[ Magma ] [ Mapping Infinity | Pockets | Bestiary | Flora ]
[ Borders of Magma ] [ Ash | Dust | Earth | Fire | Mineral | Radiance]
Borders of Magma
Into the Heart of the Volcano
CORE MAGMA: The Fountains of Creation—known to most planewalkers simply as Magma—lies at the churning intersection of Fire and Earth, an ocean of boiling rock from which plumes of smoky fire erupt, creating an atmosphere of thick, molten fog laced with deadly fumes that can choke the unprotected just as surely as the heat will consume them. Scattered islands of basalt, obsidian, and pumice drift across the roiling surface, offering brief respite before the realm’s glorious heat inevitably claims them. The plane’s Core is divided into distinct regions: the deceptively dangerous Felsic Flats, where viscous, silica-rich lava forms plains that cannot support weight; the Mafic Ocean, a swift-moving expanse of runny basaltic flows; the Pāhoehoe Delta, where cooling lava creates treacherous surfaces as smooth as glass; and the vast Sea of ‘A’ā, an ocean of jagged, clinker-blocks formed from lava that cooled into sharp, angular fragments.
DEEP MAGMA: The sticky, bubbling heart of the Para-Elemental Plane of Magma is called Deep Magma. Here the mixing of fire and earth is so perfectly balanced that the lava churns without impurity, with neither solid chunks of rock nor gouts of flame to interrupt the smooth mix. Here the magma never cools, and the only features of the plane are the ever-moving currents. If a cutter can find away to breathe and tolerate the intense heat, you might even argue that this part of the plane is fairly safe. Except the for denizens, of course…
From Magma to Ash
CHALK ISLANDS: One would expect that the border area between Magma and Ash might be a smooth sliding gradient between hot and cold as you move emberwards, but the Chalk Islands are not that. Instead, it is a strange divided into islands of freezing white chalky ash, with explosive rivers of searing magma bubbling up between them. Few creatures are keen to live in such extreme conditions.
CINDER WELLS: Gradually the islands of ash become bigger, streams of lava become thinner, and the atmosphere fills with ash, at which point you find yourself in the Cinder Wells. The ash gets thicker and thicker until the ashes beneath your feet and those around you become one and the same—the singular expanse of cinders which make up the main body of the quasi-plane of Ash.
From Magma to Dust
SANDS: Head screewards towards the border between Dust and Magma, the influence of the negative energy cools Magma down. However, the same entropic energies corrode the volcanic rock into fine pumice dust. It may feel silky to touch, but this regoloith in fact extremely abrasive, even for elemental dust. In the region planewalkers innocuously call the Sands, heaps of dust turn into dunes, fumarole plumes launch debris to form choking dust storms, and eventually the dark sands join together to form yet another infinite wall. Though this time, diving into this sandy barrier brings a basher into the quasielemental plane of Dust.
From Magma to Earth
Moving rockwards in the direction of the Plane of Earth you’ll notice the magma becoming much more viscous and slow-moving. Islands of solid volcanic rock become more and more frequent, until the whole landscape becomes a field of stone spires and rock protrusions. Be careful here of your footing, for the rock crust of the ground might appear solid but could still crumble beneath any weight, dumping an unlucky planewalker neck-deep in deadly lava.
SORCHED WASTES: As you continue to move closer to Earth, spires of cooling rock merge and rise, turning into cliffs and volcanic mountains, far larger, higher, and more prone to erutpion than any found on Prime (some believe that the mysterious Sleeping Ones can be found among these peaks). These are called the Scorched Wastes, but they are in fact cooler and more hospitable for planewalkers than most other parts of the plane. Few magma paraelementals can be found here, at least on the surface, but dragons, avalanchers and other mountainous creatures occupy some of the more convenient cliffs.
