Otherwhere is an enchanted patchwork demiplane adrift in the Astral Plane, where adventurers travel between strange kingdoms stitched together by mysterious magic. Each realm reflects a culture drawn from Earth’s distant past, lost ages, or possible futures, creating a world of familiar echoes and impossible juxtapositions. Across this unnatural island, guild-controlled teleportation portals link far-flung lands of wonder, danger, and intrigue, where merchant-wizards, ancient powers, and rival peoples all struggle to shape the fate of the world.
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MAP OF OTHERWHERE
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https://fastdungeon.com/0th3rvvh3r3/map0th3rGAME.html
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THE NINE LANDS OF OTHERWHERE
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People of Otherwhere recognize nine regions of sovereignty, each an echo of a time and place on Earth.
* THE ETERNAL LANDS (also called THE YESTER): Thousands of decayed vine-covered buildings from the now-lost founding Atlantean colony are scattered throughout a hostile jungle full of sentient carnivorous trees, homicidal beasts, and unnatural dragons. The cursed land is surrounded by a ring of sharp mountains preventing its hateful nature from escaping. The Guild of Everywheres, a cabal of merchant-wizards who monopolize teleportation magic, keep their headquarters here in a massive 7,000-year-old Atlantean temple protected against the terrible wildlife outside.
* THE DREAM LANDS: This kaleidoscopic landscape is home to capricious faeries, primitive gnomes, crafty goblins, and wild elemental spirits who left Earth’s North American continent around 4000 B.C. Strange rainstorms triggered between active ley lines cause the realm’s forests of giant multicolored mushrooms to release psychoactive spores into the air. Music and storytelling are a common currency for trade.
* THE TREE LANDS: This colossal forest is a haven for elves, sidhe (half-elves), and humans was drawn from the primeval northern forests of 3000 B.C. where the modern Celtic nation of Ireland later evolved. Druids, bards, and various types of magic-users are not uncommon, but almost everyone knows at least a little spellcasting. Feuds between proud enchanted kings leads to both courtly intrique and magical skirmishes. Elven elders still remember old Earth and miss nights spent dancing under its pale white moon.
* THE FIRE LANDS: Amid its desert river paradise, descendants of Egyptians and Nubians from 2000 B.C. hold to their ancient religions and traditions. Rival houses of Jinn spirits also dwell here and along its coastal seas. Outcast necromancers lurk in remote oasis hideouts, and bandits riding atop giant scorpions prey on overland trade routes.
* THE WATER LANDS: Scattered across countless islands are sites where warriors of the Trojan War of 1000 B.C. ended up due to mischief by Olympian gods. People of Athenian, Dardanian, Lycian, Mycenaean, and Spartan descent run rival merchant fleets seeking gold and glory across the world ocean. Many islands remain lairs for monsters and magical peoples: chimera, giants, harpies, hydras, sphinxes, and the like.
* THE WIND LANDS: Here a bureaucracy of ministers fashioned after China’s Han Dynasty fund monasteries of warrior-monks to defend poor client states from threatening flying castles full of cloud giants, strange bird folk, and petty demons. A council of dragons is said to advise the Emperor’s court.
* THE STONE LANDS: Settlements nestle in and below mountainous fjords here, all united into a confederation of dwarves, drow, frost giants, and Norse peoples from A.D. 1000. Across its frigid peaks, icy seas, and underground caverns, encounters with raiders and blood feuds between warlords pose a constant risk to everyday life.
* THE MACHINE LANDS: In this glittering neon dystopia of corporate skyscrapers, urban mazes, and technological wonders, clones of popular celebrities from A.D. 2000 New York City rub shoulders with chimerical animal humanoids and liberated androids. The state secret police act as the eyes and hands of the realm’s Great Computer.
* THE SHADOW LANDS: In this toxic wasteland of post-apocalyptic ruins, mutant nomads and orcs roam among the ghosts and wraiths of those that did not survive the end of humanity on Earth in A.D. 3000. Whatever went wrong there followed its people to these lands, and most tend to both crave and fear relics from the cataclysmic past. Salvaged vehicles and weapons are highly prized.
Beyond the outer borders of the nine realms…
THE AFTERWHILES: Unstable lands hundreds of miles from Otherwhere’s center, formed around corrupted or broken concepts.
