Layers of the Abyss

Each layer of the Abyss is different from all the others, the only apparent similarity being that the plane seems to try and inflict as much harm on travelers with each layer as possible. It might even be said that the plane is as varied and evil as the demons who inhabit it. Even deities dwell in the Abyss, like Umberlee and Merrshaulk, as well as Demon Lords that are mostly worshiped by one kind of species, such as Sess'innek, the lord of lizardfolk who makes his home on the seventh layer, Phantom Plane, and Vaprak, patron of ogres, ogre mages and trolls. Vaprak is located on the layer of Shatterstone. Lolth used to occupy the 66th layer as the Demonweb Pits, but during the Silence of Lolth, she moved her domain from the Abyss to a plane of her own making, leaving the 66th layer a desolate wasteland, bereft of any life, mortal or otherwise.

Layer 1: Plane of Infinite Portals
The uppermost layer of the Abyss, known alternately as the Plane of Infinite Portals, Pazunia, The Plain of Yawning Pits, The Palace of 1001 Closets, The Wasteland of Gates, etc., is a barren wasteland of unrelenting heat and blistering winds, cut through by the infamous River Styx.

Even with the demon armies, inhospitable terrain and unrelenting heat, this layer attracts travellers from across the planes. They seek the pits that dot the landscape – pits that lead to nearly every other layer of the Abyss itself. Thus, the first level becomes the entrance to all that is below.

The largest of these pits is known as The Grand Abyss (the interior of which is separately counted as Level 4). Some pits are two way, others via astral magic only delve down. Some lead directly to another layer, others change destinations on a daily basis, some lead nowhere and are merely deep pits that contain creatures worse than the layers themselves, and it is these pits that sparked the Blood War, remnants of which sit strikingly alongside the pits. Iron fortresses which once held vast armies (emptied and abandoned, as the Blood War continues deeper within the Abyss) now hold the physical bodies of Demon Lords during astral travel. These demonic princes, lords, and queens have holdings on deeper layers. Most of the rulers of these fortresses are balors, mariliths, nalfeshnees, succubi, nabassus. advanced fiends, archdemons, and every once in a while, a lesser demon lord (like Aldinach, Ahazu, Baltazo, and Laraie) These creatures often wage war amongst each other, laying unrelenting seige to impregnable fortresses of dark magic and demon armies.

There are a few landmarks within this barren warzone – The Town of Broken Reach (ruled by a succubus called Red Shroud) and a region of Lakes of Molton Iron, known to be the birth of many a weapon in the Blood Wars, guarded by demon armies. Beside this lake lies the Fortress of Ferrug.

Other sites and fortresses of note include: Battle Not With Monsters, the Iron Fortress of Mithrengo, The Edge of Sanity, Raazorforge, Styros, Sonu-Aar'ri, The Tower of Chiryn, The Dolorous Keep, Fortress of the Fallen Stair, and Gallowsgate (ruled by the marilith Jaranda).

This layer is under undisputed rule by Pazuzu, The Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms. Demons pledged to him call the realm Pazunia.

Layer 2: Driller's Hives
This layer is similar to the Elemental Plane if Air, in that there is no firmament, just an endless expanse of air, dotted with huge hives. These hives are home to gigantic wasp-like creatures with venom-dripping stingers known as 'The Drillers'.

There are two factions of Drillers, engaged in a war of their own. To the eye, they look identical, but they can tell each other apart, presumably be scent, or other means. One of these factions is ruled by the insect-demon Tharzax the Chattering Prince. Those entering the layer bring both the ire of the Drillers and the layer itself. If the drillers don't kill you, the realm will eventually convert adventurers into insect-like creatures that the Drillers use as slaves, fodder, or food for their larvae.

Paladins are said to be immune to the transformation effect of the layer, but the demon insects are, in and of themselves, a serious threat to anyone not of their realm.

Layer 3: The Forgotten Land
This entire layer acts in the same way as the River Styx – in that entering this realm robs you of your memories of the realm – thus nobody can clearly confirm or deny what is in the Forgotten Land. The realm is said to be ruled by Zzyczesiya the Ungrasped.

What we do know comes from accounts of undead creatures and constructs that have managed to visit and return. According to the journal of a long forgotten lich, the Forgotten Land is "a bare and desolate place inhabited only by the twisted manifestations of the memories it has stolen from those who set foot upon it....and the remains of those who set foot upon it and had forgotten how to leave."

Layer 4: The Grand Abyss
This realm is comprised of a huge pit with no bottom and no top (some say it is not 'bottomless, per se, but actually loops back on itself). Instead, the Grand Abyss is comprised of bridges and pathways carved into the walls, linking an infinite number of portals to other layers of the Abyss, and other Planes of existence all together. The layer is home to many flying and ground based demons and fiends. Shattered statues cover the paths and bridges, lending credence to the legend that the layer itself eventually petrifies anyone from the Prime Material Plane who strays here too long. It is also rumoured that many a demon prince make this layer their home, including Abaddon, (wherein it is said that the bridges and pathways are lined with unnumbered locust demons), and further down, The Dark God Nastrond.

Layer 5: Wormblood
Wormblood is a parched desert layer that eventually infects all visitors (save for undead or constructs) with a type of mummy-rot that slowly eats away at the body from the inside out. As such, there are simply no inhabitants of this layer, nor has any demon prince claimed the realm.

Layer 6: Realm of a Million Eyes
This layer is ruled by the Great Mother Goddess of the Beholders. An underground realm not unlike the Underdark of prime worlds, the Realm of a Million Eyes' tunnels are dotted with living eyes like the encrusted gems. These are supposedly the eyes of the Great Mother herself. As befitting her insane and chaotic nature, most of the the time she would simply observe and/or ignore visitors, and some other times she would attack them with eye rays.

