At the local tavern Wizard: It’s Pandemonium in there! Fighter: bah! You’re exaggerating. I’ve been to Pademonium, it’s probably just a brawl. *fighter opens the door to find a portal to pandemonium* Fighter: ... Wizard: HA! Got ya!
I can see Pandemonium also being home to all sorta of vile variants of beasts which do not rely on hearing. Spiders and other invertebrates sure, but also giant air elemental snakes or gargantuan devilish Blue Crabs from the River Styx.
@@Josh-ye9ol Just saying, if they are chaotic evil then they likely were spawned by some ritual to Baphomet. But minotaurs are not all beholden to the pale night's less creepy roommate. So plenty could have been birthed naturally and follow their own gods and have alignments that reflect that.
@@jacobfreeman5444 but we know chaotic minotaur of ravnica do not follow baphomet. They follow Mogis mostly a chaotic god. Dragonlance they mostly follow sargonnas despite being lawful he would likely be a chaotic god in any other setting vengence, wrath, rage and fire are not the most 'lawful' of domains. Not to mention many origians of minotaur in dnd to start with. Thier should be more divine beings attached to them. Besides, is it not lore that the off spring of baphomet cursed minotaur have less of a connection to him? You want me to beleave some minotaur have not broken away from slavery to a demon on toril... were even drow can escape the spider queen. I am just pointing out huge hole that i wish would be addressed in dnd.
Pandemonium seems like the perfect Old School Mega Dungeon, where the DM just Rolls for whatever shows up next. No specific prep, just system of random tables and rolls. Why are three random orcs in a 20'x20' room?!? Because its Pandemonium. Why is there random treasure here?!? Because its Pandemonium.. Why did we come across a random Haberdashery? Because its Pandemonium...
I also think that Pandemonium would be the perfect place for any shape shifting creatures, living spells as described in Eberon (possibly a random result for a critical failure on a spell check,) & the weirdest home brews you can whip up as a DM can whip up. Things like the recursive centaur who's neck has a smaller horse's body instead of a head, that also has a smaller horse's body on infinitum ( thanks Tumblr.) You can also have reskinned common monsters, like using the stats for goblins for an army of murderous teddy bears in a section that looks like it's made of candy.
From looking at the wiki, the Abyss varies. The layers we get introduced to under the demon lords aren't too bad in general. There are many layers that are far worse and goes straight into grimdark horror with a lot of them.
I don't know about "worse than the Abys," but I would not enter this realm, unless I had at least a means of nonverbal communication. (I.e. sign-language, or making subtitles with minor-illusion.)
@@JoseMolina-ij3xx Knowing the Abyss is a manifested plane sized blend of Chaos & Evil, there's probably any number of layers which emulate Pandemonium; but with the cruel twist of being rigged to manifest most of the worst possible ways to spend a day in there pretty much always.
Here's that passage I plan to read whenever we enter Pandemonium from *I have no mouth and I must scream* "Winds tore at us flinging us back the way we had came, down the twisting- -corridors of the darkness. (Ellen) screamed as (she) was flung face forward... ...(She) could not even fall the howling wind kept (her) aloft... ...Tossed (her) back, and back and down, and away from us... ...I was trembling, shuddering, rocking as the wind beat at me whipped at me, screamed down out of nowhere at me and pulled me free... -My mind was a roiling, tinkling, chittering softness of brainparts that expanded and contracted in quivering frenzy... The wind... The wind was the scream of a great mad bird as it flapped its immense wings and then we were all lifted and hurled away from there. Down back the way we had come around the bend into the dark way we had never explored, a terrain that was ruin, and filled with broken glass, and rotting cables and rusted metal and far away. Farther than any of us had ever been, trailing along miles behind (Ellen) I could see (her) now and then... ...All of us screaming in the freezing thunderous hurricane wind that would never end. And suddenly it stopped and we fell. We had been in flight for an endless time. I thought it might have been weeks. (Most of that time we were unconscious.) Weeks... we fell, and hit, and I went through red and grey and black... And heard myself moaning. Not dead?"
10:38 Holy Sheep Shit! That's horrifying for two really big reasons; a) Think about not only how powerful, but how vindictively insane the god that made Pandemonium must have been, Im talking Therizdun levels of crazy and angry, and b) Something or someone defeated it, kicked it out of the Plane it crafted, and took over.
Neat. Next Lich is just gonna rip open a portal to pandemonium to inflict deafness on the party while the supernatural chill reduces their movement speed accordingly.
Yes! Pandemonium is one of my favorite planes. My imagination just surges thinking about what manner of nasty might be hiding in those rocky bubbles on Agathion. Or if you pointed yourself in the just the right non-euclidian direction and dug through the bedrock for eternity, where might you end up? (Chisling up through some of that black ice at the bottom of Ocanthus, maybe?) The deep, dark, vaguely defined places are the best.
Hello AJ, out of all your planar video's, this one is my favorite. You went Super Saiyan with the description & pictures. Really like the idea of there being one lone Insane Tavern and Xvarts running around everywhere, lol. Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
One part of pandemonium, on the layer of pandesmos, is the "city of eternal darkness" divine realm of the lesser gods Anshar and Eloéle. The only description of this place I could find was on page 64 of the "on hallowed ground" book. It reads "In a place where the howling winds of pandemonium have died to the merest whisper, a black clay brick wall seals off the entrance to Anshar's dark realm. No matter how much light a body shines in the area, it never illuminates more than 5 feet of the wall in any direction, so the structure seems endless - and perhaps it is." Wish there was more to it, including the city in a campaign sounds like a really cool idea to me!
Rumor has it that somewhere beyond the infinite reflections of yourself there are portals to the plane of void or negitive energy... Or maybe even darker places.
On a more serious note, I'd be surprised if high wisdom and level characters couldn't get to the astral or etherial planes as well by literaly looking into themselves in "The Cavern of the Self". There could also be a magic mirror somewhere that looks out into the cavern that is quite dangerous to touch and shouldn't be in a well lit place because it might get unwanted attention... Mirrors are alot of fun. Mirror mephits and dopplegangers in this location sounds like fun for a DM.
Thinking of even darker places, I've started forming the idea for an elder evil. A sentient plane something like the etherial but made of darkness that is, by definition, only darkness. Anything that isn't made of darkness can't be there and if it is there it can't even have a surface for any non-existent light to fall on. Waiting for the universe to grow old and weak and for the crystal spheres themselves to fail, when all light must die. Edit: A kind of Over-god level Shadow demon I suppose (Altho I'm not sure "demon" is the right word here).
