Don't appreciate all the shade you just threw on like 10 of the outer planes man :-p. Especially Elysium & hades, as the pure expressions and sources of good and evil in the multiverse, they're just as important as the hells and Mt. Celestia, just because WOTC neglects all but 3 of the outer planes in 5e, if you're using the great wheel then those places are important. And Acheron has the highest concentration of evil God's in the multiverse. Other then Asmodeus himself none of the Demon princes or Archdukes can hold a candle to the pantheons at war there. If the Goblinoids or the orcs ever declare a winner, that's gonna be a problem comparable to the blood war ending. I'll take demigorgon over Mangubliet/ Gruumsh anyday
Hey MrRhexx, I have a question about the Deva character class from your Monster Classes I. The Deva is immune to exhaustion, but can the Deva still take a long or short rest to regain hit points? Do angels even sleep? Thank you so much. Your videos are awesome.
Rhexx, I am loving these outer planes videos. Can you please do Gehenna soon? Literally nobody has done anything on it, and I just know you'd make an amazing video. Thank you.
I love Bytopia. The whole concept combines the "heavenly" aspect with this fantastically impossible geography. I love the idea of looking up, and instead of seeing the sky, you see a completely different land, just out of reach! Such an amazing design.
Which is why it’s weird to me it’s Gnome heaven, while the Halfling gods and petitioners are off with the noble king a, chivalric paladins, and enlightenment seeking ascetics on Mt Celestia.
Mr.Rhex: Non gnomes who go to bytopia as their afterlife turn into gnomes: My LG/NG human wizard character: Wait, what? That's weird, but I guess being a gnome in the giant cavern heaven will give me more head-room and brainpower, so why not?
This was a fun video! I appreciated you slipping into the Planar Cant, from time to time; it's been a long time since Planescape has been significant enough for me to heat "cutter, jink, berk", and other stuff. Back in the 90s, I loved Planescape, especially some of the Guilds of Sigil; I'll always love incantifers, and prolongers, merkants, dustmen, and others are also fun. Before 3e, I thought mortai (big living clouds) were one of the mightiest creatures in D&D! Anyway, Bytopia seems like a fun place; i can imagine some druids, or other adventurers retiring there, and just relaxing around some comfortable bouts of work.
@@archmagemc3561 Not necessarily. They'd have to worship that god and keep to the tenants of that faith. Otherwise they'll go to the realm of the god they *do* worship, or the plane that most closely matches their alignment.
To be honest, I have no idea where he's getting that. I'm pretty sure the Planescape Planes of Conflict guides mention that's only for the Golden Hills. I think he's doing the New York fallacy, himself.
My mood went from "feeling off" to instantly brightened when i saw a new MrRhexx video had posted. Your lore videos are the best TH-cam has to offer, and every time I get to listen to your narrations of lore and the general atmosphere of D&D worlds... it just makes the world feel so alive. Thank you again, dude, for the unreal quality of your videos. They really do inspire.
Best perspective I've ever heard concerning law / chaos and goodness.......... Order is a great tool to bring about goodness, but when the order / law becomes more important than the reason it was made in the first place (goodness), it should no longer be a law. Good > order.
Maybe new members of congress should be required to study the D&D alignment chart before taking office. Since apparently law school doesn't cover these details
@@SangoProductions213 Not really all of them. Some of them are aligned with other devil lords (particularly Mammon and Dispater) while others are aligned even with some less lawful fiends (e.g. Graz'zt of Cegilune).
The Soul Wall is horrible, I know that. And I think Khelimvor hates it as well, but all the other gods tell him to keep it for 'reasons' so he has to relent.
@@archmagemc3561 Kelemvor hated it originally but when he did his whole "Death isn't supposed to be good. It's just death, separate from the plains of morality and my realm will simply be one of judgement." He changed his viewpoint.
Gnomes and Adamantine Dragons sound so interesting, I found your videos on D&D lore a year ago and though I have never played before I enjoy watching your channel a lot. Kudos!
Fantastic video! I'd love to learn more about petitioners. Like, can two gnomish petitioners reproduce and make more gnome petitioners? Are they immortal, do they need to eat/drink/sleep? What is the process by which a petitioner ascends? Are they raptured, vanishing and leaving their clothes behind in a heap?
They are immortal and cannot reproduce. They are made from mortals who die. Ascension is complicated and varies from edition to edition, with some petitioners not "becoming one with the plane" and instead turning into angels or other outsiders (for example when a petitioner on Mount Celestia climbs the mountain to the next layer they are permanently transformed into the next kind of archon).
Another great and nuanced introduction to another outer plane! I must admit, I'm surprised you didn't use any screenshots or clips from Godzilla VS Kong. Seeing how the Hollow Earth was depicted I immediately thought of Bytopia.
my favorite plane is Pandemonium. Id love to hear more about that and the howlers/howling dragons! Also this is a great video and I like how you went into detail about what a petitioner is
i've been waiting for this for 10 thousand years!! thank you sooo much!! now im excited for the eventual elysium video.. and all the other heavens... thank you...
