Plane of Fire
“The four Major Elemental Planes are all well known to Mages and one of the
few things that they all agree on is that the Plane of Fire is the one that is
least hospitable to travellers. Deadly
landscapes of flames, smoke and lava make survival virtually impossible for
anyone that is not a native of the Plane and there are very, very few areas
where an unprotected Mage can survive. For
the purposes of this lecture, we shall study one of the known areas that is
almost suitable for habitation.”
Report given by Matrix to the
students of his Academy.
All
the known Portals to the Plane of Fire are located in the heart of infernos or
extinct volcanoes. The one definite
one that is known to be located on Shardar can be found in an extinct volcano in
the mountain range within the Northlands. The precise location is either unknown or a closely guarded
secret by those few who do know of it, but many adventurous Mages have ventured
into the mountains and have either returned badly hurt or have not returned at
all. All Mages wishing to enter the
Plane of Fire should take heed of the warnings, it is not a Plane that is
friendly to travellers and all should take great precautions before seeking to
enter it.
The Spells
that give access to the Plane of Fire all require that at least some flame be
present of the Incantation of the Ritual. These
forms of access are generally more controlled and easier for the Mage who seeks
to travel to the Plane, but they are a more closely guarded secret than the
Portal in the Northland mountains.
It is known
that there is a copy of a Portal Spell within the libraries of the University
and another within Storm’s Citadel, and there are rumours of other Portal
Spells existing, but there is no proof of that as yet.
Any travelling Mage of Journeyman who could bring back a Portal Spell
attuned to the Plane of Fire could virtually name their own price when trying to
sell it.
Guy stared into the heart of the burning brazier, still unsure as to whether
this was a wise course of events or not. It
had been six weeks since he had managed to get the Portal Spell to the Plane of
Fire from the creature in the Plane of Air and he was as prepared for the trip
now as he ever would be.
Incantations
and Rituals made certain that he and his equipment would be protected from any
fire or heat and further Spells ensure that he would be able to speak the tongue
of any natives he came across. The
problem was that he was scared and rightfully so.
He had never been to the Plane of Fire before, very few Mages had, and he
just didn’t know what to expect. All
the tales he had heard of spoke of burning seas of lava and flames that sprang
from nowhere, but that was all they were, tales.
He just didn’t know for certain what he would come up against.
Still, nothing ventured nothing
gained! Sighing deeply to himself, he settled down into his chair and
stared back into the flames. He let
his Will soak into his body and set his Imagination free to wander as it would.
The grip between his physical body and his Psyche weakened and he quickly
found himself floating a few feet above the chair and his body that was still
sitting in it. This sensation was
always a pleasant one for Guy but he forced himself to concentrate on the flames
and began to chant the Incantation that he had studied earlier in the day.
As the words flowed out of the Mage
and seemed to fill the room, the bright flames of the brazier flared up in a
sparkling rainbow of colours. Red
mixed with yellow, orange mixed with green, white and black fought for space
beside blue and purple. The flames
enlarged and spread up to the roof of the room, but there was no heat coming
from them and Guy found that he could easily look at the brightness without
hurting his eyes.
Finally, the flames formed themselves
into what looked like a multi-coloured curtain of fire.
Through this curtain Guy could just make out distant shapes and movement
that couldn’t possibly be coming from this room.
There was no smell of smoke, no sounds to be heard from the flames and
that was more worrying than anything else to the young Mage.
Gathering his Will around him, Guy
sent his Imagination forward, like a trail-blazer into the curtain and allowed
himself to be sucked along behind it. Passing
through the curtain, he could see every different colour in the spectrum
flashing around him. There was an
instant or resistance, of pain, and then he was through the curtain and into the
Plane of Fire.
His physical body might still be
sitting in the chair in Shardar, but as soon as his Psyche had left that Plane,
it took on a solid form all its own, no different from the one he had left
behind. Looking behind him, the
curtain was gone. For better or worse, Guy was on the Plane of Fire and now he
had to find another way home!
The majority of the Plane of Fire is completely uninhabitable for anything other
than the Elementals of that Plane. It
is nothing more than a vast sea of constantly burning fire and ever lasting
flames. Within this sea, however,
there are small pockets of rock and metal that for some reason have not burned
up. They float in the sea,
travelling through the currents at random and it is these pockets that are
barely able to support life.
Mages have
not been able to decide why these areas have not burned up centuries ago but
they do agree that they are not likely to combust in the next few years.
Whether they are protected by Magic or some other property within the
rock is uncertain and the residents of these areas are not very concerned about
it. As long as they are safe they
do not waste their time wondering why.
From the
outside, these pockets of life look like large meteors or solid chunks of rock,
and many of them are nothing more than that, but there are a few which are
hollow on the inside and it is these that have been tuned into homes by the
creatures of the Plane of Fire. The
largest of these safe areas has come to be called Inferno, and it is this area
that we shall be concentrating on for the moment.
Inferno is
a vast lump of rock that is filled with tunnels, caverns and caves.
It is almost perfectly circular on the outside and has a diameter of more
than 1,000 miles, This gives it an incredible amount of tunnels that run inside
it and most of these are large enough to accommodate a human sized life form.
The dominant life form in Inferno is a squat, heavily built race of
people called the Fulmers. These
beings are roughly humanoid shaped, but they rarely reach more than 5’ tall
and a fully grown adult Fulmer can weigh as much as 250 lbs.
This weight is not in fat, instead they have very dense bodies, the
better to resist heat and they are an incredibly strong race of people.