I located "Resounding Thunder", the divine realm of the brothers Raijin (aka Raiden) and Fujin in Pandemonium. It was a twilight realm of constant storms that endlessly lashed small islands which contained dismal pagodas and quadrangle buildings. The party was able to steal a divine treasure from a heavily concealed and guarded vault in a long, long quest inspired by the story of Prometheus. The treasure was a divine spark that gave one player the Godly feat "Supreme Initiative" which means they go first in any combat without rolling.
Your Profile on Kickstarter said something about you used to do some work for Palladium Books!? After the BECMI books of D&D and the Gazetteers of the known world, it was actually some of the RPG from Palladium Books that became my next investment. The TMNT Book, the Palladium Fantasy, and the Recon book. Only got to play a bit Recon, and was stupid enough to let someone borrow the Palladium Fantasy, that was the last time I got to see that book. I remember I bought all of them back when I was a Navy Cadet and we were in the US - must have been 31 years ago by now.... Holy shit, guess I’m really old!
So... this is the outer plane that super-powerful beings use to create their outer-planar versions of demi-planes. Well, that actually makes sense seeing how it's a bunch of high-energy chaos that can be orderly until the energy to bring the order wanes... much like entropy in physics. I see the plane got a lot more interesting since 2nd Ed... it used to be just a bunch of pandemonium created by gods and other beings that dug out their own versions of outer planes in this Abyss-adjacent plane.
I was actually hoping this would be your next Planar lore video. One of the more interesting (quasi) Lower Planes. Good setting for a high-level dungeon crawl.
'Merchant lords, gangs, and planar drifters draw a "roaring" trade here...' "Roaring?" on pandemonium? AJ, you beautiful 'pun'derful bastard. It's brilliant. You didn't even underline or emphasize it. Just dropped that shit without skipping a beat. I tip my hat to you sir.
At the risk of random OLD lore question: would you know where in Pandemonium Miska the Wolf-Spider is stuck? It would be neat to know if he's hidden away in some forgotten crevice, or if he's just pinned to the open ground of the plane, with only that bubble of law protecting him from the gales, and visible to all.
This has been a big help to my campaign that I’m writing up! Thanks for going into so much detail man, I never would have thought of zero-g “flying” enemies or crustaceans if I hadn’t watched this video!
Considering how isolated the final lair is I can only imagine what random things could be down there. Really interesting plane that has so many hooks and ideas for adventures
Pandemonium was always one of my favorite planes to explore, and I find myself coming back to this video regularly because it only reinforces that love. I'll have to keep an eye out for similar videos from you - gotta love that cosmic dread! Also, does anyone know what that background music is throughout the video?
I don't know why exactly but listening to this video I was reminded Martin Silenos' house in Hyperion and imagining a wizard's abode where every room is a portal to another plane. "Here is a room in pandemonium, I come here when I want to dry my hair after a hot bath."
Sci Fi Author Peter F. Hamilton has a dwelling like that in one of his novels, with rooms on different planets.. its amazingly decadent and I want one.
You have provided me countless hours of entertainment and inspiration for my campaigns and characters. For that I will support your Kickstarter. Rootin for you AJ!
I have pledge to your kickstarter; I don’t have time to play pen and paper RPG, but I really like your TH-cam content (reminds me of my college years playing 3.5 edition), and I will use the mat for the kids math homeworks !
Thanks for the inspiration!!!! I’m now writing a plot for a bit of dnd fanfic with this sort of hook: combining the endless water bottle rare item with the memory wiping melted ice...to threaten aboleths and Elder brains. Psionic ascendency into demigodhood isnt east after all. Let’s call this item...Zuldranoth’s Crystal Guard of Mind-Bleaching. Should make spells like magic jar easy or dominate easy.
@@AJPickett oh man just woke up from a dream,, kitsune are they homebrew or canon? i know that hb is always possible its just i dont remember ever hearing of them, see told ya id have questions lol. seriously though thank you for asking me 1. because its cool to interact with you & it 2. brightened my day. will be watching the LS when i am fully awake tomorrow
@@AJPickett I mean it's a good idea but I would feel bad if someone would accuse him of stealing other peoples monster/creatures and just revamping them but it has so much potential especially in combination with the other creatures he created on a stream I myself love creating monster concepts and then drawing them and then coming up with lore for them.
🤔 Something tells me a couple of the gems to open Tharizdun's cage probably ended up in Pandemonium. Possibly a few in those deep chambers, maybe even one or two thrown into the Howling Portal. Some of the Deities and Archfiends that made those gems may have been cunning enough not to keep them, but to eternally "lose" them. And what a GREAT place to *"lose"* something of great value and power.
And furthermore, you could still have it guarded, by "losing" a few creatures there that just as well migth belong to carceri. Then you would mark the gem in a way that makes it easy to track once it LEAVES pandemonium, but does not help at all while it resides on the plane. That way you can immediately begin tracking anyone who was "brave" and "smart" enough to find the gem you "lost".
@@AJPickett Honestly, that would make a great video in and of itself. "Locations to loose things never to be found again." There are many such places and having a video summing up most, or at least the more interesting ones would be a great watch!
one of my fav lower planes (lets face it, the lower and neutral planes are much more interesting than the upper good planes). Would love to see something on Gehenna or Hades, have seen your vid on Cainia which was great too. Other awesome lesser known planes: Beastlands, Bitopia, Limbo.
In my personal lore, there are links between Gehenna and Pandemonium, the chasms between the volcano layers of Gehenna eventually (after weeks of falling) tunnel down to great chasms (an unnamed pseudo-plane between Gehenna and Pandemonium). Sinkholes and cracks in the floor of these chasms lead to Pandemonium, some flooded by the River Styx, and walking along the chasms or down tendrils of the Styx eventually lead to Hades, located between the Abyss and the Nine Hells. In my setting it is possible to cross between the outer planes after massive amounts of travel and the right magic, portals are shortcuts but not the only way. This allows for pseudo-planes to exist between the elementals (like the Plane of Mud between water and earth) and the energy planes (like the Plane of Void between air and negative).
You forget, the wind is hungry, it will eat those turbine blades. But I think the concept is awesome. Even short term the energy generation could be enormous.