Bytopia is one of my favorite planes due to how underdeveloped it is. I placed My Sun Goddess in Bytopia, Naludia, aka The Ever Maiden, The Smiling Death (to demons and devils) The First Goddess, Goddess of Mary Sues, Goddess of the Nas Potami and Celestials (Nas potami is Proto-Celestial = Our Descendants; the original mortal species that turn into celestials at death and a major antagonist of my homebrew campaign "Paths of Light") ect. She is the semi-secret sun Goddess of Bytopia and the plane formed to hide her from too many prying eyes. There she awaits her true love (the over god, Khut, who created the mortal condition) to return to her at the end of time and the triumph of goodness. Of course, she isn't sedentary, but shared the secrets of mortality and raised many of the original greater gods to godhood. Her marble and golden palace is located on shurrock, stretching over an entire mountain range. It's populated by celestials and asuras who account their good deeds and hard work and sing her praise before roaming the upper planes once more. It's one of the few places that the celestials and asura truly behave themselves as most of their existences started as a Nas Potami. She is also the close friend of Araushnee (indeed all mother goddeses heed the Ever-maiden) and helped her craft the elves for Correllon. She now seeks to save the goddess from the corruption of lolth with the help of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun and the player characters, in my current campaign "Return of the Blade-Dancers". I feel this campaign is far better in allowing drow a path of redemption than simply saying there are more good drow than evil drow.
Its an interesting idea for a world space. The mountain/pillars remind me a bit of The Elder Scrolls with its 8 towers. Towers that if destroyed or deactivated would turn the world back into what it was before creation.
An interesting overview of the plane! I only knew about the weird geography of it, it's nice to hear more details! Hopefully you'll eventually get to one of my favourite planes, Acheron. Such a weird, awful place.
Thinking of running a campaign in Bytopia, couldn’t find any good answers to my questions on Reddit or on Google, then I found this video. Literally everything I wanted to know and much much more. Thank you for making this video!!!!
Dam right I watched tell the very end. Your content has entertained me for years and you are still my go too for lore. In keeping with the theme of your last few videos I think you should continue to cover more lawful planes, in specific Mechanus. My Battlesmith would love to hear more of this realm of law and Constructs, continental size gears. The coup that happened there. The occasional marches that come from this plane would be cool to touch on but I almost wonder if that topic deserves a video in its own right
I'd love that too. He could cover the 9 hierarch modrons that didn't make it into 5e, leading everyone to think that modrons are all super weak. Like no, we just only have stats for the weakest kind and even those got nerfed coming into 5e. I'd love to see him give some stats for Primus the way he did Moradin & Lolth
Thanks Rhexx for this new video ! I was searching for information about the good planes, but weirdly, this is harder than for the bad planes (the Abyss, the 9 Hells...). As usual, that's a very good job, thank you ! See you in an other video :)
Me the first time I researched some of the D&D afterlife locations: Man, none of these places sound particularly great. MrRhexx: describes Dothion Me: Finally, one that sounds like a decent place to just spend an afterlife. It sounds like it would basically just be a second life. MrRhexx: If you're not a gnome, you'll be turned into a gnome. Me: Gosh darn it! Are there no heavens in D&D that just let you be yourself! I mean it's still not as bad as Mt. Celestia's arguably toxic view of self improvement through mandatory repeated self-sacrifice, but why the transformation into a gnome?!
What if your true self is a gnome? 😆 But seriously, yeah, as much as you hear, "33 different planes, most with multiple layers and infinite space within the plane" and you think, "This is a great afterlife system! Surely there will be something that fits everyone!" And yet somehow it's still too particular...
Elysium would probably be the best, I know there's the whole trap of " you never want to leave" but as long as you're going there as a dead soul instead of a living person with unfinished business, I don't see why you'd ever want to. Personally I like the idea of Ysgard too but that's not for anyone who has a low pain tolerance or problems with gore
Bytopia is actually one of my favorites... And gnomes are one of my favorite humanoid types too, so it works for me pretty close. But there are still differences where I'm like, "But what about this?"
What about the Blessed Fields of Elysium's pure bliss, without responsibility to worry your mind, along with everything you need always being within arm's reach?
Literally about a week and a half ago my players laid to rest a fallen player (Kask, a warforged created by an old rock gnome in a very Pinoccio/Geppetto relationship) at his home village in the Tinker'in Grove. Segojan Earthcaller told them that he couldn't take Kask directly to the Golden Hills because of his unnatural spirit, but he could guide Kask on his journey from afar if they purged the force in the cemetery that destroyed the gnomish spirits before they could finish their journey to the Golden Hills, and his soul could become that of a gnome once his journey is complete. In my campaign, it hasn't come up much other than this, but in order to reach your afterlife you must make a short journey; part of it is to prove your worth (similarly to how Mt. Celestia works); part of it is to reflect on your life and the people you touched; and in practice it represents a grace period during which creatures can be revived or communed with as an undead as opposed to a celestial/fiend/etc..
@@mandurain7823 Bahamut is the one and only Platinum Dragon. He is the first Metallic Dragon, and the father of they who have descended into us Metallic Dragons today. He is the rightful king of all dragon kind.
