[ Planes of Cordance > Pangaea > Swamp of Coals ]
Swamp of Coals
Contested realm of the Temnospondylus and Coelacanth Lords
CHARACTER: The Swamp of Coals embodies the struggle for primordial sovereignty. It encapsulates the kriegstanz that’s been going on since the dawn of time, in the most unlikely places, where evolution wages war on itself through tooth and claw.
The air itself carries the weight of deep time—in breath you can taste the compressed millennia, the methane burn of the coal-dark sediments, and the metallic tang of spilled blood. Cutters who find themselves here are caught between two competing temporal currents: the patient persistence of the Coelacanth Lord’s deep-time survival strategy, and the aggressive expansion of the Temnospondylus Lord’s amphibious supremacy doctrine.
DESCRIPTION: Massive tree-ferns and lycopsid stumps rise from the black water like the ribcage of some long-dead titan. The “trees” aren’t wood any more though—they’re compressed and fossilised, coal-dark trunks that radiate warmth and smell of ancient swamps. The fen shifts constantly between ankle-deep mud and drowning-deep sinkholes, with no warning except the occasional bubble of methane gas that breaks the surface with a wet plop. Black-water ditches wind between horsetails which stands tall as siege towers.
Bioluminescent fungal networks pulse beneath the water like a vast nervous system, their blue-green glow revealing the curves of egg-clutches embedded in the warm peat, territorial boundary markers carved into submerged logs, and the occasional floating amphibian corpse from the latest skirmish between the warring lords.
The sound never stops—methane sighs from disturbed sediment, the distant territorial roars of temnospondyls, the gurgle of the dark waters, but most of all the buzzing of tiny insects.
Planewalkers should be wary of potential coal gas poisoning: The putrid atmosphere carries concentrated toxins from decomposing organic matter and industrial-strength methane. Visitors without magical protection will suffer progressive poisoning that continues for 24 hours after leaving the swamp.
WHO RULES: The Temnospondylus Lord styles himself the “Father of Amphibians”, claiming descent from the most successful vertebrate line ever to make the transition from water to land. Officially, he claims dominion of the Swamp of Coals by the right of what he calls the evolutionary superiority of his kin. The settlement called Edopodia spreads like an infection across the swamp’s surface, marked by massive mucous-filled spawning grounds where amphibian larvae develop in waters that are kept warm by the marsh gases.
WHO REALY RULES: The Coelacanth Lord controls the deep architecture of the swamp through his mastery of the Actinistia Depths—the black-water trenches where his kind has perfected the art of patient ambush for 400 million years. While the Temnospondylus Lord expands across the surface, he commands the underwater geography that determines the water flow, seasonal flooding, and access to the richest feeding grounds.
The real power dynamic operates through jakishta—the blood-feud that has raged for geological ages. Neither lord can fully control the swamp while the other lives, but neither can eliminate their rival without catastrophic ecological collapse that would destroy the very prize they’re fighting over.
PRINCIPAL SETTLEMENTS: Edopodia (Temnospondylus Territory): A sprawling mucous metropolis where amphibian development happens on an industrial scale. The settlement appears as countless gelatinous breeding chambers connected by raised banks of compressed peat and fossilised bone. The water depth rarely exceeds ankle-height here—perfect for creatures transitioning between aquatic and terrestrial life.
Wet larval pools near the centre of the settlement gradually transition to juvenile chambers with partial land access, then to adult territories at the expanding periphery. The whole settlement pulses with seasonal spawning rhythms, growing larger during breeding cycles as new chambers are excavated from the swamp floor.
Actinistia (Coelacanth Territory): The deepest sanctum of the swamp, where black water extends down further than vision permits and pressure becomes a weapon. The settlement exists in three dimensions—shallow water platforms for air-breathing allies, mid-water hanging gardens of aquatic plants, and abyssal chambers carved into submerged cliff faces where the Coelacanth Lord himself holds court.
The architecture emphasises concealment. Every nest offers multiple escape routes into deeper water, and the entire settlement can disappear into the murky depths within moments if threatened. Bioluminescent markers guide friends while counterintuitive currents confuse intruders.
CURRENT CHANT: The Temnospondylus Lord’s Edopodia continues aggressive territorial expansion, with new spawning chambers appearing weekly. Scouts report systematic drainage of traditional Coelacanth territories and re-engineered channels directing water flow to surface-accessible areas. The Coelacanth Lord’s response involves increasingly desperate deep-water raids and sabotage of surface installations.
Rumours suggest the Coelacanth Lord seeks alliance with other deep-water lords throughout Pangaea, potentially escalating the local conflict into a planar war between surface and deeps. The Temnospondylus Lord has responded by recruiting terrestrial allies and expanding beyond traditional amphibian territories.
Both lords have discovered that the coal-trees can be weaponized—their flammable nature and methane production creating devastating area-effect attacks. The first lord to master environmental warfare using the swamp’s unique properties may decisively tip the territorial balance.
Eurypterid populations throughout the swamp have grown unusually organised, leading to speculation about the emergence of a third animal lord who might exploit the current conflict to claim territory from both warring factions. The ancient sea scorpions remember when they were the apex predators of prehistoric waters, and they grow weary of the Brine of Mirrors to which they have been forced to colonise.
Source: SGreen, Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt, based on an idea by Greg Jensen. Canonwatch: Everything here is homebrew (in the context of Planescape at least, all of these prehistoric creatures roamed the world once upon a time!)