@@AJPickett You could put together a crew of maintenance workers/mages to keep repairing the turbines and defend them from the denizens who would come too close. Just imagine having hundreds of open portals open feeding the energy to turn entire worlds into bustling metropolises. No more hunger or wars over resources as long as the turbines were well taken care of!
Is there any information about where Garyx lives in Pandemonium? Most sources are rather vague about it and it's a shame since he's got flavorful pieces of lore despite how little he ever gets talked about by most people.
He spends most of his time destroying... everything... in the Abyss, he retreats back to Pandemonium to laze about and do bugger all in between times. He can basically manifest a lair anywhere he wants in Pandemonium as the plane responds to his divine will.
Another detail I read in one of the Planescape books was that there was a domain that belonged to Loki, a place he'd go and hide whenever he pisses off the other Aesir and needs to wait for the heat to die off. In my head-cannon I'd also picture Pandemonium to be crawling with Tooth Beasts (3rd edition Tome of Magic) huge eyeless bear-like monsters that are covered in teeth seems like they'd fit right in there. That book had all sorts of crazy crap in it thanks to Pact Magic.
The son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. The Trickster waits, chained and bleeding into the poisoned snow for his crimes.
Alright AJ, I'm backing you. Can only do the second package though as I'm trying to start my own distillery, but you do good work and I feel that should be supported. Unrelated, could you do a video on the "nature/structure" of the D&D multiverse, talking about what the exact definition of multiverse is, as it relates to D&D? I would have assumed it meant the multiple crystal spheres, with each sphere being its own kind of universe, and with the generic outer & inner planes being what unites each individual crystal sphere "universe" into a single cohesive "multiverse". In my understanding, the separate universes would be spatially distinct (physical and not overlapping one another) as they're distinct crystal sphere's within the phlogistan of the material plane, but they would kind of overlap dimensionally as they'd kind-of share the same overlapping outer & inner planes, with the shared inner and outer planes allowing for this overlap as space, time, & distance are somewhat subjective in them? Thus, in my mind, the multiverse is the infinite material plane of the phlogistan and its infinite number of crystal spheres, all of which are unified by a shared connection to the somewhat same inner and outer planes (not exactly the same inner & outer planes though, for reason...). Similar to how each crystal sphere is just a pocket within the phlogistan, the phlogistan would be just a pocket of ordered infinite space that was carved out of the far-realms, with each multiverse being an island of mostly order within a sea of chaos. I only ask because I've long been curious about the matter, particularly as it relates to the obyrith and the far realms, and I was wondering how correct my understanding is. Using my last metaphor, the obyrith's multiverse "island" was dying so they crossed the far-realms, a sea of chaos, to make it to the D&D multiverse/island. Sorry if that's confusing, was a little stream of conscience, but hopefully you understand what I'm getting at. Basically I'm just curious about the cosmological structure and where obyrith came from. Maybe the obyrith weren't chaotic evil in their home universe, and were simply just evil. Maybe the chaotic nature of the obyrith was just a consequence of traveling through the far realms, with the process twisting them physically and driving them insane?
Love the videos! I use them as inspiration for my adventures all the time! My party is headed to the 2nd lair and I am looking for more info on Howlers Crag. Do you have any sources you could link that would have more detail on this location?
Excellent!!! presentation as always!!! 😁👏👏👏 love these vids about the weird & wonderful (or NOT so wonderful!) places in the D&D Multiverse! 👍 (not to mention how you bring all the nice & nasty monsters off of the page & pretty much breath life into them & make them plausible living (mostly!) beings!) random question - have you heard of the "Bodendruker"??? - if you have a BIG bag of BIG buns it may let you pet it! 😁
@@AJPickett Excellent! 😁 so you got a copy of - AC9 Creature Catalogue, DMR2 Creature Catalog & the Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix, yes? & if you've not I'd be happy to send & lend you mine so you can make ecology vids about the various nasties in them! 😁 yeah, sure, I can just sit & read through them, but watching your vids is like D&D in real life - making a perilous journey across the wildlands of "Uutoob" to seek a wise sage for hidden arcane knowledge without too much danger of getting eaten, I hope! 😲 Keep up the great work Good Dude! 👍👏👏👏😁
I'm actually tempted to email AJ a bunch of my 2nd Ed homebrew stuff to get his feedback on them in the same spirit as this. You know, so he sees the details and whatnot. That's why I never record AJ's email when I see it. I'd end up doing it and bugging the guy to death. So, this is the perfect place to just give him a little shout-out of the idea and let him make a funny crack, and maybe love the comment. ;)
Also if it is owned by a necromancer you could have it to be a ta da moment buy having it walled up a portion to where the only easy exit is the pouch once he dies the undead are under no one's control and you can have them start crawling out of the bag. Or if someone is picking the pocket they may get pulled thru the hole ripping the garment it was attached to but not the Pocket.
When you say permanently deaf how subject to finagling is that. Cause if it's purely physical then a greater health potion would help you yeet those consequences. After returning home of course. But what if it's not purely physical what if what if theres a hidden psychic imprint that threatens to drive you insane and some unknown divine will prevents it from spreading all the way to your mind but restoring your hearing upsets this delicate balance. Also as an added mind fuck we need massive crowds of intangeble shadow people that you can't perceive but you will have fleeting fragments of recollection of them reaching out trying to grab you. Some on the ground spazing out like the people from Jacob's ladder others being carried in the wind like the lost souls in Hercules. Get some real insanity up in here.
What if Pandemonium takes its name from the wind bringing the utterances and thoughts of every demon ever? All broken up in snippets that are not intelligible, but retain something of their meaning in the sound alone. This would explain why the wind is so lethal to ears and sanity. It could also be the voices of all the lower planes: the 9 hells, yugholoths, obyriths, etc
It's also an aspect of the replication you see in the Abyss and Carceri, in the abyss, there is layer after layer after layer, in Carceri there is world prison after world prison after world prison... endlessness has a sense of despair to it.
Yo AJ, what do you feel the "Planar Story" of Pandemonium is? For instance, the Nine Hells of Baator is a prison, ruled by its most powerful prisoners - the Nine Hells speaks to the cycle of abuse and how those who are dominated and abused will, in turn, seek to dominate and abuse others. Even deeper into the Nine Hells is the notion of original sin, wherein the gods themselves damned an eternity of mortal souls to the Blood War and the Nine Hells so that they wouldn't have to deal with the Abyss themselves. So yeah what's the deal with Pandemonium? This video is really great for imagining its physical features but the outer planes also often have a great deal of story and deeper meaning to them. What's the underlying message or story to be learned from shrieking caves that burrow through infinite, pocketed stone?
