Elemental Plane of Sand (3.5e Environment)

Created By

Downzorz
Date Created:	Oct. 21, 2010
Status:	Incomplete
Editing:	Please feel free to edit constructively!

{{#set:Type=Plane}}{{#set:Summary=An endless plane of floating islands of sand, modeled in the style of the elemental planes from the Book of Elements}}

Elemental Plane of Sand

The Elemental Plane of Sand resembles a Material desert on the surface. There are dunes and little-to-no rain. However, the resemblance ends there. The ground is hardly stable enough to support great amounts of plant life, and unlike Material deserts, there really isn't a nearby water source. The Plane has all kinds of sand, from microscopic grains that turn into something resembling a giant ocean of stone to areas where the sand is the size of gravel. The sand is clumped together in "islands" anywhere from a few yards to hundreds of miles wide. These float haphazardly across the skies.

Light Gravity

The Plane of Sand has light gravity; everything weighs half as much, falling damage dice are d4s, weapon ranges are doubled, unacclimated characters take -2 to Balance and Tumble checks and attack rolls, and acclimated characters gain +2 to Jump checks. The gravity is pointed downwards always and has no definable source.

Lighting

The plane is lit by a strong "sun" that forms on the underside of the desert "continents." This light is strong, hot, and dehydrating; any exposed creature takes 1d6 heat damage every minute and must drink 3x the normal amount of water. This can differ if one or more islands are As a side effect, water evaporates very quickly: it takes a gallon of water a day to evaporate. This leads to the effect of an extremely thick fog around any oasis that counters the plane's heat and dehydration effects The lighting usually goes through roughly 24-hour cycles of lightenings and darkenings, but the lights of some islands may vary, staying dark for weeks or rotating in matters of seconds. These "suns," while very bright, have little effect on the island above them, except for the curious effect it has on water that flows down through the sand; said water vaporizes and forms "fog vents" that spring up on an irregular basis near oases. These "suns" are not actually fire, and aren't hot enough to turn sand to glass.

Environment

The Plane of Sand is, in general, a sad place to be. It is only slightly less deadly than the Plane of Fire, with all the same problems excluding everything being on fire. Instead, on the Plane of Sand, everything is dry and crumbling. The rare areas that have water are closely guarded by their owners, who are usually unsure about whether their water source is infinite and want to err on the side of safety. The few permanent, infinite water sources are usually controlled by a creature or organization that doles it out in exchange for favors and vast treasures. These owners become very rich because they usually control all the wealth on their island and usually those nearby, and the Plane of Sand actually has deserts of diamonds or mithral grains or gold dust or what have you. The material of the plane also includes all sorts of Wish-economy-level currency, like vaguely defined magic dust or ground soul powder. The deserts can also be deadly, and there were more than one incident of an island desert of gunpowder blowing up.

The sands move quickly, and unlike a material desert, the ground is very unstable because of a lack of solid surface. This makes settlements look like nothing on the Material; tents with vast, wide bottoms made of strong cloth or wood (things tend to rot very quickly in the oases due to the constant fog, so must be replaced frequently). These tents are usually chained together, because without a connection the movement of the sand can pull things on top of it away from each other. These must be able to be folded and packed, because even long-term settlements will run out of water or have the island give way under them. Actual nomads are uncommon, and settlers tend to stay in one place for a while, due to the increased likelihood of a fatal accident while traveling.

Leachings and bubbles have obvious effects. A leaching to the Plane of Fire will glassify sand if it is normal sand, meld any metal sands into a huge block, and have little effect on others. A leaching to the Plane of Earth will be ground away in a matter of hours, or days if it is a particularly strong material. Connections to the Plane of Air will either form sandstorms or do nothing noticeable, while connections to the Plane of Water are the basis of many oases. Leachings from the Positive Energy Plane are bright and nourish a variety of microscopic life, while those from the Negative will usually be almost unnoticeable, except from the accelerated rot, rust, and grinding of items, along with the appearance of undead.

Settlement

Settlements on the Plane of Sand

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