One day I will wake up with the sun shining on my face. The birds singing in the sky and a warm breeze blowing through the air. Kids will be playing in the streets, neighbors will being laughing in conversation, and as I look at my phone it says "What they don't tell you about Bahamut" I will smile and say, "it is a beautiful day today"
Thus is really helpful. Thank you. A buddy and I are designing our own DnD world setting, and this helps with Gnomes and Titan lore. Not to mention adamantine Dragons!!!!!!
Another excellent video! Please please please please make a video on the other outer planes! Especially Ysgard, because that plane does not get enough attention! And it’s literally the home of the Norse gods, the Seelie court, and the tree of life! Yet, when I talk about it no one knows what I’m talking about and think I’m speaking of something from like marvel comics.
13:25 Thanks for the shout out to Upstate! So many people just automatically assume The City is all of New York. Granted, Upstate is practically the Deep South, and would be a red state otherwise, but as a native New Yorker, I appreciate the analogy.
Rhexx thank you dude I got crazy inspiration from this about my own campaign. Any cool crazy wizard trying to protect his dungeon might try to get an adamantine dragon at some point so would be cool to have them stumble on a portal to bitopia(:
Reminds me of the movie Upside Down where two cities coexist exactly like Bytopia, upside down, right on top of each other, even down to the mountain top where the two cities meet, so cool!
U can also find Ukko, the chief god of the Finnish. And the fire breath from Ada Dragons are white and they bypass immunities and burn non flammable objects
Dude I can see a campaign setting in Bytopia where you can make the main villain's plan to destroy the pillars to see just what would happen. Like not even caring about the end result, or what happens to the people and animals. Pure chaotic neutral/evil.
Yay, back to the multiverse again!!!! It's good to make people realize that there are more in the great wheel than the Mt. Celestia/Nine Hells/Abyss trio.
To me I see good and evil like this: Evil: can be either greed or the purposeful hurting of others good: can be either a drive to help people or an internal push towards equal treatment. More complex motives always relay back to these factors. On one side of the spectrum wanting to indulge your lust for blood is a form of greed (in a broader sense of the word greed), so if a creature has a heavy tendency for slaughter it makes a character evil even if it chooses not to act on these urges. On the other side, killing goblins to prevent them from harming innocent civilians is a community serving idea, so even though the act of killing could be seen as 'evil' in less strict definitions, the fact that harming was never the intent but rather the means to protect the community, makes it a good act. If you can imagine what drives your character, you can deduce their allignment without being like "omg I never know which one to fill in". You just add all the goods and the bads, and depending on the severity of all their goods and evils you end up in good, bad or somewhere in the middle. I once played a character that was good to almost anyone, but whenever he was in a bad situation he would suddenly become a selfish prick. Imagine a guy buying rounds in the pub, being liked by almost everyone and helping people out with whatever they need. But as soon as there's a chance of him getting arrested or whatever he would literally throw people under the bus to save his skin. This character was 90% "a bit good" (he also wanted a good reputation so not thát purehearted) but in that 10% he was so bad that people wondered why I didn't have good allignment on his sheet until they witnessed it.
Greed is not inherently evil. Excessive greed is. As is excessive anything. Even excessive charity is self-destructive and self-defeating. It leads to unneeded suffering, and minimizes your Good impact. Similarly, push towards equal treatment... is not inherently good. It is most certainly lawful, though. You have rules for treatment of others (even if unwritten), and everyone is processed and treated in accordance with those rules. Now, for my one-sentence explanations: Evil ranges from the callous disregard to the active harming of others. Good, on the other hand, ranges from those actively trying to help others.... and nowhere else. Being Good is hard. Simply being a distant well-wisher is at best an innocent neutral character. And not taking into account the Good that you would be doing.... means you aren't doing it for the Good of it. Meanwhile, a character that's just casually salting the earth and burning the fields because "eh. I'm bored," has a clear disregard for the harm they cause, even if not doing it to actively hurt anyone.
Pretty sure "Yeoman" is actually spelled "Yeomama" on that map. As in "Yo Mama", a pronunciation I'd consider canon since it keeps with the tounge-in-cheek nature of gnomes
So the other half is for people that prefer the wild and untamed nature? For example a barbarian that prefers to live of the land, fend of mighty beast etc? Also, do petitioners that go into the not-gnome heaven part still turn into gnomes? Or other folk can spend their afterlife in the wild part for example, as themselves? Are there any consequencs of this gnomification resurection wise?
Wild and untamed nature is the Beastlands or Arborea. The first layer of Arborea is an infinitely large forest which surrounds Arvandor (elf heaven) and Mount Olympus, the second layer is an infinitely large ocean, and the third layer is an infinitely large desert. The Beastlands are basically "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. By contrast, the other half of Bytopia is basically nature that the inhabitants get to tame. Bytopia is a lot like "Minecraft: the plane".
I just read Planescape's Planes of Conflict guide on the subject (where most of the information in this video comes from) and found nothing on gnomification. Most petitioners *are* gnomes, but it seems like you're golden. Resurrected characters always return as they were before death.