Haunting the tunnels are beholders and beholderkin, preying on each other, and visitors alike. Occasionally, the tunnels open up to massive caverns, and rumours persist that there is a cave the size of prime material planet, floating in the midst of it is a city built from the shell of a long dead beholder of unimaginable size. The city is known as Failing Sight. An unholy cathedral is built within the socket that was once the central eye of the dead abberation.

Layer 7: The Phantom Plane
This is the realm of Sess'innek. The seventh layer of the Abyss is a vast swamp ruled by the demon prince Sess'innek. Inhabited by lizard kings and various giant reptiles, the layer got its moniker "The Phantom Plane" because Sess'innek had sealed off all the gates leading to this layer. No portals from the first layer reach Kearackinin, leading many to think the place no longer exists. The demon prince has strict control over what enter or leave the layer, as a result, Sess'innek, unlike most demon princes, is less occupied with repelling invading hosts from rival demon lords.

Layer 8: The Skin-Shedder
Realm of Volisupula the Flensed Marquesse. One of the few Abyssal layers that actually resemble a Prime Plane. No poison air, acidic water, or blood sucking grass. However, Skin Shedder is no less dangerous. The layer apparently corrupts the alignment of any who visit to chaotic and evil. Tieflings are reportedly immune to this effect; then again, most tieflings are tend toward chaos and evil to begin with.

It is said that a demon lord of corruption (Volisupula the Flensed Marquesse) made his home here. Whether he rules this layer or not is another matter.

Layer 9: Burningwater
Discovered by a marid, much to his dismay, Burningwater appears to be an endless ocean of crystal clear refreshing water, but in reality is a very caustic acid. Inhabited by strange creatures that resemble twisted lobsters, shellfish, and armored fish, there seem to be no land mass in Burningwater. No known demon lords lay claim over the layer.

Layer 10: "That Hellhole"
So-called by its discoverer, a dwarf named Gorbin of the Clan of Normarrin of the Iron House. Gorbin didn't stay very long in this layer to even know what its landscape is. He was attacked as soon as he stepped out of the gate to the layer. It seems that the inhabitants on this level of the Abyss feed off each other and any visitor who happens to drop by. Gorbin got the impression that the layer is one endless feeding frenzy.

Layer 11: Molrat
Molrat is an underground realm, once again, not unlike the Underdark of prime worlds. And of course, with a perverted twist that only the Abyss can provide. The layer is eternally dark and all the fiends there have become haters of light. All have developed some form of blindsight or scent ability to compensate. In fact, Darkvision does not even work in Molrat. The layer itself seems to devour light, whether it is from mundane or magical sources. They work initially but become dimmer and dimmer until they are extinguished totally. It is not known what demon lords might rule this layer, but undoubtedly it appeals to those who prefer darkness.

Layer 12: Twelvetrees
The 12th layer of the Abyss is a place where the tanar'ri conduct necromantic magics and other vile projects for their Blood War with the devils of the Nine Hells.

It is said a long time ago, twelve devas were captured by the fiends and sacrificed here. Their screams still echo and resound throughout the layer, not unlike the roaring madness of Pandemonium. Those without telepathic capabilities like the tanar'ri would be hard pressed to communicate with one another because of the incessant shrieking.

The layer itself is simple bare rock but the tanar'ri had built titanic scaffolding too numerous to count which dominated the otherwise sparse landscape. Here, they built their necromantic Blood War engines - the foremost of which are the infamous Ships of Chaos.

The Ships of Chaos are among the latest triumph concocted by brilliant and yet twisted minds of Blood War Generals. Built from bones, larvae, spirits, unidentified gunk, and yet more larvae, each ship is guided by the intelligence of a vrock demon melded into it. The Ships use the larvae trapped in their hulls as fuel as they glide across the Lower Planes. They are equipped with several offensive capabilities, including ballistae fitted in each "mouth" of the ship's two "heads". Each ship also generates an entropic field which are particularly effective in disrupting the regimented ranks of the devils.

Layer 13: Blood Tor
This is the realm of Umberlee and Beshaba. The 13th layer of the Abyss is called Blood Tor. Supposedly once the site of a major incursion by the baatezu of the Nine Hells, it is now a realm of bad luck, misfortune, and evil fate.

The layer, in general, consist of a vast plain with occasional stretches of deserts and sparse woodlands. A reddish ocean also dominate the layer, and it serves as home to the "bitch goddess" Umberlee. The Lady of Misfortune, Beshaba also makes this layer her home, her realm containing her totem animal, the black stag. The demoness Asima and her Vile Oracle has been sighted in Blood Tor as well.

Two noteworthy fortresses can be found in the 13th layer of the Abyss: the now sundered fortress Malevolus, and Gallowshill, controlled by a powerful marilith named Taramanda. Her sister Alamanda was the consort and second in command of the balor who used to rule Malevolus before its fall.

Layer 14: The Steaming Fen
Realm of the Queen of Chaos

Layer 15: The Courts of Mustering
Considered a launch point for the Blood War armies departing from the Abyss, the Courts of Mustering is a layer of an endless series of "tastefully" appointed courtyards and gardens, many of which are equipped with a planar portal which lead to one of the other Lower Planes.

The one single elevated structure in the layer is the gem-studded tower of the balor Gurtheonir, an archdemon (an advanced Balor with levels in fighter or blackguard). Gurtheonir watches, directs, and "musters" demonic armies in the courts and through the planar portals. However, many of the portals are also one-way trips, thus often making incursions originating from the layer suicide missions, but at the same time preventing the layer from being invaded.

