Nirvana Outer Plane (neutral good)

Nirvana is an unbiased paradise existing between the two extremes of Elysium and Heaven.

Its stunning mountains, rolling hills, and deep forests all match a visitor’s expectations of a pastoral paradise, but Nirvana also contains mysteries that lead to enlightenment. Nirvana is a sanctuary and a place of respite for all who seek redemption olumination. Nirvana‘s native agathions have willingly postponed their own transcendence to guard Nirvana‘s enigmas, while celestial beings fight the forces of evil across the planes.

Nirvana is a realm of rolling fields, lush forests, deep blue seas, tall mountains, and hidden valleys. Its pastoral wilds are home to intelligent animal petitioners, animalistic agathions, shining angels, and other creatures of pure good. Nirvana holds mysterious secrets to higher states of existence, and pilgrims and inhabitants alike seek to explore and unearth those mysteries through their interactions on the plane.

TRAITS

Nirvana has the following planar traits:

• Divinely Morphic: Deities with domains in Nirvana can alter the plane at will.
• Gravity normal
• Time normal
• Realm immeasurable
• Structural lasting
• Essence mixed
• Alignment strongly good-aligned
• Magic enhanced (spells and spell-like abilities with the good descriptor) and impeded (spells and spell-like abilities with the evil descriptor)

DIVINITIES

Numerous benevolent deities from various pantheons as well as a large contingent of empyreal lords dwell in Nirvana.

Empyreal Lords Empyreal lords are embodiments of transcendent multidimensional virtues that mortals attempt to encapsulate with words and philosophies familiar to them. Each empyreal lord is a paragon of a particular celestial race—in Nirvana, native empyreal lords are either agathions or angels, but their interests and areas of concern vary greatly.

Outsiders agathions, angels, foo creatures, moon dogs, peris

Petitioners cleansed (animals that symbolize the originating souls’ personalities)

Qualities resistance 10 to cold and sonic, +2 Wisdom

INFUSIONS

Basic Nirvana’s influence has enlightened your mind. You gain a +1 bonus on Will saves, a +1 bonus on Perception checks, and a +2 bonus on Sense Motive checks to avoid being bluffed.

Improved You can focus on Nirvana’s serenity, allowing you to restore a creature’s sense of self with a touch. This functions as restoration, but it cannot cure ability damage or drain to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution, nor can it eliminate fatigue or exhaustion. You can use this ability once per day. As a spell-like ability, it does not require a diamond dust component unless the target is nongood, in which case you must supply the 100 gp or 1,000 gp of diamond dust as if you had cast the spell normally.

Greater You gain truespeech and can speak with any creature that has a language, as though you were using the tongues spell. You gain a +4 bonus on all saving throws against language-dependent effects, and any language-dependent effect you create that allows a saving throw has its save DC increased by 1.

DENIZENS

Nirvana is home to multitudes of creatures, some of them unique entities formed through transcendent self-actualization.

The realm is heavily populated by what appear to be wild animals, when in truth these “animals” are the plane’s petitioners: mortal souls allowed to live out the afterlife in the peaceful reaches of the Great Wilderness.

Agathions Agathions are a race of outsiders that incorporate animal features into their forms; the vast majority appear as anthropomorphized natural beasts. Unlike angels (who often travel the planes as messengers), archons (who are often called upon to wage war against fiends far afield from Heaven), or azatas (who revel in the bliss of exploration), agathions rarely leave their home plane save for when they are conjured elsewhere.

This planar introversion is quick to vanish if an agathion realizes that stepping off-plane will allow it to aid a mortal soul, but opportunities for such events on a plane as idyllic as Nirvana are few and far between. Agathions come across as mysterious and wise, full of strange aphorisms and animal-themed metaphors.

They generally default to the serenity of an enlightened community of mutual respect but quickly transition to animal ferocity, speed, and strength when necessary to protect themselves and others from the forces of evil. Their primary demeanor of peaceful wisdom and patience allows them to serve as mediators in disputes among other celestials, with both free-spirited azatas and order-minded archons often agreeing to accept agathion arbitration as a fair and reasonable means to resolve conflicts between law and chaos.

Angels While angels make their homes on all three of the good-aligned Outer Planes, Nirvana is home to more angels than any other plane, in large part because Nirvana’s impartiality to law or chaos makes it the most pleasant realm for many angels to reside within. Angels often carry messages for their divine patrons, traveling numerous planes to deliver the missives; when they remain at home in Nirvana, angels prefer to spend their time in contemplation, meditation, and pleasant conversation with other natives of the realm. Although the vast majority of angels are formed from mortal souls, the most powerful angels predate the existence of mortals entirely. Today, most of these angels are empyreal lords or deities.

