Celestial Realms

Heaven, the heavens or seven heavens, is a transcendent place where heavenly beings originate and live. Heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate and that earthly beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife or in exceptional cases, enter Heaven alive.

Heaven is often described as a Paradise, in contrast to Hell or the Otherworld accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith, or other virtues or right beliefs or simply the will of God. Some believe in the possibility of a Heaven on Earth in a World to Come.

Heaven (Outer Plane (lawful good)

The soaring mountain of Heaven towers high above the Outer Sphere. This ordered realm of honor and compassion is divided into seven layers. Heaven‘s slopes are filled with planned, orderly cities and tidy, cultivated gardens and orchards. Though they began their existences as mortals, Heaven‘s native archons see law and good as indivisible halves of the same exalted concept, and array themselves against the cosmic perversions of chaos and evil.

Heaven is a realm of pure righteousness, where the forces of good gather to aid those on less virtuous planes and help worthy souls find rest.

Though inconceivably large, most viewers perceive the plane as a mountain with a mysteriously floating peak.

Heaven is as much a realm of law as it is one of goodness, and visitors unversed in its regulations may find themselves detained by its guardians. The archons who protect it are compassionate, but they also view any who have not earned their place within Heaven’s borders as lacking sufficient moral grounding to be trusted to wander freely. A visitor invited by a specific deity or other heavenly power might be welcomed and escorted to the proper realm, but told not to venture outside it. Other guests are often confined to Heaven’s Shore—sometimes called “Heathen Shore” by its residents—a city built to allow celestial beings to trade and consult with creatures from other planes without endangering all of Heaven.

Heaven’s residents see law and goodness as largely the same force. Order is the greatest good, and goodness is the greatest order. They recognize the good intentions of the azatas of Elysium, but view them as misguided children.

Similarly, they oppose the lawful evil forces of Hell, but credit them with intelligence and believe that they can at least be reasoned into truces and stalemates—and, perhaps, even redeemed—while chaotic and neutral evil forces must simply be eliminated or neutralized.

Heaven appears to most mortals and recently settled petitioners to be a great mountain. While mortal minds may conceptualize Heaven as a geographic region with familiar hallmarks like trees and buildings, it does not obey the same physical laws as the Material Plane (see the Planar Traits sidebar). Mortals from vastly different worlds may even perceive the same location differently based on the environment in which they lived on the Material Plane.

Distances between areas are based as much on their philosophical affinity as they are on actual locations, and two locations may, paradoxically, be both extremely close and far away from one another at the same time.

The mountain slopes slant downward, yet also host flat plains that seem to go on forever. One glance might reveal a stately city on the other side of a shining lake, while the next shows a lush forest.

From its base, Heaven rises in seven tiers. While each tier technically exists above or below another, higher tiers do not represent greater authority within Heaven’s hierarchy.

Rather, each tier houses souls that fit its particular theme and carries out prescribed functions to ensure Heaven’s continued operations. A number of locations exist within the mountain or are otherwise not considered part of any layer. Six of the levels are governed by one or more powerful entities called stewards—leaders who do not rule in the traditional sense, but rather help organize and serve as the official authority for matters concerning their respective levels. Over time, different beings cycle in and out of terms of service as their tiers’ stewards—while an archon acting as steward might be weaker than some of Heaven’s other residents, even the gods recognize the role of government in lawful society, and thus grant the office proper deference. Though the governors are collectively called stewards, each has a unique honorific related to her tier’s focus (such as High Preceptor or Chief Moderator).

