | Choking Gale || Bile Sea || Stagnant Sea
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| |- align=center
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| | || ''Ooze'' ||
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| |- align=center
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| | Slag Marshes || Muckmire || Oasis of Filth
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| |- align=center
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| | colspan=3 | '''Earth'''
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| |- align=center
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| | Obsidian Forest || Scorched Wastes || Sands
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| |- align=center
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| | || ''Magma'' ||
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| |- align=center
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| | Glowing Dunes || Searing Mists || Chalk Islands
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| |- align=center
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| | colspan=3 | '''Fire'''
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| |- align=center
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| | Sea of Stars || Scald || Embers
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| |- align=center
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| | || ''Smoke'' ||
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| |- align=center
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| | Aurora || Eternal Haze || Gray Way
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| |- align=center
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| | colspan=3 | '''Air'''
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| |}
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| Listed in the above table is the topography for the Elemental Planes. Each of them infinite in size, they border on each other via the Border Planes (not an official name) where the plane partially takes on the properties of the one it borders on. This raises an interesting question: are the Elemental Planes a series of infinitely-sized planes that form a series, or are they a single infinitely-sized plane with many different aspects? Whatever the case might be, there are four Elemental Planes and four Paraelemental Planes. They are connected to both each other and the Quasielemental Planes via the Border Planes, which provide the mixture of the properties of the two planes. This does not mean that the planes are less dangerous on those spots: in the worst cases they combine the horrible properties of the two areas or are even more deadly than their parent plane. To see how these planes interact with the Quasielemental Planes, see the [[Energy Planes]] page.
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| ==Elemental Planes==
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| The big four. Everybody knows these.
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| since 3 of the four made a convincing argument [[Planeshift]] is an unreasonably cruel offensive spell in older editions that an unprepared low-level party will survive significantly longer braving the infinite layers of [[The Abyss]]. Before they were cosmic storage were all the #inster element# was kept.
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| 5e has toned down those hazards at least when in the still large expanse that borders nearer the prime material, so you don't need to learn how to breathe rocks. All of them now have a sky and livable surface, so a low-level adventure can last a few days before being [[TPK]] by [[Elemental]]s rather than a few seconds by the plane itself.
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| Only in the deepest regions of the planes dose now other elements become rare and resemble older additions.
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| ===Air===
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| Enbodies movement, animation, inspiration, and [[Tzeench|change]].
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| A very big expansion of air. You better know how to fly. Gravity here is subjective, and you can alter the direction of "down" with a [[Wisdom]] check. If you can change direction fast enough you can use this in order to land safely. This is difficult at first, but you'll either get used to it or suffer up to 20d6 falling damage.
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| the most inhabitable plane even in earlier editions. People make towns and castles on floating earth motes and magically solidified clouds. The air is always mild unless you get closer to the planer border of water or fire. The main natural hazard is the many storms.
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| '''Labyrinth Winds:''' makes up most of the plane being an intricate air current. They act as hindrances, hazards, and Highways to movement, making navigators and secret routs valuable to traversal and defense.
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| '''[[The Wind Dukes of Aaqa|Aaqa]]:''' home to one of the most pivotal defenders of law and good, makers of the [[Rod of Seven Parts]].
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| '''Sirocco Straits:''' boarding the Plane of Ash and fire, the air and earth motes are Hot and dry. Here is the beachhead the Gargoyles of the plane of earth plan their raids on Aaqa.
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| '''Mistral Reach:''' near the plane of ice that borders the Plane of Water. It only rains the closer you are to the plane of water. In these regions the storms become snowstorms and things get covered in ice and snow.
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| ===Water===
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| Embodies the constant and inevitable Flow, [[Tzeench|so also change, but slower and conistent]].
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| Also called the '''Sea of Worlds'''
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| It was just nothing but water in all directions with zero water pressure in Old editions, with pockets of air motes being a precious resource. You better be able to breathe water if you get here. Don't forget a way to see underwater or be able to deal with whirlpools, currents, pockets of acidic and diseased water, and of course, the predators.
