THE QUASIELEMENTAL PLANES
When the raw elements intersect with the pure energies of the Positive Energy Plane or Negative Energy Plane the eight Quasielemental Planes are created. All they are dangerous in one way or another to visitors. They're also not commonly frequented by planar travelers, although the Doomguard have built fortresses within each of the quasiplanes influenced by the Negative Energy Plane. Mysterious towers, whose builders are unknown, stand on all four of the positive quasiplanes.
The
Plane of Lightning, where Air and Positive Energy mix, is often called
the plane of Storms or
the Vengeful Land by poets. It's like the Plane of
Air in every way, except that there is always an electrical storm crashing
down upon a body's head. Metal automatically attracts lightning bolts, accompanied
by terrible thunder. The mysterious Tower of Storms is the only known structure
here, but nobody, even native creatures, knows who lives here.
Planewalkers sometimes refer to the Plane of Mineral (where Earth and Positive Energy meet) as the treasure-trove of the multiverse, but only to clueless who don't know the dark of it. The plane is filled with gems, gold silver and other treasures but it is also very dangerous and well guarded. Native creatures like xorn, pech and dao don't like bashers carting off the elemental stuff the plane comprises. Getting around presents the same challenges as does the Plane of Earth, the difference is that everything has sharp edges that cut like razors. Everything on this plane fossilizes at an incredible rate and berks remaining here too long turn to stone.
Fire and Positive Energy create the Plane of Radiance. Cascading light, brilliant color and mind-numbing illumination fill this plane. Without protection a traveler will go quickly blind. Radiance is as empty as the Plane of Air and as hot as the Plane of Fire; only radiant mephits live here. Near the edge of the Positive Energy Plane stands the blue-lit called Heart of Light, where great healings are possible.
Much cooler is the Quasielemental Plane of Steam (mix of Water and Positive Energy), a misty place so thick with clammy vapor that a berk runs the risk of drowning in it. On this plane there's little other than the mist and the steam mephits; the Tower of Ice has some sort of magical effect over potions and other mixtures blended here.
Air and Negative Energy create the Plane of Vacuum, a void of absolute nothingness; nothing to breathe, nothing to stand on, nothing to fly or swim through. At its edge there is the Doomguard's Citadel Exhalus, drifting anchored by a thread between Vacuum and Negative Energy. If a basher can come up with a way to stay warm and do without breath, he can travel by sheer force of will, using only his mind to move. Some graybeards say that beings of pure thought, without mass or energy, dwell here and possibly travel out onto the other planes.
Travelers on the Plane of Dust (mix of Earth and Negative Energy) find themselves slowly dintegrating, breaking up into the dust of this place. But this plane has a number of native inhabitants: dune stalkers, dust mephits, sandlings and sandmen. Here there's the most popular Doomguard's tower, Citadel Alluvius; its magic protects the bashers within from the harshest aspects of the plane.
The Plane of Ash, resultant from the meeting of Fire and Negative Energy, has fewer inhabitants than Dust and is bad as Fire. In fact a traveler can't breath here and the cinders drain a body's warmth at every turn. This place is an endless sea of cinder and ash. The Doomguard maintain the Crumbling Citadel. A powerful lich Vecna inhabits a huge stronghold here and it's said that once-living prisoners of Vecna are transformed into horrible undead monsters because the proximity of the fortress to the Negative Energy Plane.
The Plane of Salt (mix of Water and Negative Energy) is a forgotten place of dry, moisture-leeching crystalline crust. Some portions of the place are more liquid than others, but much of the plane is dry and parched. Nothing lives here, except salt mephits. A fortress carved of salt itself, the Doomguard Citadel Sealt, can be found in a place within the most solid part of the plane.