TRAITS

Heaven has the following planar traits:

• Essence mixed
• Gravity normal
• Realm immeasurable
• Structural lasting
• Time normal
• Divinely Morphic: Deities with divine realms in Heaven can alter the plane at will.
• Alignment Strongly Good– and Law-Aligned: Heaven is home to forces of good, and a –2 circumstance penalty applies to all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks made by creatures that are not good-aligned while such creatures are in Heaven. These penalties stack with those inflicted by the plane’s strong lawful alignment. Heaven is a place of law, and a –2 circumstance penalty applies to all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks made by creatures that are not lawful while such creatures are in Heaven. These penalties stack with those inflicted by the plane’s strong good alignment.
• Enhanced Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities with the lawful good descriptor are enhanced, because they are in sync with Heaven’s nature. These spells function as if the caster level was 2 higher than normal.
• Impeded Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities with the chaotic or evil descriptor are more difficult to cast because Heaven’s nature interferes with such spells. To cast a spell with the chaotic or evil descriptor, the caster must make a concentration check (DC = 20 + the level of the spell). If the check fails, the spell does not function but is still lost as a prepared spell or spell slot. If the check succeeds, the spell functions normally.

DIVINITIES

Unlike Hell or Purgatory, Heaven is not ruled by a single deific monarch. Instead, a variety of powerful divinities collectively govern Heaven through careful cooperation and service to the greater good. While the deities are sovereign within their own realms and may take actions on other planes as they see fit, within Heaven all are expected to comply with the realm’s holy, meritocratic government, allowing even the lowliest lantern archon to call a deity to account. of course, not all of Heaven’s divinities play significant roles today.

Gods, empyreal lords, lawful angels, and other powerful good-aligned outsiders often maintain homes or even entire realms on Heaven’s slopes or inside the mountain. Each deity’s realm is sovereign, and may bear no resemblance to or continuity with the areas around it.

Empyreal Lords Operating just beneath the primary deities are the lawful good empyreal lords—agathions, angels, archons, or azatas who have achieved the spark of divinity necessary to become demigods. Encompassing dozens of individuals, this pantheon is responsible for much of the day-to-day leadership of Heaven, with each lord having a particular area of concern.

Dwarven pantheon, empyreal lords

DENIZENS

Heaven is home to a wide variety of good-aligned outsiders.

As with all the planes, Heaven’s residents may come from any number of worlds and realms of existence, though most fall into three distinct categories.

Heaven’s most numerous native creatures are the archons, lawful good outsiders who serve as soldiers and administrators for the plane. Some archons are ascended petitioners, while others are generated spontaneously by the plane in the Garden. Numerous angels also reach their angelic status here, or are formed by the raw energy of the plane, and lawfully aligned celestial creatures roam Heaven’s landscapes.

Agathions, azatas, and other emissaries from Heaven’s sister realms of Elysium and Nirvana are generally welcome to study, trade, or aid in Heaven’s war efforts, provided they acknowledge Heaven’s authority and follow its rules.

Couatls, peris, zuishin kami, and other native outsiders can often be found here as well, accepting divine missions to carry out on the Material Plane, but celestial blood alone is not enough to get someone through Heaven’s gates. All mortals (including aasimars) are generally prohibited except on official business.

Huge tracts of picturesque wilderness on Heaven’s slopes hold a tremendous variety of celestial animals, all living in peace without the need to hunt one another.

Angels Less common than archons but still a vital part of Heaven’s society are the angels, celestials with a more flexible attitude toward law and order than their archon kin. Often serving alongside archons but generally operating independently, angels help raise important questions and prevent the ossification that can accompany too much deference to authority. Together with the archons, they ensure that Heaven’s society continually grows and changes, adapting to be the best possible version of itself.

Archons Heaven’s guardians and primary decision makers are the archons, beings of perfect lawful goodness. Archons understand that organization is key to preventing the forces of evil and chaos from taking over and that individual desires are less important than serving the greater good when the state of the entire multiverse is at stake. They are crusaders first and foremost, fighting in or supporting Heaven’s armies as they defend the innocent and punish the wicked. While their detractors sometimes paint them as authoritarian zealots, archons in truth are generally compassionate toward those of good intent and tolerate even those less righteous creatures who obey the law, saving their fiery blades for fiends and other irredeemable entities that recognize neither law nor righteousness. Within Heaven, their focus is often on teaching and training petitioners, yet their commitment to serving their cause doesn’t stop them from laughing often and taking joy in their friends and work.