Layer 16: The Endless Graveyard
Several infinite ribbons of earth perhaps a mile wide (wider in some area and frighteningly thinner in others) wind through an equally infinite void of pure darkness, this layer is which its name implies. The Endless Graveyard is just that, a field of crypts, gravemarkers, mausoleums, pyres, gallows, mass graves, and worse. An endlessly raging storm surronds the earth ribbon/graveyard and those foolish enough to touch the storm has an equal chance of being transported to the Negative Material Plane, or dropped over the spikes of the Abyssal layer known as Impalator.

A huge skull-faced moon leers over the layer, providing the only source of light, a soft malevolent luminescence, and one cannot help but get the feeling of being watched by the eerie satellite. All the ribbons of earth eventually meets at the center of the layer, here can be found the Palace of Skulls, the abode of the demoness who rules the Endless Graveyard.

The one disturbing thing about the layer, if the layer is not weird enough, is that nothing stirs here. One would expect the undead to be lumbering through the land, instead, not a soul, damned or otherwise, which is native to the layer has been seen...almost if the layer has been abandoned, or in a perpetual state of waiting.

Rumour has it that the demon lady who rules the layer has been betrayed by her minions to another Abyssal lord. So far, no one knows her ultimate fate, or what happened to the other inhabitants as well. So conjectured that the answers can be found in the Palace of Skulls, but no one has dared try to enter the Palace to find out.

Layer 17: Death's Reward
Realm of Abraxas the Unfathomable.

Layer 18: Carnaxius
This layer is a blasted wasteland punctuated by volcanic activity and sudden bursts of flame. The entire plane is engulfed in warfare carried on by petitioners. All who enter this plane are at risk of succumbing to its violent influences, causing them to enter the eternal battle that rages across the desolate landscape. Their war-cries and death-screams fill the air with the sounds of agony. They fight without resting or eating, and those who are not cut down eventually die of exhaustion. Not all of this plane is a complete wasteland. There are a few forests and some ruins that are reputed to hold a vast wealth of treasure.

Places of Interest: 1) "the Pyramid of Destruction" This structure is located in the dead center of the plane, and is the residence of Sekmeth, Goddess of War and Fire and "lady of carnage". The pyramid is constantly engulfed by a raging inferno. These flames seem to be fueled by the pyramid without consuming or damaging it. The pyramid is constantly surrounded by a bloody skirmish of petitioners, forced to fight one-another without purpose or organization. There are no sides in this battle, just every lost soul for itself. Sekmeth sits atop her throne at the apex of the pyramid, observing the never ending carnage around her. 2) Jerat 3) Wysval 4) The Sleeping Forest 5) The River Pyriphlegethon

Layer 19: Falserapture
This layer is a place of desecrated churches, impure nunneries, heretical monasteries and vile shrines. All manner of good and lawful religious icons are on display here, though many are subtly twisted to have horrible new meanings. These houses of worship masquerade as temples to benevolent gods, but house nothing but blasphemy and corruption.

This is where the Nalfeshee send those who have mislead and corrupted the faithful in life. The most insidious become the leaders of dark cults hidden under a facade of holiness, while others band together to form fanatical congregations that believe themselves to be holy and right. These petitioners return to their earthly forms, and often appear as holy and god-fearing people.

All religion on this layer is ultimately controlled by the demons, as they use this plane to train corrupt clerics for the blood war. Monasteries and nunneries are kept on corrupt paths by infiltrating succubi and incubi. Glabrezus and mariliths dictate policy to church councils, and balors are revered as the messengers of the gods. The fiends build large constructs that resemble Solars to patrol the skies and randomly slay fanatical worshipers or whisk them away to take part in the blood war.

Places of interest: 1) Library, Laboratory, and Monastery of Gresil

Layer 20: Candlesnuff
This layer consists of a large void filled with plumes of smoke forever rising into the empty sky from the depths of a bottomless pit as if a series of large candles had just been blown out (hence the name).

Small landmasses float through this space, constantly being showered by the sparks and embers that shoot through the air at high velocity. These sparks rain down upon the floating islands, tormenting any living things with painful burns. This is a prison layer, and inmates are chained to the floating rocks and left at the mercy of the choking plumes of smoke, and showers of burning embers. There are few inhabitants of this layer other than those who are imprisoned here.

Layer 21: The Sixth Pyre
Realm of Kardum, Lord of Balors.

Layer 22: Ebon Death
Complete Anarchy - This is the realm of the Babau. The ground is a swamplike sludge of mucous through which larvae, manes, dretches and far fouler beings swim. Most visitors to this realm end up forcibly recruited into the blood war... if they're lucky. The alternative isn't pretty.

Layer 23: The Iron Wastes
Home to Kostchtchie, demon Prince of frost giants, this layer is a flat and desolate landscape of snow and ice. The ice has been recorded to be several miles in thickness, though nobody knows just how deep it goes, or even if there is any solid land beneath. The atmosphere is extremely dark, lit only by a distant sun no brighter than the moons of most prime material worlds. This harsh plane houses few residents, let alone living beings of any variety. There are several frost giant villages spotting the landscape, all of whom revere Kostchtchie (Treat as fiendish Frost Giants). The few other residents of this plane have sought refuge from its bitter cold winds by living in underground tunnels that descend deep into the ice.

Places of interest: 1)The Glacier Citadel This is the home of Kostchtchie, where he is attended by a council of elite Frost Giant wizards. The citadel itself is carved into the ice, and lies between two tremendous spire-like mountains of ice.