– The Village That Never Ends (a settlement forever trapped in the same late afternoon)
– The Backwward Fields (crops grow into seeds, old men become children, ruins slowly rebuild themselves)
– The House of Yesterday’s Tomorrows (haunted by futures that never came to pass)
– The Castle of Seven Locks: A black keep with each of its gates sealed by a riddle, a sin, or a sacrifice.
– The Wolf March (snowy woods ruled by beast-lords, moon cults, and devouring packs)
– The Thorn Maze (a living hedge labyrinth guarded by ogres, unicorn bones, and sleeping enchantments)
– The Meadow of Open Eyes (wind whispers secrets, flowers bloom as blinking eyes, something watches here)
– The Red Library (books grow from flesh and inked by veins)
– The Worm King’s Feast (a banquet hall beneath the earth where all guests are served still-living thoughts)
– The Brides of Salt (veiled figures wander a salt flat seeking grooms who died in other lands)
– The Bone Harvest (skeleton peasants, reaper-knights, fields that grow the undead)
– The Field of Last Chances (a peaceful meadow where people are given one perfect opportunity to undo a regret, but at an unknown price)
– The Clockmaker’s Valley (every inhabitant knows the exact moment of their death, written somewhere on their body in tiny script, but they try to never read it)
– The Census of the Unlived (a bureaucratic outpost where clerks record the lives people almost had: marriages never made, journeys never taken, children never born, wars narrowly avoided)
– The Reflective Crossroads (a village where people’s reflections become hostile and step out of mirrors at night to cause mayhem)
– The Exchange of Other Selves (a telephone booth that connects callers to alternate versions of themselves existing in other universes or timelines)
– The Witnesses of Last Record (a group of bards or a documentary team from the future begin to follow the characters in order to report on a disaster that has not happened yet)
– The Market of Hours (a bazaar where time is coin, youth is merchandise, and bargains always favor the seller)
THE VESTIGES: Tiny pieces of physical space far from Otherwhere’s center, lands evaporating at the edge of the demiplane. In this unmeasurable zone, matter dissolves from its actuality into formless potential and dreamlike possibility before floating away into the Astral Plane.
– The Unraveling Wharf: A rotting dock jutting into nothingness, where moored boats slowly lose their nails, planks, and names until they become only the idea of vessels.
– The Ash Meadow: A field of pale grass that crumbles into powder when touched, then into smoke, then into colors with no earthly name.
– The Hollow Stair: A spiral staircase standing with no tower around it, each step less solid than the last, until climbers find themselves walking on memory and momentum alone.
– The Soft Hills: Low mounds of earth that sag and flow like wax, revealing fossils, tools, faces, and ruins not from the past, but from things that almost existed.
– The Threadbare Wood: A sparse forest where trunks fray into strands, leaves become paper-thin symbols, and birds vanish into sketches in the air.
– The Moth Gate: A crumbling archway forever shedding stone-dust that flutters like living wings. Those who pass beneath sometimes emerge changed in small, impossible ways.
– The White Ravine: A canyon whose cliffs shed shape like dry skin.
– The Unbuttoned Sea: Waters where waves come loose and spill into floating strands of blue.
THE UNDERWORLD AND THE ICHOR: Within caverns leading down into the deepest “core” of Otherwhere, explorers report finding pools of a strange red liquid known as The Ichor. Any creature, living or constructed, that ingests or becomes immersed in this substance undergoes a horrifying transformation into a warped demonic version of its former self. Its eyes turn blood red, its skin grays and cracks open to form wounds that seep floating ribbons of bloody ichor. It becomes crazed to destroy everything around it or convert victims into new Ichor-warped monsters. Some say these unfortunate beings secretly answer to the whims of an unknown intelligence somewhere on or within Otherwhere.
THE ASTRAL PLANE: Around Otherwhere’s borders, sky, and underworld is the silvery void of thought, spirit, and timelessness. Creatures in the Astral Plane generally do not age, hunger, or tire in the normal way. Movement is often controlled more by will than by walking or flying. Time barely seems to pass there, which gives the plane an eerie, dreamlike quality. Psychic entities, wandering spirits, planar travelers, living dreams, and the corpses of dead gods can sometimes be found out there.
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COMMON SOCIETY OTHERWHERE
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THE FACTIONS: Otherwhere’s rival groups can be found in all of the nine realms.