Well, I can see that it is called Bytopia because there are the polar extremes. One side is a peaceful place where people can thrive and enjoy their lives known as a Utopia, the other is a harsh place that is difficult to survive and people will be miserable known as a Dystopia. The plane seems to have a Yin-Yang condition in the very terrain itself.
So they can invade the Lower Planes, specifically Acheron since that's where most orcs and goblinoids go. Also, it's only *his* petitioners. Still doesn't answer why other crusading war gods can't do the same thing.
What’s weird to me is this is the heaven that seems by far most like the Shire, yet the Halfling Pantheon is off with noble kings, glorious paladins, and enlightenment seeking ascetics on Mt Celestia.
ACKTHUALLYY... Neverwinter Nights in 2002 already implemented a level/campaign designer and a full online-capable DM mode first with support for over 60 players in an online game (if I remember correctly) and even support for cross-server linking. Even to this very damn day, it has not been trumped by any other D&D/tabletop simulation game yet considering its depth of features. The only weakness it has (although I hear that, recently, Enhanced Edition removed this restriction too) is that you can't replace or alter the D&D 3.5E ruleset it's built on.
Im writing a book right now that is fantasy based. The world its in sounds alot like this one. Officially recognized forms of currency dont really exist and the most valuable assets are information and books. Everything is done by trade. Pelts, materials, meat, herbs. Things that can be used, rather than valued as currency just cuz. Interesting concept.
I've always wanted to run a campaign based in Bytopia's Shurrock; with all of the people there endowed with some aspect of a beast of one sort or another, and an entire culture revolving around the dichotomy of nature vs. nurture or "the Wild" versus "Society". Players would begin with some vague memory of their mortal lives, and learn to embrace both their sentient as well as their beastial natures.
You can check my PDFs here! www.mrrhexx.shop/ Monster Classes I is awesome :D
Please do Pandemonium, I've always seen that layer as a lamer Abyss, is there anything that helps it stand out?
Don't appreciate all the shade you just threw on like 10 of the outer planes man :-p. Especially Elysium & hades, as the pure expressions and sources of good and evil in the multiverse, they're just as important as the hells and Mt. Celestia, just because WOTC neglects all but 3 of the outer planes in 5e, if you're using the great wheel then those places are important. And Acheron has the highest concentration of evil God's in the multiverse. Other then Asmodeus himself none of the Demon princes or Archdukes can hold a candle to the pantheons at war there. If the Goblinoids or the orcs ever declare a winner, that's gonna be a problem comparable to the blood war ending. I'll take demigorgon over Mangubliet/ Gruumsh anyday
Hey MrRhexx, I have a question about the Deva character class from your Monster Classes I. The Deva is immune to exhaustion, but can the Deva still take a long or short rest to regain hit points? Do angels even sleep? Thank you so much. Your videos are awesome.
So this video kinda turned into a Gnome video. So now we definitely need a Halfling video
Rhexx, I am loving these outer planes videos. Can you please do Gehenna soon? Literally nobody has done anything on it, and I just know you'd make an amazing video. Thank you.
Let’s have a 30 minute video by MrRhexx for every plane and every monster. I’ll stay tuned for it all! I just really love this guy’s content.
Yup true
I just LOOOOOVE his videos, I love the lore, I love the depth and the quality, the voice and how the videos are presented
He truly makes the best lore videos!
He's kind of been doing that. It's just several videos for each plane....
Yes
I love Bytopia. The whole concept combines the "heavenly" aspect with this fantastically impossible geography. I love the idea of looking up, and instead of seeing the sky, you see a completely different land, just out of reach! Such an amazing design.
Awww I got all excited when I saw what I thought was a new plane to me. They just renamed it... Wah wah wahnnn
@@bayoubilly5176 What was it called before?
Really inspires that adventurous spirit.
I think of Bytopia as the Shire, the way Frodo thinks of it. The wilder half is maybe Bilbo's adventurous yearnings.
Which is why it’s weird to me it’s Gnome heaven, while the Halfling gods and petitioners are off with the noble king a, chivalric paladins, and enlightenment seeking ascetics on Mt Celestia.
I would love to know more about the Egyptians gods in D&D because they seem to be all over the place in the planes.
Mr.Rhex: Non gnomes who go to bytopia as their afterlife turn into gnomes:
My LG/NG human wizard character: Wait, what? That's weird, but I guess being a gnome in the giant cavern heaven will give me more head-room and brainpower, so why not?
Think about a LG kobold merchant that would be send there... Priceless
@@MangaSt I mean, only a feind can put a price on a person's soul.
@@MangaSt The gnomish deities would absolutely do that. The prank of a lifetime.
@@agsilverradio2225 The local Lich will disagree.
This was a fun video! I appreciated you slipping into the Planar Cant, from time to time; it's been a long time since Planescape has been significant enough for me to heat "cutter, jink, berk", and other stuff. Back in the 90s, I loved Planescape, especially some of the Guilds of Sigil; I'll always love incantifers, and prolongers, merkants, dustmen, and others are also fun. Before 3e, I thought mortai (big living clouds) were one of the mightiest creatures in D&D! Anyway, Bytopia seems like a fun place; i can imagine some druids, or other adventurers retiring there, and just relaxing around some comfortable bouts of work.