Layer 24: Torpor
The Sleeping Realm

Layer 25: Nightmire
The Realm of the Three

Layer 27: Malignebula
Tis layer was an endless expanse of acid clouds with no solid ground. It was the realm of the Gaseous Lady Lissa'aere the Noxious. The swirling poisonous mists were also home to alu-fiends, nabassu, and vrocks who formed an army of the Gaseous Lady to defend her realm from trespassers or direct baatezu threats to the borders of the Abyss.

Some of the acidic clouds could harden into ice occasionally, but would melt after fiends perched on them to rest. It was believed that those who fell far too deep were consumed by Lissa'aere herself.

Layer 28: The Mountains of Murder
This abyssal layer is dominated by a range of living mountains. The range has a triangular shape and contains many deep valleys amidst its spires. The mountains themselves appear to be breaking from the earth. They have the forms of thrusting arms, or writhing serpents. The mountains are alive, and have a sinister cunning. These monoliths of living stone are always eager to eat, squash, or otherwise slay travelers.

In some of the valleys there are settlements of demons built just out of reach of the living mountains. These valley settlements are engaged in constant warfare with each other. All beings on this layer feel a strong compulsion towards dissent and murder.

Places of Interest: 1) Zahhak, the ashen waste. This seemingly endless wasteland borders the mountains, and stretches out infinitely from their foothills. All who roam this desolate wasteland are quickly overcome with a deep sense of apathy. Many travelers in this area simply give up whatever quest they may be on and lay down to die, such is their lack of motivation.

Layer 29: Rotting Corpse
This is a demonic realm of the ghouls.

Layer 30: Slimeflow
The 30th layer of the abyss is a gigantic cliff side with no discernible base or top over which cascades a series of waterfalls of toxic goo (causing hallucinations and vomiting if ingested). Some of these waterfalls feed into the River Styx where the slime is diluted by and eventually dissolves into the styx water. The slime constantly belches and gurgles out of foul smelling vents in the cliff face. The cliff face is an approximate 50 degree angle and covered in large spires of stone. The cliffs are made of a greasy brown mineral that crumbles easily between your fingers. The stone can even be eaten, although it provides no sustenance.

The denizens of this layer include an array of undead fish that swim the rivers of mucous and jump up the toxic waterfalls. This layer is also home to a variety of slimes and oozes, and several varieties of demon, including yochlols and alkiliths.

Places of interest: 1) Cligpha's lake, Cligpha makes her lair in a fetid lake of slime. There she sits in a throne-room of muscles and membranes atop a tower of organs and limbs. 2) The river Styx runs through this layer, and is a means of traveling to other layers or even other lower planes.

Layer 32: Sholo-Tovoth: The Fields of Consumption
Realm of Turaglas the Ebon Maw.

Layer 33: A'Shad'lfohg
One of the more hospitable and friendly layers of the Abyss is the 14th, A'Shad'lfohg. Perhaps the most visited and traveled by planars and primes, this layer earned the nickname "Abyssal Bazaar". It is one of the largest center of trade in the Lower Planes, at least in the Abyss. A gathering place for merchants, smugglers, mercenaries. adventurers, assassins, cutthroats, Blood War "recruiters" and other assorted scums mad enough to do business in the Abyss, A'Shad'lfogh still lives up to its Abyssal nature in which no pushovers or weaklings need apply.

The "bazaar" nearly dominates the entire layer, which on its own, resemble a typical Prime world except that it always seem to be dusk, and vegetation there are either sickly looking or healthy enough to eat you. No demon lord-lings exert their will over the layer, but several do lend "support" to the bazaar, thus ensuring its survival and existence, one of which is Graz'zt.

Layer 34: The Whispering Lights
This plane is a vast emptiness filled with sinister mists (Think Ravenloft) and dancing aurora type lights. The air is filled with the sound of a thousand voices all whispering words of fey temptation and corruption. Most visitors to this plain quickly succumb to madness and enter a paranoid-schizophrenic and homicidal state, killing all they lay eyes upon. In some this manifests in a berzerker rage, while others simply go grimly to the slaughter with no show of emotion or remorse. It is said that this is the place where those who whisper words of spite and malice are sent to be tormented for all time.

Places of interest: 1) "the obscene islands" These "islands" are gargantuan masses of writhing flesh. They consist of a mishmash of all manner of body parts, from fused mammalian limbs and demonic faces, to insect stingers and pincers. These fetid islands serve as a home to a variety of fiends, and even house several great fortresses made of bone or flesh.

Layers 45-47: Azzagrat
Azzagrat, also called the Triple realm, spanned the 45th, 46th and 47th layers of the Abyss, respectively called Rauwend, Shadowsky, and Voorzzt. All three layers were connected by the River of Salt. The 45th layer was a windswept steppe with a continual gray sky. The 46th layer had a luminous ground that projected shadows upwards into the sky. The 47th layer could only be accessed from the previous two; it received light from a blue sun and had purple icy flames. The largest city of the Triple Realm was Zelatar, which was also the location of the Argent Palace, Graz'zt's seat of power. It existed on all three layers and attracted visitors in search of obscure magic knowledge.

Layer 48: Nerebdian Vast
Desert realm that bordered both Azzagrat and Shaddonon. It was also called Skeiqulac, the Ocean of Tears.

Layer 49: Shaddonon
Realm of the demon lord Rhyxali, Princess of Shadow.

Layer 52: Vorganund
Lordship over this layer was contested.

Layer 53: Phage Breeding Grounds
Realm of Urae-Naas the Slaad Lord. This layer resembled the interior of an endless mass of decaying intestines.

Layer 57: Torturous Truth
Realm of the Abyssal lord Alvarez the Purging Duke.

