Much to my dismay I have discovered at least one layer that I missed. It's called the House of Liars and it doesn't have a number. It's from the Turn of Fortune's Wheel 5e Planescape adventure which I own but hadn't read until just now. So that's a shame. Also there's a bunch of abyssal layers from Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue book series (books like Dance of the Demons and Come Endless Night), but these layers don't appear to be canonical. They were created in the 80s and contradict a lot of the existing Abyssal lore. For instance in those books Graz'zt controls 43 layers called Greater Mezzafgraduun, rather than 3 layers called Azzagrat. Since these layers aren't canonical I'm less upset that I missed them than I am about missing the House of Liars, but I still wish I would've known about these layers and this book series so I could've mentioned them in the video.
@@williamjusino3640for real, this guy is bummed out but he still makes the best guides on this entire site. 10/10 stuff, and easy enough to just make a little tiny addendum video if it’s serious.
@@nahtorraschura2060 It's on pages 63-65 of _Faces of Evil: The Fiends,_ which is a Planescape book from 1997. Free PDFs of it are easy to find online.
I don't know how you do this man. I've been playing D&D since 1984, and Planescape in particular since its origin ( same campaign still running to this day... ) and so yeah, I pretty much know all the material without having to grab for a book, but damn, to put together this kind of exegesis is remarkable. How much time in research do you do? wow. Killer.
A lot of time in research lol. It took me a month to write the script (which is about 4x longer than normal). I just kept on finding more stuff I had to read.
@@WadeAllen001 No doubt. Nice organizational structure. Myself, I would have been paralyzed in making a decision on even how to structure it, before trying to write a draft. Cheers.
@@MrReckless1978 There's no level cap in 2E. Besides that, I'm stingy with XP. Also, the players play multiple characters, in different groups, of different levels...
AD&D 2nd ed is in my opinion the most fun. As an 80's kid I was raised on it, and the DM's guide gives tons of ideas, and encourages creativity and "the rule of cool"
I like the lore best from 2nd edition, but I don’t like the edition for gameplay. I like a lot of the combat and character advancement gameplay of 4th edition. Although on the roleplay side their skill list was way too small for my taste I’d use 3rd edition or even 2nd for noncombat skills.
When most channels would have been like "Let's just go over like 10 of my favorite layers", you took the monumental life of going layer by layer! Way to go! I hope you give yourself a good vacation after!
10/10. This is a massive help for the DnD community. Learning about the outter planes can be quite the task. But with all the info laid out like this it's quite amazing. I for sure will watch all them and reccomend you to some friends that wanted to get into the them.
I absolutely love longer & more details. I'll be watching more than a few times myself. I think people need to really get what the writers were trying to set up here. And not all of it gets through. There's a lot of mystery to convey about the origins of the Abyss and Nine Hells. These were other worlds beforehand. Some were evolving along for billions of years on it's own trajectory, when this happened.
Bro! Amazing resource, thank you! As for the contradictions and inconsistencies throughout D&D lore, I like to frame it in much the same way that IRL history is often inaccurate or incomplete: most who recall it first hand have died and the more it spreads and is retold, the more it changes as they are reshaped by the narrator's perspective.
I love how pale night is canonically so terrifying and "wrong" that the universe has to give her a shape that it can understand. No seriously. Pale Night is so incorrect and wrong and horrifying that the very universe has to give her a different form.
This is amazing information, thank you SO much for putting this together! This is exactly what I need as I am cobbling my first homebrew world together and want an Abyssal theme to the impending doom. Subscribed!
I have been writing an on going project focused around a group who are currently in the Abyss, so your video is invaluable! There is so much I needed to know and you answered every question I have had! Thank you so much!!!😁 I say "project" because it would be a full series of novels, if ever published, because I have been adding to it for years lol. Excellent content!
Highly underrate video and channel. I love and appreciate the amount of effort you must have poured into research. This is easily my favorite D&D lore channel!
Really good video. Most TH-camrs would probably have just mentioned their favourite layers or the most important layers. Keep up the good work. These are the best videos about Planescape I've found so far. Maybe Arborae next? Abyss cosmic counterpart. So with Baator, Mount Celestia and Abyss, Arborae would feel the four "corners" of the Great Wheel.
I recently found this channel and a few others like it and I gotta say.... this is some outstanding work and research. I have not played an actual Table Top Game since the early 2000's and even then it was mainly a select few of us old 2e hard cores who loved the AD&D Dark Sun setting. With BG3 as one of the PC games I waited a long time for, my interest in the old D&D Lore was revamped so to speak to I started finding a bunch of great video's on lore dumps. Awesome work.
Foudn your channel yesterday, subscribed, and have spent an embarrassing amount of time today watching your vids. Really well done work, including the non-dnd content. Thank you.
One of my favorite things about your videos is it's really nice to know how things are different between editions and you include that, where other peoples lore videos might just pick one version and leave out the rest. Or list all version but not say where each different thing is coming from.
