Hello folks,
I apologize if this topic is already obviously out there cus I'm a little out of date for DMing two games and managing my school work at the same time.
So have the details of the planes of Eberron been sketched out or published in detail yet? By planes I mean the old 3.5 style planes, not those merged into the 4E framework, but if there's something about the separate planes in 4E rather than the *Astral Sea* or the *Fey Wild*, those would be fine too.
As it turns out, my lengthy campaign is running into its third year, with the players hitting Epic level soon (started from level 2), and I'd really like them to do a plane travel before working with the dragons and / or the Lords of Dust against a mastermind villain's world-reshaping plan.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks! 
Thaliost
Not that I have seen, we begged and begged, but to no effect. So so far all we have is the combined descriptions of the planes in 3.5 and 4th ed.
"So have the details of the planes of Eberron been sketched out or published in detail yet?"
They have: they're detailed in a chapter of the 4th edition Eberron Campaign Guide. The planes still have their close and remote phases of influence, but now some of them are a little more strongly associated with Siberys (and the astral sea), Eberron (and the near-parallel planes like the Shadowfell/Dolurrh and Feywild/Thelanis), and Khyber (the elemental chaos). But Shavarath is still the plane of battle, Dal Quor is still out of whack, and so forth.
Unless I misunderstood the question?
In a word: Not really.
Unless there has been something on DDI, I think we only have shorter descriptions than in the 3.5 book. I haven't puzzled through how they set it up, but I think there are either 4, 12, or 15 planes. From what I understand, parts of all 13 planes are there, but we randomly got a set of nine hells and an Abyss.
Personally, one of the reasons I liked Eberron was that there was not a "this is the lair of vanilla evil" place. To me it felt as if the planes were as neutral in tone as the rest of the world. Irian was simply a place where it was always mid-day. It was not a place ruled by angels as many of the planes tied to Siberys are said to be in the 4e book. Conversely, except for certain places on Shavarath (and these are due to the nature of the plane's inhabitants), there are no places where you can go to find a large concentration of sentient evil in the 3.5 world.
I know that I'll be scrapping the whole 4e system in favor of the 3.5 setup. It coherently explained how planes went from remote to coterminous, and back again.
Edit:
If you want to do some planar traveling, just pick one and have a reason to go there. The ideas behind the planes are pretty straightforward. Each has exactly one defining trait you need to get across. Just pick one that fits the reason why you want the PCs there. After you have one picked it you can always come back to the boards for fleshing out advise.
The only plane hopping I've done was to Risia. The dragons who bound Rhashaak to watch over Haka'torvhak hid the secret to his binding there, so the PCs had to find a manifest zone and stop the demon-dragon's lizardfolk from uncovering it.
Many thanks for the replies.
Let me clarify my question... has the geography and distribution of cities etc been sketched out for the planes? In Eberron the players can say oh I wanna travel to Fairhaven because my family is there, or I wanna go to Stormreach because I may have a fortune there, so for the planes I hope to see something similar, because well for the planar traveling I'm really gonna do all those planes one by one rather than one of them (simply put, my players are discovering a set of artifacts that are each connected to one of the planes, which combined together will become a key to unlock special sections of each plane in order to gain access to the 'Inner World', where the Epic adventure begins). I can prolly sketch up one of the planes myself but for over 10 of them... *sigh*
Many thanks for the replies.
Let me clarify my question... has the geography and distribution of cities etc been sketched out for the planes? In Eberron the players can say oh I wanna travel to Fairhaven because my family is there, or I wanna go to Stormreach because I may have a fortune there, so for the planes I hope to see something similar, because well for the planar traveling I'm really gonna do all those planes one by one rather than one of them (simply put, my players are discovering a set of artifacts that are each connected to one of the planes, which combined together will become a key to unlock special sections of each plane in order to gain access to the 'Inner World', where the Epic adventure begins). I can prolly sketch up one of the planes myself but for over 10 of them... *sigh*
Much of the inforation we've gotten regarding the planes in Eberron is in regards to how they relate to Eberron. There haven't been any published materials (in this or the previous edition) that give very in depth looks at the planar geography, inhabitants, or the like as far as I know. We have a rough idea though.
This is one of those things that falls into DM fiat. I would encourage you to take advantage of other materials you find and use them as a base or for inspiration.
Personally, one of the reasons I liked Eberron was that there was not a "this is the lair of vanilla evil" place. To me it felt as if the planes were as neutral in tone as the rest of the world. Irian was simply a place where it was always mid-day. It was not a place ruled by angels as many of the planes tied to Siberys are said to be in the 4e book. Conversely, except for certain places on Shavarath (and these are due to the nature of the plane's inhabitants), there are no places where you can go to find a large concentration of sentient evil in the 3.5 world.
Keep in mind that in 4E, angels do not mean good aligned. The majority are actually unaligned.
If you wanted evil in 3.5, the plane of Fernia and Xoriant were evil aligned planes pretty much dominated by generally evil aligned inhabitants. Mabar also had a majority of inhabitants generally classified as evil aligned.
I think it's probably safe to say that you will never, ever get a map of each of the planes with city locations notated. You didn't even get that in Manual of the Planes. I'd start writing if I were you.
Sounds like I should get started on my own maps.
Thanks for all the responses.