Layer 65: Court of the Spider Queen
This layer was also under the domain of Lolth.

Layer 66: The Demonweb Pits
This layer was an immense network of webs that folded on themselves to form a single giant spider web. All structures such as buildings and ships hanged from the webs as if caught by them. The web created random portals connecting to the Prime Material Plane that drew objects in. Deep within the web were dungeons, and far beneath those lay the bottomless pits where Lolth dwelt.

Layer 67: The Heaving Hills
Realm of Verrangoin.

Layer 68: The Swallowed Void
This layer was abandoned.

Layer 69: The Crushing Plain
This layer had no ruler.

Layer 70: The Ice Floe
This layer had no ruler.

Layer 71: Spirac
Hunting grounds of the demon lords

Layer 72: Darklight
Realm of Nocticula the Undeniable.

Layer 73: The Wells of Darkness
This realm had no ruler and was used by demon lords as a prison for creatures such as Shami-Amorae, the Lady of Delights and former consort of Demogorgon and said to be one of the very few who truly understands his double personality.

Layer 74: Smaragd
This layer was an extremely hot jungle of several layers of emerald canopies of shifting colors and poisonous fermenting pools under constant acid rain. It contained the realms of both Merrshaulk, god of the yuan-ti, and Ramenos, god of the bullywugs.

Layer 77: The Gates of Heaven
Realm of the demon lords Munkir, the White Guardian, and Nekir, the Black Guardian.

Layer 79: The Emessu Tunnels
Realm of the demon lord Anarazel, the Daring Darkness.

Layer 81: Blood Shallows
This layer was a marsh of acidic blood-red water under a white sky with blue clouds. The river Styx ran on the edge of the swamp. The layer had no ruler, and the few patches of high ground available were claimed by different demons and obyriths. It had been the former realm of Obox-ob before he was forced to retreat to Zionyn by the Queen of Chaos.

Layer 88: Gaping Maw
This layer consisted of a vast continent covered in jungle surrounded by an endless ocean and brine flats. It was the realm of the demon lord Demogorgon, the Prince of Demons, the oldest and highest-ranking demon in the Abyss.

The jungle portion of the realm, known as the Screaming Jungle, was inhabited by troglodytes, lizardfolk, hezrou, yuan-ti, dinosaurs, dire apes and barlguras. It held a two-way portal connecting to the Guttering Grove. Together with Slugbed and Shedaklah, this was one of the layers whose jungles were inhabited by threeb, a type of leech that was the main ingredient of the Quelaerel sauce.

The ocean portion was inhabited by ixitxachitl and krakens. Demogorgon's lair was in the palace of Abysm: two serpentine towers topped with skull-shaped minarets whose bulk extended deep underwater into dark caverns. The deepest of these caverns and the deepest trenches of the ocean were connected with the Shadowsea.

Layer 89: The Shadowsea
This layer was a deep and perpetually dark ocean. It was the realm of the obyrith Dagon, Prince of the Darkened Depths, who ruled it from inside an amorphous slimy palace inhabited by giant sea worms and luminescent gliding creatures. The realm was connected to the deepest trenches of the Gaping Maw.

The layer was inhabited mostly by wastriliths, who had free reign of the depths, as well as roaming gigantic half-alive shapeless clouds of discolored pollution that stripped the flesh from anything that entered them.

Layer 90: The Guttering Grove
This layer was the realm of the demon lord Ilsidahur, the Howling King, patron of the barlgura and ally of Demogorgon. It held a two-way portal to the Screaming Jungle, a location in the Gaping Maw.

Demogorgon and Ilsidahur once managed to capture the eladrin paragon Gwynharwyf, but, due to their constant bickering, she was rescued and escaped, causing a strain in the demons' relations and fear by Ilsidahur of an invasion of his realm by Demogorgon. In fact, some later sources did call this layer the Screaming Jungle.

Layer 92: Ulgurshek
Realm of Ulgurshek, who was not a demon lord, but a far more ancient entity who had been created even before the Great Wheel was formed.

Layer 100: The Barrens
Realm of Oublivae. This layer was an enormous expanse containing ruins of all past and future civilizations. It was believed that the Barrens had been an astral domain that had fallen in the Abyss.

Layer 111: The Mind of Evil
Realm of the demon lord Sch'thrruppasstt (sometimes known as Sch'theraqpasstt), the Serpent Reborn,  believed by some to be the creator of the yuan-ti race.

Layer 113: Thanatos
This layer was a land of ruin and death, with sterile heaths, black forests, and desolate mountains filled with ruins and scattered tombs, inhabited by a variety of undead.

The demon lord Orcus, the Prince of Undeath, ruled Thanatos from his seat in the Everlost palace, a castle made of obsidian and bone located in a vast wasteland called Oblivion's End. Orcus had been temporarily deposed of his post by the drow goddess Kiaransalee, who took control of the realm for a few centuries until Orcus returned and deposed her, forcing her to flee to the Demonweb.

Orcus maintained a second lair in the fortress city of Naratyr, the City of the Dead. It was a quiet, cold and mostly empty city (except for the occasional wandering undead) surrounded by an icy moat fed by the river Styx. The city used to be Kiaransalee's winter capital, and was left deserted following the return of the layer's original master. The inner walls of the central castle of bone were made of flesh and decorated with carpets made of hair.

Some sources counted this as layer 333.

Layer 128: Slugbed
This layer was a vast expanse of forests, shallow seas and underground caverns, always covered in fog under a faintly light sky. It was the realm of the demon lord Lupercio, the Baron of Sloth, who slept most of the time in a dung-filled area covered in utter darkness. It was inhabited by shadow demons and fiendish gastropods.