Well to be fair I did leave out a bunch of stuff from more recent editions in my Baator video, which was the first of these more in-depth ones. But I've stopped doing that and I'm glad to hear you think it was a good decision.
New to the channel. Been playing d and d for over 10 years and played all editions (except 4th). By far the best d and d channel. Wishing you all the best! Will continue to watch. Keep it up!! However take a break. Don’t want you to burnout!❤
I just started running a planescape campaign, and these videos have been so helpful! I'm only familiar with 5e but hearing all the great lore and mechanics of previous editions has been so informative. I want to know more about some of the upper planes like Bytopia and Elysium, it seems like 5e has almost no lore/information/stories about the upper planes, and some of the lower planes like Carceri and Pandemonium don't have a lot going on either, so a video about one of those would be great
Good lord. Just the amount of research you had to have done for this video is incredible. I'm definitely going to use this video as a reference for my games. You've gained a lifelong subscriber. I look forward to watching the rest of your videos!
Nearly lost my hand to a spider bite. I agree. Sorry if you like them, I just can't. Amazing videos, I start these to sleep and then I always get to actually listen to the information at work! Thank you very much!
You should do a video on Carceri. It doesn't have nearly as much as the Abyss and Nine Hells to cover but is pretty interesting since it's the prison of the universe. It doesn't get enough coverage. Limbo could also be cool.
I love this video, thank you! I never had much interest in the Abyss but after watching this, I'm just thinking about the cool scenarios that could play out of a party being sucked away or stepping into a portal, thinking they've ended up in some exotic corner of the material plane, or one of the upper planes, even Elysium itself... only to realize far too late that they're trapped in the Abyss and they've already dug their own grave by falling to temptation. There seem to be a ton of locations that would be so beautiful and fascinating to explore, if not for all the murderous demons and insane hazards 😅 Side note, still hoping there's enough to talk about for an Elysium video!! It's got my vote, I can't wait 😄
Actually the animalistic forms of demons in D&D reflects demons as they're depicted in occultist circles. Malphas for instance is a raven person, Beur is a lion head with goat legs surrounding it to form the shape of the Sun, and Haborym looks like a beautiful man with three heads, one is a serpent, another is a calf, and the third and his body looks like a handsome man. He also rides viper. If anything, they should've gone weirder
Amazing video, I commented on your baator video that I was looking forward to this one and you didn’t disappoint at all, thank you for the clear hard work that went into this, I’ll be returning to this guide often
I love you're level of contextualization within real world common reference and study applied to understanding the morality and ethical code that is the spectrum of alignment in DnD. This series is a new era- I believe that will explode in views as time goes on, not just because of your research and cross reference between editions, but simply for effectively communicating these ideals and aspects of living philosophy. And since the God's in Dnd, no matter how small, represent some divine aspect of truth within the cosmos; you're foundations built since the start of this run of videos I believe helps bridge the potentially initial gaps of engaging with a living metaphor (as the Gods effectively exist in game ) equally as you're opening the doors of potential things to be present within others homebrew campaigns .
32:24 ...THANK YOU! I can't stand when people talk about DnD and get into arguments about what's canon and whats not when the idea of homebrew exists and is extremely encouraged and even required in some cases. Honestly I always tell people to pick and choose what is and what isn't canon in relation to whatever game or campaign you're running or talking about. Thats not only to narrow down talking points but also to get rid of the die hard lore masters that can't understand the concept of "everything true but not everything is canon" and vice versa.
@@WadeAllen001 you'd be the guy to do it! your explanations of the outer planes and stuff were the only ones that made it click for me very concise but still super well detailed and researched, well done man
Great video and i just became a sub! Although i'm not a native english speaker, i can understand you even without subtitles. I really want to see a video about the Blood War if possible please.
Look at lore conflicts like this, if it helps. These issues can be peeled down to the effect of infinite realities. Each table, in fact each mind reflects an example of one of these realities. We all live with a duality by the way, the reality that is our own and the one we all agree to.
Awesome video! As someone way into Planescape lore this was an absolute treat. Just as a note: My main hypothesis as to why most Demons are animalistic in looks is that the Abyss is a grim reflection of nature at it's rawest, most vile form, after all, aren't demons all about being adaptable and ruling through might in their own terrible ecosystems? They are the direct product of pure chaos, so they end up resembling creatures adapted to their environment, but that's just a headcanon.
Thanks, I love this. Regarding layer 100: Turn of Fortune‘s Wheel hints at the possibility that the spire is actually composed of the compressed remains of former incarnations of Sigil. So maybe Sigil can be destroyed, but the Lady still holds power over the ruins.
Never really got into planescape, but played Pathfinder wotr, and this explains so much about the game, including the naming convention of the succubi in the game, seemed odd how many started with alu
The Abyss is interesting because it allows for more variation than most other planes. As an example, you can have a layer that is nothing but… nothing. Absolute void, where any creatures that get there just float on for eternity, going mad. Or you can have a jungle of raging demons where it is perpetually dusk, humid, and raining a downpour. Further, the mechanics are interesting. The Abyss is chaotic, and therefore, to force any kind of order upon it requires pure strength. Losing means the layer grows in strength, which itself requires more strength to tame. It’s so appropriate.