* The Wardens (champions of law, want suppression of open magic use)
* The Apostates (champions of chaos, want more open magic use)
* The Knights of Blade and Bow (monster hunters and defenders of balance)
* The Guild of Everywheres (a greedy cabal of merchant-wizards)
* The Fellowship of Thorns and Coins (essentially, a thieves’ guild)
RELIGIONS: No deity or godling ever approaches Otherwhere, though some powers may manifest avatars along the Vestiges to converse with certain mortal leaders. Common locals tend to revere all or none of the divine powers at the same time, though occasionally a rare cult of eldritch fanatics or sect of dragon worshipers gets exposed and purged.
* The Hundred Blessings: The most common faith, pantheism honoring all the gods at once.
* The Old Ways: Druidic faith focused on cycles of rebirth and retribution.
* Witches, Warlocks: Traditions of mortals binding themselves to nearly-forgotten celestials.
* The Cults: Crazy people worshipping things they shouldn’t be worshipping.
* The Dragons: Destroyers sent to ensure the evolution of quality. Some dupe mortals into serving them as false gods.
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THE FAMOUS AND THE INFAMOUS
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https://fastdungeon.com/0th3rvvh3r3/npcs.html
THE ARCHQUEENS: Not deities, but immortal manifestations who serve as patron spirits over each of the nine settled lands. More figureheads than true sovereigns, they fill ceremonial roles in their societies, except for the mysterious Archqueen Eternal who appears to take an active role with the Guild of Everywheres.
SOVEREIGN HALDO: Leader of the mortal Royal Court of the Nine Realms and moderator between the Archqueens of Otherwhere and deities from other planes at the Court of Heaven amid the Vestiges.
GUILD OF EVERYWHERE MEMBERS: Includes Cipher, Luminary, Shaper, Proteus, Watcher, Welcomer, the Beacon of Allwheres (senior member), and Exemplar of Allwheres (possible leader). The total number of Guild members is unknown. Also, Olya the mage-merchant, not a true member but a hired contractor and inventor who holds the title of Walker of Somewheres.
THE PLANAR CHILDREN: A lineage of 27 celestial beings who embody and invoke various concepts (travel, trickery, healing, mechanics, music, and so forth). According to legend, each appears as a human child, though some speculate they might take other forms as well.
THE NECROMANCER: A powerful wizard named Mulgurd who attempted to conquer all the lands of Otherwhere about 400 years ago. After a century of warfare, he was destroyed and his undead legions vanquished. (Others might be “a” necromancer, but to Otherworld’s locals, Mulgurd was “THE” necromancer.) Some of his followers still exist and promote strange cults in his honor. Recently Mulgurd’s skull turned up following the assassination of an heir-apparent Royal Couple on their wedding/coronation day, but the object has since been hidden by a celestial of justice someplace else in the multiverse.
SEARCHWORTH: A catfolk thief repeatedly caught trying to break into Guild of Everywhere’s hidden vaults. He always seems to escape prison and continue his failing career in larceny. His former partner-i-crime Alastir the Wizard disappeared during a heist gone wrong in the Vestiges.
LETO: A former lover of Zeus, mother to the deities Apollo and Artemis. Was discovered hiding within Otherwhere’s Vestiges to avoid assassins sent by Hera, Zeus’ jealous goddess wife. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
AURYEON: An archfey (faerie highlord), the Horned Father King over the Court of Lost Regrets. Demonstrates the power to isolate a world from the multiverse, cutting off its access to magic and divine influence.
ENOCH AND KATHRYN: An angelic celestial and a fiendish succubus whose love affair led them to abandon their spiritual duties and travel the multiverse together. After Kathryn’s murder by a mortal on Oerth, Enoch goes insane and disappears. (A vampire elder on Alternate Earth #1 was listed being the “Master of Enoch,” but the meaning of that title was never explained.)
THE GOD OF TIME: A self-ascended deity known on different worlds at various points in history as Calen the Chronicler, Keraptis the Wizard, Khoronus, and Cyndor. While never entering Otherwhere, this being has worked behind the scenes to thwart many villains who sought to abuse time travel for evil ends, including schemes involving the Astral Plane and Otherwhere’s Vestiges.
SISTER ROSIS: A disarmingly upbeat evangelist for the Youth Missionaries for Orcus. She uses her perky enthusiasm and walking-billboard zombies to soft-sell living mortals into signing up for service to the Demon Prince of Undeath. (“Earn Gold Now! Ask Me About Ritual Sacrifice! No obligation while alive! Don’t let that pile of flesh go to waste!”)
EPSILON AND THETA: A pair of enchanted robots salvaged from Otherwhere’s Shadow Lands. They have served as guards to at least two different demiplanes, most recently the pocket universe of Elsehaven.