On rare occasions, the sun did shine feebly through the fog on the layer, revealing glimpses of majestic angelic castles on cloud tops, a possible attempt by the angels to take advantage of Lupercio's slumber in order to convert the layer into a bastion of good.

Together with the Gaping Maw and Shedaklah, this was one of the layers whose jungles were inhabited by threeb, a type of leech that was the main ingredient of the Quelaerel sauce.

Layer 137: Outcasts' End
Realm of the exiled outcast devil Azazel, Prince of Scapegoats.

Layer 142: Lifebane
Realm of Chemosh, god of the undead.

Layer 148: Torrent
Lordship over this layer was contested.

Layer 176: Hollow's Heart
This layer contained the realm of the demon lord Fraz-Urb'luu, the Prince of Deception and demon lord of illusions. .

Fraz-Urb'luu's realm used to cover the entire layer, until the demon lord was imprisoned for centuries in the world of Oerth. Upon his return he started to rebuild his realm, but despite having accomplished to recreate much of what existed, up to the size of a large continent, the demon lord required a legendary staff of power in order to rebuild the realm in its entirety. Without the aid of the staff, progress was slow and by the late 1480s DR most of the infinite plain remained a featureless flat expanse of white dust under a black sky with very few structures scattered on it.

The demon lord's lair was located at the center of the continent-sized reconstructed area, in the city of Zoragmelok, a circular walled city of adamantine walls and impossible architecture.

Layer 177: Writhing Realm
Realm of the obyrith Ugudenk the Squirming King.

Layer 181: The Rotting Plain
This layer was the realm of Laogzed, god of troglodytes, whose lair was a cavern complex.

Layer 191: Fountain of Screams
This layer had no ruler.

Layer 193: Vulgarea
Realm of Eshebala, goddess of foxwomen and wolfweres.

Layer 222: Shedaklah
Also known as The Slime Pits, it was the realm of Juiblex, Demon Prince of Slimes, and Zuggtmoy, Demon Queen of Fungi.

The realm was a bubbling fetid swamp, covered with oozes, molds and slimes that formed strange organic shapes, under a mud-brown sky overcast with green clouds from which torrential rains of filth fell every few hours. Zuggmoy's palace on the plane consisted of dozens of gigantic yellow and brown mushrooms, connected by bridges of shelf-fungi and surrounded by poisonous vapors and acidic puffballs.

Together with the Gaping Maw and the Slugbed, this was one of the layers whose jungles were inhabited by threeb, a type of leech that was the main ingredient of the Quelaerel sauce.

Layer 223: Offalmound
Lordship over this layer, sometimes known as Rarandreth, was contested. It was once the realm of Moander, the Rotting God, before he was slain by Finder Wyvernspur.

Layer 230: The Dreaming Gulf
This layer had no ruler. It was a dark, windy, and phantasmagoric realm that contained floating dreams of evil gods of dead pantheons. These dreams were then slowly processed by the Abyss itself and then released on the Prime Material Plane in the form of loumara demons.

Layer 241: Palpitatia
This devastated layer was eternally dark and inhabited by specters and shadows. It was the realm of the bugbear deities Skiggaret and Grankhul.

Layer 245: The Scalding Sea
Lordship over this layer was contested.

Layer 248: The Hidden Layer
This layer was constantly ravaged by lightning storms, torrential rain, and strong winds. It had vast forests of deadly plant life such as assassin vines, bloodthorns, ironmaws and viper trees. It was the realm of Eltab, Lord of the Hidden Layer, until he was bound to the Prime Material Plane in -160 DR.

During Eltab's absence, his balor lieutenants fought constantly for control of the layer. As a consequence of Eltab's summoning and imprisonment, fragments of the layer called demoncysts were transported to Northeastern Faerûn, where they lay buried and many remained undiscovered.

Layer 274: Durao
This layer had no ruler. It was a militaristic layer with iron roads and vast fetid swamps, with military encampments and barracks assembled on the shores of the river Styx. Most of the Tanar'ri armies departed to wage the Blood War in Gehenna from this layer. Three molydei patrolled the outskirts of the plane, looking for deserters and spies.

Layer 277: Belistor
An almost entirely empty void, realm of the demon lord Yrsillar, Lord of the Void.

Layer 297: The Sighing Cliffs
Realm of the demon lord Lynkhab, Lady of Regret.

Layer 300: Feng-Tu
This layer resembled a citadel on a margin of the river How Nai-ho, a branch of the river Styx. It was inhabited by manes and various types of demons. It was the realm of Tou Mu, godess of the North Star, and Lu Yueh, god of epidemics.

Layer 303: The Sulfanorum
This layer had no ruler. It was a smoke-filled realm with countless small fire pits where demons went to relax and smoke pipes of flesh, dung, and other foul materials.

Layer 313: Gorrion's Grasp
Lordship of this layer was contested. It was the site of the balor Illssender's tower, where he had imprisoned a molydeus.

Layer 333: The Broken Scale
Realm of Hiddukel, god of lies and greed.

Layer 340: The Black Blizzard
Lordship of this layer was contested.

Layer 348: Indifference
This layer had been the realm of the demon lord Thralhavoc, who abandoned it to pursue other goals and left it with no ruler.

It was a frigid and sterile rocky plain filled with pinnacles and gorges, under a sky of red clouds and a constantly frosty air. The layer was the site of the Fortress of Indifference, also known as Taelac Mirrimbar, ruled by the nalfeshnee Tapheon.

Layer 359: The Arc of Eternity
Realm of Eldanoth the Bloodless Scion.