I will. It's just a matter of when. I'll count your comment as a vote for those two planes and go through all my comments across my videos (and Patreon votes) to see which topic has the most demand and do that one next. Maybe it'll be the Gray Waste; I have noticed several people asking for that one.
I realize making videos this long is a lot of work, but I ADORE lengthy well-researched lore vids. This one was fantastic. Such a delight. Thanks for sharing.
Turaglas sounds like "too-RAH-glass" I had an entire campaign based around a cult breaking his prison on his layer by creating a massive apocalyptic atrocity on the prime ^~^ He has an entire article about him in a Dragon magazine from like 2003 or 2004, I think. Essentially, I had 3 evil factions. One was the cult of Turaglas, who went to a necromancer to have her create a magical disease that would infect people with a ravenous hunger that could not be quenched. In order to do this, she needed to talk to a noble family that had been turned by a disciple of Ashardalon. She needed a piece of his undead heart, to create it. She didn't just make people ravenously hunger to the point of cannibalism; she made it so they would eventually die and become ravenous ghouls. She had every intention of just controlling the hordes of undead herself, after she secretly used a piece of the heart herself to gain immortality through lichdom. She had no intention for the cult of Turaglas to destroy the world by releasing the demon lord to eat the world. She wanted to rule the world. The cultists thought they would be the exception and he would reward them for their evil deed and they would remake the world in his name. The vampire nobles worshipped Ashardalon. The master vampire who controlled them all was his closest worshipper. He had made Ashardalon's giant undead heart into his "coffin" by lining the inside with his own gravedirt. Ashardalon was an undead dragon who desired to be a god. They felt that creating a world of undead, ruled by his most devout, would create the impetus to push his power ever higher, because of their minions lack of total free-will. So, all three factions were planning to screw each other over for their own gains. Then, the heroes come along RIGHT before all hell breaks loose and they get caught in the middle of these three evils trying to one-up each other. I started it out like just a generic campaign and slowly had it all start unfolding through clues. Turaglas does get released as the grand finale and they have to banish him back to his prison layer of the Abyss. Sorta happy ending, except all the damage that had been done, but they save the world. They didn't really stop the disease fast enough to stop the plague either, so there was an undead nation, but they made it curable by finding and destroying Ashardalon's heart, because it was the source of the power behind the disease--so they had to find and destroy the master vampire too along the way. And then I allowed undead characters from the Libris Mortis after the undead nation formed. Fun stuff LOL!
@@WadeAllen001 I can send you the campaign notes and what Dragon magazine articles it came out of if you want to see it. You can make a clone of it and make your own tweaks if you want.
37:57 Interesting note about Tharizdun: Pre-4e Tharizdun was moreso associated with aberrations and other Far Realm-y type creatures like the Elder Evils, and as you mentioned in the video it wasn't until 4e where he officially was tied into Abyssal lore. Critical Role and 5e as a whole sort of meld these interpretations together for him, though granted we don't see too much of Tharizdun outside of a few mentions throughout 5e so far.
In my campaign, we tend to treat the multiple contradictions as historical inaccuracies. That way we can pick whatever makes the most sense and still surprise each other!
28:29 I believe the answer you’re question of why the reason Demons are more beast like is because Demons resides in the in a place where chaotic energy runs uncontrollably. Where Devils resides in the hells where chaotic energy can be placed in order
Interresting fact about the lord of The Noisomve Vale, Tarnhem. He is actually the father of Acererak, and the reason why he has dissapeared is that he is imprisoned in The Fortress of Conclusion, by his son.
