The Planes: Pandemonium
Our next stop in The Planes series is Pandemonium
- a plane of chaos, howling winds, and shrieking never-ending winds.
What is Pandemonium
Pandemonium, also known as the Windswept Depths of Pandemonium or the Howling Land, is a plane of chaos with just a tinge of evil. It is one of the Outer Planes and is between Limbo, a plane of pure chaos, and the Abyss, the home of demons. It is best known for its howling winds that can drive any mortal creature to insanity, it’s lack of any deities that watch over it and those who have been banished from everywhere else. The windswept tunnels are never-ending, the howling winds never ceasing, and is a largely barren plane; but despite all of its flaws, Pandemonium is home to hoards of treasure and powerful magical artifacts hidden throughout its domain.
History
Pandemonium was first introduced, like the rest of the Outer Planes, in Dragon Magazine #008 (1977) in the article titled: Planes: The Concepts of Spatial, Temporal and Physical Relationships in D&D. Like many of the planes, it did not receive a single sentence in that article, but rather it had to wait until the Manual of the Planes (1987) was released for it to be fully fleshed out. This plane is made of pure stone with thousands upon thousands of crisscrossing and interweaving tunnels that are filled with the ever-present howling of the wind.
This ear-splitting, deafening wind is the hallmark of this plane and is what drives off many who would try to venture throughout the tunnels. Apart from the constant gale, the plane is completely dark with the gusts of wind extinguishing any non-magical light in seconds. Magical light can illuminate your way through the tunnels, though it is a beacon to all the inhabitants of this plane, calling them forth to either destroy you or to spread the madness of the tempest.
An Outsider’s Perspective
First arriving on Pandemonium, and if you have no ability to see in the dark, you will only be greeted by the deafening howl of the wind. The wind instantly deafens you with no real permanent impact unless your ears stay unprotected to its fury from anywhere from an hour to a day. This wind rips away all sounds, pulling hard at your clothes and stripping you of any item not secured to your person. Staying in the wind for just a few hours is enough to make most people go insane, and as an outsider, everyone that lives here can easily be discerned as they have a variety of different madnesses to handle the howling wind.
Apart from the wind, the next issue facing visitors is the lack of light. Unlike most planes, Pandemonium has no natural light source, it is a plane in total darkness. Lighting torches, lanterns or fires is a huge problem as the wind immediately extinguishes them, forcing only the use of magical light through its thousands of miles of dark and twisting tunnels. The problem with having any type of light though is that the inhabitants of Pandemonium can easily spot you. With several tunnels being a few hundred miles wide, a single light source can draw a lot of attention.
The only reason why most adventurers travel to this desolate plane is that there are hoards of treasure hidden throughout its tunnels and guarded by ancients monsters. While most who travel here perish, enough leave these unending tunnels with powerful magic items and hoards of gold that many think the risk of madness and death is worth it. Hidden near the bottom of this plane are the lairs of monsters, dragons, demons and powerful undead who watch over their domains.
A Native’s Perspective
Manual of the Planes, 1987 TSR Inc.
There are no true natives to this plane as all the inhabitants came after the plane was created, which no one is sure when that happened as even the creator of this plane is unknown. Those who live in Pandemonium often have little to no choice, either because they are in hiding from others or because they have been banished from their homes and everywhere else.
Life in the plane, depending on who you are, can be incredibly lonely. Those lost in the tunnels may never see another living being for as long as they live, the tunnels can be thousands of miles long and never bring a traveler close to any sort of civilization. Those lucky few who have stumbled upon civilizations or even other adventurers should always be on their guard, the winds of Pandemonium can make anyone become overcome with Wind Madness, a type of madness that never really leaves someone's mind even long after they leave Pandemonium.