On one side, you have the chaos and freedom of Limbo, pure chaos, on the other side you have the Abyss, pure destructive evil and one step beyond, Carceri, the recursive layers of an infinite prison. Pandemonium represents violation, violent penetration, trauma, madness, terror, evil darkness that rips open and takes away everything precious.
@@AJPickett Ooh, I like that! Freedom without power is helplessness and desolation. Pandemonium definitely hits the hardest with the helplessness vibe of the evil planes, since it deprives you of all your senses and makes you lost in a labyrinth. Honestly the most intriguing part of Pandemonium for me is that it has no native inhabitants. It feels very post-apocalyptic, and it might be fun to integrate that into some kind of cosmic origin story for Pandemonium. Something awful happened there, leaving it as probably the most desolate wasteland in the Outer Planes and birthing the screaming wind!
@@monsieurdorgat6864 Down below in the comments, Cutter Jocky wrote "The reason there are so many spider demons on Lamentation is that Mishka the Wolf Spider's prison is somewhere deep within the maze of tunnels and the spider demons are looking for a way to break him out. My personal belief is that the Wind Dukes carved the tunnels to better conceal Mishka's prison." So, that is an idea I am certainly going to make use of.
@@AJPickett That... would definitely be a prisoner of great import! You could also probably say that the tunnels might have been carved my Mishka trying to escape - I don't know if carving tunnels between the screaming pocket caves that seem to be Pandemoniums most primal state makes them less accessible... but you could totally play off that Mishka went mad carving out those caves! A normal demon is bad enough - but an insane demon?
This is one of my favorite planes, but i cant find a lot of maps of it, nor can I find too much info on it. Your video is one of the most informative things I've ever seen on this plane. Is there any official books or otherwise you'd recommend I try and find as to keep this information regularly on hand?
Planes of Chaos (Planescape), Manual of the Planes, also, the forgotten realms Wiki is pretty good for info and indicating which books it can be found in.
Your description of the lowest layer made me think of the mirror plane dungeons. You step thru a mirror and your inside a large but finite space with no other exit.
11:25
Your mastery over the use of our language never ceases to amaze me, my good Sage.
Naww, you hit the like button on my 💓
Lmao I had to rewind just to make sure I heard that right
As someone who's half deaf, normal wind/white noise kills my hearing.
I could only imagine how truly terrible Pandemonium would be.
At the local tavern
Wizard: It’s Pandemonium in there!
Fighter: bah! You’re exaggerating. I’ve been to Pademonium, it’s probably just a brawl.
*fighter opens the door to find a portal to pandemonium*
Fighter: ...
Wizard: HA! Got ya!
I can see Pandemonium also being home to all sorta of vile variants of beasts which do not rely on hearing. Spiders and other invertebrates sure, but also giant air elemental snakes or gargantuan devilish Blue Crabs from the River Styx.
I always wondered why more minotaur divinitys did not come from here. It always seemed to be a fitting place for them.
I would think all chaotic minotaurs worship Baphomet.
@@jacobfreeman5444 on toril maybe... thats not true across all Crystal spheres. All planes of existence for that matter.
@@Josh-ye9ol Just saying, if they are chaotic evil then they likely were spawned by some ritual to Baphomet. But minotaurs are not all beholden to the pale night's less creepy roommate. So plenty could have been birthed naturally and follow their own gods and have alignments that reflect that.
@@jacobfreeman5444 but we know chaotic minotaur of ravnica do not follow baphomet. They follow Mogis mostly a chaotic god. Dragonlance they mostly follow sargonnas despite being lawful he would likely be a chaotic god in any other setting vengence, wrath, rage and fire are not the most 'lawful' of domains. Not to mention many origians of minotaur in dnd to start with. Thier should be more divine beings attached to them. Besides, is it not lore that the off spring of baphomet cursed minotaur have less of a connection to him? You want me to beleave some minotaur have not broken away from slavery to a demon on toril... were even drow can escape the spider queen. I am just pointing out huge hole that i wish would be addressed in dnd.
@@jacobfreeman5444 4e had a good take on minotaurs, it would like to see it built on.
30 seconds in and there’s no better way to introduce pandemonium
Very true, props AJ!
Facts
Waking up in one of those hidden caverns would be a good start to a high level campaign.
Pandemonium seems like the perfect Old School Mega Dungeon, where the DM just Rolls for whatever shows up next. No specific prep, just system of random tables and rolls.
Why are three random orcs in a 20'x20' room?!? Because its Pandemonium.
Why is there random treasure here?!? Because its Pandemonium..
Why did we come across a random Haberdashery? Because its Pandemonium...
I also think that Pandemonium would be the perfect place for any shape shifting creatures, living spells as described in Eberon (possibly a random result for a critical failure on a spell check,) & the weirdest home brews you can whip up as a DM can whip up. Things like the recursive centaur who's neck has a smaller horse's body instead of a head, that also has a smaller horse's body on infinitum ( thanks Tumblr.) You can also have reskinned common monsters, like using the stats for goblins for an army of murderous teddy bears in a section that looks like it's made of candy.
I actually think this place is scarier than the Abyss.
From looking at the wiki, the Abyss varies. The layers we get introduced to under the demon lords aren't too bad in general. There are many layers that are far worse and goes straight into grimdark horror with a lot of them.
I don't know about "worse than the Abys," but I would not enter this realm, unless I had at least a means of nonverbal communication.
(I.e. sign-language, or making subtitles with minor-illusion.)
@@brianmead7556 I'm pretty sure there is a layer in the Abyss that mimics Pandemonium only to a more evil degree.
@@JoseMolina-ij3xx
Knowing the Abyss is a manifested plane sized blend of Chaos & Evil, there's probably any number of layers which emulate Pandemonium; but with the cruel twist of being rigged to manifest most of the worst possible ways to spend a day in there pretty much always.
