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The realm of Mad Gods is a swirling maelstrom of chaotic energy and warped matter, the sole permanent objects the catatonic forms of dreaming deities that float through the chaos like floating islands amid a sea of madness. A plane of primordial energies and elemental fluctuations, the Realm would have been ignored by sentient beings if it wasn’t for one unique trait – even the most powerful deities that find their way there find themselves locked in an eternal torpor that prevents them from doing anything but dream.
The Realm of Mad Gods has been used to imprison deranged deities and other powerful creatures that threaten the existence of the multiverse for millennia. As a result the natural chaos of the plane has grown even wilder and more nightmarish, reacting to the dark and deranged dreams of the gods that are imprisoned there. The only permanent residents are the slumbering deities, the temporary life-forms that are created as a result of their dreams, and hordes of chaos beasts and other creatures that can survive among the fluctuating nightmares of the imprisoned Mad Gods.
The Realm of Mad Gods stretches out into infinity, and has no visible layers. It is possible to mark out temporary boundaries where the dreams of two deities clash, but these divides are temporary at best.
Planar Traits
The Realm of Mad Gods has the following traits.
•The Realm of Mad Gods is infinite
•Subjective Directional Gravity
•Timeless: Locked in an eternal nightmare, time does not pass in the Realm of Mad Gods. Age, hunger, thirst, poison and natural healing don’t function in the plane, though they resume functioning normally when a traveler leaves the plane.
•Highly Morphic: The Realm of Mad Gods is constantly changing. A specific area reacts to the thoughts and spells of living beings that travel through it. A creature can establish control over a fragment of the Realm by making a successful Wisdom check (DC 20). Those that succeed can impose their will on the plane in a 10-foot radius around them. Those that beat the DC by 5 or more control an additional 10 feet in all directions for every point by which they beat the DC.
In areas where two or more creatures attempt to assert their dominance, opposed Wisdom checks are made to determine whose vision becomes reality. Often these checks are made against the dreaming gods that float through the realm, making it difficult for most mortals to make their thoughts reality.
•Strongly Chaos Aligned: Lawful and Neutral creatures in the Realm of Mad Gods suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks, as well as all Intelligence and Wisdom-based checks.
•Wild Magic: Any spell or spell-like ability used in the Realm of Mad gods may go awry. The spellcaster must make a level check (1d20 + spellcaster level) against a DC of 20 + the level of the attempted spell. If the caster fails the check, roll on the wild magic table found in appendix II.
•Impeded magic: Conjuration Spells and spell-like abilities that attempt to open a gate or portal from the Realm of Mad Gods to another plane are impeded. To cast an impeded spell, the caster must make a Spellcraft 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. Impeded spells may still suffer the effects of Wild Magic if successfully cast.
•Madness: The minds of mortal creatures are often unable to withstand the howling madness of the Realm of Mad Gods. Every round a creature spends in the Realm they must make an Intelligence check (DC 20) or suffer 1 point of Intelligence and Wisdom damage.
•Divine Torpor: Any creature with a divine rank of 0 or greater that finds themselves in the Realm of Mad Gods falls into a torpor, sleeping but still conscious inside their own dreams. Although sleeping divine creatures cannot actively attempt to control their surroundings, the malleable reality of the Realm always changes to reflect the dreams of the gods slumbering within.
Links to the Realm of Mad Gods
There are few known links to the Realm of Mad Gods from other planes, and the secrets of traveling there are usually well-hidden by those that know. Apart from the Tome of Mad Gods, it’s theorized that a scattered handful of divine beings may know how to create a Gate to the realm, but they are known to be stern and dutiful powers that guard their secrets carefully.
Leaving the Realm is just as difficult as finding it, often requiring a great deal of luck or knowledge. It is known that the Realm occasionally drifts and becomes coterminous with other planes, but such linkages are brief and nearly impossible to predict.
Inhabitants of the Realm of Mad Gods
The Realm of Mad Gods has few native creatures, although large numbers of chaos beasts seem to thrive in the environment. Occasionally a nightmarish parody of mortal races spring up, the product of a particularly powerful divine dream, but they are little more than phantoms that disappear the moment a dream shifts.
There are over seventy divine beings known to be imprisoned in the Realm of Mad Gods, and there is the potential for hundreds more to exist in the deep reaches of the entropic gloom that most creatures never visit.
Features of the Realm of Mad Gods
The Realm of Mad Gods is composed of a single, infinite layer that stretches out towards an endless boundary. Travelers find themselves floating in a sea of swirling color, unless they have the misfortune to arrive in the midst of a god-dream that has shaped the plane around a deity’s slumbering form. The gargantuan forms of slumbering gods float through the sea of entropy, with those in the grip of more violent nightmares visible for leagues distant as matter reshapes itself around them.
The House of Torke
This large, stone edifice resembles a dwarven head nearly sixty feet wide, with open portals where the mouth should be and clear blue crystals for eyes. It is one of the few permanent constructions in the Realm of Mad Gods
The house was a place to rest and recuperate for Halgo while he was researching the secrets of the Realm, and has numerous small rooms carved into the interior. Halgo abandoned the House after he completed his research, leaving its exterior in an imposing copy of his own features as a monument to his achievements.
The House is maintained by the brain of a powerful psychic dragon, removed from the corpse and reanimated with powerful necromantic magic. The brain has a Wisdom score of 42, and its sole function is to maintain the integrity of the edifice against the will of other creatures. It can be found in a pool of necromantic fluid in the very heart of the House.
Visitors to the Realm of Mad Gods often use the House as a camp, although few have attempted to completely explore the rooms beyond the chambers easily accessible from the portal by the mouth.
