'we're neutral but have you seen this dope artillery system that can dump half a dozen shells on a target in a 3 second span because we fire at unusually steep angles, then slightly less, and less, and so on, and time all those shots to land together? neat huh!? being neutral is great'
Real talk, Your videos are one of my favorite things in the world. Its academic escapism, educational enough to keep my attention and get my brain going, and fantastical enough to distract me from the horrible realities of the world. I’m a disabled person, and your videos are the biggest thing that helps me get through days where I am in too much pain to get out of bed. Thank you AJ.
I kept a small rat colony when I was in uni, 6 dudes at the colony's height. Stand-up blokes, all of them. Warms my heart that Celestia has a place for them. :3
I discovered your videos a few days ago, and have been watching them while somewhat occupied with other tasks, and there for not often looking at the screen. I just took the time to look at comments on a few videos today, and noticed you reply to nearly everything. That's really good to see, and not as common as it should be on UA-cam. I just want you to know that it's appreciated.
Thanks Josh! Yeah I really do get a lot of great ideas and feedback from comments on the vids, and I can tell when someone has been binge watching the playlist because I get these strings of comments on old videos. It actually helps the channel a lot when people, like yourself, just pop the video on and let it play in the background while painting or driving or working, so, that is very much appreciated by me :)
Well I'm simply sad and pathetic and have virtually no life or reasonable internet connection so i try to sit patiently, waiting for it to buffer only to have a ad wipe the buffering to try and sell me a new Lexus. It takes me around 1 hour to watch a 30 min vid...... And so far I've watched about 20 of your vids. You should be fucking paying me!
I appreciate you taking the time to not only sit and buffer the vids to watch them, and your patience with the advertising, but also taking the time to comment. Sorry I can't help with the buffer wiping issue, I hope your internet connection gets better soon.
@@jonathanwells223 He should make it so they leave many kids after they kill random NPCs so after a while they have a army of medieval Batman's hunting them down.
The beauty of Mount Celestia is that the lawful good residents are okay with neutral good and chaotic good people too. As it's said here, they much prefer to engage in friendly, if passionate debate over whether law, neutrality or chaos goes better with good rather than engage in bloodshed. But the important thing is goodness, and when evil looms, they all just put aside their differences, pick up their weapons and go kick evil's arse together. By their nature, good creatures need little, if any incentive to cooperate aside from knowing that success in a given endeavor would either advance the cause of goodness or set back the plans of evildoers. Meanwhile on the evil side of things, we have the endless Blood War between the demons and devils, the conflicts between demon lords in The Abyss (notably the three-way war between Demogorgon, Orcus and Graz'zt) and the scheming cutthroat politics of Baator in which everyone secretly wants to unseat Asmodeus. By nature, evil creatures do not willingly cooperate with each other, even for advancing the cause of evil - they must be forced to do so either through fear of destruction or through promises of greater personal power. And in some cases, even the most vile of demon lords will help do-gooders if it benefits them in some way. For example, I wouldn't put it past Graz'zt to lend a hand to good-aligned adventurers who are going up against the succubus queen Malcanthet, just because he loathes her far more than any paladin or celestial. For those of you who haven't seen AJ's video on her, it's basically because she completely rejected him in favor of Demogorgon, and he's been bitter about it ever since.
@@gargoyles9999 On the contrary, Graz'zt is basically the Chad of the Abyss, and could get any other lady he desires, whether through his charms or by force. He's the Demon Prince of Pleasure, after all.
Emilia M yes they can, they will need permission to enter higher levels, plus those with a chaotic alignment may be very uncomfortable. Their infernal side is celestial in origin (technically) so its not actually a problem.
@@AJPickett teiflings are decendents of devils, which were spawned by Asmadaos. However, I'm not so sure that Asmadaos was ever a celestrial, thogh he would certainly alow people to think he was.
@@JanusHoW Actually, according to some lore that AJ has previously provided in another vid, Satan used to be king od the nine Hells of baator, there have been many, and guess who usurped him? Asmodeus. ... Yeah. Now that's some lore to wrap your head around....
I personally prefer this interpretation of Mount Celestia over "okay, now that you have arrived on this mountain, your sole purpose in life is to reach the very top, spending absolutely no time in 80% of the Heavenly locations and quite possibly risking life and limb in potentially harsh environments. GO."