Here's that passage I plan to read whenever we enter Pandemonium from *I have no mouth and I must scream*
"Winds tore at us flinging us back the way we had came, down the twisting- -corridors of the darkness. (Ellen) screamed as (she) was flung face forward... ...(She) could not even fall the howling wind kept (her) aloft... ...Tossed (her) back, and back and down, and away from us... ...I was trembling, shuddering, rocking as the wind beat at me whipped at me, screamed down out of nowhere at me and pulled me free... -My mind was a roiling, tinkling, chittering softness of brainparts that expanded and contracted in quivering frenzy... The wind... The wind was the scream of a great mad bird as it flapped its immense wings and then we were all lifted and hurled away from there. Down back the way we had come around the bend into the dark way we had never explored, a terrain that was ruin, and filled with broken glass, and rotting cables and rusted metal and far away. Farther than any of us had ever been, trailing along miles behind (Ellen) I could see (her) now and then... ...All of us screaming in the freezing thunderous hurricane wind that would never end. And suddenly it stopped and we fell. We had been in flight for an endless time. I thought it might have been weeks. (Most of that time we were unconscious.) Weeks... we fell, and hit, and I went through red and grey and black... And heard myself moaning. Not dead?"
Perfection
Damn this place is the full embodiment of death metal and i love it
10:38 Holy Sheep Shit! That's horrifying for two really big reasons;
a) Think about not only how powerful, but how vindictively insane the god that made Pandemonium must have been, Im talking Therizdun levels of crazy and angry, and b) Something or someone defeated it, kicked it out of the Plane it crafted, and took over.
Neat. Next Lich is just gonna rip open a portal to pandemonium to inflict deafness on the party while the supernatural chill reduces their movement speed accordingly.
Probably a bad idea for everyone involved. Bad things dwell in Pandemonium and the winds cannot leave the plane.
Yes! Pandemonium is one of my favorite planes. My imagination just surges thinking about what manner of nasty might be hiding in those rocky bubbles on Agathion. Or if you pointed yourself in the just the right non-euclidian direction and dug through the bedrock for eternity, where might you end up? (Chisling up through some of that black ice at the bottom of Ocanthus, maybe?) The deep, dark, vaguely defined places are the best.
Oh god, I just thought about how cool would it be to listen about Pandemonium and this video released
Weird feeling right?! 😉
Hello AJ, out of all your planar video's, this one is my favorite. You went Super Saiyan with the description & pictures. Really like the idea of there being one lone Insane Tavern and Xvarts running around everywhere, lol.
Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
A typical winter weekend in Chicago. I think I saw that slaad lord on a corner downtown once.
Nah, that was just my ex.
One part of pandemonium, on the layer of pandesmos, is the "city of eternal darkness" divine realm of the lesser gods Anshar and Eloéle. The only description of this place I could find was on page 64 of the "on hallowed ground" book. It reads "In a place where the howling winds of pandemonium have died to the merest whisper, a black clay brick wall seals off the entrance to Anshar's dark realm. No matter how much light a body shines in the area, it never illuminates more than 5 feet of the wall in any direction, so the structure seems endless - and perhaps it is." Wish there was more to it, including the city in a campaign sounds like a really cool idea to me!
"Those bugbears came out of nowhere!"
That wizard came from the Moon!
I wonder if natives of the elemental plane of earth can explore cavers of the lowest layer by simply moving through the stone wall of pandemonium ?
Yes, they can.
Huh, that could make an interesting plotline.
I imagine that nilbog find this plane just fine, probably the only place they could relax
I love the bottom of planes that are just empty abandoned planes that no one holds claim over just pockets of mystery older than many gods even
6:44 Cavern of the self (mirrors)
7:18 The town of Bedlam
7:48 Gods of Pandemonium
Rumor has it that somewhere beyond the infinite reflections of yourself there are portals to the plane of void or negitive energy... Or maybe even darker places.
On a more serious note, I'd be surprised if high wisdom and level characters couldn't get to the astral or etherial planes as well by literaly looking into themselves in "The Cavern of the Self". There could also be a magic mirror somewhere that looks out into the cavern that is quite dangerous to touch and shouldn't be in a well lit place because it might get unwanted attention... Mirrors are alot of fun. Mirror mephits and dopplegangers in this location sounds like fun for a DM.
Thinking of even darker places, I've started forming the idea for an elder evil. A sentient plane something like the etherial but made of darkness that is, by definition, only darkness. Anything that isn't made of darkness can't be there and if it is there it can't even have a surface for any non-existent light to fall on. Waiting for the universe to grow old and weak and for the crystal spheres themselves to fail, when all light must die.
Edit: A kind of Over-god level Shadow demon I suppose (Altho I'm not sure "demon" is the right word here).
@@Zasek2112 stare at themselves so intently, they become Beholders 😁
@@AJPickett That's a dangerous mind you have there AJ 👌
@@Zasek2112 Indeed.
I located "Resounding Thunder", the divine realm of the brothers Raijin (aka Raiden) and Fujin in Pandemonium. It was a twilight realm of constant storms that endlessly lashed small islands which contained dismal pagodas and quadrangle buildings. The party was able to steal a divine treasure from a heavily concealed and guarded vault in a long, long quest inspired by the story of Prometheus. The treasure was a divine spark that gave one player the Godly feat "Supreme Initiative" which means they go first in any combat without rolling.
Ah yes, finally a video explaining the TH-cam comment section.
Scaly Dog Inn... makes me think of a tavern run by Kobolds
Right?
This is favorite place, many an Adventurer has fall for a suspicious homebrew item labeled Bottled Pandemonium
Your Profile on Kickstarter said something about you used to do some work for Palladium Books!?
After the BECMI books of D&D and the Gazetteers of the known world, it was actually some of the RPG from Palladium Books that became my next investment. The TMNT Book, the Palladium Fantasy, and the Recon book.
Only got to play a bit Recon, and was stupid enough to let someone borrow the Palladium Fantasy, that was the last time I got to see that book.
I remember I bought all of them back when I was a Navy Cadet and we were in the US - must have been 31 years ago by now....
Holy shit, guess I’m really old!
Yep, we are! How did this happen?!
So... this is the outer plane that super-powerful beings use to create their outer-planar versions of demi-planes. Well, that actually makes sense seeing how it's a bunch of high-energy chaos that can be orderly until the energy to bring the order wanes... much like entropy in physics.
I see the plane got a lot more interesting since 2nd Ed... it used to be just a bunch of pandemonium created by gods and other beings that dug out their own versions of outer planes in this Abyss-adjacent plane.