HOUSE GRAUSAMKEIT: A noble family of duergar whose scions keep pursuing cosmic-spanning schemes for power, only to get killed by adventurers thwarting their plans.
XOKLAAN: An alien mastermind who learned about the Ritual Primeval by devouring the brain of a duergar spy. Its plans have frequently gotten disrupted by meddling adventurers.
GOLDTUSK (aka Goldtooth): An orc bookie named for one gold-plated tusk, he takes public bets against various adventuring heroes’ week-by-week survival.
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NOTES FROM OTHERWORLD-RELATED CAMPAIGNS
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Tapping into a little revisionist history, I’m able to string a lot of my past campaigns into one narrative arc heavily abusing the tropes of time travel. Leaders of Pandimensionales Konsortium AG become “the evil corporation bad guy” whose abuses of time travel may be the spark to unleash much of what happens in these campaigns. The God of Time (Calen/Khoronus/Cyndor) becomes the benevolent “man behind the curtain” influencing mortal agents (the player characters) to stop PKAG’s plans. Meanwhile, a secret corrupting power awakens and seeks to extend its influence across the multiverse…
THE DEMIURGE: A Otherwhere myth mentioned in obscure arcane texts kept hidden by the Guild of Everywheres at a transit hub vault in the Vestiges. Clearly this being doesn’t exist and definitely isn’t the true Big Bad Evil Guy behind several cosmic-level schemes confronted by adventurers. Nope, certainly not.
PANDIMENSIONALES KONSORTIUM AG: A mid-21st century Earth corporation on Alternate Earth #5 whose “black ops” projects used time travel and extra-dimensional technology to terminally harvest magical energy from celestial beings on other planes and timelines.
On Otherwhere, PKAG constructed a Dimensional Harvesting Refinery in the Vestiges to torture and absorb a mysterious nature goddess. The facility was destroyed and all staff killed or mutated following contamination of its water filtration system with The Ichor. A group of wandering adventurers discovered the derelict refinery and freed the imprisoned goddess. (Otherworld campaign, 2024)
The ruthless PKAG executive time traveller Vyllax-818 set up operations in the realm of Blackmoor across four dimensions and three time periods (a suburb of Chicago in the year 2053, ancient and far future Mystara, modern and future Oerth, and a remote area in Myth Dranor of Toril). Her plans came to ruin thanks to counter-time travel tricks by a party of adventurers being subtly guided by a deity of time. (Blackmoor and Beyond campaign, 2019-2021)
THE DREAM VAULT FIELD TESTS: Olya the mage-merchant loses four of his latest innovation: “dream vaults,” small enchanted trinkets that can record the sensations and memories of their wearers, to be later played back others to experience everything seen and felt in the recording. It is learned one of the these “dream vaults” recorded “something mortals were not meant to know,” setting off a race against demon princes to recover the test items first. (Otherwhere, 2021)
PROJECT STARGATE: A secret U.S. Army and intelligence program, active from 1977 to 1995, that investigated whether remote viewing and other claimed psychic abilities could be used for military and intelligence purposes. (Note: THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED.) In the 1980s on Alternate Earth #3, Project Stargate covert operative Edward Pearl gathered three civilians with psychic powers to astrally project themselves to Otherwhere in search of unsolved murder victims’ souls. His operation was generally considered a failure, despite some noteworthy contact results. (Otherwhere, 2024)
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/stargate
THE RITUAL PRIMEVAL: Several rival factions (a duergar noble house, a troll baron, a mind flayer, an elemental cult, and several noble houses of eladrin and drow) all seek to find a multiverse-shaping spell that can unmake creation. A group of adventurers discover the key to the ritual involves the transmutation of the 27 planar children who all have a subtle link with the demiplane of Otherwhere. One of the adventurers discovers time travel and creates a paradox which creates a tiny new demiplane and scatters across the multiverse those primal children who has been captured. (The Children of Creation, 2010-2011)
THE DOOM OF ADEUS: An Ichor-related outbreak of magical corruption causes people and beasts to spontaneously mutate on the planet of Adeus. A group of adventurers eventually befriend faeries to help summon the archfey Auryeon, the Horned Father and King over the Court of Lost Regrets, who offers to stop the corruption by stripping magic from the world. The heroes agree to the offer, and the planet becomes devoid of enchantment and divine meddling. (The Doom of Adeus, 2008)