*"You may have noticed that my videos have become longer and longer, I don't expect that to be a trend.*" Gtfo Wade, that, combined with your moderately relaxing narrations is what makes these videos enjoyable. To be frank, I don't even play DnD, I just really enjoy the lore, and strangely fall asleep to these videos; as do numerous others for some inexplicable reason. Your content caters perfectly to this, as does Esper The Bard. I really believe your content is streamlined to making you one of the largest creators in this sphere. Keep this format up, and it is inevitable that your channel will explode. Do this same format on the other realms, plains, creatures in DnD and one is destined to go viral, as will this channel. I had a channel a while back that had roughly 100k subscribers that I removed after becoming a father/husband; it wasn't the type of content I desired to be attributed to me given it's nature. I live in Asia, and it was grimy, passport bro, hedonistic, young guy content.... The easiest, most quick way to obtain followers, and subsequently grow is with shorts. Make shorts related to IRL worshiped deities that exist in DnD, that multiple persons from multiple demographics will search for, or randomly be shown; for instance a short on some Indian deity that exists in DnD, with a quick synopsis of whichever is most intriguing about the character. Shorts are how your channel grows subs quickly, this long formed intricate content is how you keep them. Your channel is still small enough to where I know you'll see this, and I'm being sincere. I recognize how time consuming this content is to edit, but just keep it up. Once you get to 50k obtain and editor and start doing weekly live streams discussing lore. This channel will be successful. When you do, and create some DnD book make me a character in it. Seriously man, don't sleep on shorts. My channel was stagnant at 10k subs until I started creating shorts as like a bait to the larger format content. I sware to God, it will work. View the other content creators in this sphere, and determine which one of their videos are the most successful. If the Racksasha (i have no fn idea how to spell the it) then make a short and a video catered to it. Regardless, continue to make this long format content for your subscribers that sincerely enjoy your content, because those will be the Patreon, and the people that help you to afford the ability to pursue this career. If you desire to create more philosophical, thought provoking content you'll need to dip your toes in the debate sphere; but it is grotesquely toxic. I attended seminary, and have a graduate deg in a related field; truth be told rediscovering religion was the driving force behind removing my content online, and spend far too much time debating antitheists, and philosophers. Its taxing, and is really emotionally draining. I suggest you stick with this more light hearted content, unless you desire to connect the two with allegories for religion through DnD. If you truly desire to discuss, I know of a few smaller, published content creators that would love to be hosted for a discussion, and whos views more closely align with yours.
Wow, thanks for the advice! I've thought about shorts, but haven't really been sure what to do with them, like whether to make dedicated shorts or to just use segments of my existing videos and which segments to use.
32:28 I mean, I think this could be easily be explained with the Warhammer 40K strategy, where the additions are different in inconsistent because you're seeing it from the perspective of a scholar trying to understand and categorize these things they are trying to study. So it makes sense that these different editions would be different and also simultaneously true, because as time progresses you have Scholars changing their understandings, re-categorizing and re-re-categorizing everything that they know. You see this in real life, just look at Medical knowledge, the way documented and now continue to document history, with new knowledge, along with greater understandings and sensitivities with language is changing to better describe the phenomenon that we study. I mean just look at the DSM V and its predecessors.
Much to my dismay I have discovered at least one layer that I missed. It's called the House of Liars and it doesn't have a number. It's from the Turn of Fortune's Wheel 5e Planescape adventure which I own but hadn't read until just now. So that's a shame.
Also there's a bunch of abyssal layers from Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue book series (books like Dance of the Demons and Come Endless Night), but these layers don't appear to be canonical. They were created in the 80s and contradict a lot of the existing Abyssal lore. For instance in those books Graz'zt controls 43 layers called Greater Mezzafgraduun, rather than 3 layers called Azzagrat. Since these layers aren't canonical I'm less upset that I missed them than I am about missing the House of Liars, but I still wish I would've known about these layers and this book series so I could've mentioned them in the video.
awesome job, don't sweat it!
If there’s infinite layers you’re going to end up missing a couple here and there, it’s chill
@@williamjusino3640for real, this guy is bummed out but he still makes the best guides on this entire site. 10/10 stuff, and easy enough to just make a little tiny addendum video if it’s serious.
Hello, where did you get the information about the 403 level “The Rainless Waste”, especially the city? As I would like to have my players visit it.
@@nahtorraschura2060 It's on pages 63-65 of _Faces of Evil: The Fiends,_ which is a Planescape book from 1997. Free PDFs of it are easy to find online.
I don't know how you do this man. I've been playing D&D since 1984, and Planescape in particular since its origin ( same campaign still running to this day... ) and so yeah, I pretty much know all the material without having to grab for a book, but damn, to put together this kind of exegesis is remarkable. How much time in research do you do? wow. Killer.
A lot of time in research lol. It took me a month to write the script (which is about 4x longer than normal). I just kept on finding more stuff I had to read.
@@WadeAllen001 No doubt. Nice organizational structure. Myself, I would have been paralyzed in making a decision on even how to structure it, before trying to write a draft. Cheers.
@@WadeAllen001 One of if not the most underrated D&D lore youtubers.
How do you not reach lvl cap?
@@MrReckless1978 There's no level cap in 2E. Besides that, I'm stingy with XP. Also, the players play multiple characters, in different groups, of different levels...
I think it's remarkably appropriate that a plane representing chaos and evil has multiple things that outright break its own rules.
The only certainty about chaos is uncertainty. All chaos is is just something different from the norm
Simply cannot believe this channel has less than 10k subscribers. Incredible videos
I appreciate that. It's not easy getting to 10k.
@@WadeAllen001 keep going, brother. I'll keep watching ✊
AD&D 2nd ed is in my opinion the most fun. As an 80's kid I was raised on it, and the DM's guide gives tons of ideas, and encourages creativity and "the rule of cool"
I like the lore best from 2nd edition, but I don’t like the edition for gameplay. I like a lot of the combat and character advancement gameplay of 4th edition. Although on the roleplay side their skill list was way too small for my taste I’d use 3rd edition or even 2nd for noncombat skills.
