Far Realm

The Far Realm was a plane of madness situated very far from the planes of the standard cosmology.^[4] This maddening realm was feared for its power to twist unfortunate visitors into gruesome monsters, and it was from here that aberrations came.^[5] According to Malyanna, a servant of the Abolethic Sovereignty, all cosmologies were threatened by the same Far Realm.^[6]

Geography and Characteristics[]

The Far Realm comprised an infinite number of layers. Unlike the layers of many Outer Planes, these layers were very thin, ranging from an inch to a mile in thickness, each separated from the next by around ten feet. These layers were also transparent, and travelers could glimpse through twenty or so, with each appearing increasingly blurred.^[4]

The layers were also highly morphic. On the whim of the alien entities that drifted through them, the layers continually evaporated, divided, spawned, and breathed. Changes in the elemental and energy traits of the layers continuously occurred, creating the Far Realm equivalent of a storm. These changes could be seen from far off, moving from layer to layer rather like a storm drifting across a natural world.^[4]

On the Far Realm, landmarks and entities were multidimensional, existing on multiple layers at once. One could imagine the layers as a stack of translucent parchment, with a given feature appearing as a single mark upon each page. Taken individually, such marks might have no meaning, but when viewed all together in the stack, they seemingly coalesced into a three-dimensional object.^[4]

Although full of a dark nothingness, the Far Realm was full of bizarre scenes and what passed for wilderness. The translucent layers were penetrated by rivers of milky white fluid that floated freely, sometimes flowed along a layer's edge for a few feet, then poured through into the next layer. Strange blue globes rained down from unseen heights, bursting when they struck something and unleashing horse-sized ticks that immediately scuttled away to hunt for blood. Gelatinous worms crawled through the layers. Forests of writhing tentacled vegetation were encrusted with orange moss, growing above an amoebic sea. At the very limit of sight drifted huge multi-layer shapes, vaguely resembling creatures of the deepest ocean, but the smallest being was the size of a city, and they didn't even notice the lesser beings that occupied only a single layer.^[4]

Gravity and time did not exist in the Far Realm. The only kind of movement possible on the Far Realm was passage between layers, which needed only a thought. The air was as viscous as syrup—it was possible to swim through it, though it was very hard.^[4]

Inhabitants[]

Far realm incursion-5e — *A fleet of nautiloids flying over a Far Realm incursion into the Material plane.*

The Far Realm had many different inhabitants, many of them sentient. Some resembled mammals, while others were insectoid. Some were even as powerful as deities (whether they are sentient or not may be hard to say). When meeting beings from the Prime Material plane, the Inner Planes, or the Outer Planes, Far Realm entities often adopted forms of creatures familiar to the viewer.^[4]

The simplest natives of the Far Realm were the pseudonatural creatures that roamed the different layers, occupied with unguessable errands. They dwelled beyond time itself and the regular planes of existence, living forever in a state of seeming insanity. When summoned to the Material Plane, they often emulated and took the shape of familiar creatures, although they were always more gruesome than their material counterparts. Sometimes, however, they appeared in a form more closely related to their origins, usually a mass of writhing tentacles, although more terrible forms were always possible.^[4]

The next step up in the bizarre evolution of the Far Realm inhabitants would be the kaorti. Born from an exploring order of wizards, the kaorti eventually returned to the Material Plane, which they could no longer inhabit. The first of them died out, but the second wave came in suits of protective resin, and used the same secretion to form protective cysts to live in. They then sought to conquer the Material Plane and turn it into a new Far Realm. They created several creatures for this task: the flying mount creatures known as skybleeders and the living siege engines known as the rukanyr.^[7]

The Lords over the Far Realm were the uvuudaum. These were horrifying creatures that had two arms where you would expect to find them on a human. However, the similarities ended there. The lower body had six arms instead of legs splayed spider-like below it. Loose clothing draped its grotesque legs. The real horror was the tail-like appendage replacing what would be the head on a normal creature. At the very end of the appendage was an iron hard spike.^[8]

Mortal travelers to the Far Realm would usually be subject to insanity. All sorts of horrifying changes could occur to them, such as eyes sprouting from their palms. They could also relive a hundred warped memories simultaneously.^[4]