THE DOOM OF OCDAE: An invasion of Ichor-affected aberrations, called “The Doom” by inhabitants of the planet Ocdae, sweep across the world to mutate all life and even the ground, water, and sky. A group of adventurers find a time-twisting spell and use it to wish away “The Doom” and save their planet. (The Doom of Ocdae, 2015)
THE DOOM OF TWO EARTHS: While seeking a band of demons spreading chaos across the New York City of Alternate Earth #1 in 2007, a group of vampires discover an Ichor-infected Antediluvian elder that has mutated into a monstrous worm far below the city. Things get out of hand and alternate timelines of NYC converge upon each other, essentially destroying both worlds and created a nightmarish hybrid (Alternate Earth #5). (The Angry Past, 2007)
THE DOOM OF NUCLEAR FIRE: Fiends looking to trigger a nuclear war on Alternate Earth #4 steal a pair of ICBMs from a modern Earth (circa 1984). Both weapons a hidden for a time on the Astral Plane (not far from Otherwhere). A young god of time halts reality to hear pro and con discussions from several celestial beings. After deals and discussions, time resumes and this Earth is allowed to be consumed in radioactive fire, though the demon’s personal plans for power are averted. (After the World Ends, 1999)
THE VINH THANH INCIDENT: In 1971 on Alternate Earth #1, a recon squad of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam disappear on mission north of the Mekong Delta. Unknown to the Americans, a malfunctioning transit sphere from Otherwhere had created a dimensional portal to the planet Ocdae, directly into an encampment of hobgoblins and other monsters. The squad was reported killed in action. (1971: The Borderlands, 2000)
DIRTY LIL’ SECRETS: A professional trade convention on Alternate Earth #2 serves as cover for a gathering of supernatural creatures, each with its own agenda. Two possible apocalypses in the future (Alternate Earth #2 involving an invasion by demons, Alternate Earth #3 causing humanity’s extermination from a robot uprising) are averted from ever happening due to changes made in the modern day past. (Dirty Lil’ Secrets, 1996)
THE LEGACY: Harland Payne, a senior member of an arcane secret society, dies on Alternate Earth #1. During the reading of his last will and testament, magical items from his estate are contested by multiple supernatural creatures from across time and space. Ultimately a ghost finds peace by getting revenge against a vampire lord, a modern-day Faust escapes the hell cyborgs stalking him, and an angel and demon together find love. (The Legacy of Harland Payne, 1997)
THE DOOM OF GREYHAWK: The City of Greyhawk on the planet Oerth wakes one morning to discover the sun has not risen. Days in darkness go by with a small band of adventurers matching wits against a family of vampire mobsters, a performance troupe of wererat bards, and a band of incompetent rivals. A fallen angel and his demonic lover lead them all to an extradimensional stronghold where they are given surveys to test their natures. Afterwards, the darkness ends and Greyhawk returns to normal. (The City Under Endless Night, 1991)
THE SILVER SWORD INCIDENT: A group of adventurers on Ocdae are tasked to transport a stolen magical sword to a wizard’s tower. The sword’s creators, a race of mutant dragon knights living on a Vestige shore of Otherwhere, ambush the adventurers but fail to recover the blade. (Quest for the Silver Sword, 1983)
THE DUNGEON OF DOOM: In the Stone Lands of Otherwhere, an insane wizard named Madaean gives powerful magical arms to a dwarven warrior tasked with cleansing Saf Ifeebi, the so-called “Dungeon of Doom,” which descends underground into a flooded cavern city teeming with rival fiends. (The Dungeon of Doom, 1982)
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FATES OF WORLDS SO FAR
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* Otherwhere (in the Astral Plane, unaffected by timelines)
* Ocdae (now fine, saved by timeline revision, erasing doomed version)
* Adeus (isolated from magic and divine intervention; essentially cut off from multiverse)
* Mystara, Oerth, Toril (all fine; as TSR written)
* Alternate Earth #1 (7,000 years ago) (homeworld of Atlantean mages who founded a colony on Otherwhere)
* Alternate Earth #1 (erased, merged with Alt Earth #4 in 2007)
* Alternate Earth #2 (erased by time travelers in 1996)
* Alternate Earth #3 (erased by time travelers in 1996)
* Alternate Earth #4 (erased, merged with Alt Earth #1 in 2007)
* Alternate Earth #5 (a new hybrid timeline created when Alt Earth #1 and #4 merged in 2007; later homeworld of Pandimensionales Konsortium AG by 2053)