11:46 "Devils that want to create chaos"
Excuse me, lol?
When you're a nuetral good kobold and turn into a freaking gnome after you die
The kobold god takes them instead because of that reason xD.
@@archmagemc3561 Not necessarily. They'd have to worship that god and keep to the tenants of that faith. Otherwise they'll go to the realm of the god they *do* worship, or the plane that most closely matches their alignment.
@@daviddaugherty2816 yes, but kobolds are all for the community, so they will pray the same god or gods (probably all kobolds pray for the kobold god)
You had me at "no taxes". There is no better description of heaven.
Bytopia sounds like a wonderful place to live. Just wish there wasn't the gnome requirement lol
I suppose that if you worship that Egyptian goddess you might get a pass on the Gnome transformation.
To be honest, I have no idea where he's getting that. I'm pretty sure the Planescape Planes of Conflict guides mention that's only for the Golden Hills.
I think he's doing the New York fallacy, himself.
My mood went from "feeling off" to instantly brightened when i saw a new MrRhexx video had posted. Your lore videos are the best TH-cam has to offer, and every time I get to listen to your narrations of lore and the general atmosphere of D&D worlds... it just makes the world feel so alive.
Thank you again, dude, for the unreal quality of your videos. They really do inspire.
Best perspective I've ever heard concerning law / chaos and goodness.......... Order is a great tool to bring about goodness, but when the order / law becomes more important than the reason it was made in the first place (goodness), it should no longer be a law.
Good > order.
I agree.
Maybe new members of congress should be required to study the D&D alignment chart before taking office. Since apparently law school doesn't cover these details
@@agentchaos9332 Don't you know they are all aligned with Asmodeus?
@@SangoProductions213 Not really all of them. Some of them are aligned with other devil lords (particularly Mammon and Dispater) while others are aligned even with some less lawful fiends (e.g. Graz'zt of Cegilune).
@@Alche_mist Not D&D, but at least one of them is aligned with Nurgle.
I’d love to get a video going more in depth on the god of death and judgement and what happens to creatures souls when they die
Yes please
The Soul Wall is horrible, I know that. And I think Khelimvor hates it as well, but all the other gods tell him to keep it for 'reasons' so he has to relent.
@@archmagemc3561 Kelemvor hated it originally but when he did his whole "Death isn't supposed to be good. It's just death, separate from the plains of morality and my realm will simply be one of judgement." He changed his viewpoint.
Can't wait for Arborea. Bitopia is wonderfully cool for the dual nature.
Gnomes and Adamantine Dragons sound so interesting, I found your videos on D&D lore a year ago and though I have never played before I enjoy watching your channel a lot. Kudos!
Fantastic video! I'd love to learn more about petitioners. Like, can two gnomish petitioners reproduce and make more gnome petitioners? Are they immortal, do they need to eat/drink/sleep? What is the process by which a petitioner ascends? Are they raptured, vanishing and leaving their clothes behind in a heap?
They are immortal and cannot reproduce. They are made from mortals who die. Ascension is complicated and varies from edition to edition, with some petitioners not "becoming one with the plane" and instead turning into angels or other outsiders (for example when a petitioner on Mount Celestia climbs the mountain to the next layer they are permanently transformed into the next kind of archon).
To be honest I don't even play DandD but I just watch your videos because I find them entertaining
Another great and nuanced introduction to another outer plane!
I must admit, I'm surprised you didn't use any screenshots or clips from Godzilla VS Kong. Seeing how the Hollow Earth was depicted I immediately thought of Bytopia.
I'd be excited for a Beastlands video. After all, it's basically the Jumanji heaven :)
my favorite plane is Pandemonium. Id love to hear more about that and the howlers/howling dragons! Also this is a great video and I like how you went into detail about what a petitioner is
i've been waiting for this for 10 thousand years!! thank you sooo much!!
now im excited for the eventual elysium video.. and all the other heavens... thank you...
Bytopia is one of my favorite planes due to how underdeveloped it is. I placed My Sun Goddess in Bytopia, Naludia, aka The Ever Maiden, The Smiling Death (to demons and devils) The First Goddess, Goddess of Mary Sues, Goddess of the Nas Potami and Celestials (Nas potami is Proto-Celestial = Our Descendants; the original mortal species that turn into celestials at death and a major antagonist of my homebrew campaign "Paths of Light") ect. She is the semi-secret sun Goddess of Bytopia and the plane formed to hide her from too many prying eyes. There she awaits her true love (the over god, Khut, who created the mortal condition) to return to her at the end of time and the triumph of goodness. Of course, she isn't sedentary, but shared the secrets of mortality and raised many of the original greater gods to godhood. Her marble and golden palace is located on shurrock, stretching over an entire mountain range. It's populated by celestials and asuras who account their good deeds and hard work and sing her praise before roaming the upper planes once more. It's one of the few places that the celestials and asura truly behave themselves as most of their existences started as a Nas Potami.
She is also the close friend of Araushnee (indeed all mother goddeses heed the Ever-maiden) and helped her craft the elves for Correllon. She now seeks to save the goddess from the corruption of lolth with the help of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun and the player characters, in my current campaign "Return of the Blade-Dancers". I feel this campaign is far better in allowing drow a path of redemption than simply saying there are more good drow than evil drow.
