The Planes: Far Realm
Our next stop in The Planes series is the Far Realm - the realm outside our own understanding.
What is the Far Realm
Manual of the Planes, 2001 WotC
Little is known about the realm that exists outside of the multiverse, and what is known is enough to make most go insane. It is a realm outside our own and is even called the Outside by those who study it. It is a realm of abstraction and madness, whereas the Multiverse has rules which it follows, even on the Outer Planes like Limbo or the Abyss, the Far Realm has none that anyone has been able to understand. It stretches past the borders of the known multiverse and the entities that reside there are so foreign and strange that even the gods are said to go mad trying to understand it.
Of what is known about the Far Realm and the entities found there, its a realm of horror and oddity. Those who study it, believe that all aberrations in the multiverse are descended from the creatures of the Far Realm. That the Far Realm is made up of an infinite number of layers that vary in numerous sizes, from an inch tall to hundreds of miles tall. To travel through the realm merely requires thought but the dangers out there are so alien and strange that very few have ever survived their visit. Occasionally, breaches in the multiverse will appear where aberrants can find their way in to wreak havoc and pull more of the multiverse into the Far Realm.
History
The Gates of Firestorm Peaks, 1997 WotC
First introduced at the end of the 2nd edition lifecycle in 1997, it was the subject of an adventure, The Gates of Firestorm Peaks. In it, it discusses the history of how the Far Realm was first contacted by a group of elves known as the Elder Elves. They had created a magnificent gate that allowed them to contact worlds far away from them on the other side of the multiverse. When they tried to push further, they breached the multiverse and gazed into the Far Realm. Upon seeing the realm, it shattered their minds. Only a handful survived the gate opening and the entities beyond, and so the survivors sealed the gate and hid it behind a massive magical fortification, securing it against the world. Unfortunately, the adventure picks up with a wizard studying the gate and bringing through aberrant horrors.
After that adventure, the Far Realm is next mentioned in the 3e Manual of the Planes (2001) and is briefly mentioned throughout various Monster Manuals and other books. Precious little information is revealed about the Outside, even with it being mentioned in 4e and 5e, for it is a realm of maddening strangeness.
An Outsider’s Perspective
Outsiders to this realm rarely survive the experience and those that do report an otherwordly realm of little comprehension. The air is thick like syrup, the layers of the realm translucent like thin parchment, and that creatures of no definite size, sentience, or shape roam the world. Water turns to fire just as soon as you might realize it was a tree all along. Those that have traveled to Limbo can attest that even Limbo can be controlled and shaped, that a being of suitable willpower can force it under their control and survive. In the Outside, there is no control, there is only corruption. The longer one spends in that realm, the more it changes them, the more it haunts them, the more they wish to spread it’s corruption to the multiverse and swallow it up in the madness.
A Native’s Perspective
The alien minds of this realm make it impossible to ever know their perspective.
Atmosphere
This realm is a world of constant change, definite laws of reality are tossed aside. Those who study this realm claim that it is the massive entities, who may have no sentience at all, who are the corruptors of this realm. It is their influence that creates and destroys, that transforms and morphs the Outside. They spawn the aberrant creatures that slip into the multiverse and corrupt it, pulling pieces of it into the Far Realm. Try as they might, no mortal has been able to impose their will upon the Outside.
Horrifying psionic storms rage across the layers of the realm, which are easy to spot as they move from one layer to the next. Since travelers can see through up to 20 layers above and below them, it's not too difficult to notice a storm before it hits.
Traits
Travel to the Realm
Traveling to the Far Realm is incredibly dangerous and difficult. It is said that there is a gate in the far-flung corners of the Astral Plane that leads to the Far Realm, though those same rumors claim it is sealed shut by the gods who worry about the corruption of the realm. Other sages try to draw in aberrations using their magic to pierce the barrier between the realms, as the aberrants move into the multiverse, the summoners push through into the Far Realm to study it. Ancient magic, cults to the Elder Evils, and more may hold the answers to reach the Far Realm, but it is no easy task and requires years of dedication or powerful artifacts to create a portal to the realm.
Of course, upon reaching the Far Realm, it may be impossible to make it back.
Traversing the Realm
Those who have made it and returned report a strange reality of horror and oddities. Millions upon millions of layers stretch above and below like great sheets of translucent paper. Peering through them, a traveler can see up to 20 layers away in either direction where strange life teems through the plane. Viewing through the layers is difficult and abstract, with details becoming fuzzy and abstract.