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| 5e it's the Water world, extreme addition. Like the feywild, anyone traveling by sea could accidentally wander in. Having an actual surface, most landmasses are massive coral reefs that pock above the surface that extend down for infinity or makeshift flotillas. Having a surface now, you may not immediately know you are not in Kansas anymore, but when it's not calm, it's the most extreme you can imagine a plane of oceans can get. Rare times you will get massive tsunamis that span a good part of this infinite plane.
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| '''Sea of Light'''
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| The sunlight zone in real-life oceanography terms. Aquatic humanoids and [[marid]]s build castles and fortresses in the coral reefs. The emperor by name of the marids dwells here in his Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls.
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| '''Darkened Depths:''' The Midnight and lower zones of the plane. Like Real-life it's inhospitably cold with high water pressure. Even natives from the Sea of Light need special gear to survive it. And like real life, only creatures you would mistake as or are eldritch aberrations survive down here like giant squids and [[Kraken]]s.
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| '''[[Isle of Dread]]:''' A skull Island ripoff and Surprisingly not a [[domain of dread]]. One of the rare few islands, and is bombarded with constant storms and shipwrecks. It's close to the material plane, so another way poor sods get stranded on this plane or experienced sailers travel between Material Planes as another alternative to [[Sigil]].
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| '''Silt Flats:''' the water starts becoming muddier until you enter the nastiness of the Swamp of Oblivion.
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| '''Sea of Ice:''' the water side of the Sea of Frozen Lives or its 5e new name for it? here be Icebergs, which inhabitants of Frostfell may [[Vikings|sail on to raid the plane]]
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| ===Earth===
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| Embodies [[Dawi|stability, rigidity, stern resolve, and tradition]].
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| It has no sun, its made up of chains of mountains of the tallest mountains, but most visitors enter honeycomb caverns that span under them.
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| In older editions. If you want to make your way around here, you better bring a way to dig. Holes grow shut on their own, so you better dig fast. Another issue is the lack of air: outside of pockets of air, there's nothing to breathe. Then there's the issues of earthquakes, gas pockets, the lack of a unified gravity, the darkness... it's a poor idea to come to the Plane of Earth without being very well-prepared.
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| 5e makes that not a problem by omission.
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| '''Great Dismal Delve:''' or the Sevenfold Mazework is the largest cavern where the [[Dao]]s capital '''City of Jewels''' resides. the made of the most expensive thing from millennia of Slaves mining, A state-of-the-art security system that alerts every genie in the city that some smart-ass thief thinks he could pocket a diamond encrust trashcan and not immediately die.
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| '''Furnaces:''' Getting close to the plane of Magma, the lava starts seeping into the caves. Here is where Dao set up their forges.
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| '''Mud Hills:''' Borders with the Swamp of Oblivion. The mountains are contently eroded way and landslide into the swamp, continually replaced with new mountains.
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| ===Fire===
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| represents vibrancy, passion, and [[tzeench|change again]]
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| A sun always hangs at panes zenith, waxing and waning like a moon every 24 hours. It's blindingly hot and bright at noon and is a deep red twilight by midnight (which is usually the best time to travel and do business). fierce winds and thick ash is awlay in the air so always be covered up in a flame retardant scarf and goggles when not visiting a major inter-planer trading hub.
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| old editions, Lots of fire here. Upon arriving anything that can catch fire does so, and magical items are given a saving roll at a hefty penalty to escape this fate. Stone melts into magma, water vaporizes and metal melts into slag. The higher your natural AC is the more damage you suffer: humans suffer 6[[d10]] damage, and by ever 3 points your AC is lower than 10 you suffer 1d10 less damage all the way down to no damage at AC -8 to -10. At first. Going deeper gets even worse the further you go, culminating in a place with heat so intense it will incinerate ''anything'', even creatures explicitly immune to fire, [[What|up to and including creatures with no physical body or creatures which are literally made of fire]]. Air quality and visibility are obviously not great but those are the least of your worries.
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| 5e you only have to contend with Extreme Heat if your not going deeper into the plane, which your party will be fine as long as you expend spell slots so you have water every few hours so that hourly low DC Constitution saving throw doesn't get too hard (luckily they didn't also port over that Elemental Planes rule that you can't cast spells of opposing elements).