Outsiders archons, angels

Petitioners elect (similar to mortal forms, with glowing halos and feathered wings). Souls assigned to Heaven after their sojourn in Purgatory arrive at the mountain’s base, where they wait in orderly lines for admission and registration. Once admitted into Heaven, petitioners may travel freely throughout the plane, usually settling on the heavenly tier that most fits their nature.

Qualities fly speed equal to base speed (average)

INFUSIONS

Basic Your acceptance of Heaven has fortified your physical endurance and bolsters your presence. You gain a +1 bonus on Fortitude saves, a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks against good creatures, and a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks against evil creatures.

Improved You can call down Heaven’s divine fury as a standard action, channeling it through your own body and expelling it all around you. Once per day, you can release this divine energy in a 30-foot-radius burst centered on you. Each evil creature within the area takes 1d8 points of damage per character level you have (maximum 10d8) and is blinded for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1 round). On a successful Will save, an affected creature takes only half damage and negates the blindness.

Greater You can keep Heaven’s champions from being called home before their work is complete. Twice per day, you can use breath of life as a spell-like ability. If the target is lawful good, you can use this ability as a move action. If the target is evil, it becomes staggered for 10 minutes unless it vows to repent for its evil ways.

Heaven is a realm of perfect goodness and exquisite order, and its residents see the two as inextricably linked— righteousness requires structure, but structure is pointless without a just and noble goal. It is a realm of crusaders striving to help others, by word or by sword, as well as those of pure heart who simply seek to follow the rules and foster harmony through love and service.

Most creatures perceive Heaven as an enormous mountain with an inaccessibly distant peak, yet this description is deceptively simple, as the mountain’s slopes can simultaneously contain seemingly endless plains, vast lakes, yawning canyons, or whatever else it might need to accommodate petitioners from millions of different environments. Distances shift depending on the needs of the traveler, and even the same specific locations can be perceived differently according to the conceptual frameworks of the viewer.

Regardless of its appearance, Heaven always consists of seven tiers, each immeasurably vast in its own right and organized by metaphysical purpose and philosophy rather than by any sort of relative value. All but the topmost tier are overseen by powerful entities called stewards, each with a title specific to the role they fill. While these entities are never the most powerful on their tier, such is Heaven’s regard for proper governance that even deities acknowledge the rights and responsibilities of these officials. A list of Heaven’s seven tiers appears in the Heaven’s Tiers sidebar.

d%	Encounter	Avg. CR
1–10	1d6 lantern archons	5
11–13	1d6 cassisians	5
14–23	2d6 elect petitioners	6
24–28	1d6 hound archons	7
29–38	2d6 harbinger archons	8
39–41	1 balisse	8
42–44	1d8 chorals	10
45–46	1d6 argent wardens	11
47–49	1d4 couatls	12
50–60	2d6 legion archons	12
61	1 young paradise dragon	12
62–63	1d6 movanic devas	13
64–65	1d6 zuishin	12
66–70	1d6 shield archons	13
71–72	1 peri	14
73–74	1d6 monadic devas	15
75–78	1d6 exscinders	15
79–80	1 planetar	16
81	1 adult paradise dragon	16
82–89	1d6 trumpet archons	17
90–92	1d6 astral devas	17
93–94	1 gate archon	17
95–96	1 star archon	19
97	1 bastion archon	20
98	1 empyrean	20
99	1 ancient paradise dragon	21
100	1 solar	23

Exploration

Heaven has a standard day-night cycle of 12 hours each, with the sun, moon, and stars manifesting overhead in ways that are comforting and familiar to the viewer. Travelers from different worlds see different celestial bodies above, but in speaking with each other, they are able to interact in ways that both parties find meaningful. Likewise, navigation on Heaven functions in a familiar way to travelers from a Material Plane, “north” is toward Heaven’s unattainable peak. As a result, of all the Outer Planes, Heaven is the least jarring to visit in these regards, as would make sense for a place known as Paradise.