Question: Will this become a series exploring the several heavens/upper planes of DND cosmology?
Yes it will, he mentions that after he lists the patrons at the end.
THANK YOU! Finally! I've been waiting for a video on my second favorite planar realm. Can't wait until you cover Elysium.
Its an interesting idea for a world space. The mountain/pillars remind me a bit of The Elder Scrolls with its 8 towers. Towers that if destroyed or deactivated would turn the world back into what it was before creation.
Great video. Loving the Planes, individually and in depth.
You might be the only TH-camr that I look forward to hearing the Patreons for.
An interesting overview of the plane! I only knew about the weird geography of it, it's nice to hear more details! Hopefully you'll eventually get to one of my favourite planes, Acheron. Such a weird, awful place.
Thinking of running a campaign in Bytopia, couldn’t find any good answers to my questions on Reddit or on Google, then I found this video. Literally everything I wanted to know and much much more. Thank you for making this video!!!!
Dam right I watched tell the very end. Your content has entertained me for years and you are still my go too for lore.
In keeping with the theme of your last few videos I think you should continue to cover more lawful planes, in specific Mechanus. My Battlesmith would love to hear more of this realm of law and Constructs, continental size gears. The coup that happened there. The occasional marches that come from this plane would be cool to touch on but I almost wonder if that topic deserves a video in its own right
I'd love that too. He could cover the 9 hierarch modrons that didn't make it into 5e, leading everyone to think that modrons are all super weak. Like no, we just only have stats for the weakest kind and even those got nerfed coming into 5e. I'd love to see him give some stats for Primus the way he did Moradin & Lolth
Can we get a video on gnomes next? If this is their heaven, I misjudged the little illusionists.
Thanks Rhexx for this new video !
I was searching for information about the good planes, but weirdly, this is harder than for the bad planes (the Abyss, the 9 Hells...).
As usual, that's a very good job, thank you !
See you in an other video :)
Me the first time I researched some of the D&D afterlife locations: Man, none of these places sound particularly great.
MrRhexx: describes Dothion
Me: Finally, one that sounds like a decent place to just spend an afterlife. It sounds like it would basically just be a second life.
MrRhexx: If you're not a gnome, you'll be turned into a gnome.
Me: Gosh darn it! Are there no heavens in D&D that just let you be yourself! I mean it's still not as bad as Mt. Celestia's arguably toxic view of self improvement through mandatory repeated self-sacrifice, but why the transformation into a gnome?!
What if your true self is a gnome? 😆
But seriously, yeah, as much as you hear, "33 different planes, most with multiple layers and infinite space within the plane" and you think, "This is a great afterlife system! Surely there will be something that fits everyone!" And yet somehow it's still too particular...
Elysium would probably be the best, I know there's the whole trap of " you never want to leave" but as long as you're going there as a dead soul instead of a living person with unfinished business, I don't see why you'd ever want to. Personally I like the idea of Ysgard too but that's not for anyone who has a low pain tolerance or problems with gore
Bytopia is actually one of my favorites... And gnomes are one of my favorite humanoid types too, so it works for me pretty close. But there are still differences where I'm like, "But what about this?"
What about the Blessed Fields of Elysium's pure bliss, without responsibility to worry your mind, along with everything you need always being within arm's reach?
Elysium sounds great for a relaxing vacation! But ultimately possibly boring... I might want something a bit more chaotic perhaps?
Thank you for detailing the Good planes too! The adventure of the Higher Planes is our ultimate destiny.
So this heaven is Stardew Valley but as an afterlife?
Literally about a week and a half ago my players laid to rest a fallen player (Kask, a warforged created by an old rock gnome in a very Pinoccio/Geppetto relationship) at his home village in the Tinker'in Grove. Segojan Earthcaller told them that he couldn't take Kask directly to the Golden Hills because of his unnatural spirit, but he could guide Kask on his journey from afar if they purged the force in the cemetery that destroyed the gnomish spirits before they could finish their journey to the Golden Hills, and his soul could become that of a gnome once his journey is complete. In my campaign, it hasn't come up much other than this, but in order to reach your afterlife you must make a short journey; part of it is to prove your worth (similarly to how Mt. Celestia works); part of it is to reflect on your life and the people you touched; and in practice it represents a grace period during which creatures can be revived or communed with as an undead as opposed to a celestial/fiend/etc..
Reading your patrons names is quite friendly. Good on you m8.
My hopes for the Platinum Dragon Bahamut is still there. Love you're Videos.
Is 't Bahamut an silver dragon?
@@mandurain7823 Nope. As a god he isn't really any of the normal metallic dragons.
Seconded
@@mandurain7823 Bahamut is the one and only Platinum Dragon. He is the first Metallic Dragon, and the father of they who have descended into us Metallic Dragons today. He is the rightful king of all dragon kind.
Bahamut is definitely one of my favorite gods in DnD.
These videos about the heavens are my favorite videos! You paint a great picture.
oh my gosh a shout out from MrRhexx to us who live in Upstate NY I'm honored 🤗
I'm Loving this Heaven Serie, super useful for my Extra-planar campaign!