The few cities that exist in Pandemonium are well fortified, though not well-defended. Each city has been forced to build large stone walls against the raiding parties of demons that come from the Abyss or the slaadi who journey from Limbo, though because Pandemonium is focused on chaos, there is rarely any real standing soldiers or guards to hold off such an invasion. Largely, citizens of these towns are forcibly constricted to fight off demon or slaadi assaults, though neither side in these struggles utilizes higher-minded strategies as that requires the ability to follow order and law.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Pandemonium is very similar to that found on the Material Plane in that it is breathable and not dangerous to breathe in. On the other hand, it is incredibly dangerous to stay in the wind for any length of time as it can quickly make you permanently deaf and leave you with a lasting madness, that is unless it kills you first. The blaring tempest of wind comes and goes, though it is always there. Sometimes the wind picks up from a dead standstill to an intense galeforce wind that can pick up even massive creatures and slam them down a tunnel, pummeling their body into the stone walls until nothing remains of them except for dust.
Traits
Chaos is a defining feature on Pandemonium, and its twisting tunnels do everything they can to leave travelers lost and confused. Because this plane is near the Abyss and the other evil planes of existence, there is a slight tinge of evil that permeates into the creatures that live here.
Travel to the Plane
Traveling to the plane is as complicated as finding an appropriate portal, with the Abyss and Limbo featuring a number of portals to the windy tunnels of madness. Or, if someone has the ability to do so, they can use spells like Plane Shift or travel through the Astral Plane, looking for a magenta color pool to lead them to a random location inside of Pandemonium.
It is far harder to leave Pandemonium to arrive, and because this plane is focused on chaos, portals rarely stay for long. The winds are said to create and destroy the portals to this plane, and no one knows when they might blow through. One location in Pandemonium is said to take you anywhere in the planes, though you have to be able to scream louder than the howling winds and be able to scream where you wish to travel too. No one is sure if this is even possible as the cacophony of wind seems to grow louder and louder the more you scream to be heard.
Traversing the Plane
The Plane Above - Secrets of the Astral Sea, 2010 WotC
Journeying across the plane is fairly easy so long as you have some way to light your way or you have some sort of innate ability to see in the dark. The plane is highly restrictive and is made up of interconnected tunnels that allow you to journey from the top layer of the plane, Pandesmos, to the second-lowest layer, Phlegethon. These tunnels can range in size to something so small that a rat would have a hard time squeezing through to tunnels that are miles and miles wide, though most are typically twenty to thirty feet across.
Gravity is focused away from the center of the tunnel, this means that a traveler can walk along the walls, ceiling and floor with no difference, though the third layer of Pandemonium breaks this as Phlegethon has a set gravity and so is the only layer to feature stalagmites and stalagtites. One of the unique features for this type of gravity in Pandemonium is that most tunnels have rivers that can spiral all around the tunnel, going up the walls, on the ceiling and moving back to the floor. Occasionally, the river might break away from the floor and become perfectly suspended in the center of the tunnel, flowing down the center and hovering in space.
Rivers that flow in the center of the tunnel can be incredibly dangerous depending on which river you are following as the headwater for the River Styx begins from several rivers in these tunnels, and while the power of the River Styx is diluted in these small streams, drinking from these black, inky waters can still cause memory loss. Many travelers may not even realize that the river they are drinking from is causing their memory to be lost, as every time they drink from it they forget that they had drunk from the river. Over a long period, this can have the same effect as if they had fallen into the River Styx.
Spells
Due to the intense wind, spells that require a target to hear you generally fail, like Power Word Kill. These spells must be screamed and even then unless the target is close enough, most editions agree at least 10 feet, the spell is wasted as the wind drowns out your voice. Another issue for many spellcasters is using material components, if you don’t have a strong enough grasp on your spell components, they can be ripped from your hands, wasting your spell before you can even cast it. Luckily, for some, wild magic is especially potent on this plane and wild magic users find this plane to empower them with energy and to increase the power of their spells.
Wind Madness
Planes of Chaos, 1994 TSR Inc.