Fiend Folio, 2003 WotC
Travelers find reality constantly changing while in this realm, sometimes the air is breathable and other times it is like breathing acid. The laws and rules of this realm are constantly changing and normal travel is difficult. The only guaranteed way of traveling is using your mind to propel yourself forward or on to different layers of the realm. Many who travel here think that the answers to psionics and unlocking the full potential of the mind exists here, that only those who have fully realized the potential of their mind could survive such a place.
Reality Rips
One way of traveling to the Far Realm is purely by accident, though those who wish to travel here may try to reproduce it. A reality rip is when the very fabric of the multiverse is torn open and a gap of nothing is created. This is often due to magic, but only when something truly powerful occurs. It might be the destruction of an artifact or the death of a god, or maybe portals to different planes are merged. Regardless of the cause, once a rip appears, it pulls everything around it in on itself and ejects it into the Far Realm. As material is ripped away, the multiverse heals itself the same way that a body heals itself from a wound. It quickly begins plugging the wound and, if any aberrants slip in, are quickly destroyed before the influence of the Far Realms can enter in and infect the multiverse.
If one chooses to travel through a reality rip, there is no guarantee where they might end up, or even when. Time has no meaning in the Far Realm as it exists in the future and the past. For every minute that a traveler spends in the Far Realm and then returns to the multiverse, they may come back with no time having passed, in the distant past, or been shot into the far future.
Locations
The Far Realm has barely been seen, and those who have seen it rarely ever come back. Those that have made it back are forever changed by the experience, and it is never for the better. Very few locations, if any, are known to exist out in the Far Realm.
The Living Gate
This gate is not located in the Far Realm, but rather in the deepest and furthest locations of the Astral Plane. This was a powerful gate said to have been built during the days of the creation of the multiverse and guarded by a powerful entity. While the worlds were being formed, three gods had found the gate and the guardian, many believe that those gods were Ioun, Tharizdun, and Pelor. They tricked the guardian and were able to awaken the gate, peering into the realm beyond. It is said they saw something that so unnerved them that they swore to hide the gate and never mention it again, and they kept their word until the Dawn War.
When the primordials were fighting against the gods, Tharizdun decided to open the Living Gate though no one is quite sure why. Tharizdun first destroyed the guardian, and then opened the portal, allowing the aberrants to make their way into the multiverse. Thanks to the efforts of Pelor, whose domain was destroyed, the gods were able to destroy the Living Gate and break off its connection. Now the gate is shattered and lies across the multiverse with multiple factions trying to gather all the pieces and reforge it. Some believe that if the gate is remade, that it can force all the aberrations out of the multiverse, while others simply want to finish what Tharizdun started and let the Far Realm take over the multiverse.
Xaxox
There is a stone castle upon the massive trunk of a tree over a mile in diameter somewhere out in the Outside. It was once an outpost for wizards who wished to study magic and knowledge that was forbidden by the gods and who didn’t fear for their sanity. Most of the members have perished to madness and the dangers of the realm, but not all of them. The leader of this group of sages, Daruth Winterwood, is still alive though he is no longer the elven wizard he once was. While he appears to be sane and untwisted by the realm, it couldn’t be further from the truth. His mind has become so twisted and morphed by the realm that it turned into a mass of thousands of spiders. He still has the same intelligence from before, but he has become the closest a mortal could ever become to being an inhabitant and member of the Far Realm. Daruth is hoping to permanently bridge the Far Realm with the multiverse and is using Xaxox as the conduit for his goals.
Factions & People
Little is understood about the creatures and inhabitants found here. Mortals who travel to the realm rarely make it back, and those that do are always changed by the experience. Short hops into the Far Realm, and staying close to your portal and the influence of the multiverse, can help stave off some of the madness, but the deeper one journeys, the more lost they become.
Elder Evils
Titanic entities that exist on hundreds of layers of the Far Realm at the same time, these colossal and unknown creatures are the forces of corruption and evil in the multiverse. It is thought that they are the creators of the aberrations and would like nothing more than to perverse the multiverse and transform it into the Far Realm. There are hundreds of creatures that could be assumed to be Elder Evils and is more of a loose designation than an actual title, some colossal beings are barely thought to be sentient and are simply viewed as a force of nature by the cultists, they believe that their divine being is like a thunderstorm, unstoppable and horrific.