One day I will wake up with the sun shining on my face. The birds singing in the sky and a warm breeze blowing through the air. Kids will be playing in the streets, neighbors will being laughing in conversation, and as I look at my phone it says "What they don't tell you about Bahamut" I will smile and say, "it is a beautiful day today"
2000 new subscribers in about 2 weeks. Well done, homie.
When I was a kid I remember reading about it and doing some art, love how crazy the gnome heaven is🌟9/10
Thus is really helpful. Thank you. A buddy and I are designing our own DnD world setting, and this helps with Gnomes and Titan lore. Not to mention adamantine Dragons!!!!!!
I had no idea gnomes were such a cool race.
Another excellent video! Please please please please make a video on the other outer planes! Especially Ysgard, because that plane does not get enough attention! And it’s literally the home of the Norse gods, the Seelie court, and the tree of life! Yet, when I talk about it no one knows what I’m talking about and think I’m speaking of something from like marvel comics.
13:25 Thanks for the shout out to Upstate!
So many people just automatically assume The City is all of New York.
Granted, Upstate is practically the Deep South, and would be a red state otherwise, but as a native New Yorker, I appreciate the analogy.
What a great video, I already want to make an adventure in this fun plane
Great video as always! The poll was a very nice idea.
Taxes don’t exist here? I’m down, let’s go
Rhexx thank you dude I got crazy inspiration from this about my own campaign. Any cool crazy wizard trying to protect his dungeon might try to get an adamantine dragon at some point so would be cool to have them stumble on a portal to bitopia(:
Reminds me of the movie Upside Down where two cities coexist exactly like Bytopia, upside down, right on top of each other, even down to the mountain top where the two cities meet, so cool!
Gonna be rough for any kobold petitioners to Bytopia.
Great info as usual. I've been missing planar lore from you.
Love the long form videos, and I love the outer planes! Thanks for the lore!
Yeoman is typically pronounced yo-man. Great video! This is my first stop for an afterlife
My god! Imagine the varieties of Gian Space Hamster there could be in the Golden Hills.
U can also find Ukko, the chief god of the Finnish. And the fire breath from Ada Dragons are white and they bypass immunities and burn non flammable objects
Like brick and already burnt stuff?
I love the concept of a titan that's basically Steve Urcle "Did I do that?"
Dude I can see a campaign setting in Bytopia where you can make the main villain's plan to destroy the pillars to see just what would happen. Like not even caring about the end result, or what happens to the people and animals. Pure chaotic neutral/evil.
Im glad to see that its not only me who likes these more obscure plains
Well shit, when I die I want to go there. Sounds like my kinda place, legit perfect
after seeing a lot of dwarves... gnomes are one the best follow up posible :P
11:46 “devils that want to create chaos” hmm…
lol
24:10 "taxes don't exist here" ..sign me up
Thanks for all your work, really
Just because you said that now everybody's going to make a campaign about invading them
I am in love with the idea that Gnomes are die hard capitalists. I’m definitely going to use that in the future
Will there be a beast lands episode?
Yay, back to the multiverse again!!!! It's good to make people realize that there are more in the great wheel than the Mt. Celestia/Nine Hells/Abyss trio.
To me I see good and evil like this:
Evil: can be either greed or the purposeful hurting of others
good: can be either a drive to help people or an internal push towards equal treatment.
More complex motives always relay back to these factors.
On one side of the spectrum wanting to indulge your lust for blood is a form of greed (in a broader sense of the word greed), so if a creature has a heavy tendency for slaughter it makes a character evil even if it chooses not to act on these urges.
On the other side, killing goblins to prevent them from harming innocent civilians is a community serving idea, so even though the act of killing could be seen as 'evil' in less strict definitions, the fact that harming was never the intent but rather the means to protect the community, makes it a good act.
If you can imagine what drives your character, you can deduce their allignment without being like "omg I never know which one to fill in". You just add all the goods and the bads, and depending on the severity of all their goods and evils you end up in good, bad or somewhere in the middle.
I once played a character that was good to almost anyone, but whenever he was in a bad situation he would suddenly become a selfish prick. Imagine a guy buying rounds in the pub, being liked by almost everyone and helping people out with whatever they need. But as soon as there's a chance of him getting arrested or whatever he would literally throw people under the bus to save his skin.
This character was 90% "a bit good" (he also wanted a good reputation so not thát purehearted) but in that 10% he was so bad that people wondered why I didn't have good allignment on his sheet until they witnessed it.
"It's easy to be a saint in paradice"
- Cap. Benjamen Sisko.
Greed is not inherently evil. Excessive greed is. As is excessive anything. Even excessive charity is self-destructive and self-defeating. It leads to unneeded suffering, and minimizes your Good impact.
Similarly, push towards equal treatment... is not inherently good. It is most certainly lawful, though. You have rules for treatment of others (even if unwritten), and everyone is processed and treated in accordance with those rules.
Now, for my one-sentence explanations:
Evil ranges from the callous disregard to the active harming of others.
Good, on the other hand, ranges from those actively trying to help others.... and nowhere else.