FURNACES: Continue on though and at some point, the impossibly tall mountain ridges eventually meld together in a single solid wall of basalt that rises as far as the eye can see. If a planewalker were to dig into this wall, they would find themselves entering the region of the Earth called the Furnaces. Here the tunnels are few and far between, because they are prone to flooding with escaped lava. If you are lucky enough to find a cavern though, mind you aren’t cooked instead, as such enclosed spaces are usually hot enough to bake a cutter nice and crispy in short order. Find yourself a cool breeze and follow it, and you’re on your way out of this hellish stove of a border region and into the cool darkness of Elemental Earth itself. Cutter, you’ll be relieved when you do.
From Magma to Fire
As you travel flamewards from Magma, the lava beneath your feet becomes hotter, more liquid and more radiant. The cliffs of solid basalt and floating islands of pumice become rarer, while plumes of explosive gases rise higher and higher.
SEARING MISTS: As the temperature increases, magma becomes so agitated that small droplets of it become airborn, forming clouds of deadly vapour. This region is appropriately named Searing Mists. At the same time, the atmosphere of the place is filled with pure elemental fire, which is typically unstable in the colder parts of the plane.
BURNING RIDGES: If you still desire to move forward, you’ll find that the ocean of magma turns into the fiery sea called the Burning Ridges, where most everything is fire, save from strange skeletal formations made from rare rock, metal and slag that is too sturdy to melt. Leave the relative protection of these weird structures behind, and you’ll find yourself adrift on the flaming oceans of the Elemental Plane of Fire proper.
From Magma to Mineral
OBSIDIAN FOREST: The border between Magma and Mineral has much in common with border between Magma and Earth, however, the vitalising power of the Positive Energy Plane somehow makes it even less hospitable. Instead of oven-hot cliffs and calderas, heading gemwards, the Obsidian Forest of the border regions of Magma is riddled with mind-breaking spires of basalt and skin-slicing geodes of volcanic glasses like obsidian and tachylite. This place has a stark beauty for sure, but it is also dangerous, as the obsidian growths are naturally razor-sharp. Not only that, a conclave of cruel earthen creatures is said to reside here, plotting against Ogremoch.
NATURAL FORGE: Behind the glassy wall that separates the two planes is the Natural Forge, an equally hot and beautiful place, where rivers of molten metal flow through the crystalline caves, splashing everything with a caste of easily-melted metals like tin, lead, or zinc. This place is popular with elemental artisans and ruvoka, whose workshops produce some of the most intricate metal ornaments outside of the Plane of Metal itself. If you follow the burgeoning diamond seams gemwards, you will eventually find yourself in the sparkling, hauntingly beautiful Quasi-Elemental Plane of Mineral.
From Magma to Radiance
GLOWING DUNES: The place that lies lightwards between the planes of Magma and Radiance is infamous for its sheer lethality. In the Glowing Dunes the usual ashes and fumes of the plane of Magma become unusually metallic and sometimes even glow with unearthly colours. This sight, however, is an indication that whoever observes it is as good as dead. The dust of the Glowing Dunes carries within it a deadly radiance that causes an incurable disease. Not even constructs or undead seem to be truly safe here, as in the heart of the Dunes this radiation is so intense, it burns the animating magic right out of them. One of the few creatures that can be found here, if they can be called creatures, are the xer-yib energons. In recent years, many unsavoury berks of the Inner Planes, primarily of course, Ayrzul, have become fascinated with the deadly secrets of this place. However, that is neither here nor there. The actual line between the planes of Magma and Radiance is said to look like a burned-out plain of sickly glowing rocks that ends suddenly, dropping a berk right into the ocean of Radiance. Vanishingly few planewalkers have managed to withstand succumbing to the lethal wasting sickness of the Glowing Dunes for long enough to return and spread the chant about it, though.
Canonical Sources: Start with the excellent Planescape Inner Planes [2e] book. Other references from D&D and Pathfinder lore are mentioned on the relevant entries. Core and Deep Magma and their regions are my homebrew, the other border regions are from Inner Planes.
Source: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt