The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna

(Also known as The Fourfold Furnaces, The Fires of Perdition)

Gehenna is a neutral evil/chaotic evil plane that embodies ambition, cruelty, and relentless suffering, where survival and dominance are the core principles. This realm is defined by its floating volcanic mountains, with sharp, treacherous slopes, constantly shifting as if the ground itself rejects permanence or rest. Gehenna’s landscape is shaped by corruption and malice, as even its most stable edifices crumble under the weight of greed and betrayal. The plane pulses with greed, ambition, and unending danger, drawing its denizens into cycles of destruction, conquest, and bitter rivalry.

---

TRAITS

Gehenna exhibits the following planar traits:

• Morphic: The plane is divinely morphic, shaped only by its rulers and the yugoloths who live here. Mortal attempts to alter the landscape are often undone by the plane’s own instability.
• Gravity: Gravity is subjective and treacherous, pulling everything toward the volcanic slopes. Climbing and navigating the plane is a constant challenge.
• Time: Time flows normally, though the eternal twilight and constant eruptions create a sense of perpetual foreboding.
• Size: Gehenna is infinite, but each layer is dominated by a vast volcanic mountain, hundreds of thousands of miles tall, surrounded by floating earthbergs and debris.
• Structure: The plane is constantly shifting and decaying, with artificial structures often breaking apart due to the plane’s hostile nature.
• Essence: The plane’s essence is tainted and corrosive, wearing down those who remain for too long, fostering paranoia and ambition.
• Alignment: Gehenna’s neutral and chaotic evil alignment draws out greed and treachery in its inhabitants, making betrayal and self-interest common.
• Magic: Magic in Gehenna is twisted by the plane’s malevolence, enhancing spells that promote ambition or greed, while reducing the effectiveness of those that heal or protect.

---

DIVINITIES

Gehenna is ruled by the enigmatic General of Gehenna, an ultraloth whose true power and motives remain largely unknown. His mobile Crawling City traverses all four layers, home to yugoloth mercenaries who play both sides of the Blood War. The General embodies warfare, tactics, and manipulation, with his influence shaping the fate of the plane and its inhabitants. While he remains neutral in the Blood War, rumors suggest that if he ever chose a side, the war would come to a catastrophic end.

---

OUTSIDERS

The denizens of Gehenna are as treacherous as the plane itself, with outsiders constantly seeking power and opportunity:

• Yugoloths: These mercenary fiends are the primary inhabitants of Gehenna, operating as brokers of war, selling their services to demons and devils alike. They thrive in the plane’s hostile environment, immune to its challenges.
• Night Hags: Masters of dark magic and soul-trading, they build covens on ledges carved into the mountains, always seeking to exploit the ambitions of others.
• Ultraloths: At the top of the yugoloth hierarchy, they command vast armies and broker deals that influence the outcomes of the Blood War, playing both sides with cunning and precision.

---

PETITIONERS

Souls drawn to Gehenna are those who lived lives of ambition, treachery, and ruthless self-interest. Petitioners here are often enslaved by the yugoloths or forced to endlessly climb the volcanic slopes, with the ground collapsing beneath their feet as they chase goals they will never reach. Their suffering is a direct reflection of their selfish lives, trapped in a cycle of ambition and failure.

---

INFUSIONS

Those who attune to Gehenna may experience various boons, reflective of the plane’s treacherous nature:

• Basic Infusion: Gain resistance to fire and lava, allowing them to survive the molten environment.
• Improved Infusion: Over time, they develop enhanced tactical insight, able to perceive weak points in enemies and allies alike.
• Greater Infusion: The most powerful infusion grants the ability to command lesser yugoloths and wield devastating magic tied to corruption and ambition.