That last layer is where all the socks go, isn't it?
It is. Well, the left socks go to Limbo, the right socks go to Pandemonium.
I was actually hoping this would be your next Planar lore video. One of the more interesting (quasi) Lower Planes. Good setting for a high-level dungeon crawl.
This is awesome! I was planning a Pandemonium adventure and this will help so much
'Merchant lords, gangs, and planar drifters draw a "roaring" trade here...' "Roaring?" on pandemonium? AJ, you beautiful 'pun'derful bastard. It's brilliant. You didn't even underline or emphasize it. Just dropped that shit without skipping a beat. I tip my hat to you sir.
Thank you, thank you. :)
At the risk of random OLD lore question: would you know where in Pandemonium Miska the Wolf-Spider is stuck? It would be neat to know if he's hidden away in some forgotten crevice, or if he's just pinned to the open ground of the plane, with only that bubble of law protecting him from the gales, and visible to all.
The" 4th layer, if anywhere.
Demon Ropers, you say?
So, there's demonic.........
Piercers&Ropers!!!!
Yes indeed 😀
@@AJPickett _Rockin' Guitar Riff_
Giant shadow vampire piercer/ropers on steroids.
This has been a big help to my campaign that I’m writing up!
Thanks for going into so much detail man, I never would have thought of zero-g “flying” enemies or crustaceans if I hadn’t watched this video!
Awesome video AJ! Been a big fan for a few years now. Live the content and lore. Keep up the great videos brother!
Thanks Tony!
Love your planar guides. Can't wait to see the rest of them!
Considering how isolated the final lair is I can only imagine what random things could be down there. Really interesting plane that has so many hooks and ideas for adventures
Finally, my favourite plane
Pandemonium was always one of my favorite planes to explore, and I find myself coming back to this video regularly because it only reinforces that love. I'll have to keep an eye out for similar videos from you - gotta love that cosmic dread!
Also, does anyone know what that background music is throughout the video?
I dont know why i find this plane so compelling, but its my favorite. Still
finally i wanted to know so much more about this place!!
I don't know why exactly but listening to this video I was reminded Martin Silenos' house in Hyperion and imagining a wizard's abode where every room is a portal to another plane. "Here is a room in pandemonium, I come here when I want to dry my hair after a hot bath."
Hah, just hope your not drying your hair when the WorldWeb goes down!
Sci Fi Author Peter F. Hamilton has a dwelling like that in one of his novels, with rooms on different planets.. its amazingly decadent and I want one.
17:50 definitely heard "god of Kevins"
I wonder where Miska is kept? I can't believe i remembered that....
So many secrets here
You have provided me countless hours of entertainment and inspiration for my campaigns and characters. For that I will support your Kickstarter. Rootin for you AJ!
Thank you!
I have pledge to your kickstarter; I don’t have time to play pen and paper RPG, but I really like your TH-cam content (reminds me of my college years playing 3.5 edition), and I will use the mat for the kids math homeworks !
The silicone mat is also good for crafting projects involving paint, glue and hot solder and hot glue.
Thanks for the inspiration!!!! I’m now writing a plot for a bit of dnd fanfic with this sort of hook: combining the endless water bottle rare item with the memory wiping melted ice...to threaten aboleths and Elder brains. Psionic ascendency into demigodhood isnt east after all. Let’s call this item...Zuldranoth’s Crystal Guard of Mind-Bleaching. Should make spells like magic jar easy or dominate easy.
thank goodness i really need this to relax smh really rough day thanks
My pleasure, you've had a rough time lately, if you have any content requests, please let me know and it will be done.
@@AJPickett if the poll was anything to go by it rocks, i'll likely have questions at some point but right now ,im at going with the flow of things
@@AJPickett oh man just woke up from a dream,, kitsune are they homebrew or canon? i know that hb is always possible its just i dont remember ever hearing of them, see told ya id have questions lol. seriously though thank you for asking me 1. because its cool to interact with you & it 2. brightened my day. will be watching the LS when i am fully awake tomorrow
Nice seeing you on MrRhexxs stream AJ but I think his idea sounds very similar to the false hydra but more fay/naturalistic
I think it has loads of potential, the way it creates that environment around it, so its actions and influence is a mystery.
@@AJPickett I mean it's a good idea but I would feel bad if someone would accuse him of stealing other peoples monster/creatures and just revamping them but it has so much potential especially in combination with the other creatures he created on a stream I myself love creating monster concepts and then drawing them and then coming up with lore for them.
What, no pandas????
🤔
Something tells me a couple of the gems to open Tharizdun's cage probably ended up in Pandemonium. Possibly a few in those deep chambers, maybe even one or two thrown into the Howling Portal. Some of the Deities and Archfiends that made those gems may have been cunning enough not to keep them, but to eternally "lose" them. And what a GREAT place to *"lose"* something of great value and power.
Exactly
And furthermore, you could still have it guarded, by "losing" a few creatures there that just as well migth belong to carceri.
Then you would mark the gem in a way that makes it easy to track once it LEAVES pandemonium, but does not help at all while it resides on the plane.
That way you can immediately begin tracking anyone who was "brave" and "smart" enough to find the gem you "lost".
@@AJPickett Honestly, that would make a great video in and of itself. "Locations to loose things never to be found again." There are many such places and having a video summing up most, or at least the more interesting ones would be a great watch!
*takes notes* Turd in a wind turbine. 🤣
In Neverwinter Nights 2 I played a favored soul of Garagos, it was so fun 😍
Loud, dark, and evil?
Sounds like my farts.
17:51, I thought he said the return of the God of Kevin's.
All hail the Lord of Kevins.
Its been some time since you covered one of the planes, just a few more to go AJ!
one of my fav lower planes (lets face it, the lower and neutral planes are much more interesting than the upper good planes). Would love to see something on Gehenna or Hades, have seen your vid on Cainia which was great too. Other awesome lesser known planes: Beastlands, Bitopia, Limbo.
In my personal lore, there are links between Gehenna and Pandemonium, the chasms between the volcano layers of Gehenna eventually (after weeks of falling) tunnel down to great chasms (an unnamed pseudo-plane between Gehenna and Pandemonium). Sinkholes and cracks in the floor of these chasms lead to Pandemonium, some flooded by the River Styx, and walking along the chasms or down tendrils of the Styx eventually lead to Hades, located between the Abyss and the Nine Hells. In my setting it is possible to cross between the outer planes after massive amounts of travel and the right magic, portals are shortcuts but not the only way. This allows for pseudo-planes to exist between the elementals (like the Plane of Mud between water and earth) and the energy planes (like the Plane of Void between air and negative).