I have to say, this video inspired me. I feel like now I have more to work with when a character dies. It's no longer the end of my campaign. This is truly amazing thank you
I can't believe what a remarkable resource this channel is. This channel deserves easily a dozen times the subs its getting. Thank you for these videos, I'm more than 15 hours in and there still so much to be inspired by.
Absolutely loving your videos! They're so informative, this has easily become my favourite channel for D&D lore. I was wondering, have any cataclysmic events happened in Celestia, or significant figures thrown out?
To be honest, I have a lot more research and learning to do, I think a lot of changes happened during the spell plague and the time of troubles wiped out a LOT of gods, so, I am building my knowledge as I make these explores vids.. I am literally exploring at the same time you are :)
The dwarves of the Dragonlance saga had a deity like the one you mention. His name was Reorx. The difference between the two is the edge of Reorx's forge put off sparks that become part of the universe. In the novels Flint Fireforge, a dwarves warrior, fights to the death and it is said he goes to sit by the forge to rest. Very touching story.
Keep up the good work. You're the only one putting out some quality info on different planes and such. Very interesting to learn about the different planes of the great wheel
This is quite literally true.. why just this morning, when walking to catch a bus, some beauty just popped out of nowhere and nearly tripped my over into a puddle of glorious vistas, I had to sit down and catch my breath from the pearly mist rising over the forested canopy overhanging the river running through the city, with the bridges arching over gracefully, loaded with the equally jaded morning commuters. The heart warming, soul soaring displays around here are just ridiculous, it is a wonder we get anything done.
Great video! Very informative for my campaigns, I could actually imagine myself at the gates of the 7 heavens crying from pure joy, enlightenment and a feeling of safety, well done
imagine being the soul of a child free of pain and strife that never grew old and played or relaxed all "day" in the silver heaven. i love celestia...and much of the the first portion of the story of my dungeons and Dragon's character Daegen Ryoku takes place in the first,second and fifth heavens. as he was spirited away as a child by bahamut just as his race was being wiped out.. and was trained by the platinum dragon himself (as well as his seven gold wyrms) in the ancient ways of the Dragonlords,along with his faithful companion and friend,a silver Dragon named Zephiron.
seems like it would be a nice realm to relax or learn not sure weather i would want it to be a long term residence at least in some areas seems more like if wanted a vacation or something. feel if my personality was put into the dnd alignment system would be more chaotic neutral or good
I would love to adventure in Celestia halfling heaven sounds great in some Forgotten Realms novels the halflings fly around with wings on. This video on Celestia is in my opinion the best overall D&D lore video on the internet who would not want to live in Celestia have a good day 😊 😀 👍.
The is great for DMs who want a reason why some players wouldn't want their character to be revived. maybe they decided to stay to become the greatest they can be in a safe place or find a greater calling. it could be they prefer to live in it compared to crawling in dungeons. You could do the same for evil or other alignment characters just in a different realm with different rewards. a harem of succubi or a army to lead into battle. Awesome videos as always.
31:36 So, you see for yourself, beyond all spoken explanation, the grand divine order behind everything. This lore, right here, shows that Good was ultimately in control the whole time. The devils' constant strife in the Blood War was needless panic and brutality; in truth, they only ever craved to have a purpose apart from Good (read: God), and it was granted to them. All other creatures, all other planes, all other gods- all strive for the mastery of their own subjective realities. But in the end, it turns out that reality is objective, and those who see its truth align to Lawful Good. It's a hopeful message that suggests: "In spite of everything, we're in good hands."
My worlds equivalent to this realm is the homeworld of the light gods called Aquathul-Miravis, it’s moon is where their counterparts the dark gods live Aquathul-Sivarim.
That depends on who you work for and what your doing there. If you go in an outsider your going to have a bad time. But if you work for someone, or have connections to someone important, you can skate by on whatever layer they inhabit.
MisterTutor2010 if you're evil, nine hells would be an okay place to live, the abyss is where everythijg is trying to kill you regardless of alignment.
great vid. do they fish or eat flesh of any type? each level is limitless in size so providing a pc or whoever were lawful good could they build in this paradise??