The skin of
the Fulmers is black in colour and can resist temperatures up to 100 degrees C
with little discomfort. In most
conditions, they are virtually invulnerable to normal, small fire but they have
no special defence against Magical fire or against the sea of fire that makes up
the majority of the Plane. The
Fulmer are a very organised, methodical people and they tend to plan well ahead
and are prepared for every occasion. They
do not like to be surprised by anything and they are fiercely protective of
their families and homes.
Guy looked down at the metal shackles that bound his wrists with dismay.
How could he have fallen victim to these squat, ugly little people, how
could he have allowed himself to be captured like this?
He desperately searched his memory for any sort of Incantation or Spell
that would allow him to rid himself of his bindings, but he couldn’t come up
with any. He knew such Spells existed, but he had never bothered to
learn any, he had always been too confident in his powers to think that he might
ever be captured.
He looked around at the mass of black
skin and dark hair that surrounded him. Not
one of these small people even came up to his shoulder, but he had been shocked
at the easy way they had shoved him around.
One had even lifted him off the floor with one hand.
ONE HAND! Small they might
be, but they were definitely not weaklings.
Most of them were wearing leather
armour although a few of them had chain mail on. One, presumably the leader, had
a back and breast plate made out of some kind of red metal.
There was a design of a dragon’s head carved into the metal of the
breastplate and the quality of the work was very good indeed.
“Where are you short-arsed bastards
taking me?” mumbled Guy through a split and bleeding lip.
None of the Fulmer paid him any
attention, he might as well not have said anything for all the response he got.
“I said ….” he began again.
“I heard you!” shouted the leader
of the band. “You are being taken
to the Council. Now shut up and
keep moving!”
Guy was prodded in the back with the
point of a very sharp sword, as if to emphasise the leaders words.
Cursing silently to himself, the Mage obeyed orders and shut up and kept
moving. He might have to do what he
was told now, but once he got out of these manacles he’d show the little runts
who was boss around here. Just let
them unchain him and he’d freeze the marrow in their bones and wither the skin
from their bodies.
All he had to do was get unchained
first!
Some of the creatures of Inferno are much less civilised than the Fulmer are.
One, for instance, lives in the tunnels close to the edge of the rock,
near the ever burning sea and rarely ventures into the deeply inhabited areas.
This being is extremely similar to the dragons of the legends of Shardar
and the Fulmer often hunt the beast for sport and as a symbol of strength.
The Dragon is a fierce and cunning fighter and loathes everything that is
not another Dragon. There are rumours that the creature’s skin and scales are
very valuable in the construction of enchanted weapons and armour but few have
ever managed to find this out for themselves.
The Fulmer are a completely non-Magical people but they do use the scales
in the making of armour.
The gravity
of Inferno is a very strange thing that no Mage has ever managed to come up with
an explanation for. The circular
rock has a gravity that pulls towards the outside of it so that ‘down’ is
out towards the fiery sea of the Plane. The
centre of Inferno is an area of Magical blackness that no one has ever managed
to come out of after entering. This
area has a diameter of more than 100 miles and the Fulmer adamantly refuse to go
anywhere near it.
What
exactly lives within the Void, as the residents of Inferno have christened it,
is not known. Perhaps there is
nothing there, possibly it is a Portal to another Plane or maybe it is even home
to a colony of Demons. No one knows
for sure and very few are prepared to risk their lives to find out.
The Fulmer will cast a criminal who has committed acts that endanger the
people as a whole into the Void but this happens only very rarely, perhaps once
in every hundred years, as measured in the time of Shardar.
In Inferno,
there is no day or night, there is no passing of the seasons or of the years.
The rocky bubble is kept at a set temperature at all times and the only
light is that which seeps through the porous rocks or is created by torches or
lanterns. This light will give off a dim, red glow in most places,
getting brighter the closer you get to the outside of the rock.
The Fulmer have a built in tendency to avoid bright light and this can
cause them great pain. Many of the plants of Inferno live in the brighter areas,
close to the outer skin of the rock and it can be a major expedition for the
Fulmer to go and harvest them. All
in all, the Fulmer have a life that us full of danger and pain.
Guy was prodded forward by the sword in his back.
His hands were manacled and his mouth had been gagged after his outburst
in the Fulmer Council meeting. They
had dragged him kicking and struggling for miles through the tunnels of Inferno.
The Mage had no way of knowing exactly how far he had travelled or how
long he had been travelling for but he guessed that it was days since he had
left the Council chamber.
Over the last few hours, the lights
had been getting noticeably dimmer and the Fulmer seemed more and more reluctant
to continue going forward. They
were talking to each other in their own, harsh tongue and the fear was evident
in their faces. The tunnels had
been rising sharply for a few miles now and Guy had the feeling that they would
soon be reaching wherever it was that they were heading towards.
Moments later he was forced to
clamber up over a natural stair and stepped out into a vast cavern.
Floating high above his head was an incredibly huge mass of pure
darkness. If Guy had not heard of the Void he would never have known
what this was, but he did know and he was certain now what the Fulmer intended
to do with him. His guides
continued forcing him to walk until it became apparent that they were leading
him towards a natural stone, spiral staircase that disappeared into the Void.
The Fulmer stopped at the bottom of
the stairway and the leader of them came forward to speak to Guy.
“Your crimes are too many to
repeat,” he stated. “And your
punishment is fitting, if harsh. You still have a choice,
Mage. You can refuse to climb into
the Void and be killed, or you can walk up there like a proud man and face
whatever Fate may decide to give you. What
will you do?
In answer, Guy shrugged off the
Fulmer who were loosely holding his arms and made his way up the staircase.
The Fulmer waited until he had disappeared into the Void and then turned
for home. They would never see the
Mage again and justice had been done. Time
to go back to their families and to forget about outsiders who came to challenge
the Council.