This area is very creative.
I think "best avoided" applies to 99.99% of Pandemonium. Only the foolish and the greedy (i.e. adventurers) would ever go there on purpose. XD
Hey it won! Pandemonium was always my favorite. I knew I'd come through.
0:32 ..... I'm not saying AJ was looking at Grog when he said that.... Buuuuut.....
0:26 . . . He's showing a lot of keg to not be flirting
Can’t wait for more outer plane guides
Yum, more fresh gluestick!
How about we set up a shit load of wind turbines all over the place and make it a spot to power other realms with renewable energy!
You forget, the wind is hungry, it will eat those turbine blades. But I think the concept is awesome. Even short term the energy generation could be enormous.
@@AJPickett You could put together a crew of maintenance workers/mages to keep repairing the turbines and defend them from the denizens who would come too close. Just imagine having hundreds of open portals open feeding the energy to turn entire worlds into bustling metropolises. No more hunger or wars over resources as long as the turbines were well taken care of!
Is there any information about where Garyx lives in Pandemonium? Most sources are rather vague about it and it's a shame since he's got flavorful pieces of lore despite how little he ever gets talked about by most people.
He spends most of his time destroying... everything... in the Abyss, he retreats back to Pandemonium to laze about and do bugger all in between times. He can basically manifest a lair anywhere he wants in Pandemonium as the plane responds to his divine will.
@@AJPickett That's honestly amazing. Currently running Out of the Abyss, so this gives me a few ideas to possibly try out for my players!
I really I wanna start playin this game, but I wouldn't even know where to start
Make a character page :)
dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules
@@AJPickett thnx bro...im gonna c if I can get into it instead of procrastinating it lol
Another detail I read in one of the Planescape books was that there was a domain that belonged to Loki, a place he'd go and hide whenever he pisses off the other Aesir and needs to wait for the heat to die off.
In my head-cannon I'd also picture Pandemonium to be crawling with Tooth Beasts (3rd edition Tome of Magic) huge eyeless bear-like monsters that are covered in teeth seems like they'd fit right in there. That book had all sorts of crazy crap in it thanks to Pact Magic.
Ah yes, same book has spell the erased someone
Pretty sure I recall an 80s garage band called, "Ropers of Phlegython" or similar.
What about Demon Lord Miska the Wolf Spider......he created the Wolf spiders
He was supposedly trapped in pandemonium in a magical cocoon bound him by the wind dukes of aaqa👍😁
sounds like a wicked party
Its heckin wimdy
You had me at Weasels Wolverines and Wolf Spiders
🕷 😳 XD
"And you won't go deaf thanks to Ray Con ear buds! Cheaper than the other guys, strong enough to withstand supernatural extraplanar windstorms!"
Heh! I actually own a pair of them and yeah, I like them.
This does seem like an interesting place, might run a game where the players have to travel through it some day.
Something lies bleeding in Winter’s Hall, something ancient and terrible.
The son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. The Trickster waits, chained and bleeding into the poisoned snow for his crimes.
Thank you for all your work!
You wanna go to Pandemonium? Are you crazy..because you will be.
Alright AJ, I'm backing you. Can only do the second package though as I'm trying to start my own distillery, but you do good work and I feel that should be supported.
Unrelated, could you do a video on the "nature/structure" of the D&D multiverse, talking about what the exact definition of multiverse is, as it relates to D&D? I would have assumed it meant the multiple crystal spheres, with each sphere being its own kind of universe, and with the generic outer & inner planes being what unites each individual crystal sphere "universe" into a single cohesive "multiverse". In my understanding, the separate universes would be spatially distinct (physical and not overlapping one another) as they're distinct crystal sphere's within the phlogistan of the material plane, but they would kind of overlap dimensionally as they'd kind-of share the same overlapping outer & inner planes, with the shared inner and outer planes allowing for this overlap as space, time, & distance are somewhat subjective in them? Thus, in my mind, the multiverse is the infinite material plane of the phlogistan and its infinite number of crystal spheres, all of which are unified by a shared connection to the somewhat same inner and outer planes (not exactly the same inner & outer planes though, for reason...). Similar to how each crystal sphere is just a pocket within the phlogistan, the phlogistan would be just a pocket of ordered infinite space that was carved out of the far-realms, with each multiverse being an island of mostly order within a sea of chaos.
I only ask because I've long been curious about the matter, particularly as it relates to the obyrith and the far realms, and I was wondering how correct my understanding is. Using my last metaphor, the obyrith's multiverse "island" was dying so they crossed the far-realms, a sea of chaos, to make it to the D&D multiverse/island. Sorry if that's confusing, was a little stream of conscience, but hopefully you understand what I'm getting at. Basically I'm just curious about the cosmological structure and where obyrith came from.
Maybe the obyrith weren't chaotic evil in their home universe, and were simply just evil. Maybe the chaotic nature of the obyrith was just a consequence of traveling through the far realms, with the process twisting them physically and driving them insane?
th-cam.com/video/VXEn0UVo8iM/w-d-xo.html I should remaster this video, but it covers a lot of the terms and structure.
Love the videos! I use them as inspiration for my adventures all the time! My party is headed to the 2nd lair and I am looking for more info on Howlers Crag. Do you have any sources you could link that would have more detail on this location?
Very cool as always!
So, it's a slightly better New Jersey, got it.
Excellent!!! presentation
as always!!! 😁👏👏👏
love these vids about the
weird & wonderful (or NOT
so wonderful!) places in
the D&D Multiverse! 👍
(not to mention how
you bring all the nice &
nasty monsters off of
the page & pretty much
breath life into them &
make them plausible
living (mostly!) beings!)
random question -
have you heard of
the "Bodendruker"???
- if you have a BIG bag
of BIG buns it may let
you pet it! 😁
Giant, huge footed elephant carnivore that feeds on purple worms, yep, I know that one.
@@AJPickett Excellent! 😁
so you got a copy of -
AC9 Creature Catalogue,
DMR2 Creature Catalog &
the Mystara Monstrous
Compendium Appendix,
yes?
