[ Water ] [ Mapping Infinity | Pockets | Bestiary | Flora ]
The Heart of the Ocean
CORE WATER: The main volume of the plane is the Endless Ocean, where elemental pockets are most often found. As they dissolve, they enrich the water and allow life to prosper. Tritons, marids and other sapient races primarily establish their kingdoms here.
DEEP WATER: A sphinx once asked the riddle—What place is a desert, but wet? Well, while diving deeper into unexplored territories of the Bottomless Deep (“up country”, as we call it), you’ll find elemental pockets becoming rarer and rarer, before drying up completely. This is Deep Water, the purest part of the ocean, that hasn’t been reached by dissolved air and minerals yet. The water here is crystal clear, but also choking, since it contains no oxygen to breathe. Even drinking it can be unhealthy, since it is so perfectly pure. Only water elementals, weirds and well spirits tend to inhabit this deserted area. There’s no shortage of yabber about what’s hidden down in the Deep Water. Some say that the water there turns solid as if it were unthawing ice. Others speak of the warring kingdoms of unfriendly water elementals and battles that are fully invisible in the perfectly translucent ocean. Mysterious platinum pearls are also rumoured to come from the Deep.
The Border Seas
From Water to Ice
SEA OF ICE: It’s such an unsophisticated name that you Primes have given to this border area of the Plane of Water, at the start of the long voyage chillwards towards the Para-Elemental Plane of Ice. In the Sea of Ice the water gets really cold, which is actually better than it sounds. Cold water can absorb more oxygen that seeps from the Ice and bubble pockets from Air, see? Enormous schools of cold-loving fish and krill dwell in these waters, making the chilly sea place a heaven for fisherfolk. The currents here are swift and dangerous. We waterfolks call this place the Undertow, and that’s also the name of the main fishing burg in the area,
SEA OF FROZEN LIVES: Cutters have to be careful in the Sea of Ice, mind—if they come too close to the dark ice wall that is the Frostfell, they risk being subjected to its gravity, and will find themselves drifting down into the Sea of Frozen Lives. This place is considered a part of the Plane of Ice proper and is infamous for being so cold, that any dill who disturbs it is immediately covered by rime. When the Sea of Frozen Lives finally crystallises into a single solid glacier, you’ve reached Core Ice.
From Water to Ooze
SILT FLATS: In the mudwards seas, as you get closer to Ooze, minerals and organic refuse from the para-plane of muck start to pollute the Bottomless Deep. This supports intense growth of algae and other tiny organisms, which seems ideal if you’re after a meal—until you realise these beasties all breathe and rot too. As a result, there’s very little oxygen left in the Silt Flats for air-breathers. Planewalkers call this place the Flowering Nightmare, because visibility is also massively reduced due to the choking flora. Yet this place still attracts plenty of inhabitants—catfish, eels, lungfish, crustaceans and other aquatic scavengers have adapted to these murky anoxic waters and thrive here.
BILE SEA: Crossing over into the borders of the Plane of Ooze itself, the silt becomes thick and caustic. It clings to everything it touches, burns skin and rusts metal. No natural creatures can survive for long here, and the rotting corpse of anything unlucky enough to be stranded here only adds to the stench and decay. Continue further, and you’ll reach the disgusting heart of the Plane of Ooze.
From Water to Salt
DARKENED DEPTHS: Heading brinewards, the ambient light of the plane gradually dims down, while the salinity of the water increases. At first, the surroundings appear like the depths of any other sea on the Prime. This is the place where benthic fauna like anglerfish, gulper eels and fluorescent creatures dwell, alongside aboleths and kuo-toa. The Darkened Depths are also populated by water weirds, dedicated to repealing the threat of marauding facets. If you want
SALINE SEA: Then, the waters become so salty that only certain, obscure creatures can endure it. As the brine around you becomes dense and hard to swim through, but easy to float on, and seriously caustic on the skin, you know you’ve reached the Quasi-Elemental Salt, or, more accurately, the Saline Sea The liquid gets more and more dense until the salty waves crash against the pure white cliffs of Core Salt.
From Water to Steam
BAY OF LIGHT: Heading mistwards towards Steam, and you’ll first notice the increase in amount of light, as if the waters around you are shining with beams of positive energy. Light-loving fishes glide around in the Bay of Light, retreating to Core Water when they need to to rest. The waters here are fresh and warm, without a hint of saltiness or pollution. Planewalkers agree that this is one of the most delightful parts of the plane, for sure.
ISLANDS OF WATER: Moving Lifewards, you’ll come across the boundary between the two planes. This place looks like a surface of a regular Prime Material sea—except the gravity here is weaker, and surreal blobs of water sometimes break away from the surface, floating upwards to join the region of the Plane of Steam that’s known as Islands of Water. Some say the fabled Isle of Dread is located somewhere in the Bay of Light region, though it’s highly disputed.
Canonical Sources: Inner Planes [2e]; Dungeon Master’s Guide [5e]
Other Sources: Margarita, Jon Winter-Holt