Wind Madness is the effect that Pandemonium has on every visitor to this plane, though some suffer from it more so than others. There are four stages to this madness: it starts with Frustration, then Despair, succumbing to Hysteria, and finally Resignation. When a creature first falls to the madness, they are Frustrated and become angry, snapping at their friends and allies. Next, they fall to Despair, realizing they’ll never leave the wind and Pandemonium and becoming lifeless. Once they are fully into Despair, something in them snaps and the Hysteria takes over. Hysteria causes travelers to hide from the wind, to rock back and forth in tears before finally arriving at Resignation. Resignation means that the traveler has accepted the wind and that something has changed forever in them, and with that comes a madness or a nervous tick that never leaves them. These nervous ticks may only appear while they are on Pandemonium, which means if you hire a guide in Sigil who appears to be perfectly normal, they may arrive in Pandemonium and immediately begin suffering from their madness. These madnesses help travelers cope with the winds, though it can be frightful for those who have never heard of it before.
Locations
Pandemonium is broken up into four layers, though the top two are very similar and the only difference is that the screaming and howling wind get worse and the tunnels get smaller. The top layer, Pandesmos, is where the portals to the Abyss and Limbo are located and has the widest tunnels. The second layer, Cocytus, is a lot like the first layer except the wind here is far louder, some claim that there are hidden secrets in the wind if you just study it enough. The next layer, Phlegethon has huge stalagmites and stalactites spanning across it and is home to the town of Windglum as well as being reported as the realm for the Queen of Air and Darkness. The last layer, Agathion is the only layer to not feature tunnels that connect, instead it is solid rock with bubbles of emptiness that you can try and journey too.
Planes of Chaos, 1994 TSR Inc.
Pandesmos
Pandesmos is the first layer and, arguably, the most hospitable layer in the plane, though Pandemonium is far from being hospitable. Because it is the top layer, most travelers first appear through one of its many portals and can hopefully find their way to one of the few cities or settlements on the plane. Unfortunately for those travelers, there are dangerous creatures that lurk throughout the plane and are attracted to any amount of light.
The Madhouse
This large city takes advantage of the gravity on this plane and its buildings wrap completely around the circumference of its tunnel. What originally started as a simple walled inn ran by the Bleak Cabal has slowly become a large city. As more and more people came to live in the city, the inn has had to grow and random buildings have sprung out near its walls. After every raid against the city, the inhabitants build new walls to encompass the buildings that were put up outside the wall and the cycle repeats. More buildings are built outside the walls, a demon or slaadi raid comes through, and the inhabitants build a new wall to protect those outlying buildings.
This expansion has created a city with several inner walls circling the central inn that started the city and has become the official citadel for the Bleak Cabal where the important members of their faction meet and discuss the governance for this city.
Cocytus
The second layer of Pandemonium, and reportedly the loudest, is Cocytus. Because the tunnels are smaller on this layer, the wind rushes through it faster and creates a sound much like screams of agony and torment. One of the distinctive features of this level is that the walls bear the old markings of chisel marks, meaning someones or somethings came through and carved these tunnels in Pandemonium. Nobody is sure who that could’ve been, for the chisel marks are incredibly old and not even the gods are sure when those markings were made. Slowly, the wind is rubbing these chisel markings smooth and many archeologists have traveled to this layer to study not only the chisel markings but also ancient runes that are said to have been marked into the walls.
Harmonica
Planes of Chaos, 1994 TSR Inc.
In a location in Cocytus is a large hub of interconnected tunnels and pillars of stone have been carved out with holes dotted through them in different sizes. As the wind passes through these columns, an otherworldly sound can be heard that is far more terrible than any other sound in this plane. This location is heavily searched for by bards and musicians who claim you can hear the secrets of the planes in its melodies if you just listen long enough.
Phlegethon
The third layer of Pandemonium has the distinct feature that gravity operates like normal, meaning that it has a ceiling and a floor. Because of this, this layer is the only one to feature stalagmites and stalactites, and some even claim the wind is calmer on this level. Because this level can be difficult for outsiders to locate, it has become a favorite spot to hide from gods, demons and other powerful creatures. Those who live down here are known as the Banished, and many of them sport family lineages that have lived in this plane for generations.
