Alternates to a CN Plane of Existence


Homebrew and House Rules


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So I'm looking to brainstorm an idea for an alternate view of a CN plane. I'm trying to avoid the whole "Primordial Aspect" you see in the Maelstrom and Limbo. What are some good ideas for a CN Plane of existence?

Sovereign Court

You could focus more on freedom and lawlessness, perhaps? More on the social/political aspects, rather than the traditional "physical laws are optional" idea?

Grab some wild-eyed libertarian literature, some anarchist ravings, mix it liberally (pun intended) with the alarmist preachings of anti-anarchists about what society might be like if the anarchists had their way, watch some Mad Max, The Purge and so forth.

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Or you could make it The Madhouse, where most people live in their private insane reality, but all of them bleed over. It's not about primordial chaos, it's about a chaotic blending of many people's fantasies. More like a mass delirium. Causality is very dreamlike, space is shaped oddly; not in a 3D grid but more like an Escher drawing.


Chaos means change. The ultimate in chaos, then, needs to embody this, and you usually end up in primordial. Still, perhaps uncertainty could be another way to deal with it. What you look at is constant, much like the terrain stabilization rules. However, what you do not directly observe is constantly fluctuating. Turning around gives you a new terrain. Cause and effect could be shot out, giving weird time loop stuff and people remembering that you will give them something. Also, the plane, not having an inherent nature, should draw that from visitors and what they expect, so you would leave images of yourself imprinted in various ways, the terrain should be drawn from your memories, only not understood and different in critical ways. Chaos has always had a creative spark in association, so things created there would become far more real, only warped. Take, for instance, dreams, thoughts, hallucinations, illusions, desires, and the like. They leak from you into the plane, but are all devoid of their original meaning.


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Ascalaphus wrote:

You could focus more on freedom and lawlessness, perhaps? More on the social/political aspects, rather than the traditional "physical laws are optional" idea?

Grab some wild-eyed libertarian literature, some anarchist ravings, mix it liberally (pun intended) with the alarmist preachings of anti-anarchists about what society might be like if the anarchists had their way, watch some Mad Max, The Purge and so forth.

---

Or you could make it The Madhouse, where most people live in their private insane reality, but all of them bleed over. It's not about primordial chaos, it's about a chaotic blending of many people's fantasies. More like a mass delirium. Causality is very dreamlike, space is shaped oddly; not in a 3D grid but more like an Escher drawing.

I like this. Thinking something like an interplanar Las Vegas. Kind of like a plane of earthly delights. Anything goes and nothing is too taboo


Sissyl wrote:
Chaos means change. The ultimate in chaos, then, needs to embody this, and you usually end up in primordial. Still, perhaps uncertainty could be another way to deal with it. What you look at is constant, much like the terrain stabilization rules. However, what you do not directly observe is constantly fluctuating. Turning around gives you a new terrain. Cause and effect could be shot out, giving weird time loop stuff and people remembering that you will give them something. Also, the plane, not having an inherent nature, should draw that from visitors and what they expect, so you would leave images of yourself imprinted in various ways, the terrain should be drawn from your memories, only not understood and different in critical ways. Chaos has always had a creative spark in association, so things created there would become far more real, only warped. Take, for instance, dreams, thoughts, hallucinations, illusions, desires, and the like. They leak from you into the plane, but are all devoid of their original meaning.

I like this idea. The reason I'm avoiding a CN plane that does this is because I have an elemental plane of chaos that already fits this role. Granted, it's more like a transitive plane that permeates throughout all of creation.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I could imagine each CN deity having their own vision of a personal plane.

Gorum's plane would be a lot like the Valhalla of Norse mythology.

Calistria's plane would probably overwhelm even the "I'm a lover not a fighter types".


Odraude wrote:
Thinking something like an interplanar Las Vegas. Kind of like a plane of earthly delights. Anything goes and nothing is too taboo

I've played in a setting where Pandamonium (from vanilla 3.x) got turned into an infinite nightclub. The screaming winds became pounding music. GM used a scene from Moulon Rouge to introduce it and it definitely evoked a chaotic feeling without being destructiony or churning mass.