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| '''Cinder Wastes:''' main bulk of the plane, nothing but black cinders, embers, lava rivers and [[fire salamander]]s the eye can see. There are Ancient ruins from forgotten civilizations scattered around. Dessert treasure hunter campaign but everything is also on fire.
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| '''Sea of Fire:''' Closer you get closer the plane of air and smoke, you reach a see vast lava with efreet and [[Azer]]s sailing around on great brass ships. Have a sea adventure but everything is on fire. The [[City of Brass]], the largest trade city in all the Elemental Planes and capital of the [[efreet]], resides on its shores.
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| ==Paraelemental Planes==
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| The meeting grounds between the various Elemental Planes. Air and Water, Water and Earth, Earth and Fire, Fire and Air; they all produce a Paraelemental Plane. Air and Earth as well as Water and Fire don't have one, because those planes don't touch. Listed are also the six main Border Planes: they are the ones touching the Positive, Elemental and Negative planes of one element followed by those three for the other plane.
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| ===Ice===
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| Renamed the '''Frostfell''' in 5e.
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| Moving around you'd swear that this place has an "up" and a "down" as if it were a big icy mountain. Which is kind of true because of the Border Planes: the "summit" reaches towards the Plane of Air while the "base" floats in the Plane of Water like a massive iceberg. But these are just the outer layers of the plane: near the center of the plane it becomes so cold even those immune to cold suffer because of the cold. Here it is so cold even light freezes and it becomes impossible to see, and even speaking or thinking requires a Save VS Petrification. The cold deals 1d6 points of damage per turn, which becomes 1d6 per round if you [[Duncan Rhodes|dress in many layers]] and stay out of the wind and water. And don't think about digging: passages grow shut in a matter of days. Oh, and there's avalances and sinkholes too. The plane's also got spots of True Cold, where things like concepts and thoughts can freeze solid. If obtained such things can be thawed out and captured to be used in magic or sold for profit.
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| Yetis, remorhazes, white dragons, and other related cold creatures as you can imagine living here. Apparently these kinds of creatures and temapture gives a waring that even planer travelers have better survival chance flying through its snow storms then going on foot.
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| ====Shimmering Drifts====
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| ====Precipice====
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| The boundary between Air and Ice. The safest part of the plane, and indeed the only part most explorers actually visit. Towards the direction of Air, it resembles a howling blizzard, slowly growing weaker as one draws further from the border. Towards the direction of Ice, the infinite ice of the plane breaks to a surface, resembling the arctic lands of any number of Prime worlds.
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| ====Frigid Void====
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| The border of Ice and Vacuum. Cold is the only thing that exists in this place, with ice and snow replacing the blackness as you get closer to the Ice side.
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| ====Fog of Unyielding Frost====
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| The border between Ice and Steam. The vapor here is super cold, and breathing it will probably freeze your lungs from the inside out.
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| ====Sea of Frozen Lives====
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| The border between Water and Ice. The water here is just above freezing, and the closer to Ice you get the more ice chunks start appearing in the ocean until it's just a big chunk of ice with a bunch of streams running through it.
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| ====Stinging Storm====
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| The border of Salt and Ice. Acrid, metal-dissolving blizzards of dry ice, desiccating salty winds, and snowdrifts that will dissolve your boots make this a thoroughly unpleasant place to be.
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| ===Ooze===
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| Renamed the '''Swamp of Oblivion''' in 5e.
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| The trash heap of the multiverse, Ooze is made of all sorts of muck, mud, unpleasantness, and highly potent acid that can deal up to 1[[d20]] damage per turn with a -4 on your save. Breathing and seeing are difficult here as well. Settlements must be built on top of tall poles or trees (yes, apparently, Ooze has trees), but even then, they have to be constantly rebuilt and maintained, as everything slowly sinks and melts on top of surprisedly existing trees. Homes have to be repeatedly rebuilt as everything slowly sinks.
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| Many beings and even realms amongst the planes use the place as a trash heap, including [[Sigil]]. Thing cast into the muck typically can't be found again for a century. If you're willing to pick through the junk, you might find something of value, like an artifact that the owner failed to send to the [[Energy Planes|Negative Energy Plane]]. Whether or not whatever you find will be "worth" spending time raking around on (and in) Ooze is another question.