I have an idea for a Bytopia mini campaign where all the characters turn into gnomes slowly, leading to physical hilarity. Especially from the Yuan-ti.
Hi AJ, great explore video like usual. I had a question pertaining to the inhabitants of this realm, more specifically about individuals who are the "rare exceptions" for normally evil aligned races, i.e. drow, minotaur. For a player character who is along those lines, I wanted to call them to a sort of "hall of redeption", where those types of characters gather to meditate on the moral struggles of their species, and discuss the methods and philosophy of "salvation" for their various races. Specifically, I wanted one of these sages to be an Illythid, a mind flayer whose cephalometamorphasis was errant, causing them to retain all the human memories of the monk they were implanted in, resulting in a lawful-good aligned mind flayer who is capable of empathy. Obviously they were rejected by the other Ilythid, imprisoned for study where they became a martyr by starving themselves to death, rather than consuming the brains of sentient beings. They would now devote their psychic energy to pondering what can be done to lead their people out of what they consider moral ignorance. My question has two parts- first, is this the kind of thing that, though anomalous, would draw the attention of the gods and allow them into Celestia? And the second question then, does that mean that when the Ilythid enters Celestia, they could be greeted by the spirit of the human monk whose body they incubated in, and whose memories they share?
I mostly looked this up to see how you pronounce Mercuria. I think you left out how Bahamut, the platinum dragon, and his 7 gold wyrms live there in his palace made from his hoarded treasure. Maybe I missed that part, but D&D lore goes so deep I don't expect anyone to cover everything about a location in one video.
Cures insanity instantly made me think what happens if you try to drown an Oberynth on those waters and the effect it'll have on the maddened beings.. and then I get to the next level that talks about just being there during insanity and healing.
i would say that Chronius is where the GM(sorry i mean the luminous being or how i like to call it; the radiant entity) sits atop in the multi-verse :)
It might be fun to have a character who's personal objective as a former litch is to get to the court at the very top for judgement. Might be fun to see that legendary event unfold.
Wonder what would happen if someone afflicted with a baernaloths curse went to Celestia. They killed a baernaloth and is now turning into one. His allies teleport to Celestia and plead for the Angels assistance.
30:05 What if you are a good aligned Lycanthrope, that was natural born??? You said unlike those that "contracted" the disease, individuals naturally born could have nothing done to reverse it. Would a good aligned Lycanthrope that travel here via planeshift lose its lycanthropy?? 🤔
I wonder could something like a chaotic good being intentionally non violently force their way to the top or forcefully be brought by accident or something and.. become more? Like the realm purges them painfully of their sins and chaotic nature whether strong or not but also keeps them from going insane or dying because the realm also heals such things. Would the realm basically forcefully purge and transform said being into a lawful good being?
the first layer got my mind racing with possibilities. are the only beings on it animals, humanoids and celestials? or are monstrosities/ magical creatures, constructs, elementals and aberrations allowed?
Lance White Eagle certainly! Ascending generally involves a taxing climb, you will reach a large ledge or plateau, this is actually a place from your character's past, a recreation of the memory, the scene unfolds and is a test of the goodness and duty of the character.
So only the lawful good plane permits you to go beyond the universe ? What about all the other spectra of alignments ? They just become a part of the respective plane without chance to go further ?
There is a portal at the core/bottom of the Nine Hells, and I suspect there is a gateway in Sigil, it appears though, that being of Lawful alignment is the key, not whether one is good, evil or neutral.
So, the pinnacle of excess Graz'zt hopes to feel is the euphoric pain of him, with all his flaws, standing in Cronius, wondering if he can step through that portal, and experience whole new sensations, in a whole new multiverse? Nothing about the description of Mount Celestia seems to explain how the Abyss could ever destroy it; I'd think even their strongest Demons would be expunged just by the aura of the place. While I get that we humans, and other living things, grow and mature through experience, and conflict, there were segments of several layers of Celestia that it seems unfortunate that some powerful archmage, or hierophant, doesn't just open a gate, march communities through, and skip the trials and tribulations of the Prime Material Plane, altogether. At the risk of being dumb, though, it does make me wonder; if the Ruby of Ultimate Evil was plunged into the Elemental (Inner) Planes, where the tear formed the Abyss, why is it an Outer Plane, along the rim of the wheel, instead of closer to the hub? I'm sure the picture isn't literal; just a concept to help our lesser, mortal minds comprehend existence, but it's still a thought I had.
so is the GM weaker or stronger then AO (I don't know how to spell his name) just curious GMs have a shit ton of power we control all creatures, lands, planes, can change rules of world if we so wanted and can even control the whims of Gods and goddesses where do we fall on this power scale
Try to imagine me tilting my head to one side, like a dog hearing something weird.GM's control the entire game, we have ultimate say in everything aside from what the player does with their character.Ao is just an element of the story.