When most channels would have been like "Let's just go over like 10 of my favorite layers", you took the monumental life of going layer by layer! Way to go! I hope you give yourself a good vacation after!
10/10. This is a massive help for the DnD community. Learning about the outter planes can be quite the task. But with all the info laid out like this it's quite amazing. I for sure will watch all them and reccomend you to some friends that wanted to get into the them.
I absolutely love longer & more details. I'll be watching more than a few times myself. I think people need to really get what the writers were trying to set up here. And not all of it gets through. There's a lot of mystery to convey about the origins of the Abyss and Nine Hells. These were other worlds beforehand. Some were evolving along for billions of years on it's own trajectory, when this happened.
Incredible Channel. Really. Full stop, highest quality dnd lore content I've seen in a very very long time.
Please keep this up!!
You are my new favourite of all the dnd lore channels! I can tell you have some sort of background in philosophy and I love your take on things.
Bro! Amazing resource, thank you! As for the contradictions and inconsistencies throughout D&D lore, I like to frame it in much the same way that IRL history is often inaccurate or incomplete: most who recall it first hand have died and the more it spreads and is retold, the more it changes as they are reshaped by the narrator's perspective.
Wade! Crushing it with the in-depth and beautiful content! Thank you for doing all of this hard work: I enjoy these immensely!
I love how pale night is canonically so terrifying and "wrong" that the universe has to give her a shape that it can understand. No seriously. Pale Night is so incorrect and wrong and horrifying that the very universe has to give her a different form.
i think by “universe” you might mean “lonely neckbeards” lmao
She stacked as hell though lol
This is amazing information, thank you SO much for putting this together! This is exactly what I need as I am cobbling my first homebrew world together and want an Abyssal theme to the impending doom. Subscribed!
I have been writing an on going project focused around a group who are currently in the Abyss, so your video is invaluable! There is so much I needed to know and you answered every question I have had! Thank you so much!!!😁
I say "project" because it would be a full series of novels, if ever published, because I have been adding to it for years lol.
Excellent content!
Highly underrate video and channel. I love and appreciate the amount of effort you must have poured into research. This is easily my favorite D&D lore channel!
My favorite video of D&D Abyss so far. This was super thorough and helpful to the imagination. Keep up the great work
Really good video. Most TH-camrs would probably have just mentioned their favourite layers or the most important layers.
Keep up the good work. These are the best videos about Planescape I've found so far.
Maybe Arborae next? Abyss cosmic counterpart. So with Baator, Mount Celestia and Abyss, Arborae would feel the four "corners" of the Great Wheel.
so I'm linking your videos to my own little website about Planescape, so hopefully my players will watch your great videos too :)
the level of detail, dude this is surreal. i had sooooooo many ideas it's just unreal. wow
You are my hero. Thanks for all the lore in one super detailed and thorough video. This has been shared to every DM I know.
What a great job! I can’t imagine the immense amount of research it took you to just start this episode.
Glad you found your niche, Wade!
The video is great and exceptionally well organized and edited for a nearly 3 hour long video.
I recently found this channel and a few others like it and I gotta say.... this is some outstanding work and research. I have not played an actual Table Top Game since the early 2000's and even then it was mainly a select few of us old 2e hard cores who loved the AD&D Dark Sun setting. With BG3 as one of the PC games I waited a long time for, my interest in the old D&D Lore was revamped so to speak to I started finding a bunch of great video's on lore dumps. Awesome work.
Foudn your channel yesterday, subscribed, and have spent an embarrassing amount of time today watching your vids. Really well done work, including the non-dnd content. Thank you.
Hey, thanks! That means a lot, especially about the non-D&D stuff because obviously those are much less viewed.
The rule of canon in dnd is "whatevers coolest but never 4th edition"
One of my favorite things about your videos is it's really nice to know how things are different between editions and you include that, where other peoples lore videos might just pick one version and leave out the rest. Or list all version but not say where each different thing is coming from.
Well to be fair I did leave out a bunch of stuff from more recent editions in my Baator video, which was the first of these more in-depth ones. But I've stopped doing that and I'm glad to hear you think it was a good decision.
New to the channel. Been playing d and d for over 10 years and played all editions (except 4th). By far the best d and d channel. Wishing you all the best! Will continue to watch. Keep it up!! However take a break. Don’t want you to burnout!❤
I really enjoyed this video, listening to it all in one sitting. Great work!
Please keep making these. You explain things so well and it’s GREAT for listening at work, or doing chores.
Great videos, subscribed
Dude, I’m so excited to fall asleep to these, I’m going to astral project into this video in my sleep and absorb all the knowledge.
I just started running a planescape campaign, and these videos have been so helpful! I'm only familiar with 5e but hearing all the great lore and mechanics of previous editions has been so informative. I want to know more about some of the upper planes like Bytopia and Elysium, it seems like 5e has almost no lore/information/stories about the upper planes, and some of the lower planes like Carceri and Pandemonium don't have a lot going on either, so a video about one of those would be great
AJ Pickett has a lot of videos talking about the Planes, and that man is *detailed,* if a bit theoretical.