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| One of the more unusual inhabitants of the plane are a group of [[gnome]]s, who accidentally ended up in the place whilst digging a mine in the Plane of Mineral. They ended up making a raft to ride the Ooze and, well, you know gnomes: their raft is now some 500' in diameter, and they're doing quite well for themselves.
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| ====Choking Gale====
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| ====Bile Sea====
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| ====Stagnant Sea====
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| ====Slag Marshes====
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| ====Muckmire====
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| ====Oasis of Filth====
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| ===Magma===
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| Renamed the '''Fountains of Creation''' in 5e.
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| Ever played "the floor is lava" as a kid? Good, because here everything is lava. Breathing is difficult, everything catches fire, magma bubbles up, you suffer damage based on your natural AC (but it's only [[d8]] instead of [[d10]]), clouds of hot gas mess you up unless you're immune to acid ''and'' fire. [[Bionicle|Lava surfing]] is generally a bad idea.
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| 5e the habitable zones are volcanic mountains. Unlike other Paraelemental planes, this border extends deeper into the plane of fire than just a stop-gap that separates it from the plane of earth, enveloping around the Cinder Wastes at the plane of fire's heart.
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| Home to [[Azer]]s, and [[Fire Giants]] and [[Red Dragon]]s like the place
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| ====Obsidian Forest====
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| ====Scorched Wastes====
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| ====Sands====
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| ====Glowing Dunes====
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| Basically an endless volcanic desert, save for the fact that every grain of sand is so radioactive it makes Chernobyl Reactor 4 look like a sauna! Visiting is generally a terrible idea, though for the more intrepid weapons makers or Dr. Evil-style villains, think of all the nukes you can make!
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| ====Searing Mists====
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| ====Chalk Islands====
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| ===Smoke===
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| Renamed the '''Great Conflagration''' in 5e.
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| You better be good at holding your breath, because if you breathe this smoke you'll start taking progressively higher amounts of Con damage over time (and that's if you don't hit a pocket of really poisonous gas). The smoke is also difficult to see through, very hot in certain spots and on occasion even explodes. While it's ''technically'' survivable, it's not a very nice place, even when you discount the Smoke being the primary battlefield of the wars between the [[Genie|Djinn and Efreet]]. In case you want to join them: the Djinn treat their men better while the Efreet pay better. Some of the smokes in Smoke are useful for a variety of magical or recreational purposes, and a few individuals come to the place to harvest and sell them for profit.
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| ====Sea of Stars====
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| ====Scald====
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| ====Embers====
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| ====Aurora====
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| ====Eternal Haze====
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| The border between Air and Smoke. The temperature is more survivable than it is in the Paraelemental plane of Smoke, but it's still hard to breathe unless you're close to the Air side.
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| ====Gray Way====
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| ==Inhabitants==
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| Common inhabitants of the Elemental Planes are:
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| * [[Elemental]]s
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| * [[Genie]]s
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| * [[Mephit]]
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| ==Surviving on the Elemental Planes==
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| Because of the staggering amount of planes out there, you'll need a variety of gear and spells in order to survive on the Elemental Planes. It's best to gear up for a single plane instead of several at a time, have a backup plan and make sure you know your way out. One of the best ways to prepare is to go to [[Sigil]] and buy yourself an Elemental Homunculus. These come in either the form of a worm or a full suit. The worm (or rather, Breather) can breathe in otherwise hostile gasses and turn them into breathable air, which is useful when going to the Smoke. They can even create air when there is nothing for them to breathe in. The suit provides protection against the negative effects of any single plane, but only in case of that particular plane. So a Homunculus of Fire won't protect you on the Plane of Magma. As living creatures they can die if they take too much damage, but they can be healed with healing magic (no potions, since they can't drink it). Breathers cost in the 100-500 range and the suits cost in the 300-1000 range, depending on the plane in question.
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| ==Gallery==
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| <gallery>
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| air MotP 1e.jpg|Air
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| Air 5e.jpg
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| earth MotP 1e.jpg|Earth
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| fire MotP 1e.jpg|Fire
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| water MotP 1e.jpg|Water
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| elemental planes 5e.jpg
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| </gallery>
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| {{Planescape-Cosmology}}
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