Ed Greenwood said the Forgotten Realms has opened portals onto our planet. "Earth SIZE E SPHERICAL EARTH BODY[1] TYPE Planet CLASSIFICATION CODE E●E SATELLITES The moon SATELLITE OF The sun DAY LENGTH 24 hours YEAR LENGTH 365 days POPULATION Humans Inhabitants of Earth . Earth was a world on an alternate Material Plane. People A number of human peoples of Faerûn originally came from another world, which is widely believed to have been Earth.[speculation] To replenish their population after a devastating plague, the mages of the Imaskar Empire in Faerûn opened two great gates to this other world, and kidnapped numerous humans to serve as their slaves. Those of Mulhorand hailed from a desert land given life by the seasonal flooding of a great river and those of Unther from another land. After transporting them back to Abeir-Toril, the Imaskari closed the gates forever. Intermarrying both with each other and the Imaskari, they became the Mulan. With them, they brought their own societies, mature culture, and later, the gods of the Mulhorandi and Untheric pantheons. Later came a people from two lands: a collection of city-states known for their daring philosophies and a land of empire and glory; they had similar pantheons of gods. These were followed by folk from a rugged land with a culture tied to nature, the sea, and the warrior history of its dozen-king greater god. These brought their own societies and faiths, and settled around the time of the rise of Netheril. In the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, an inhabitant of Earth called Ed of the Greenwood assembled various journals, maps, and other works from Elminster Aumar into the first publication of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Laeral Silverhand also regularly traveled to Earth to visit Steven E. Schend and spoke to him of Waterdeep, even if she did tend to interrupt his writing. He compiled the lore into articles for Dragon magazine."-FR Wiki Maybe some GM could bring those stolen people back...
The only thing we can do is use the 3.5 third party Immortal's Handbook (replaces Deities and Demigods) to create a Multi-Setting High Lord that can easily impose it's Will in our favor on a lowly Sidereal such as AO
The concordant plane of opposition, the Outlands, home to the spire and the city of Sigil is a true Neutral plane and home of the True Neutral Rhilmani race.Also, one could argue that the Ethereal plane is also a neutral environment, but that is a whole other topic really.
AJ Pickett Also Aj, the playlist you made for the planes of existence seems incomplete. Have you simply not gotten around to do all of the planes or have you done them all but they’re just not in the playlist? I’m very curious about the planes and you’re the only person on youtube who truly goes in depth about anything d&d really.
What do you think would happen to a trifling with a close relation to an infernal parent if they entered through one of the color pools? Edit: tiefling not trifling
Well, as long as they are of a good alignment, they will be fine on the first layer, since it is just a dip in some holy water and general restriction against all things evil.
Good to know, I have a NPC tiefling who basically acts as a servent of his infernal parent, Glasya, and he has access to the Astral plane. So there is another color portal he needs to avoid
thanks for this It has been difficult for me to find much information on the good planes like Celestia, probably because they aren't seen as challenging
They wouldn't probably be allowed to, even if they wanted to. From what I've gathered from these lore videos, the very existence of evil itself in the D&D multiverse is due to the obyrith corrupting it by barging in with the Shard of Ultimate Evil - it was not at all in Ao's divine plan. Tharizdun went batsh*t insane by touching it, while (IIRC) Asmodeus fell from grace because of his proximity to Tharizdun's prison If not for that Shard, evil probably would not exist there. The only conflict would be between law and chaos. Asmodeus, if I'm not mistaken, got his godhood by striking a deal with the Torilian deity of wizardry named Azuth, in which he got a portion of Azuth's power in exchange for helping him get the rest of his power back. That's why he's just a lesser deity.