Windglum
This city is the home for many of the Banished, and its citizens are highly suspicious of anyone who would travel to their city. One of the few spots that welcome adventurers at least a little warmly is the Scaly Dog, an inn inside of the city that is the perfect location in all of the planes to discuss secret plans, hire mercenaries or any other devious plots. The city is haphazardly laid out with hundreds of globes of light providing illumination for its citizens.
Agathion
The final layer of Pandemonium and is the only one that doesn’t feature endless tunnels of wind, instead, it is solid stone with pockets of emptiness. Because these pockets are nigh impossible to find or get to, they are used by the gods to hide powerful artifacts that could destroy worlds or put monsters that can not be destroyed. Many of these pockets have portals that allow the wind to enter in from the rest of the plane, and this causes a massive windstorm that is so powerful that it can destroy any creature or object that steps through as it dashes them against the walls over and over at intense speeds.
Other pockets on this plane may not have any portals to them, which means that if they do have air, that it is incredibly stale or that the pockets are a vacuum with no atmosphere inside. These pockets can only be reached by those who know about them and have a way to get to them as they might be thousands of miles through solid stone away from a tunnel.
River Styx
The headwaters of the River Styx begin in the top layer of Pandemonium, and it is fed from the numerous streams of water that follow the tunnels of this plane. While these small streams aren’t as potent while so small, they are still dangerous for travelers as they can cause minor memory loss and apathy. It's not unheard of for a larger stream heading to the River Styx to have dead bodies around it from those who gave up on life while drinking from it, that is if the bodies haven’t been blown to dust yet.
Vecna’s Tower
Somewhere in the twisting mazes of Pandemonium, is the black tower of Vecna. Some claim that the black tower acts as the domain to Vecna’s godhood, while others claim it is just a tower filled with the undead that Vecna created, and abandoned, a long time ago.
Factions & People
Banished
The Banished is a term used to describe those who live on Pandemonium but are not part of a group or faction. They aren’t a very unified people, but rather display key similarities due to the wind and the very fact that they, or one of their ancestors, had done something to displease a creature powerful enough to send them to this plane. There are several goblinoid tribes that are somewhat adapted to the plane’s maelstrom of wind, as well as settlements of duergar, drow, gnomes, halflings, and humans. There are also dispossessed demon lords in hiding from their rivals, vampire lords who have grown insane due to the wind, and githzerai who have committed horrible sins against their kind.
Bleak Cabal
Planescape Campaign Setting, 1994 TSR Inc.
The Bleak Cabal is one of the factions originally out of Sigil, and are strong believers that there is no meaning in anything. They go so far as to claim that the gods, the multiverse, and everything else doesn’t make sense and there is no meaning to it. They are nihilistic to a fault, though they are highly encouraged to look inside themselves for meaning. They have a headquarters in Sigil at the asylum just outside The Hive.
Leader
Maris Warrow is the current Matron of the Inn, which also makes her the Lady of the Citadel, at the Madhouse located on the first level, Pandesmos. Before she had arrived, it was run by another of the Bleak Cabal who decided to venture into the twisting tunnels for a vacation. It was two years later that Maris Warrow arrived and saw the glorious madness of Pandemonium, and the terrible condition that the Madhouse was in. Those who hadn’t joined the old master of the inn were bickering as to who should be in charge, and so nothing was getting done. Maris Warrow arrived and began giving out orders and people obeyed her, assuming that the headquarters in Sigil had sent her, though they hadn’t.
Myriad of Gales
A college of music formed by the planeswalker bard, Catalan the Mad located somewhere in the second layer, Cocytus. It is often claimed by many to be a place of sanctuary to those traveling through Pandemonium, unfortunately, the bards here are more interested in understanding the secret of madness in the traveler’s mind rather than helping their body or soul in this place. They are constantly at odds with the Bleak Cabal as they are in search of answers to the multiverse, which they know for certain can be found somewhere in the howlings winds of madness.
