It is where everything, and nothing, is possible.
It is where raw chaos seethes.
It is where the elements come to die.
Limbo is a plane of pure chaos. Untended sections appear as a roiling soup of the four basic elements and all their combinations. Balls of fire, pockets of air, chunks of earth, and waves of water battle for ascendance until they in turn are overcome by yet another chaotic surge. However, landscapes similar to ones found on material planes drift through the miasma: bits of forest, meadow, ruined castles, and small islands.
Limbo is inhabited by living natives. Most prominent of these are the githzerai and the slaadi. It has no layers--or if it does, the layers continually merge and part, each as chaotic as the next. Even the wisest sages would be hard-pressed to distinguish one from another.
- Manual of the Planes
Gatecrasher's Guide[]
Face it, berk, this place is a mess and it likes it that way. Take a chunk from each of the Inner Planes, mix them with a few prime-material landscapes, give the whole stew an extra tumble or two, and that makes Limbo on a quiet day. The Xaositects love this plane for its pure chaos, though even they impose some local order — at least enough so they can survive here and adore what they call the beauty of primal chaos. 'Course, most folks think the Chaosmen are leatherheads, and wish they'd embrace chaos all the way and just disintegrate.
There's some debate as to whether Limbo actually has layers. Some ancient writings claim that there are five layers, each named after its chief inhabitants — Gith or Slaad first, Susanoo second, Agni third, Indra fourth, and the layer of the lost gods last - but those high-up men seem to hop from layer to layer. What's more, if there are different layers, they all look the same, so maybe Limbo really only has one level. Who knows?
Imagine Limbo as a roiling soup of the four basic elements and all their combinations. There's balls of fire, pockets of air, chunks of earth, and waves of water, plus lots of pieces of prime-type terrain floating around — even bits of meadow, forest, and whatnot. Limbo responds to a smart cutter's will, which means he can make a stable pocket around him. The smarter he is, the bigger the pocket he can maintain. But don't go to sleep: Once a body stops concentrating, the pocket reverts to chaos. Only the natives can maintain a pocket unconsciously, and the powers here can set up places that stay whole even when they're gone.
On the other hand, Limbo's petitioners just roll with the plane's changes, composing their bodies from whatever element suits their mood at the time. One minute a petitioner's made of fire, and the next he'll be nothing but wind whistling around some basher's head, or a wave splashing over his boots, or a boulder just sitting there, thinking.
Only natural forms come into being with the imposition of will upon Limbo. A sod can think a meadow into coalescing, for example, but not a building. Once the meadow is there, though, anybody can physically or magically construct a building on the site. In fact, the Githzerai who dwell here do just that, so they have whole cities tumbling happily through the chaos of Limbo. The resident powers have temples and suchlike in their realms, too. However, the Slaad - Limbo's natives — generally don't see the need for such trappings. Even pockets of stability are a waste of their time; they're just as comfortable lounging in a blazing fire as in a bubble of water.
- Guide to the Planes
Traits[]
- Subjective Directional Gravity: The strength of gravity is the same as on material planes, but individuals choose in which direction it pulls. Limbo has no gravity for unattended objects, but attended ones share the subjective gravity of their owner.
- Normal Time.
- Infinite Size: Limbo goes on forever, though it has finite components (including big chunks of stabilized earth and githzerai monasteries and cities).
- Highly Morphic: Limbo is continually changing, and keeping a particular area stable is difficult. A given area, unless magically stabilized somehow, can react to specific spells, sentient thought, or the force of will. Left alone, it continually changes.
- Sporadic Element-Dominant: No one element constantly dominates Limbo. Each element (earth, air, fire, water) is dominant from time to time, and which one it is can change without warning.
- No Energy-Dominant Traits.
- Strongly Chaos-Aligned: Nonchaotic characters suffer a -2 penalty on all Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence-based checks. However, this trait disappears within the walls of githzerai monasteries (not cities).
- Wild Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities in Limbo function in wildly different ways. They function normally within permanent structures or on permanently stabilized landscapes in Limbo.
Features[]
Limbo is filled with wonders beyond count. Random surges of elemental fire light the plane. Some are far off and visible only as a dim glow spreading through floating seas, while others are bright, too-close suns. The random boil if Limbo sometimes limits vision to nothing (inside an earth-dominant area, for example), but other times vision can stretch for miles through contiguous air-dominant areas. There is no day or night on Limbo.
On the Server[]
Rumor has it that there is a portal to a partially stable chunk of Limbo somewhere in the Bottle and Jug tavern. Reports are vague as to the exact terrain around the portal, which is to be expected from a plane like Limbo. The topography is always shifting, but there are a few constants. Most travelers report encountering hostile Slaad, and sometimes Githzerai hunting parties, along with terrain dominated by each of the four elements.
There are a few partially stable rocks which house a Githzerai monastery which seems to float in the vicinity of the portal. The Githzerai in the monastery seem to be friendly, even if the hunting parties are not. The monastery supposedly maintains a stable portal back to Sigil, for the truly lost adventurer.