---

DENIZENS

The inhabitants of Gehenna range from vicious fiends to desperate petitioners. Among the most notable are:

• The General of Gehenna: The shadowy ruler of the Crawling City, whose true motives remain hidden. He is a master of manipulation and tactics, wielding the power to shift the balance of the Blood War.
• Lesser Yugoloth Overlords: These beings control various factions and mercenary bands, often carving out temporary fortresses on the slopes of Gehenna’s volcanoes.
• Lava Serpents and Elementals: These creatures roam the rivers of molten rock, attacking any who stray too close to the fiery flows.

---

SPECIFIC LOCATIONS

• The Crawling City: This massive, mobile fortress is mounted on demonic legs that allow it to traverse all four layers of Gehenna, climbing even the steepest cliffs. Ruled by the General of Gehenna, it serves as a neutral ground where mercenaries and warlords from both sides of the Blood War come to strike deals and buy arms. It houses a prestigious War Academy where officers study advanced tactics.
• The River of Fire (Khalas): On the first layer of Gehenna, Khalas, the River of Fire flows through the valleys between the volcanic mountains, its fiery current scorching the land around it. Anyone who dares to cross it without protection is burned to ashes.
• The Obsidian Gate (Chamada): On the second layer, Chamada, this towering black gate stands in the center of a vast lava lake. It is said to be the portal to hidden realms within Gehenna, where ancient and forgotten powers lie in wait.
• The Glacial Caverns (Krangath): On the dead, icy layer of Krangath, vast caverns of black ice stretch beneath the frozen volcano. These caverns are home to ancient entities who long ago succumbed to the plane’s relentless ambition, now frozen in time but not entirely dead.

---

FINAL OVERVIEW

Gehenna is a plane of ambition, suffering, and treachery, where survival is a constant challenge, and every step could lead to betrayal or collapse. Those who venture here find themselves caught in a web of deceit and power games, forever changed by the harsh realities of the plane. Whether they rise to the challenge or fall to the unrelenting dangers of the volcanic wastelands, no one leaves Gehenna unmarked by its malevolent nature.

It is a plane without charity, mercy, or pity. It is the Oven of Perdition, the Fourfold Furnaces. It is where Daemons (Yugoloths) cavort on endless volcanic slopes.

Gehenna’s top layer borders Hades and the Nine Hells, so it is not a pleasant place. Floating in an impenetrable, infinite void are volcanic mountains seemingly without base or peak. They are only finite in the strictest sense of the word, measuring hundreds of thousands of miles in each direction. A single volcanic mountain dominates each of the four layers, though lesser volcanic earthbergs drift and sometimes smash into the greater mountains.

There is no naturally occurring level place in any of the layers; all the slopes are at least 45 degrees, and many are akin to sheer cliffs. Its fiendish inhabitants have carved artificial ledges, some large enough for entire cities, and switchback paths to connect them. But those edifices not carved by native Daemons (Yugoloths) or deities have a tendency to break apart, sending their builders on a long, sliding fall down the mountain.

The plane consists of four planar layers; each layer consists of a pair of huge volcanos floating in space, joined at the bottom to form massive “earthbergs”, hundreds of thousands of miles tall^.  Smaller mountain-shaped and -sized chunks of earth also float through Gehenna, occasionally colliding with the primary earthbergs. The first layer, Khalas, is a hot and fiery place, but the volcanos gradually grow colder as one passes through the layers; the third layer, Mungoth, is a cool place, while the fourth, Krangath, is icy and dead.

The Crawling City

This city isn’t specific to Khalas, as it actually traverses all of Gehenna since it’s mobile. It is the home of an extremely powerful Ultraloth, known only as The General of Gehenna. The city itself has massive demonic legs grafted onto it which are able to resist the heat of the lava rivers that are all over Gehenna. The legs also allow it to climb the steep mountains with relative ease.

The city itself houses mercenaries from both sides of The Blood War. In fact, it plays both sides of the war fairly well. Housing elite crafters who will happily sell their advanced hardware to whatever side is paying the highest. The city also has a prestigious War Academy where officers from both sides of the war learn tactics and lore to help them in their conquest. Legends say that if The Crawling City ever chose a side, then the Blood War would reach its final apocalyptic end.