Being Good is hard. Simply being a distant well-wisher is at best an innocent neutral character. And not taking into account the Good that you would be doing.... means you aren't doing it for the Good of it. Meanwhile, a character that's just casually salting the earth and burning the fields because "eh. I'm bored," has a clear disregard for the harm they cause, even if not doing it to actively hurt anyone.
Pretty sure "Yeoman" is actually spelled "Yeomama" on that map. As in "Yo Mama", a pronunciation I'd consider canon since it keeps with the tounge-in-cheek nature of gnomes
I agree. The biggest city in the land is Yeomama. All roads lead to Yeomama. Yeomama has a huge population of gnomes.
I love that pic from dragon magazine with the raccoon because it looks like the Gnomish gods don't wear pants!
The one kid with Brain damage: "Let's invade pandemonium y'all!"
Hi MrRhexx great video by the way, I hope the next video you talk about Elysium my favorite plane and their inhabitants.
So the other half is for people that prefer the wild and untamed nature? For example a barbarian that prefers to live of the land, fend of mighty beast etc? Also, do petitioners that go into the not-gnome heaven part still turn into gnomes? Or other folk can spend their afterlife in the wild part for example, as themselves? Are there any consequencs of this gnomification resurection wise?
Wild and untamed nature is the Beastlands or Arborea. The first layer of Arborea is an infinitely large forest which surrounds Arvandor (elf heaven) and Mount Olympus, the second layer is an infinitely large ocean, and the third layer is an infinitely large desert. The Beastlands are basically "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. By contrast, the other half of Bytopia is basically nature that the inhabitants get to tame. Bytopia is a lot like "Minecraft: the plane".
I just read Planescape's Planes of Conflict guide on the subject (where most of the information in this video comes from) and found nothing on gnomification. Most petitioners *are* gnomes, but it seems like you're golden.
Resurrected characters always return as they were before death.
@@daviddaugherty2816 Splendid, thanks for digging this up
@@stanisawdrewienkowski2843 No problem!
Well, I can see that it is called Bytopia because there are the polar extremes. One side is a peaceful place where people can thrive and enjoy their lives known as a Utopia, the other is a harsh place that is difficult to survive and people will be miserable known as a Dystopia. The plane seems to have a Yin-Yang condition in the very terrain itself.
Why the heck can specifically Clangeddin resurrect petitioners that die outside of his heaven? Thats so insanely specific
So they can invade the Lower Planes, specifically Acheron since that's where most orcs and goblinoids go.
Also, it's only *his* petitioners. Still doesn't answer why other crusading war gods can't do the same thing.
You sold me at "taxes don't exist"
What’s weird to me is this is the heaven that seems by far most like the Shire, yet the Halfling Pantheon is off with noble kings, glorious paladins, and enlightenment seeking ascetics on Mt Celestia.
7:20 that’s the house behind the demon door in Oakvale in fable 2!
A fate worse than death - being transformed into gnome
Man i love Bytopia amazing concept.
Amazing! Even gnome heaven is awful.
Great video
I enjoy the lore about the cities in these different planes
My God Thank You. I live in NY. Not "The City," but Central New York. I have to explain that to so many people while talking online. Hahaha.
This here, this is pretty much my ideal heaven
ACKTHUALLYY... Neverwinter Nights in 2002 already implemented a level/campaign designer and a full online-capable DM mode first with support for over 60 players in an online game (if I remember correctly) and even support for cross-server linking. Even to this very damn day, it has not been trumped by any other D&D/tabletop simulation game yet considering its depth of features. The only weakness it has (although I hear that, recently, Enhanced Edition removed this restriction too) is that you can't replace or alter the D&D 3.5E ruleset it's built on.
A videogame set in bytopia would be really cool.
Well. I never wanted to be a gnome before... truly does sound like a paradise. lol.
Almost reminds of my Minecraft world Brytopia
Sounds like a lovely place.
So... what about Carceri, for our next outer plane?
This sounds like my perfect heaven.... up till becoming a gnome
That bit about becoming a gnome when you die is hilarious.
great video....speaking of planes, would you consider video on Sigil?
So cool I would love to have a story go there for some reason
Im writing a book right now that is fantasy based. The world its in sounds alot like this one. Officially recognized forms of currency dont really exist and the most valuable assets are information and books. Everything is done by trade. Pelts, materials, meat, herbs. Things that can be used, rather than valued as currency just cuz. Interesting concept.
I've always wanted to run a campaign based in Bytopia's Shurrock; with all of the people there endowed with some aspect of a beast of one sort or another, and an entire culture revolving around the dichotomy of nature vs. nurture or "the Wild" versus "Society". Players would begin with some vague memory of their mortal lives, and learn to embrace both their sentient as well as their beastial natures.
That would be best done in the Beastlands, I would think. The petitioners become the sentient animals that make that plane home.
@@daviddaugherty2816 Ah, thanks. It's been a long time since I've read the Great Wheel cosmology.
@@roberticvs No problem. That kind of thing is my jam. I've always loved the stranger corners of D&D. Planescape and Spelljammer, especially.
missed you videos❤🎉 your videos inspire me