Carceri - The DM's Travel Bookclub: A Guide to The Planes Episode 12

[@DragonCulture]

What is the most interesting part of Carceri?

[@theshadowman0174]

The fact that it's very disorienting. You feel like you're moving, but it's basically infinite, so you're not truly moving. I like the fact that the light radiating from the ground,, as opposed to the sky.. Also, the demodands are the most interesting fiendish race in my opinion. Devils are bureaucrats and militaristic zealots, Yugaloths are just greedy mercenaries who can't be trusted, and demons are just mindlessly destructive monsters. Demodands are different. They're sadistic jailers, xenophobes, they seem to have collective consciousness and there is only a limited number of them at any one time.

[@Tortle-Man]

If you guys have ever seen an anime called deadman wonderland, the characters are stuck in a giant prison complex, where the punishment for their crimes is basically just having to survive in the prison cause it’s so awful. Recall, most people in carceri, Gods or petitioners, are completely immortal, and are stuck in the plane till the end of time, from multiple planes. So no matter what bad thing happens to them, they will reform and continue to suffer in the place, surrounded by other people who are just as cruel and treacherous as they are. It’s the perfect “Hell is other people” plane.

[@Tortle-Man]

You are probably the only people to make any long form content about this. I’m glad as it’s probably my favorite evil plane. The idea of a plane spanning prison break is great to me. Reading 2e planes of conflict was o much fun.

[@DragonCulture]

Please check out all the other planes as well if you have the time :)

[@cyberbrunk]

Oh my god I needed this channel for so long and I finally found it. I'm in the middle of running a crazy high-level campaign where the PCs are all the immortal demigod children of the good-aligned gods at war with the lower planes. This series is exactly what I've needed to better understand their current/upcoming battlefields. Cheers gang!

[@DragonCulture]

Thanks! We have videos on most of the planes, you might want to check those out as well;)

[@macguyverbond7480]

I am curious what you were using as reference material for this episode. This is my first brush with your content and it is refreshing to see an interest in the Outer Planes themselves. I have found an odd bit of inspiration for Carceri in the setting of, I believe, the 3rd series/season of the German/Canadian sci-fi show Lexx. Planet Water an oddly specific utopia of themed citystates of peace and plenty which permit travel but in which people are habitualistic in their preference for one or another and its dark mirror. Planet Fire, a world that shares its uppermost atmosphere with Water and whose denizens are constantly betraying and beating down on their rivals, but to no great effect as they are reborn/reformed after ‘dying’ on a hellishly hot desert world. Even a few ounces of water is a great luxury to be treasured and hoarded, balloonships made of forced labor stitched up leather can be utilized to avoid the deadly heat of the desert itself or open lava fields and even permit raids on the Planet Water, though inevitably the denizens return by death or other means to Fire. New prisoners (usually someone who dies on Planet Fire and is judged as more bad than good) are forced to work as slave labor until they drop, then reincarnate and do it again. The Warden/Ruler appears to be a man named Prince who is capable of appearing to be anyone he wishes in order to deceive and manipulate.

[@cosmicprison9819]

Carceri is really just the Greek idea of Tartarus. Not just the titans are stuck there, but also Sisyphus, Tantalus etc.

[@Zeyga]

I absolutely love this content. Would you explain 6:27?

[@lijahsampson6979]

Sooo... each layer is nested inside one another, and each layer perceives the same layer but on other orbs at different distances from each other? So like say I'm on Colothys and I'm looking out at the Colothys layer on the next orb in line, which is 500,000 miles away... but then if I am on Othrys, and I look out at the next Othrys layer orb in line it appears 100 miles away... and each orb has a replica of the six layers which are nested with Agathys at the center... but then Agathys is a single orb? Brain hurty. Am I close?

[@Ekair42]

Or maybe the orbs in agathys are so far away, that you cannot see them at simple view

[@rodneygriffin7666]

It's not carcery, is it? For me , it's Carceri. I.