AWESOME 1000% points for no ai pictures subscribed
Good lord. Just the amount of research you had to have done for this video is incredible. I'm definitely going to use this video as a reference for my games. You've gained a lifelong subscriber. I look forward to watching the rest of your videos!
LET'S GOOOOO
Mate, you make the best planescape videos I've ever come across. HUGE props. Please keep going
Color me impressed, this is damn extensive indeed. Thank you for all the work put into making this.
New Wade Allen just dropped!
keep making them and i'll keep watching them
Nearly lost my hand to a spider bite. I agree. Sorry if you like them, I just can't. Amazing videos, I start these to sleep and then I always get to actually listen to the information at work! Thank you very much!
I’d grab some popcorn, but it goes right through me…
I see what you did there.
This is excellent. Has to be my favorite DnD Lore video. Can't wait for the next one!
You should do a video on Carceri. It doesn't have nearly as much as the Abyss and Nine Hells to cover but is pretty interesting since it's the prison of the universe. It doesn't get enough coverage. Limbo could also be cool.
Love your videos man- I don’t even play DnD! Just BG3 and Planescape Torment haha. Love learning more about these settings from your videos.
I love this video, thank you! I never had much interest in the Abyss but after watching this, I'm just thinking about the cool scenarios that could play out of a party being sucked away or stepping into a portal, thinking they've ended up in some exotic corner of the material plane, or one of the upper planes, even Elysium itself... only to realize far too late that they're trapped in the Abyss and they've already dug their own grave by falling to temptation.
There seem to be a ton of locations that would be so beautiful and fascinating to explore, if not for all the murderous demons and insane hazards 😅
Side note, still hoping there's enough to talk about for an Elysium video!! It's got my vote, I can't wait 😄
Actually the animalistic forms of demons in D&D reflects demons as they're depicted in occultist circles. Malphas for instance is a raven person, Beur is a lion head with goat legs surrounding it to form the shape of the Sun, and Haborym looks like a beautiful man with three heads, one is a serpent, another is a calf, and the third and his body looks like a handsome man. He also rides viper. If anything, they should've gone weirder
That's interesting.
Amazing video, I commented on your baator video that I was looking forward to this one and you didn’t disappoint at all, thank you for the clear hard work that went into this, I’ll be returning to this guide often
I love long videos like this, I’m excited to watch 😊. Thanks, Keep em coming.
I love you're level of contextualization within real world common reference and study applied to understanding the morality and ethical code that is the spectrum of alignment in DnD. This series is a new era- I believe that will explode in views as time goes on, not just because of your research and cross reference between editions, but simply for effectively communicating these ideals and aspects of living philosophy. And since the God's in Dnd, no matter how small, represent some divine aspect of truth within the cosmos; you're foundations built since the start of this run of videos I believe helps bridge the potentially initial gaps of engaging with a living metaphor (as the Gods effectively exist in game ) equally as you're opening the doors of potential things to be present within others homebrew campaigns .
32:24 ...THANK YOU! I can't stand when people talk about DnD and get into arguments about what's canon and whats not when the idea of homebrew exists
and is extremely encouraged and even required in some cases. Honestly I always tell people to pick and choose what is and what isn't canon in relation to
whatever game or campaign you're running or talking about. Thats not only to narrow down talking points but also to get rid of the die hard lore masters that
can't understand the concept of "everything true but not everything is canon" and vice versa.
You pronounced Daemon the way I do. No confusion in listening to your video. Even though I play pathfinder 1e. Lore is same I will subscribe.
I’ve never seen a TH-camr more deserving of subscribers. Insane that you have less than 10k, love your videos
More long form lore! i’ve been sleeping to these for the last week i’ve run out!!
Me too lol
Awesome video, no it is not to long, just jam packed with good stuff , and nice presentations to
You have out done yourself. This is truly great stuff.
definitely need a vid on the gods/religions (maybe start with Shar, considering bg3 popularity!)
That's a good idea.
@@WadeAllen001 you'd be the guy to do it! your explanations of the outer planes and stuff were the only ones that made it click for me
very concise but still super well detailed and researched, well done man
Great video and i just became a sub! Although i'm not a native english speaker, i can understand you even without subtitles. I really want to see a video about the Blood War if possible please.
Been waiting for this 🙏, and just as I finished the Baator vid
By Torm, you made an entire feature film length overview of the plane. Sleep can wait for another few hours.
Another excellent video, really enjoying all of these!
Amazing - I love these videos, looking forward to the next one! I'd request one on the Outlands (and a separate one on Sigil).
please for the love of jehovah make more vids in detail like this
Look at lore conflicts like this, if it helps. These issues can be peeled down to the effect of infinite realities. Each table, in fact each mind reflects an example of one of these realities. We all live with a duality by the way, the reality that is our own and the one we all agree to.