The Cleansed Although all souls shed the memories of their mortal lives upon becoming petitioners, those who become the cleansed embrace this aspect most and view their transformation into animals—the “purest” of forms—as a manifestation of their lives starting anew. Yet they maintain their sapience, and in their pursuit of deeper spiritual understanding and communion with Nirvana, grow ever more thoughtful and wise.

Foo Creatures While foo dogs and foo lions are the foo creatures most commonly summoned to the Material Plane to serve as guardians, foo creatures that correspond to every animal in existence dwell in the wilds of Nirvana and are the most common ascended form of a typical cleansed petitioner. In Nirvana, foo creatures are far less serious than they are on the Material Plane, and they frolic and play with any who would join them, even those whose ordinary animal would naturally be their predators.

Foo creatures are eager to help any agathion who asks for assistance and typically extend this spirit of cooperation to other visitors, provided those visitors treat them with kindness and respect. The most powerful foo creatures are known as the imperials; as a general rule, each species of animal is represented by one imperial foo creature in Nirvana at a time. When such a creature dies, or if it makes an extended visit to another plane, a new foo creature ascends to the role to fill the vacancy.

Moon Dogs Moon dogs are nomadic guardians, roaming in packs that protect Nirvana from interlopers. While they foster no ill will toward Nirvana’s other inhabitants, they prefer the company of their own kind and do not mix with other outsiders.

Peris Today, many peris dwell in Nirvana and play a role akin to that of the city guard, but in this capacity they always seek diplomatic and nonviolent resolutions to conflicts. A peri guardian forced to attack or imprison a troublemaker counts the act as a failure in her role, and she strives to avoid such ends except in the most extreme of circumstances. Peris encountered in Nirvana are natives of the realm, not outsiders native to the Material Plane, but they retain the native subtype when visiting the Material Plane.

Roselings Not all of Nirvana’s denizens have characteristics that resemble those found in the animal kingdom. The enlightened plants known as roselings spread peace and friendship throughout the plane. They share a particular kinship with azatas and other visitors from Elysium and often host such outsiders in their homes, serving as guides for them during their stay. Roselings are detailed further.

d%	Encounter	Avg. CR
1–5	2 foo dogs	4
6–9	1d6 cassisians	5
10–14	2 foo lions	6
15–19	2d6 cleansed petitioners	6
20–24	1d10 silvanshees	7
25–27	1 balisse	8
28–35	1d10 reptials	9
36–43	1d8 vulpinals	10
44–46	1d8 chorals	10
47–54	1d8 roselings	11
55–62	1d6 avorals	12
63–66	1d6 movanic devas	13
67–68	1d6 monadic devas	15
69–76	1d12 moon dogs	15
77	1 planetar	16
78–82	1d8 leonals	16
83–85	1d6 astral devas	17
86–93	1d6 peris	17
94–95	1d6 cetaceals	18
96	1 draconal	20
97	1d6 cervinals	20
98	1 empyrean	20
99	1d4 sirrushes	23
100	1 solar angel	23

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures © 2015, Paizo Inc.; Authors: John Bennett, Logan Bonner, Robert Brookes, Jason Bulmahn, Ross Byers, John Compton, Adam Daigle, Jim Groves, Thurston Hillman, Eric Hindley, Brandon Hodge, Ben McFarland, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Thomas M. Reid, Alex Riggs, Robert Schwalb, Mark Seifter, Russ Taylor, and Steve Townshend.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Planar Adventures © 2018, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Robert Brookes, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Eleanor Ferron, Thurston Hillman, James Jacobs, Isabelle Lee, Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, Joe Pasini, Lacy Pellazar, Jessica Price, Mark Seifter, F. Wesley Schneider, Todd Stewart, James L. Sutter, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.

Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide. © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Cam Banks, Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Jim Butler, Eric Cagle, Graeme Davis, Adam Daigle, Joshua J. Frost, James Jacobs, Kenneth Hite, Steven Kenson, Robin Laws, Tito Leati, Rob McCreary, Hal Maclean, Colin McComb, Jason Nelson, David Noonan, Richard Pett, Rich Redman, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Amber Scott, Doug Seacat, Mike Selinker, Lisa Stevens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, Penny Williams, Skip Williams, Teeuwynn Woodruff.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Keith Baker, Wolfgang Baur, Clinton J. Boomer, Jason Bulmahn, Joshua J. Frost, Ed Greenwood, Stephen S. Greer, Jeff Grubb, James Jacobs, Michael Kortes, Tito Leati, Mike McArtor, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Eric Nelson, Jeff Quick, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Leandra Christine Schneider, David Schwartz, Amber E. Scott, Stan!, Owen K.C. Stephens, Todd Stewart, James L. Sutter, Greg A. Vaughan, Jeremy Walker, and JD Wiker.