Heaven has seas deeper and stranger than the world of men. Just as the land issued forth from the primal unformed waters, so did the pillared halls and wide promenades of Heaven rise from depths you could scarce fathom. Where the earthly sea grows dark, Heaven's grows ever brighter: you can see as clear as day whenever you are below, and as you dive deeper it grows so intense that you must wrap your head in layers of sackcloth to avoid going blind. At the very floor, the boundary between light and water blurs, dissolves - both are one, a sea of liquid brightness surrounding you as beings of graces far stranger than the ones on land swim and scuttle and writhe. The deepest of trenches lead directly into the Positive Energy Plane, the realm of pure Phlogiston, the axiomatic and undeniable substance. It is impossible to return from these deep vents if you return - to perceive Phlogiston's burning beauty is to be filled with the blessed and pure truth of it, and both your mind and body will turn to more of the perfect and colorless solid light.
Angelic fauna of the bright abyss (1d8):
1: Towering faceless humanoid formed of pure ivory. Ponderous footfalls. Occasionally digs into the glittering sand as if searching for something buried.
2: 50-foot feathered eel, with a serene death mask for a head. Pulsating veins of bright colors shift beneath its plumage.
3: Immaculately formed septopus, each arm bearing a tablet with the name of a forgotten god. Each can be used as a scroll of a 5th-level clerical spell, but mortal men turn to clay after 1 such use.
4: Five-mouthed colorless flame, razor teeth dribbling gold venom. Save vs. poison or be purified of sins you have no word for.
5: Man-sized barnacle in a shell of marble, filigreed in gold. Its cirri could be used as bladed whips. May portend a phlogiston vent.
6: Scuttling silver crustacean, four eyes alive with terrible energies. Speak a command in an ancient tongue, and it will unerringly seek out 1 living creature anywhere in creation.
7: Predatory fish, stained-glass skin pulled taut over intricate metallic skeleton. The beautiful scenes it depicts do not ease the pain of the deep lacerations it can inflict.
8: Gelatinous colonial organism of morally pure subsapient souls. Though its form is malleable and of many bodies, most often it is shaped like a gentle hand.
Hell is the place where Negative Energy moves from potentia into definite physical form. The boundless black sky of the void is a place of pure might-and-could-be - anything COULD lurk in the darkness - but to become real, it must shed some of its purity and take on a true and knowable shape. This process is strange and often upsetting to the minds that descend from the Negative Energy Plane to become demons - if their efforts are not rudimentary and feeble, they are liable to be hideously distorted, loathsome both to look upon and to occupy. It is said that the great lights of the countless moons in Hell's eternal night are the eldest to have passed into Being, and they swirl and jockey for position in the firmament in an elaborate and endless dance of celestial politics.
Which Moon shines brightest in this part of Hell? 1d8:
1: Nicator, coldest and most covetous. Spilt blood freezes into blades.
2: Urb'luu, whose solemn green light shrivels tongues. No words may be spoken under it.
3: Murmur, the forgiving and timeless. Whenever a roll is made, roll twice and use either result.
4: Gurthang, darker than the night sky around it. None who die beneath it can ever return by any means.
5: Zkauba, clamorous self-devouring catastrophe. Any damage prompts a morale check as the wound erupts into writhing gore-tendrils.
6: G'broagfran, patron of poisoners, arsonists, and weavers. In your dreams, you see a masked and bound figure. You may ask one question of them - their answer will be a lie.
7: Quine, who calls thousands of thousands of beetles to coat all available surfaces. They bite at exposed skin.
8: Sárku, thrice-shattered mirror. Its sickly purple glow turns organic forms into rigid angles.
"Moons are actually giant demons" is the coolest shit I have read recently.
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