Chapter Four
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Planar Geography While mortal artists often depict angels floating about on clouds in the sky or flying between stars affixed to the dome of night, Heaven is a physical, tangible place that one can be visited, with its own hills, trees, and rivers. Likewise, though Hell is often shown as nothing more than a flaming pit from which demons crawl, it too has a variety of physical features, most of which are designed to contain or punish the souls of mortals.
n a campaign where angels are key elements, Heaven and Hell become the target of frequent visits or attacks. Because they are magical realms with different physical rules than the mortal world (and strange and powerful rulers as well), visitors to either place should tread carefully, or find a knowledgeable local to serve as their guide.
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Heaven’s Geography The mortal realm was created as a terrestrial version of the land of the angels, so Heaven has many features similar to those found on the Material Plane: rivers, trees, grass, cities, an ocean, and so on. Unlike the Material Plane, nothing in Heaven is inherently dangerous to mortals. No insects are poisonous, celestial animals are intelligent and do not attack unless provoked with deliberate malice, and so on. Falling creatures always land safely, and mortals cannot drown in Heaven’s waters. This does not mean that Heaven cannot be dangerous to those who threaten it. Many a demon has tried to despoil the sacred places of Heaven only to find that its inhabitants are more than capable of protecting themselves. Heaven has seven territories, each more good than the next and each exclusive to purer souls than the previous. These territories are technically different dimensions or planes that are slightly out of synchronization with each other, and mortal scholars call these territories layers of Heaven, although Heaven’s native inhabitants treat Heaven as one large place rather than seven smaller ones. Mild magical barriers stand between the seven layers of Heaven to demarcate the layers and to provide a measure of security. Deities and angels can pass through them at will without effort, but all other creatures sense them as a tangible but invisible force. Souls cannot pass the barriers without assistance. Creatures other than deities, angels, and bodiless souls can pass through these barriers as a standard action by making a Concentration check (DC 10 + target layer number + 5 for every step the creature’s alignment is away from good). (The target layer number for First Heaven is 1, for Second Heaven is 2, and so on to 7 for Seventh Heaven.) Failure means that a creature cannot try again for one day. Success means the creature can pass through the barrier and do so again later without effort (or another skill check) unless the creature’s alignment changes to something further away from good (in which case it must again make a Concentration check). Deities
and angels may escort creatures through a barrier as a standard action without making a check. Angels reside throughout and travel through all places in Heaven, regardless of the layer’s nature or geographical features or the angel’s type. They are visible walking the crystal pathways, flying above the great cities, and swimming in the celestial sea. Few are the places in Heaven where one does not see angels. Because of this near-omnipresence, little goes on in Heaven that angels do not quickly discover. Trouble in Heaven rapidly brings dozens of armed angels ready to deal with the threat.
First Heaven The first Heaven is the home of the stars, great shining lights attached to the roof of the sky. They are visible on the Material Plane but unreachable without magic. The water from two of Third Heaven’s rivers empties here to form great paths of water droplets that diffusely reflect the light from the stars. Creatures who cannot fly must drift in this groundless, gravity-free place, although a gentle, invisible current pushes them toward the Second Heaven at a speed of 5 feet per round. Angels inhabit this place only sparsely, except when they have to adjust the stars to mark important events like births or ascensions. First Heaven is a popular place for lantern archons, ophanim, and other naturally luminous angels, who sometimes hold races here, enjoying the environment’s freedom of movement and release from the strictures of orientation. Mortals often mistake their races for meteor showers. First Heaven is frequently visited by the souls of those who died young, such as infants and children.
Second Heaven This realm anchors the planets. Though a superior layer of Heaven, it appears to be below First Heaven—a creature in Second Heaven must look upward to see First Heaven. It is structured similar to First Heaven, without a floor or ground, and it holds huge invisible anchors that extend away to infinity, crossing into the mortal realm where they attach to, support, and guide the motion of the planets. (Some people envision the anchors as invisible pillars or fixtures of marvelous and mysterious divine magical force.) Second Heaven also has no gravity, and a gentle pressure slowly
