Aeaea

Aeaea was the divine realm of Hecate, Olympian goddess of magic.

Description
Hecate was one of the few powers who maintained a realm on more than one plane. Her primary domain was the 3 layer of the Gray Wastes, Pluton, and a smaller, identically named realm was located in Baator, originally on the 4 layer of Phlegethos and later moved to the 3 layer of Minauros. She spent time in both realms, and it was completely unknown why she had two. It was speculated that she drew power from both planes to empower her worshipers, or given the residents of Plutonian Aeaea swore she never left, that without her power to cohere it the realm ceased existence until she returned.

In any case, Aeaea was a mysterious and enigmatic realm. It was a place of hatred and terror, as was to be expected of the lower planes, but intermingled with love and beauty. It teemed with omens and signs, with almost everything symbolizing something else. Fates could be read in the acts of beasts or movements of plants, and a sign of doom for one could be a portent of unearned success for another. Overall Aeaea always conveyed the feeling that its peace was false, like the calm before the storm or the stillness in the eye of a hurricane, that the worst was still yet to come.

Pluton
In Hecate's hilly, grove-dotted realm the night was ceaseless, and yet not infinite. Nights had clear beginnings and endings, indicated by a sense of closure across the realm, an approximately hour long interim of pitch blackness, and the new night visibly rising from the east. In notable contrast to the rest of the Gray Wastes, these were periods of actual night, with the possibility of stars or a moon as opposed to a constant twilight without the conclusion of dusk. The kind of night Aeaea experienced was correctly assumed by most residents to be dependent on Hecate's whims and mood, and could vary greatly. Weather ranged from clear skies, drifting warm breezes and gentle rains (rare in Hades), downpours, and raging storms with crackling, deathly thunder.

Hecate had no fixed palace in this version of her realm, but maintained a lighthouse of ancient architecture on the outer fringe. The rich, yellow glow of the beacon shined brightly through the darkness of the rest of the Wastes, serving only to remind petitioners outside the realm how worse off they were.

Magic
Hecate didn't allow for any restrictions on casting, and in her realm all magical restraints imposed by the nature of the plane were dispelled and all spells functioned at maximal efficiency. Anything one might want with magic, particularly darker magic, could be obtained for a small price. Of course "small" could be defined by the seller as anything between a fingernail to a mortal soul, although depending on the capacities of the caster the nail could be more potent.

The one exception to this magical freedom was that all spells cast in Hecate's realm pinpointed the user to her, and only she decided if it worked, a decision largely left up to her mood. Clear nights signified she was feeling gentle, during which most spells were allowed to succeed without issue, while darker, stormier nights indicated she had lost patience for softer, more introspective magic and favored flashy and destructive spells. Magic was still dangerous in Aeaea regardless, for the hideous results of its power gone wrong could arise from below the realm's surface.

History
At one point adventurers from Arabel, after finding their way to the World Serpent Inn, were brought to Hecate's realm in Phlegethos to accomplish a task for her.