The Elemental Plane of Fire is one of four primary elemental planes common to the mythos of many words of Dungeons & Dragons.
Environment and planar traits[]
Contrary to popular belief, the Plane of Fire is not made completely of fire, but merely predominantly so. Much of the plane contains scorched land covered in smoldering embers. The air here is a harsh storm of ash and cinder. Its seas and rivers are slow-moving lava, and sources of water are rare.[1]
A sun glows white hot during the day, and fades to red twilight at night, following a 24-hour cycle. By day, the black wastes solid enough to travel across on foot are as deadly as the hottest deserts on earth.[1] The ever-present flames of this plane create their own light, and so the concept of darkness is almost unknown to the many natives of this plane.[2]
Fire occurs naturally here, as if a living creature, and does not need air to burn. Fire spells are considerably more powerful here,[2] although many of the plane's natives are naturally immune to fire.
The ground in many places is soft ash and debris, like walking through a thick layer of smoldering snow. The layout of this soft ground slowly moves and shifts, making mapping impossible and long-term navigation difficult without a native guide. The constant heat creates mirages everywhere.[2]
The air gets thin quickly as one ascends upward, making flight difficult. It is often thick with toxic smoke, making breathing difficult and limiting long-distance vision. Wandering fog clouds of super-heated steam and sudden storms of hot ash are an ever-present risk.[2]
Inhabitants[]
The Plane of Fire is inhospitable to visitors who are not immune to the effects of heat and fire.
The Efreet, powerful fire genies, are at home in this plane of fire. The azer, dwarves of the element of fire, likewise inhabit this plane. Other creatures include salamanders, who raid azer outposts.
Several powerful red dragons inhabit this plane, make making their lairs on the obsidian islands which dot the plane's lava seas and in volcanic mountain ranges. Fire giants likewise make their home in these volcanic mountains. A few gold and brass dragons make their home here.[2]
The fire elementals originate from this plane. They are a living fragment of the plane itself. Other inhabitants include mephits (steam, fire and magma), pyrohydras, thoqqua, rasts. and versions of normal material creatures composed of fire.[2]
Regular visitors include devils, who are immune to fire, and often conduct trade in information, goods and prisoners. The mercane likewise visit here regularly, often to trade in the City of Brass, though their lack of natural fire tolerance sees few taking up permanent residence.
Notable locations[]
The efreet have a legendary city here known as the City of Brass, where it is said almost anything in the multiverse can be bought and sold. It rests upon a great lava sea known as the Sea of Fire, where the azers and efreet sail great ships of brass.[1]
At the border with the Plane of Earth lies the Fountains of Creation, a range of massive volcanoes.
The Cinder Wastes are a vast expanse of black ash. These are possible for visitors to traverse, but as deadly as the hottest desert. Walking across the wastes is like walking across hot coals.
The Prince of Evil Fire Creatures, the archomental Imix, has a mighty fortress here called the Temple of Ultimate Consumption. It is black obsidian and pyramidal in shape, and lies in the heart of an active volcano, upon the Plain of Burnt Dreams, a vast island rising from a lake of liquid fire called the Blazing Sea.[3] His rival, Zaaman Rul, has a fortress named the Hidden Heart, built from basalt and fyrite, and guarded by magical wards and a moat of holy flame.[4]
Publication history[]
Original Dungeons & Dragons[]
The four elemental planes first appeared in the article Planes: the Concepts of Spacial, Temporal and Physical Relationships in D&D, in Dragon #8 (Jul 1977).[5]
Basic Dungeons & Dragons[]
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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition[]
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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition[]
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Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition[]
The Plane of Fire is described in the Dungeon Master's Guide (3.0) (2000), p.55-56.
Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition[]
D&D 4th edition's cosmology merged all four elemental planes into a single realm called the Elemental Chaos.
Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition[]
The four elemental planes return to the standard cosmology of D&D 5th edition.[6] The Elemental Chaos of 4th edition remains as a border surrounding the elemental planes.
Creative origins[]
The idea of a world made of fire appears in Norse mythology. In Gylfaginning, in the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlson (c.1250 AD):
- But first there was the world in the southern region called Muspell. It is bright and hot. That area is flaming and burning and it is impassable for those that are foreigners there and are not native to it.
The idea that the material is made of four elements dates back to the ancient Greeks, who believed that all things were made of fire, air, earth and water.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Dungeon Master's Guide (5e) (2014), p.55-56.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Manual of the Planes (3e) (2001), p.74-76.
- ↑ Princes of Elemental Evil: The Archomentals, Dragon #347 (Sep 2006), p.29-41.
- ↑ Princes of Elemental Good: The Archomentals, Part II, Dragon #353 (Mar 2007), p.43-50.
- ↑ Planes: the Concepts of Spacial, Temporal and Physical Relationships in D&D, Dragon #8 (Jul 1977), p.4.
- ↑ Dungeon Master's Guide (5e) (2014), p.43.