>there are good dinos in heaven
>it’s literally just the land before time
The Great Valley is just a hidden realm of Celestia
But why they got racist dinos? Looking at you Cera's dad!
@@chazzwozzio Guess racism is a good thing then. *Obvious sarcasm*
@@chazzwozzio Sharp Teeth are also a cocern
"Eternal Switzerland."
Yeah . . . eternally neutral and strangely heavily armed.
'we're neutral but have you seen this dope artillery system that can dump half a dozen shells on a target in a 3 second span because we fire at unusually steep angles, then slightly less, and less, and so on, and time all those shots to land together? neat huh!? being neutral is great'
And full of rich stuffy xenophobic pricks who handle dirty money.
@@Mortablunt As it should, young one, as it should.
@@Mortablunt git gud scrub
Real talk, Your videos are one of my favorite things in the world. Its academic escapism, educational enough to keep my attention and get my brain going, and fantastical enough to distract me from the horrible realities of the world.
I’m a disabled person, and your videos are the biggest thing that helps me get through days where I am in too much pain to get out of bed.
Thank you AJ.
I don't even play dungeons and dragons and I still like to listen to your vids.
nicely done
That perplexes me somewhat, but hey, happy you enjoy them :)
server333 same but if only I could find people to play with (sigh):(
Same here
@@matthhiasbrownanonionchopp3471 I found one person who plays but I didn't ask because it seemed like it would feel awkward
@@docop8926 try asking! As a new DM I would be so stoked if someone asked to start a game
I am happy to know I can find dinosaurs in heaven. This brings my heart much joy.
James Gurney's Dinotopia appears to be an allegory for heaven itself.
I kept a small rat colony when I was in uni, 6 dudes at the colony's height. Stand-up blokes, all of them. Warms my heart that Celestia has a place for them. :3
I believe the “Higher Being” That the gods answer to is the DM
Correct.
There is like 3 steps, but correct.
It's the DM via Ao, but yeah.
Couple fiction do this... DC had a literal wall at the end of the universe and the other side of it was implied to be this world/the writer's mind.
DMs these words are for you alone
I discovered your videos a few days ago, and have been watching them while somewhat occupied with other tasks, and there for not often looking at the screen. I just took the time to look at comments on a few videos today, and noticed you reply to nearly everything. That's really good to see, and not as common as it should be on UA-cam. I just want you to know that it's appreciated.
Thanks Josh! Yeah I really do get a lot of great ideas and feedback from comments on the vids, and I can tell when someone has been binge watching the playlist because I get these strings of comments on old videos. It actually helps the channel a lot when people, like yourself, just pop the video on and let it play in the background while painting or driving or working, so, that is very much appreciated by me :)
ha i found it the same way and have been doing the same thing lol
Well I'm simply sad and pathetic and have virtually no life or reasonable internet connection so i try to sit patiently, waiting for it to buffer only to have a ad wipe the buffering to try and sell me a new Lexus. It takes me around 1 hour to watch a 30 min vid...... And so far I've watched about 20 of your vids. You should be fucking paying me!
I appreciate you taking the time to not only sit and buffer the vids to watch them, and your patience with the advertising, but also taking the time to comment. Sorry I can't help with the buffer wiping issue, I hope your internet connection gets better soon.
AJ Pickett i listen to it while I go to sleep. Prolly burn through at least 3 before phone screen locks
My players wouldn't be allowed in Celestia
rickeymariu1 then you aren’t punishing them enough for evil and unlawful actions
@@jonathanwells223
He should make it so they leave many kids after they kill random NPCs so after a while they have a army of medieval Batman's hunting them down.
@@jonathanwells223 Why should it be different then the real world?
Maria Smith Exactly. People IRL are punished for doing bad things. Unless they’re the rich or powerful.
@@jonathanwells223 How do you know it's not an evil group of adventurers? Also why would you punish your players beyond what fits the world?
The beauty of Mount Celestia is that the lawful good residents are okay with neutral good and chaotic good people too.
As it's said here, they much prefer to engage in friendly, if passionate debate over whether law, neutrality or chaos goes better with good rather than engage in bloodshed. But the important thing is goodness, and when evil looms, they all just put aside their differences, pick up their weapons and go kick evil's arse together. By their nature, good creatures need little, if any incentive to cooperate aside from knowing that success in a given endeavor would either advance the cause of goodness or set back the plans of evildoers.