Layer 377: Plains of Gallenshu
This layer had no ruler. It was a plane of continuous, aimless motion and decay, in which dust blocked all sight like a constant fog over a ground of powdery flesh, bones, and blood. It was inhabited by armanites who lived in and traveled between a few scattered towns.

Layer 399: Worm Realm
This layer was entirely made of solid rock, hollowed out into a maze of tunnels and chambers. It was the realm of the gnome god Urdlen, the Crawler Below, god of greed and murder.

The layer was inhabited by gnome petitioners, manes, purple worms, hezrou, and umber hulks, who were all infected by a rotting fungal growth. This infectious disease was said to be the result of some past feud between Urdlen and Zuggtmoy.

Layer 400: Woeful Escarand
Also known as the Montain of Woe, this was the realm of the Lords of Woe. It was said that the nalfeshnee lords of this realm seated on their flaming thrones had the power to determine whether new petitioners would be transformed into larvae, manes, dretches or rutterkin. There were also rumors of the nalfeshnees' power to promote or demote generals in the Blood War.

Layer 403: The Rainless Waste
This layer had no ruler. It was a desert realm, filled with gigantic sulfur-spewing rifts. On the edge of one such rift lay the city of Mal Arundak, the City of Confusion, ruled by the fallen trumpet archon Alusiel.

Layer 421: The White Kingdom
Ruled by Doresain the King of Ghouls, who once had been a vassal to Orcus and later forced into subservience to Yeenoghu, but later became a free agent in full control of his realm. Ghouls faithful to Doresain sometimes attempted to recreate lesser versions of the White Kingdom in the Prime Material Plane.

Layer 422: Death Dells
Also known as Yeenoghu's Realm, the Death Dells consisted of an endless hunting ground of barren hills and ravines, with a few structures and scattered signs of civilization. It was populated by gnolls, ghouls and hyenas, and was ruled by Yeenoghu, the Gnoll Lord.

Layer 423: Galun-Khur
The ruler of this layer was unknown.

Layer 452: Ahriman-abad
Realm of Ahrimanes, Chief of the cacodaemons.

Layer 471: Androlynne
This layer was one of the least accessible in the Abyss. It was the realm of the obyrith Pale Night, the Mother of Demons, and a prison for an army of eladrin from Arborea whom Pale Night trapped there to torture and kill. However, many good-aligned individuals allied and invaded Androlynne to fiercely defend the eladrin and to attempt to free them from Pale Night.

Because of the centuries of genuinely good influence on the plane, Androlynne became a surrealy beautiful and alien place, with huge purple clouds that assumed strange shapes and lush vegetation.

Layer 487: Lair of the Beast and Mansion of the Rake
This layer was the interior of a vast, ever-changing baroque palace. It was the realm of the vampire demigod Kanchelsis, who enjoyed constantly changing his halls, stairways and gardens to terrorize visitors. The mansion held regular meetings of the vampiric brotherhood known as the Union of Eclipses, composed of elder vampires from different worlds.

Layer 489: Noisome Vale
This layer was ruled by the balor Tarnhem until his imprisonment and enslavement by his son Acererak. Afterwards, lordship of the layer was contested.

It was a volcanic layer with an acidic atmosphere, cut through by a worm-infested ravine. The river of worms breathed the acidic gas and exhaled breathable air. Tarnhem's mansion was built along the ravine and remained occupied by his demonic servants who awaited his return.

Layer 493: The Steeping Isle
This layer was the realm of the demon lord Siragle the Ineffable. It was a small and repulsive place with few inhabitants and almost no resources.

Layer 499: Carroristo
This layer had no ruler. It consisted of a caustic sea with a rocky island containing the iron fortress of the same name as the plane. It was inhabited by hezrou, ixitxachitl, sea trolls and wastriliths. The fortress had once been the site of a baatezu invasion.

Layer 503: Torremor
This layer was an enormous tangle of pieces of masonry such as bridges, arches, beams, and pinnacles, held together by ropes and chains. It had once been the realm of the demon lord Pazuzu, who imprisoned Lamashtu, the Demon Queen of Monstrous Births, in the prison of Onstrakker's Nest, a building made of bones, earth, and stone within the enormous structure. Even though she was impaled by the building's spire, Lamashtu took control of the layer and made it her realm.

Layer 507: Occipitus
This layer incorporated what had once been a part of Celestia, after it was invaded by an army of conquering demons. In order to contain the invasion, the angels detached a portion of the plane and cast it into the Abyss, where it merged with the existing layer of Occipitus. The demon lord Adimarchus, the Prince of Madness, a fallen planetar who led the invasion, took control of the piece of conquered Celestia and became lord of the entire layer. He remained so until his imprisonment in Carceri following a battle with the forces of Graz'zt.

After Adimarchus's disappearance, the layer remained mostly abandoned and had a reputation of being a cursed place, even for demons. Any fiend who lingered there started suffering from madness and magical illnesses, as the demon lord's madness kept leaking into the layer.

Layer 518: Melantholep
This layer inflicted madness on whoever visited it. It was said to be the nesting grounds of the chole dragons. It was not known whether "Melantholep" was the name of the layer itself or of some unknown demon prince who ruled over it.

Layer 519: March of the Pierced Men
This layer had no ruler.

Layer 524: Shatterstone
This layer was the realm of the ogre and troll god Vaprak the Destroyer. The deity was said to live in a pitiful cave at the base of a cliff, and was, along with his followers, despised by giants and other inhabitants of the plane.

Layer 528: Molor
This layer was also known as the Stinking Realm. It was dominated with decay, filth and oozes, and its inhabitants carried diseases and parasites. Together with Shedaklah, this layer was one of the realms of Juiblex, the Faceless Lord, and was connected with it by several portals.