Oh boy, I'm going to have to put on a pot of coffee for this one 😊 thanks @WadeAllen001 ☕
Muchos gracias. As a dm in study this makes my life much easier.
This better blow up, i love these type of videos. Keep em coming my guy!
Been waiting for this! Thank you for all your work
Awesome video! As someone way into Planescape lore this was an absolute treat. Just as a note: My main hypothesis as to why most Demons are animalistic in looks is that the Abyss is a grim reflection of nature at it's rawest, most vile form, after all, aren't demons all about being adaptable and ruling through might in their own terrible ecosystems? They are the direct product of pure chaos, so they end up resembling creatures adapted to their environment, but that's just a headcanon.
I can get on board with that headcanon.
Level 30 player party going to the bottom to get the evil seed would be a crazy campaign
Thanks, I love this.
Regarding layer 100: Turn of Fortune‘s Wheel hints at the possibility that the spire is actually composed of the compressed remains of former incarnations of Sigil. So maybe Sigil can be destroyed, but the Lady still holds power over the ruins.
That's interesting. I have that adventure book but haven't read it yet.
Well done! Looking forward to the next one 👍
Very thorough and well done.
3 hours. You rock! ❤ Thanks for so much passion, Wade. It shows.
Thank you for making this video
Never really got into planescape, but played Pathfinder wotr, and this explains so much about the game, including the naming convention of the succubi in the game, seemed odd how many started with alu
Nice to see Y’Brienne my Yochlol character, drawn by Steven Bellshaw, in all her forms, included in your section on Yochlols
This took me through cleaning my entire apartment. Thank you!
When ever you finish this series, this will be a narrative dnd bookmark
The Abyss is interesting because it allows for more variation than most other planes. As an example, you can have a layer that is nothing but… nothing. Absolute void, where any creatures that get there just float on for eternity, going mad. Or you can have a jungle of raging demons where it is perpetually dusk, humid, and raining a downpour.
Further, the mechanics are interesting. The Abyss is chaotic, and therefore, to force any kind of order upon it requires pure strength. Losing means the layer grows in strength, which itself requires more strength to tame. It’s so appropriate.
Bro cooked on hellfire with this one!
Yo u have to do the neutral evil planes like the gray wastes and Carceri. The amount of detail you do is staggering.
I will. It's just a matter of when. I'll count your comment as a vote for those two planes and go through all my comments across my videos (and Patreon votes) to see which topic has the most demand and do that one next. Maybe it'll be the Gray Waste; I have noticed several people asking for that one.
You're a damn national treasure man..
Insane work my friend
Thanks!
I realize making videos this long is a lot of work, but I ADORE lengthy well-researched lore vids. This one was fantastic. Such a delight. Thanks for sharing.
Turaglas sounds like "too-RAH-glass" I had an entire campaign based around a cult breaking his prison on his layer by creating a massive apocalyptic atrocity on the prime ^~^ He has an entire article about him in a Dragon magazine from like 2003 or 2004, I think. Essentially, I had 3 evil factions. One was the cult of Turaglas, who went to a necromancer to have her create a magical disease that would infect people with a ravenous hunger that could not be quenched. In order to do this, she needed to talk to a noble family that had been turned by a disciple of Ashardalon. She needed a piece of his undead heart, to create it. She didn't just make people ravenously hunger to the point of cannibalism; she made it so they would eventually die and become ravenous ghouls. She had every intention of just controlling the hordes of undead herself, after she secretly used a piece of the heart herself to gain immortality through lichdom. She had no intention for the cult of Turaglas to destroy the world by releasing the demon lord to eat the world. She wanted to rule the world. The cultists thought they would be the exception and he would reward them for their evil deed and they would remake the world in his name. The vampire nobles worshipped Ashardalon. The master vampire who controlled them all was his closest worshipper. He had made Ashardalon's giant undead heart into his "coffin" by lining the inside with his own gravedirt. Ashardalon was an undead dragon who desired to be a god. They felt that creating a world of undead, ruled by his most devout, would create the impetus to push his power ever higher, because of their minions lack of total free-will.
So, all three factions were planning to screw each other over for their own gains. Then, the heroes come along RIGHT before all hell breaks loose and they get caught in the middle of these three evils trying to one-up each other. I started it out like just a generic campaign and slowly had it all start unfolding through clues. Turaglas does get released as the grand finale and they have to banish him back to his prison layer of the Abyss. Sorta happy ending, except all the damage that had been done, but they save the world. They didn't really stop the disease fast enough to stop the plague either, so there was an undead nation, but they made it curable by finding and destroying Ashardalon's heart, because it was the source of the power behind the disease--so they had to find and destroy the master vampire too along the way. And then I allowed undead characters from the Libris Mortis after the undead nation formed. Fun stuff LOL!
Sounds like an awesome campaign!
@@WadeAllen001 I can send you the campaign notes and what Dragon magazine articles it came out of if you want to see it. You can make a clone of it and make your own tweaks if you want.
