The Plane of the Spire

The Plane of the Spire is an isolated existence spawned by the only consciousness to ever achieve perfect faith before the universes were formed. When this consciousness achieved the culmination of its faith in the swirling masses of unformed matter at the beginning of time, it created a world on another plane of existence where the consciousness was both god and devil. Its world was not riddled by the limitations of good and evil but was instead nurtured by the perfection of the unbridled forces of nature and the universe. Immediately following its perfect achievement of a faith-created world, it then believed itself into having perfect mental acuity, leaving no surprise in the universe it found itself placed in. It was bored and could find no purpose for life on this plane of existence. So, it killed itself by willing itself to die, banishing itself to its perfect creation, the single greatest achievement of its life - The Plane of the Spire.

The Sprawl
The Sprawl represents everything wild and unformed about the perfection of natural forces. It is the physical manifestation of the unformed potential of the early universe. On the Sprawl, a visitor will find a raw, martian, barren, craggy rock plain stretching for miles forming a circular island on a still ocean. The sky of the Sprawl glows with soft, pale, glaring white light, revealing no astral bodies and no atmospheric disturbance. It is perfectly uniform and perfectly unmoving, casting a silver light over everything. Creatures that manifest the chaotic firstborn of the universal elements wander the Sprawl, mawling one another and any visitors to the land.

The Ocean
The Ocean stretches from the shores of the circular island of the Sprawl in unbroken stillness as far as the eye can see. Yet, the still surface belies the swirling vortex of black whisps and currents that are easily seen from above the deeper portions. Travelling in any direction will only lead back to the island, assuming any traveller survives the dark creatures that dwell in the swirling depths of the Ocean.

The Gate
Somewhere on the coast of the Sprawl lies a great towering grey rectangular prism, smooth as the finest marble. It is the Gate to the Spire. This construction does not use magic or technology of any kind. It simply exists and functions outside the physical or temporal limitations of any plane of existence. White patterns on the Gate glow whenever it is activated, swirling in a chaotic array of brilliant light, before opening one of the sides of the prism to reveal the newest guests of the Sprawl.

The Gatekeeper
The Gatekeeper is a being created for the sole purpose of intimidating those who arrive on the Sprawl. His purpose given to him by the consciousness that created this world is to lead on "guests" with enigmatic answers to questions, eventually dashing their hopes of ever escaping. He usually reveals his true form as a chaotic and corrupted old man surrounded by the black fog of his master, the Creator. Like the Ferryman and the Archivist, the Gatekeeper represents a fractional, physical manifestation of the Creator's mind, in this case a manifestation of his superiority and manipulative complexes. Like all creatures of the Sprawl, the Gatekeeper can die, but it means nothing to him since the Creator can reknit anything in this realm.

The Moat
Just outside the Spire Gate and the small ring of ground encircling the base of the Spire lies the Moat, a perfectly formed circular moat filled with a liquid form of a metal element, though the specific nature and properties of the element are unknown other than its obvious silver, metallic, reflective qualities. Within the moat dwell horrible slaughterfish-like creatures that rely on the metallic properties of the liquid as humans do air. If disturbed, these creatures will attack.

The Ferryman
The Ferryman exists as the Creator's vicarious eyes and ears, since the Creator is trapped in the hell portion of this dimension. He represents the manifestation of the logical and sensory portions of the Creator's mind. In a way, he is a sentient fraction of the Creator's mind suspended in this portion of the dimension, existing as one of the few links the Creator has to this half of his world. He is manifested as a great mass of black fog and a humanoid scissor-like collection of a black metallic substance.

The Spire Gate
Beyond the boat landing on the Spire-side of the Moat lies a great white marble archway at the end of a two hundred foot path, framing to the Spire Gate. The Spire Gate stands over sixty feet tall and thirty feet wide, curving at its top to reach a pointed arch-like shape. The architecture of the gateway, like that of the Spire itself, is extremely minimalist, consisting of basic geometrical properies with a few raised ridges lining the frame of the doors. Like the path and the walls lining the path, the doors are made of a pure white marble-like surface that emits a soft, warm light.

Before arriving at the Spire Gate, visitors will meet a grand white marble pedastel, the hexagonal platform of which stretches three feet across. The steam on which the platform sits is uniformly wide from foundation to base save for a slight inward curve toward the middle of the stem. Floating above this platform in perfect stillness is a series of six white marble halo's, one encasing the other with about half an inch of space between each, the largest of which is two feet across. They are randomly arranged in what appears to be a chaotic nest of rings. If rotated so that all the rings line up flush with one another, perpendicular to the pedastel and parallel to the Spire Gate so that the center hole of the rings faces directly towards the Spire Gate, the Spire Gate will open. This simple lock ensures that only sentient beings can access the Spire. The elemental beasts of the Sprawl do not possess the intelligence to do so, and any sentient being intelligent enough to do enter is of incredible interest to every sentient entity on the Plane of the Spire, hence its simplicity. This ensures that sentient beings foreign to the Plane of the Spire will easily meet the sentient inhabitants.

Inside the Spire
Once past the Spire Gate, the grand arches of the doorway open onto a large marble courtyard with vaulted ceilings. In either direction, stairs lead upward to a new level of the Spire, of which there are well over a hundred. Directly across from the Spire Gate lies another archway larger than the door that opens to the cylindrical empty space that serves as the core space of the Spire. The floor levels circle this vast emptiness in a perfect hexagon, ascending as high as the Spire will go. There are hundreds of rooms, all of which can be explored, the contents of which are infinite and not entirely known.


 * Known Rooms of the Spire

After ascending the hundred levels of the cool white marble interior of the Spire, all stairs lead to the final floor of the Spire's interior, ending in six large archways that lead to the outer coiling staircase of the Spire Peak.

The Spire Stairs
The Spire staircaise coils around the shapely tip of the Spire, leading ever upward through the sentient clouds guarding the ascent to the Spire Peak. Crab like elemental constructs wander the staircase and surface of the Spire walls, immune to the psychic assaults of the clouds.


 * The Spire Cloud

The Spire Peak and the Dark Portal

Atop the Spire Peak lies a massively tall blue crystal, with shards tensely suspended outside of their corresponding gaps in the crystal's shell. Maneuvering these shards into place reactivates the Dark Portal, opening an entry point to the Dark.