Molor was inhabited by oozes, otyughs and civilization-shunning demons. The only known settlement in the realm was the city of Thullgrime.

Layer 531: Vudra
This layer was dominated by the Bloodsea, an ocean of poisonous blood dotted with hundreds of islands overgrown with monstrous tropical plants that only existed there. The very air was poisonous. It was the realm of the giant eight-armed marilith Shaktari, the Queen of Mariliths. While powerful mariliths ruled many of the islands, Shaktari spent most of the time at the bottom of the Bloodsea, which was connected to the river Styx.

The native creatures in the layer included rakshasa, yuan-ti, and eye-wings. The poisonous nature of the realm could be temporarily countered by drinking a naturally occurring fluid in the plane known as q'laari, or Shaktari's Ichor.

Layer 548: Garavond
An airless void, realm of Haagenti, Demon lord of alchemy and artifice. It was one of the few layers that was not connected to the Blood Rift.

Layer 550: Forest of Living Tongues
This layer had no ruler.

Layer 558: Fleshforges
This layer was an infinite molten mass of constantly changing flesh and protoplasm. It was the realm of Dwiergus, the Chrysalis Prince. The plane was marked by lakes of organic material and mountains of bone. Dwiergus's seat was in the Chitin Palace, which floated in the center of a swirling ocean of molten flesh.

Other demon lords created pool-like portals into the Fleshforges to fuel the creation of their own demons. Demogorgon held several such pools in the city of Lemoriax in the Gaping Maw and Baphomet had such a portal built into the Tower of Science deep within the Endless Maze.

Layer 566: Soulfreeze
This icy layer was the realm of Aseroth, the Winter Warlock, who had formerly been an elemental prince that turned into a demon. It was predominantly a permafrost layer with an advancing glacier, inhabited by remorhazes, ice archons and different types of demons. The extremely malevolent cold of the layer was said to be capable of freezing creatures' thoughts and emotions.

There was a two-way portal connecting this realm with the para-elemental plane of ice, but activation of the portal required the destruction of a mortal soul.

Layer 570: Shendilavri
Realm of Malcanthet, Queen of the succubi. Before her domain it was a vast plane of living flesh, but Malcanthet turned it into a beautiful world of grassy hills on the shore of an ocean under perpetual sunset.

Among the carefully built white buildings throughout the hills, Malcanthet's seat of power was in the coastal city of Rivenheart, said to contain all possible pleasures and desires to tempt its visitors into relaxing. It was also home to the Radiant Sisters, Malcanthet's own personal guards and loyal lilitu bards who protected her from would-be usurpers.

Layer 586: Prison of the Mad God
A swirling vortex of wind and flying rocks, this layer was the realm of the derro demigod Diinkarazan, who had been cursed with permanent insanity and imprisoned there by Ilsensine.

Layer 597: Goranthis
Also known as the True Paradise, this infinite garden-like pleasure palace was the realm of Socothbenoth the Persuader.

The Persuader ruled his realm from atop the Palace of Quivering Flesh, from where he had full sight of the gardens of Saturnalia and the white banks of the river Styx. The brass minarets of the realm contained the demon lord's court and servants, who dwelt in endless seduction, false beauty, and deviancy.

Layer 600: Endless Maze
The realm of Baphomet, the Horned King and Prince of Beasts. It was an infinite maze inhabited by minotaurs, ogres and goristros. The obyrith Pale Night resided in the layer and retained control over a portion of it from within the Bone Castle.

Layer 601: Conflagratum
This layer burned with a bright white flame that consumed a ruined city with strange architecture and geometry. It was the realm of Alzrius, Lord of Infernal Light.

Layer 628: Vallashan
This layer had no ruler. It was designed to allow for an apparently easy victory to conquering armies of good alignment, only to corrupt the souls of the conquerors and turn them against each other.

Layer 643: Caverns of the Skull
Realm of the lesser goddess Kali, the Black Earth Mother. It was covered in blood-red tropical vegetation and was inhabited by several demons, as well as chaotic evil rakshasas.

Layer 651: Nethuria
Realm of Vucarik, Consort of Chains.

Layer 652: The Rift of Corrosion
Lordship over this layer was disputed.

Layer 663: Zionyn
Realm of the Obyrith lord Obox-ob, Prince of Vermin. It was a vast and inhospitable vermin-infested land with oceans of thick resin.

Layer 665: Unnamed
A bottomless black void where victims fell until they died from dehydration, or the winds flayed the flesh from their bones. Certain types of magic were dampened, so while spells like fireball and lightning bolt functioned normally, feather fall and levitate did not. Although several portals led into this layer, there were no portals leading out.

Demonwing
This layer was transformed by Demogorgon into a flying stone-walled ship capable of navigating between planes. It was put under the command of the balor Straoth.

The Plains of Rust
This layer had once been a neglected swamp with intermittent portals to the Nine Hells. When devils discovered this connection, they set up a colony in the poisonous swamp. Upon discovery of this invasion, Orcus and Juiblex combined forces to strengthen the poisonous nature of the plane and imbue it with necrotic energy, causing all iron and structures on the layer to decay and crumble, until all that was left was a tightly packed layer of rust and ruins, inhabited by undead and evil constructs. The portals to the Nine Hells remained since buried and unusable.

The Spires of Rajzak
This layer was a vast desolation of canyons and rocky spires. It was inhabited by masses of rampaging demons and its maddened demon lord known as Rajzak. He was said to have once been a beautiful demon lord, who was transformed into a bestial creature after a conflict with Graz'zt.