& if you've not I'd be
happy to send & lend you
mine so you can make
ecology vids about the
various nasties in them! 😁
yeah, sure, I can just sit &
read through them, but
watching your vids is like
D&D in real life - making
a perilous journey across
the wildlands of "Uutoob"
to seek a wise sage for
hidden arcane knowledge
without too much danger
of getting eaten, I hope! 😲
Keep up the great work
Good Dude! 👍👏👏👏😁
Magic item idea bag of holding connected to last plane. You could put allies in without killing them unless they wonder off.
I'm actually tempted to email AJ a bunch of my 2nd Ed homebrew stuff to get his feedback on them in the same spirit as this. You know, so he sees the details and whatnot.
That's why I never record AJ's email when I see it. I'd end up doing it and bugging the guy to death.
So, this is the perfect place to just give him a little shout-out of the idea and let him make a funny crack, and maybe love the comment. ;)
@@That80sGuy1972 You can send it, I make no promises I will comment on it all ;)
@@AJPickett Ah... now you did it. I will record your email next time I see it. ;)
@@AJPickett **digging through some old papers for the stats to Lord Fungus**
Also if it is owned by a necromancer you could have it to be a ta da moment buy having it walled up a portion to where the only easy exit is the pouch once he dies the undead are under no one's control and you can have them start crawling out of the bag. Or if someone is picking the pocket they may get pulled thru the hole ripping the garment it was attached to but not the Pocket.
When you say permanently deaf how subject to finagling is that.
Cause if it's purely physical then a greater health potion would help you yeet those consequences. After returning home of course.
But what if it's not purely physical what if what if theres a hidden psychic imprint that threatens to drive you insane and some unknown divine will prevents it from spreading all the way to your mind but restoring your hearing upsets this delicate balance.
Also as an added mind fuck we need massive crowds of intangeble shadow people that you can't perceive but you will have fleeting fragments of recollection of them reaching out trying to grab you. Some on the ground spazing out like the people from Jacob's ladder others being carried in the wind like the lost souls in Hercules.
Get some real insanity up in here.
Yes, its healable, restoration magic, regeneration, all fine.
Not trought Pandemonium (I think) but one adventure in Forgotten realms DnD gave my character the Planeswalking power. xD Was epic!
What if Pandemonium takes its name from the wind bringing the utterances and thoughts of every demon ever? All broken up in snippets that are not intelligible, but retain something of their meaning in the sound alone. This would explain why the wind is so lethal to ears and sanity.
It could also be the voices of all the lower planes: the 9 hells, yugholoths, obyriths, etc
It's also an aspect of the replication you see in the Abyss and Carceri, in the abyss, there is layer after layer after layer, in Carceri there is world prison after world prison after world prison... endlessness has a sense of despair to it.
Yo AJ, what do you feel the "Planar Story" of Pandemonium is? For instance, the Nine Hells of Baator is a prison, ruled by its most powerful prisoners - the Nine Hells speaks to the cycle of abuse and how those who are dominated and abused will, in turn, seek to dominate and abuse others. Even deeper into the Nine Hells is the notion of original sin, wherein the gods themselves damned an eternity of mortal souls to the Blood War and the Nine Hells so that they wouldn't have to deal with the Abyss themselves.
So yeah what's the deal with Pandemonium? This video is really great for imagining its physical features but the outer planes also often have a great deal of story and deeper meaning to them. What's the underlying message or story to be learned from shrieking caves that burrow through infinite, pocketed stone?
On one side, you have the chaos and freedom of Limbo, pure chaos, on the other side you have the Abyss, pure destructive evil and one step beyond, Carceri, the recursive layers of an infinite prison. Pandemonium represents violation, violent penetration, trauma, madness, terror, evil darkness that rips open and takes away everything precious.
@@AJPickett Ooh, I like that! Freedom without power is helplessness and desolation. Pandemonium definitely hits the hardest with the helplessness vibe of the evil planes, since it deprives you of all your senses and makes you lost in a labyrinth.
Honestly the most intriguing part of Pandemonium for me is that it has no native inhabitants. It feels very post-apocalyptic, and it might be fun to integrate that into some kind of cosmic origin story for Pandemonium. Something awful happened there, leaving it as probably the most desolate wasteland in the Outer Planes and birthing the screaming wind!
@@monsieurdorgat6864 Down below in the comments, Cutter Jocky wrote "The reason there are so many spider demons on Lamentation is that Mishka the Wolf Spider's prison is somewhere deep within the maze of tunnels and the spider demons are looking for a way to break him out. My personal belief is that the Wind Dukes carved the tunnels to better conceal Mishka's prison." So, that is an idea I am certainly going to make use of.
@@AJPickett That... would definitely be a prisoner of great import! You could also probably say that the tunnels might have been carved my Mishka trying to escape - I don't know if carving tunnels between the screaming pocket caves that seem to be Pandemoniums most primal state makes them less accessible... but you could totally play off that Mishka went mad carving out those caves! A normal demon is bad enough - but an insane demon?
This is one of my favorite planes, but i cant find a lot of maps of it, nor can I find too much info on it. Your video is one of the most informative things I've ever seen on this plane. Is there any official books or otherwise you'd recommend I try and find as to keep this information regularly on hand?
Planes of Chaos (Planescape), Manual of the Planes, also, the forgotten realms Wiki is pretty good for info and indicating which books it can be found in.
@@AJPickett thank you very much
Should do a video on food and drink. Death cheese. Styx ale, arn't there H'cathan beets?
Do you need some specific pens to draw on the mats you've mentioned?
Don't use red permanent marker pen, anything else (including black, blue and green permanent marker pen) work just like a dry erase marker.
Your description of the lowest layer made me think of the mirror plane dungeons. You step thru a mirror and your inside a large but finite space with no other exit.
Hey aj.... Torog? You’ll know what I’m asking about, I think...
The broken god? Dragging his twisted, mutilated and bleeding body through the underdark of Nerath? Yes.... Nasty chap.
seems like a haven for earth elemetals and maybe air elementals
Not to be confused with Panda-modium. Which is a bizzare realm of Bears the eat only veggies.
A excellent episode as always! Also is there a livestream tomorrow?
yes! :)
@@AJPickett sweet what time!
@@moonringXD ERM.... 10am New Zealand time.
As a person who sleeps with a fan on it sounds like a nice place to take a nap.