Outlands

The Concordant Domain of the Outlands, also known as Concordant Opposition, was the center of the Great Wheel of Outer Planes. It connected to all other Outer Planes and was truly neutral in alignment. Other names for this plane were the Outlands, Godsland and Friendly Opposition. Some characteristics of this plane were ascribed to the World Tree cosmology unaligned planes of Cynosure and the Fugue Plane when that cosmology became popular. Both of these planes survived the Spellplague to float in the Astral Sea.

The Outlands was the exception to many of the rules governing the Outer Planes, the first being its lack of alignment or true neutrality. It was an infinite plane, yet it had a definite center (the Spire with Sigil on top). The properties of all the other Outer Planes were mixed together in the Outlands. Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos existed here in all their forms, but they were less able to affect each other due to the neutralizing effect of this plane.

Geography
This plane defied description by changing the perception of those who entered, becoming a completely new and yet familiar plane with each visit. Typically on the first visit the plane appeared as a larger version of the visitor's homeland. (A farmer would see vast farmland, a scribe would see a huge library for example.) Subsequent visits would reveal a different face but demesnes remained in the same spatial location&mdash;a city on one visit might be a forest with inhabitable trees on the next&mdash;chaotic variation but with the same order and placement. Deities could not fully control what visitors saw and heard in their realms, but they could influence the appearance to represent their proclivities.

The Outlands had a neutralizing effect on the randomness of weapons and spells, reducing all healing and damage to the minimum possible while having no effect on strength or magical bonuses. In addition to this, magic itself was gradually neutralized as you approached the center of the plane (which appeared as a huge mountain, tree, fountain, tornado, tower, column, etc.). At about out, high-level spells ceased to function. Every or so, lower level spells would begin to fail, until finally at  from the center even first-level spells would not function. This applied to divine magic and the powers of the gods as well. Therefore, this ring around the center of the plane became a meeting place, bazaar, and common ground used by every intelligent species of the Outer Planes including greater deities of differing alignments. Moving in closer to the center, at about, all chemical reactions ceased to function and even the gods could not get any closer to the center of the plane.

The Astral Plane connected to the plane of the Outlands by color pools, which were never closer than from each other. In addition, Yggdrasil, the World Ash, extended a branch to one of the realms in the plane.

The Outlands connected to all the other Outer Planes via portals. According to one early scholar, these sixteen portals were always seen as white disks of various sizes laid into the ground and were found at the mark in a ring around the center of the plane. Each disk could send travelers to any plane they concentrated on. If a group used the portal, the destination was determined by the majority. Beings of a chaotic nature would sometimes be taken to the wrong destination. However, all later reports from visitors to the Outlands instead reported the existence of sixteen gate-towns leading to the other Outer Planes, as described below.

Gate-Towns


Around the outer edge of the Outlands were sixteen evenly spaced settlements that were each constructed around a portal to one particular Outer Plane. For that reason, each gate-town shared many characteristics of the plane to which it connected.

The sixteen gate-towns were:
 * Excelsior:
 * A beautiful, well-defended city with a kind population, it connected to Mount Celestia.


 * Tradegate:
 * A star-shaped city that bristled with commerce and constant activity, it connected to Bytopia via a complex trade system with a bariaur known as the Master Trader.


 * Ecstasy:
 * A peaceful, pastoral town, it connected to Elysium.


 * Faunel:
 * A ruined city, but bristling with life, it connected to the Beastlands.


 * Sylvania:
 * A constantly partying town where music played day and night, it connected to Arborea.


 * Glorium:
 * A fishing village built at the edge of a fjord, it connected to Ysgard via two different portals. Another branch of Yggdrasil led to a cavern near the city.


 * Xaos:
 * Also known as aXos, sXoa, oasX, and all other permutations, it was an ever-changing city that connected to Limbo.


 * Bedlam:
 * A fan-shaped town built haplessly on the slopes of the Maurash hill, it connected to Pandemonium.


 * Plague-Mort:
 * A diseased, ruined, and decaying town, it connected to the Abyss.


 * Curst:
 * A bleak, dusty city organized in rings, it connected to Carceri.


 * Hopeless:
 * A large city with a single entrance and organized as a spiral, it connected to Hades.


 * Torch:
 * Built on the slopes of a range of volcanoes and surrounded by a disease-ridden marsh, it connected to Gehenna.


 * Ribcage:
 * A mid-sized settlement, beautiful, but oppressive, located at the bottom of the Vale of the Spine, it connected to the Nine Hells.


 * Rigus:
 * A huge military encampment, it connected to Acheron.


 * Automata:
 * A perfectly ordered city, it connected to Mechanus.


 * Fortitude:
 * A mid-sized, well-ordered city with an oppressive population eager to enforce the law, it connected to Arcadia.

Realms

 * Annam All-Father of the giants maintained his Hidden Realm, a crystal tower on top a mountain noone could find, during his exile from Gudheim.
 * Asgorath was believed to lair in the Outlands under his name of Io by some planar scholars, while their Torilian colleagues maintained the location of his realm could not be pinpointed within the Outer Planes, or at all.
 * Dugmaren Brightmantle of the Morndinsamman resided in Soot Hall within the Dwarvish Mountain.
 * Dumathoin of the dwarven pantheon once had a large underground realm called Deepshaft Hall that reached almost to the center.
 * Eadro of the merfolk and locathah lived in a huge sea outside the ring of portals.
 * Gond the Wonderbringer once had a realm called Wonderhome here.
 * Gzemnid, the Gas Giant of the beholders, kept his realm of tunnels close to that of Ilsensine.
 * Ilsensine, greater god of the Illithids, once had its base, the Caverns of Thought, here.
 * Oghma the Binder, patron of bards and god of knowledge, had a realm named the House of Knowledge close to the center of the plane where he maintained a prison for trouble-makers, usually demons and devils.
 * Semuanya of the lizardfolk once had a realm in a large swamp that bordered the sea of Eadro.
 * Sheela Peryroyl had a farm and orchard together named Flowering Hill here.
 * Silvanus Oak Father and his Celtic brethren once controlled a large area named Tir na Og outside the ring of portals.
 * Thoth of the Mulhorandi pantheon maintained homes both inside and outside the ring of portals.
 * Ubtao, Creator of Chult, had his primary realm here, the Labyrinth of Life.
 * Vergadain, dwarven god of wealth and luck, once made his home, Strongale Hall, here.
 * Waukeen, Liberty's Maiden and Merchants' Friend, once had her realm, the Marketplace Eternal, here.

Inhabitants
Although the Outlands had no known native species or races, members of all intelligent species could be found here meeting in dead magic zones, trading goods, or traveling between planes, often in service to the higher powers. All manner of demons, devils, spirit legions, einheriar, planetars, devas, and slaadi could be found here, for example.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Finder's Bane
 * Tymora's Luck