Other beings are trapped inside of great prisons on the planes, and some who entered the multiverse during the Dawn War were unable to be destroyed. They were trapped in the bottom layer of Pandemonium where they wait and bide their time until they are found again and freed. Regardless of how powerful they might be, their alien minds make little sense to the mortals who might be tempted to tap into their power, corrupting all who try.
Piscaethces, the Blood Queen.
The aboleth give thanks for their creation to Piscaethces, the Blood Queen, who is an Elder Evil who travels through the dimensions, spreading her seed to all the worlds. While the aboleth do not see her as a deity to worship, they do give thanks and show respect to her in their architecture. Piscaethces is simply not interested in the children she has spawned or in the multiverse itself, instead, it is said that she travels the dimensions and is hunting for something. Occasionally cultists, and even some aboleth, will tempt her focus back to the multiverse, but it never lasts long.
Kaortis
Fiend Folio, 2003 WotC
One of the few distinct inhabitants of the Far Realm, they were once members of the multiverse until they sought to understand the other side of reality. They had hoped to expand their knowledge but their confidence in their abilities was misplaced. As soon as they arrived, a nameless entity had taken interest in them and transformed the explorers into terrifying beings who were now natives of the Far Realm. They traveled back through the portal without thought and found a strange world they could no longer recognize. They began at once to transform it into the Far Realm and make the multiverse more pleasurable to them.
While they appear to be in humanoid in shape, the kaorti are anything but. They dress in form-fitting armor made of thick resin and tissue, for if they go without their armor they are destroyed by the rigidity of the multiverse. They have three long fingers and a long thumb on each hand and slither more than walk. They are working hard to increase their numbers and eagerly transform anything they find into more of the kaorti.
Shardminds
Player’s Handbook 3, 2010 WotC
Crystalline creatures consisting of hundreds of shards that appear in a variety of colors, these creatures are animated by psionic energy and are the living forms of the Living Gate. They appear in the shape of humanoids and in shapes that please the individual shardmind. They are hunting through the multiverse, hoping to gather the pieces of the Living Gate and reform it in a bid to seal off the Far Realm from the world and to rejoin the gate as they had before it was shattered. Some think that Shardminds are the gate given sentience, but little is known about these creatures.
Thoon
Thoon is Thoon, and Thoon is All!
Monster Manual V, 2007 WotC
An illithid colony had traveled to the Far Realm in search of gaining greater power, but upon their return to the multiverse, they had changed. They became the harbingers of Thoon, an unknown force, deity, or philosophy. They search for a strange substance known as quintessence that powers their abilities and can be found in a wide variety of people, locations, and things. They are attempting to spread their religion of Thoon to other mind flayers, though the Elder Brains have no interest in accepting this Thoon, causing them to war with the cult. The Mind Flayers of Thoon have little patience for those who refuse the teachings of Thoon and have begun destroying every Illithid that gets in their way.
Encounters
The Cult of Entropy - A cult dedicated to an ancient Elder Evil has established a temple to their entity at a thin point between the multiverse and the Far Realm. If they aren’t stopped, they are hoping to attract an entities' attention and pull it through into the multiverse.
Quintessence Collection - A cult to Thoon has found a large vein of quintessence in the people of your world and are beginning to harvest individuals. They are hoping to gather enough quintessence to bring forth the philosophy of Thoon, or maybe Thoon itself, into the world unless they are stopped.
Rule of Three - Scholars who abide by the Rule of Three believe that there is another dimension beyond the multiverse and the Far Realm. See two things, look for the third is the common chant. A sage has claimed to have found a way to journey to this third realm but needs specimens from the Far Realm to help their magic along.
Resources & Further Reading
The Gates of Firestorm Peak (2nd edition)
For more information on the first portal to the Far Realm and how its effects.
Manual of the Planes (3rd edition)
For more information on the Far Realm.
Fiend Folio (3rd edition)
For more information on a few strange creatures from the Far Realm.
Manual of the Planes (4th edition)
For more information on the Far Realm.
Player’s Handbook 3 (4th edition)
For more information on the Shardminds and psionics with the Far Realm.
Deep Dive - The Mind Flayer
For more information on Illithids throughout the editions, and their relationship to the Far Realm and Thoon.
The Planes: Pandemonium
For more information on Pandemonium.
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