The Vengeful Land

THE VENGEFUL LAND by Lilliana Be'letane

The Vengeful Land - also known as the Realm of Storms, the Great Illumination, or more scientifically, the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Lightning - lies at the border between the Elemental Plane of Air and the Positive Energy Plane. It's my great honour and privilege to have visited this most noble of planes, and to share my experiences and observations.

Conditions

The Vengeful Land is comprised primarily of lightning. Black clouds roil everywhere you look, constantly lit by flashes and bolts of electrical energy. There is little land to be found here - only pockets that have intruded from other planes - making navigation for those incapable of flight or magical movement tricky. It's quite easy to dodge a bolt of lightning, only to find yourself tumbling in to the path of another. Energy Immunity is a must, with unprepared visitors quickly reduced to smoldering dust. Ear protection is also advised, to prevent the crashing thunder from becoming deafening.

The air is perfectly breathable, though heavy with the smell of ozone. The air constantly crackles with electrcity, making your hair stand on end at all times. Metallic items and equipment quickly attract strikes of lightning, making travel in armour or with a blade an extremely unwise proposition, even if protected from electricity.

Everything and everyone in the Vengeful Land is constantly outlined by a glowing nimbus of electrical energy, making Invisibility, all forms of concealment and more mundane stealth techniques entirely worthless. You may be familiar with a lesser form of this effect, sometimes seen around the masts of ships during lightning storms. Some sailors refer to it as Verossa's Smile, believing that the Mother of Storms is marking any vessel it's seen upon for destruction in one of Her great hurricanes.

Directions such as "up" and "down" are pointless in the vortex of black clouds here. The only navigation tools of worth are proximity to the other neighbouring planes. The storms grow less severe the closer one gets to the Elemental Plane of Air; the atmosphere is brighter and warmer close to the Positive Energy Plane. A persistent drizzle accompanies the eternal storm as you approach the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Steam, and the lightning grows near-blinding in proximity to the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance, the multi-coloured afterimages quite beautiful to behold in moderation.

Inhabitants

The Vengeful Land plays home to a variety of creatures, some of whom are native and some who visited and decided to stay. The most obvious natives are Lightning Quasi-Elementals, found nearly everywhere in every size imaginable, from the tiny-palm sized sparks to gargantuan primal elementals, towering twenty feet tall and obliterating anything nearby with bolts of lightning. They frequent cohabit with the lesser known Storm Elementals, particularly closer to the plane of Steam.

Many fiefdoms of Lightning Mephits can be found here, eternally squabbling and fighting with one another over the most minor imagined grievance. Humanoid creatures called Shockers can also be found, typically hunting the Mephits or acting as emissaries for other, more intelligent creatures.

For more mundane creatures, the city of Stormfront acts as a sanctuary. Built on a rare pocket of earth close to the Plane of Air, the city was originally founded as an embassy for air Djinn in the plane. These days, it has grown far beyond it's intended purpose, and is home to many traders, settlers and assorted ne'er-do-wells. It has a vibrant black market and numerous opportunities for actions that would generally be frowned upon in most societies. Renegade Djinn can frequently be found here, having cast off the complicated rules and hierarchies of their own civilisation. The Djinn now-native to the Vengeful Land are legendary for their tempestuous nature, having little patience for fools.

The language of choice here is Auran, the tongue of Air. In some places Janni, the complicated language of all Genies, is also spoken. The rare settler or merchant will also speak common, though it's use is generally considered impolitic by the natives.

Conclusion

I consider the Vengeful Land to be one of the most interesting places in all the multiverse. Inhospitable, filled with little but the ever-churning maelstrom of a storm and a few scant inhabitants, it still manages to be enchanting and intriguing in equal measure. It isn't difficult to see why some have chosen to abandon their old responsibilities and carve out an existence in this most electrifying of places.