Powers
No deity lays claim over Pandemonium, though several have small domains on this plane where they go to hide out from other gods or to keep powerful secrets away from prying eyes. Trickster gods, like Loki, will retreat to Pandemonium when a trick has gone too far with the other gods, laying low in his white crystal palace, known as Winter Hall, somewhere in Pandesmos guarded by frost giants and huge snowdrifts.
In the older editions, before the Feywild was created, the Unseelie Court led by the Queen of Air and Darkness could be found on the third layer, Phlegethon. The court is the opposite of the Seelie, where there might be laughter, there is hatred. Friendship is matched with enslavement and the warmth of fires is replaced with the cold, unending winds. The Queen of Air and Darkness, whose name is long lost, is the sister to Titania, Queen of the Seelie Court, and they used to be very close in their youth until the Queen of Air and Darkness found the Black Diamond that corrupted and twisted her.
Unknown Monsters
Hidden in pockets throughout Agathian are the monsters that the gods were unable to control, or unwilling to destroy. The unwillingness to destroy a powerful monster is because if gods struggle to kill it, then it can make the perfect guard of a powerful magical artifact that the gods wish to be locked away in case they ever need it again. These monsters are driven mad by the isolation and winds and are all the more deadly for it.
Though, not every unknown monster is locked away in Agathion. In the dark and twisting tunnels of Phlegethon, there are rumors of vampire lords, dragons of incredible size as well as giants and more all warring for territory, their lairs twisted by the howling wind.
Encounters
Agathion Portals - A powerful individual has given you information on finding an artifact, the only problem is that you must journey into one of the hidden pockets inside of Agathion, kill a powerful creature protecting the artifact and deal with the fact that the bubble is a vacuum, meaning no air or atmosphere to help keep you alive.
Bounty - You have been hired to track down a man wanted for the murder of an important political figure. You had heard reports that this man had been seen in Windglum, though how you are going to get down there is the question.
Demonic Plots - A demon lord has crossed a powerful rival, and is now in hiding somewhere in Pandemonium. The hiding demon lord is offering a large sum of gold to anyone that can kill its rival, though the rival is offering a similar sum to anyone that can find the dispossessed demon lord, and kill it.
Mad Songs - While journeying through the unending maze of tunnels, you stumble across a bard who is listening intently to the wind and taking notes. While the wind is attempting to rip these papers from his hands, he will happily talk about the many secrets he is uncovering while down here and asks if you could help him.
Slaadi Invasion - While finally finding a town to sleep in, its thick stone walls blocking out most of the howling winds, you hear an alarm and the sound of people screaming. Stumbling outside, in the pale light of the magical orbs, you can make out strange frog-creatures ripping a man in half with more climbing over the high stone walls.
Sudden Winds - The wind has quieted down into a low droning noise, and its the first bit of relief since you arrived in this plane. It’s almost uneasy to no longer have the constant scream in your ear, but for a few moments, it's blissful. That is until the wind takes a sudden turn and before you could grab on to something, it’s blasting with such force that you fear it may blow you off your feet. You have only a few minutes to find shelter before you are ripped from the ground and dashed against the walls.
Wind Wyrm - A dragon, or something like it, is rumored to have a massive hoard hidden somewhere on the layer known as Phlegethon. Adventurers have been searching for this lair for years, with only a few ever returning, empty-handed. Either the Wind Wyrm is a myth, or somewhere down in Pandemonium is a huge hoard taken from long-dead adventurers.
Resources & Further Reading
Manual of the Planes (1st edition)
For more information on Pandemonium’s beginning.
Planes of Chaos (2nd edition)
For more information on Pandemonium, the madness, the people, and locations.
Manual of the Planes (3rd edition)
For more information on locations in Pandemonium.
The Plane Above - Secrets of the Astral Sea (4th edition)
For more information on locations in Pandemonium.
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