Let me clarify my question... has the geography and distribution of cities etc been sketched out for the planes?
In my opinion, for many of the planes, this isn't even possible. The planes aren't just other planets... they are completely different concepts of reality. If you read The Gates of Night you'll see my vision of Thelanis, and there my suggestion is that you move through time as opposed to time moving around you - that you have to travel to get from dusk to dawn, though they are layers as opposed to adjacent regions. In the adventure I ran in Lammania, there weren't cities as such... but there were people living in the fur of the miles-long animals wandering the primal wilds. Some of the planes, such as Shavarath, are more concrete; others, like Kythri, are constantly changing.
I still hope to write more about the planes, at some point. And I still play them the same as I ever have. Dolurrh may be "The Shadowfell" in 4E, but that's for convenience if you need to use a Shadowfell effect; first and foremost, it's Dolurrh. It becomes coterminous and remote. It creates manifest zones. There's no Raven Queen there. Thelanis may now be Eberron's equivalent of the Feywild, but my vision hasn't changed from when I wrote Gates of Night.
The best answer is to come up with your own answer. But I do hope to write more on the subject soon.
Thanks for the reply Hellcow.
I do remember the discussion long ago about Gates of Night. I was lucky to have read that, because two of my players have strong ties to the plane (one being a Greensinger, the other a fey princess) and I'm able to handle that plane pretty confidently now.
I've dreamed hundreds of times that we can get some details about the planes, detailed traits if not geography, just like what you said about Thelanis and Lamania. I haven't read how the Astral Sea, the Fey Wild etc are laid out in 4E and as it turns out I'll stay with 3.5E at least in the following few years, but I believe facts about the planes surrounding Eberron will come in handy for DMs of both editions.
Wish that happens soon.
Love those ideas, HC. I've been thinking a lot about the planes lately and it's too easy to fall into the trap of making the planes just like another place on Eberron. Like, what's the difference between Risia and the Frostfell? Fernia and the inside of a volcano, or the Elemental Plane of Fire? Daanvi, and any other neat, orderly society, like Zilargo?
What makes Mabar different from Dolurrh these days, and why does it get to be part of Siberys when all of the other "negative" planes are the province of Khyber? Same with Syrania - it sounds like the Elemental Plane of Air, yet it got the Siberys treatment while Fernia got jammed into Khyber.
To me it always seemed as though the Planes of Eberron were specifically left open to DM interpretation. It gave us a chance to leave them as the high-end content and quite mutable, allowing for endless possibilities and permutations depending on what you wanted/needed for your campaign. I sincerely appreciate that fact (rather than having an old-school Planescape player constantly correcting you on minor details of Sigil (sihg-ihl) and complaining that your a clueless berk not worth the jink for your hollow brainbox...).
From what I understand, parts of all 13 planes are there, but we randomly got a set of nine hells and an Abyss.
I've been thinking about how to work in the existence of the Nine Hells and the Abyss into the world of Eberron in a way that makes them apart of Eberron's history.
The Nine Hells, as pictured in the 4e Manual of the Planes, doesn't seem very planar to me. It's more like a spherical world belonging to the material plane (or whatever they're calling it now).
I had the idea that it could have been an alternate version of Eberron, one in which the Overlords won and the links to all 13 orbiting planes were severed (similar to Dal Quor). Maybe this event shunted it into the Astral Sea and turned it into the hell hole it is now? Maybe Baator doesn't orbit eberron as the other planes do because it is not a building block of reality?
This idea has several holes in it (are the devils Overlords? What's up with the Blood War?) but I thought I would share anyway.
Still no ideas on the Abyss.. Maybe it IS Khyber himself? A living embodiment of the progenitor, an endless well of evil and the birthplace of the Overlords?
I just use the Manual of the Planes and other materials to be honest as a starting point. Works well enough and the planes are pretty open in Eberron terms. They were designed so that you can use any of the core materials easily and without any real contradiction, so I'm not exactly sure what the problem with just using that is (beyond the fact none of it is Eberron specific).
It was not a place ruled by angels as many of the planes tied to Siberys are said to be in the 4e book.
Angels are not inherently good in 4E and in fact, can be just as big (if not worse) douchebags as fiends (albeit in a different way).
And although angels are good in 3.5, some of them (capable of casting spells) do have access to the Destruction domain, which means they can pose a dire threat to humanity, especially in Eberron.
In fact, my campaign is approaching 908 YK, and I'm planning to make Kaith Serrain possessed (or channeled) by an Angel :D
Can you imagine an Angel of the Fury? They may have no mouths/faces per traditional humanoid appearance. But those eyes, they would be eyes of madness. Their tactics would be frenetic and almost crazed.
Another Angel of the Keeper would skulk in the shadows, taking it's time to strike before delivering another kill on behalf of the god of death. There would be no emotion, only a cold detachment in it's face.
Angels can be customised really well in 4e. They're dang scary too!
Another Angel of the Keeper would skulk in the shadows, taking it's time to strike before delivering another kill on behalf of the god of death. There would be no emotion, only a cold detachment in it's face.
We fought one in our last session. He had entered Sharn's City of the dead and started raising undead. We just stopped a wae of zombies. And yes, that maniac never said anything-he just attacked us very casually with his scythe, as if we were nothing but wheat. Fortunately we proved him wrong.