37:57 Interesting note about Tharizdun: Pre-4e Tharizdun was moreso associated with aberrations and other Far Realm-y type creatures like the Elder Evils, and as you mentioned in the video it wasn't until 4e where he officially was tied into Abyssal lore. Critical Role and 5e as a whole sort of meld these interpretations together for him, though granted we don't see too much of Tharizdun outside of a few mentions throughout 5e so far.
1:46:22 you can’t fool me. That’s the entrance to the peaceful skeleton realm that got attacked by a helicopter
In my campaign, we tend to treat the multiple contradictions as historical inaccuracies. That way we can pick whatever makes the most sense and still surprise each other!
Please keep making these videos
I could listen to dnd demon lore for hours
Gee, me too! I recently watched one that was 2:44:38 long!
Tnx for this video, im only interested in demon killing in D&D so this is my haven now xD
I would like to remember of Chernovog, "the Green god" mentioned in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and ruler of the "verdant chasm" layer
28:29 I believe the answer you’re question of why the reason Demons are more beast like is because Demons resides in the in a place where chaotic energy runs uncontrollably. Where Devils resides in the hells where chaotic energy can be placed in order
Pazuzu having a name that sounds like "Im Du Gud" is so ironically funny to me lol
Interresting fact about the lord of The Noisomve Vale, Tarnhem. He is actually the father of Acererak, and the reason why he has dissapeared is that he is imprisoned in The Fortress of Conclusion, by his son.
Superb video.
Glad you liked it!
Excellent!
50:55 I like the fact that demon lord is not well-defined! It fits the chaotic nature of the abyss!
*"You may have noticed that my videos have become longer and longer, I don't expect that to be a trend.*" Gtfo Wade, that, combined with your moderately relaxing narrations is what makes these videos enjoyable. To be frank, I don't even play DnD, I just really enjoy the lore, and strangely fall asleep to these videos; as do numerous others for some inexplicable reason. Your content caters perfectly to this, as does Esper The Bard. I really believe your content is streamlined to making you one of the largest creators in this sphere. Keep this format up, and it is inevitable that your channel will explode. Do this same format on the other realms, plains, creatures in DnD and one is destined to go viral, as will this channel.
I had a channel a while back that had roughly 100k subscribers that I removed after becoming a father/husband; it wasn't the type of content I desired to be attributed to me given it's nature. I live in Asia, and it was grimy, passport bro, hedonistic, young guy content.... The easiest, most quick way to obtain followers, and subsequently grow is with shorts. Make shorts related to IRL worshiped deities that exist in DnD, that multiple persons from multiple demographics will search for, or randomly be shown; for instance a short on some Indian deity that exists in DnD, with a quick synopsis of whichever is most intriguing about the character. Shorts are how your channel grows subs quickly, this long formed intricate content is how you keep them.
Your channel is still small enough to where I know you'll see this, and I'm being sincere. I recognize how time consuming this content is to edit, but just keep it up. Once you get to 50k obtain and editor and start doing weekly live streams discussing lore. This channel will be successful. When you do, and create some DnD book make me a character in it. Seriously man, don't sleep on shorts. My channel was stagnant at 10k subs until I started creating shorts as like a bait to the larger format content. I sware to God, it will work. View the other content creators in this sphere, and determine which one of their videos are the most successful. If the Racksasha (i have no fn idea how to spell the it) then make a short and a video catered to it. Regardless, continue to make this long format content for your subscribers that sincerely enjoy your content, because those will be the Patreon, and the people that help you to afford the ability to pursue this career.
If you desire to create more philosophical, thought provoking content you'll need to dip your toes in the debate sphere; but it is grotesquely toxic. I attended seminary, and have a graduate deg in a related field; truth be told rediscovering religion was the driving force behind removing my content online, and spend far too much time debating antitheists, and philosophers. Its taxing, and is really emotionally draining. I suggest you stick with this more light hearted content, unless you desire to connect the two with allegories for religion through DnD. If you truly desire to discuss, I know of a few smaller, published content creators that would love to be hosted for a discussion, and whos views more closely align with yours.
Wow, thanks for the advice! I've thought about shorts, but haven't really been sure what to do with them, like whether to make dedicated shorts or to just use segments of my existing videos and which segments to use.
32:28 I mean, I think this could be easily be explained with the Warhammer 40K strategy, where the additions are different in inconsistent because you're seeing it from the perspective of a scholar trying to understand and categorize these things they are trying to study. So it makes sense that these different editions would be different and also simultaneously true, because as time progresses you have Scholars changing their understandings, re-categorizing and re-re-categorizing everything that they know. You see this in real life, just look at Medical knowledge, the way documented and now continue to document history, with new knowledge, along with greater understandings and sensitivities with language is changing to better describe the phenomenon that we study. I mean just look at the DSM V and its predecessors.
What a treat! Thank you
This was amazing!
Thanks!