It is where evil springs eternal.
It is a plane of endless apathy and despair.
It is the great battlefield of the Blood War.
Hades sits at the nadir of the lower planes, halfway between two races of fiends each bent on each other's annihilation. Thus it often sees its gray plains darkened by vast armies of demons battling equally vast armies of devils who neither ask nor give quarter. If any plane defines the natur of true evil, it is the Gray Waste of Hades.
- Manual of the Planes
Gatecrasher's Guide[]
Oinos, Niflheim, and Pluton — these are the fabled "three glooms" of the Gray Waste (otherwise known as Hades) that a cutter hears so much about. This land is evil solely, and them that's here don't care if they're in it alone or together. This is the great battlefield of the Blood War, called Hades by some primes, but anyone who's ever been here knows why "the Gray Waste" says it all.
The three glooms are just that, or so the chant goes — dull gray lands. The earth is gray, the sky is gray, even the petitioners here are gray. There's no color here; as soon as a sod steps onto the plane, everything he's got turns white, black, or gray. There's no sun, no moon, no stars - just gray.
The grayness reaches right into the hearts of the petitioners. They're a barmy folk without any feeling or emotion. They don't laugh, don't cry, and don't care. All they do is despair, their life and hope sucked right out of them. They make great liars, because a basher can never see a whit of emotion in their faces, but they're too lost to bother with even that most of the time. That despair eventually reaches into the heart of travelers who stay too long, sucking a little life from them, too. See a berk with a dead-looking stare and he's a gloom-bug of the Gray Waste, for sure.
- Guide to the Planes
Traits[]
- Normal Gravity
- Normal Time
- Divinely Morphic
- No Elemental or Energy Traits
- Strongly Evil-Aligned
- Entrapping - A non-outisder in Hades experiences increasing apathy and despair while there. Colors become grayer and less vivid, sounds duller, and even the demeanor of companions seems to be more hateful. At the conclusion of every week spent in Hades, any non-outsider must make a will save or fall entirely under the control of the plane, becoming a petitioner of Hades.
Features[]
The glooms of the Gray Waste are just that: dull gray lands. The earth is gray, the sky is gray, and the petitioners are gray. Color is foreign here, as if vision itself is subverted. When visitors step into the plane, everything goes from color to white, black, or gray. There is no sun, no moon, and no stars above - just a bleak gray radiance emanating from the sky.
Oinois[]
The first gloom of Hades is a land of stunted trees, roving fiends, and virulent disease. But more than anything else, it is a plane ravaged by war. This is the central battlefield of the Blood War. Fiends, warrior slaves, trained beasts, and hired mercenaries gather here to wage horrific battles on an epic scale. These battles despoil the already bleak terrain. The sounds of rending claws, clashing weapons, and screams echo across the entire layer.
Niflheim[]
The second gloom of Hades is a layer of gray mists that constantly twist and swirl among sickly trees and ominous bluffs. The thin fog limits vision to a hundred feet at best, muffles sound, and eventually saturates everything with dampness. Niflheim is not as war ravaged as Oinos, probably because the mist hinders combat. Many predators prowl the lands, hidden amid the mist, including fiendish dire wolves and trolls.
Death of Innocence[]
A small town tucked away in the misty pines, Death of Innocence is constructed of hewn pine taken from the surrounding forest. The town holds more than five thousand mortals and petitioners, though they mostly remain inside their dwellings, giving the city a vacant feel. Strangely, those who live behind the protection of the town's walls sometimes strive to improve their lot and break out of apathy.
Great wooden gates bar entry to Death of Innocence, and both the gates and outer wall bristle with spikes. Inside, a broad avenue leads to the town's center, where a gray marble fountain stands. The wood of the buildings and gates oozes blood, as if sap, confirming the belief that petitioners are trapped within the wood. Inside the walls of the town, visitors are immune to the grays and the entrapping trait of Hades.
Pluton[]
The third gloom of Hades is a laer of dying willows, shriveled olive trees, and night-black poplars. It is a realm where no one wants to be, and no one can remember why they came.
On the Server[]
A mostly-deserted corner of Oinois is distressingly easy to reach from the Great Bazaar. Do not be deceived by its empty appearance - the area is still home to many wandering bands of undead.
There is also a known portal to Niflheim, on the road to Death of Innocence, in Undersigil. Reaching the town is not overly dangerous, but the citadel in Death of Innocence is quite well guarded.