Dark Archive

Many planes are 'psycho-reactive' to the dominant powers, usually gods, and respond and reshape themselves to suit the themes and whims of their divine occupants.

A plane of chaos might be transiently psycho-reactive, resistant to 'staying put' once shaped by a beings will, so that any being present is constantly reshaping the local reality according to their wishes, fears, idle thoughts, hopes, doubts, etc. To any being that does not have iron control, this can be a waking nightmare, as every idle doubt sabotages them, every unpleasant memory manifests, etc. Even the local gods, able to maintain their own immediate surroundings, have to do so constantly, as, unlike other reshapable sections of the planes, the chaos doesn't *stay* shaped. If a god leaves to go do something, his entire domain dissolves into undifferentiated chaos, or begins responding to his petitioners or outsider agents whims, instead of his own, so that he has to 'fix' everything when he comes back.

Will is the defining factor, and most gods will be able to override the whims and fancies of visitors, but when a bunch of people get together, it's a bunch of overlapping nightmares and memories and whatever fighting for primacy. Even if one's memories don't manifest as actual threats that must be faced, it can still be embarrassing to have doubts and desires and hopes and fears playing themselves out in full view of everyone around you...

Still, a dominant will might be able to maintain an area of calm, so that a high-wisdom sort, such as a Cleric or Monk, might be able to dispel the planar manifestations of an ally's fears by overriding it with their own will. A high Charisma might also serve, in a pinch, as a Sorcerer or Bard may not be able to directly overrule an allies fears, but might be able to change an ally's mood enough that the manifest fears are transformed into something else entirely.


You could look at chaos as the opposite of "advanced" civilization. Therefore anything produced in by an "advanced" civilization (clothes, metal weapons, spell books) rots/rusts quickly. I would make the rot/rust effect take a day to start, so it becomes a timed adventure.

Any sort of "untouched by man" environment would work. Desert and/or tundra is probably too unpleasant, but a vast jungle or forest would work.


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I have decided that the Material Plane is just another phrase for the Chaotic Neutral Plane.


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Arborea was Chaotic Good, a ream of lovely forests and giant wild animals.

Ysgard was too.

The thrumming, living realm of an interplanar Tijuana would probably be similar to Commorragh. Though it falls into "evil" territory.

And for a bit of a twist, there is the clockwork madness of SCP-1555, a place of madness that might trick you, at first glance, into believing it was a place of order.


LN planes often are associated with clockwork and mechanical perfection, a CN plane might be more organic in nature.

Maybe it takes the form of a giant organic maze, the characters actually moving and using blood vessels like passageways for travel. Major planar metropolis would be located in organs, like the heart. Travelers would have to constantly watch out for the "immune system" of the plane, whose outsider denizens would function as antibodies or white blood cells against extraplanar outsiders.

The whole plane would then be a vast organism. Plenty of angles to take with the idea.


Some things you could base it on:

Alice in Wonderland: The quintessential shorthand for bat-guano insanity in western literary culture. Who wouldn't be down with taking a quest from the carpenter to take down that oyster stealing walrus?

Elder Scrolls IV: The Shivering Isles: Expansion to the Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion taking place in the realm of the Daedric Prince of Madness. Rain flaming dogs, give out random quests to steal an ordinary fork, whatever.

Those Xaositect Guys From Planescape: For those inclined to write checks their INT score can't cash. :P


The Matrix, just like from the movies. On the CN plane reality accords to the strongest will, and a will has managed to create the genesis of the matrix and co-opt the wills most inhabitants of the plane to reinforce it's concept and expand the matrix to the entire plane.

Silver Crusade

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An endless desert/wasteland, with a post a apocalyptic feel. Chaos is entropy and the dust & sands of Anara are the stuff of other planes made inert. Proteans rule mirage kingdoms, while petitioners wander the sands in endless thirst.


Chaos is often associated with freedom. You could have the CN realm violently opposed to use of Charm and Domination magic, with residents possibly be immune to those effects.

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