Meanwhile on the evil side of things, we have the endless Blood War between the demons and devils, the conflicts between demon lords in The Abyss (notably the three-way war between Demogorgon, Orcus and Graz'zt) and the scheming cutthroat politics of Baator in which everyone secretly wants to unseat Asmodeus. By nature, evil creatures do not willingly cooperate with each other, even for advancing the cause of evil - they must be forced to do so either through fear of destruction or through promises of greater personal power. And in some cases, even the most vile of demon lords will help do-gooders if it benefits them in some way. For example, I wouldn't put it past Graz'zt to lend a hand to good-aligned adventurers who are going up against the succubus queen Malcanthet, just because he loathes her far more than any paladin or celestial. For those of you who haven't seen AJ's video on her, it's basically because she completely rejected him in favor of Demogorgon, and he's been bitter about it ever since.
JanusHoW Graz'zt The Demon Lord of Incels
@@gargoyles9999 On the contrary, Graz'zt is basically the Chad of the Abyss, and could get any other lady he desires, whether through his charms or by force. He's the Demon Prince of Pleasure, after all.
@@JanusHoW and yet he's upset over one.
@@christopherbravo1813 Men remember the one they couldn't have, even over the many they did.
@@Mortablunt that is a fair point.
Great job mate I love the way you describe things it almost makes you feel like you're there!
This is the best video of them all not just on your program but on any D&D program thank you very much and have a good day.
Can good tieflings enter the higher layers of Celestia? If so, what happens to their infernal nature?
Emilia M yes they can, they will need permission to enter higher levels, plus those with a chaotic alignment may be very uncomfortable. Their infernal side is celestial in origin (technically) so its not actually a problem.
Good question.
Also, what happens if an assimar enters Bator, or the abys?
Perhaps they are evil alligned, dispite angelic heritage.
@@AJPickett teiflings are decendents of devils, which were spawned by Asmadaos.
However, I'm not so sure that Asmadaos was ever a celestrial, thogh he would certainly alow people to think he was.
@@agsilverradio2225 I'm pretty sure he was at one point. But he was cast out of heaven by Ao, in the same manner as Satan was in Judeo-Christian lore.
@@JanusHoW Actually, according to some lore that AJ has previously provided in another vid, Satan used to be king od the nine Hells of baator, there have been many, and guess who usurped him?
Asmodeus. ... Yeah.
Now that's some lore to wrap your head around....
Keep up the good work AJ, I love planar lore and you are the only in depth analysis of the planes I can find on UA-cam.
People keep watching and asking, I will keep researching and recording :)
AJ Pickett I'm with him or her as well, keeps up with the good and great work.
Jorphdan the ph is silent got decent short lore vids but aj is long and good no homo
I personally prefer this interpretation of Mount Celestia over "okay, now that you have arrived on this mountain, your sole purpose in life is to reach the very top, spending absolutely no time in 80% of the Heavenly locations and quite possibly risking life and limb in potentially harsh environments. GO."
I have to say, this video inspired me. I feel like now I have more to work with when a character dies. It's no longer the end of my campaign. This is truly amazing thank you
Thank you so much for adding this!
I will be including my childhood pets as NPCs in Celestia. Thanks for the inspiration!
I believe that this is AJ's best video. 100% on the delivery.
This is an excellent program and this vid is one of the best ones.
You're damn right dogs get into Heaven. Loved the video btw.
i suggest you might enjoy the Twilight Zone episode titled The Hunt. ....of course dogs go to heaven.
24:00 can you imagine visiting Moradin and the other wonders of the dwarves and the heroes of the dwarves!
I can't believe what a remarkable resource this channel is. This channel deserves easily a dozen times the subs its getting.
Thank you for these videos, I'm more than 15 hours in and there still so much to be inspired by.
Glad you enjoy it! Please do share the resource with your friends :)
Absolutely loving your videos! They're so informative, this has easily become my favourite channel for D&D lore. I was wondering, have any cataclysmic events happened in Celestia, or significant figures thrown out?
To be honest, I have a lot more research and learning to do, I think a lot of changes happened during the spell plague and the time of troubles wiped out a LOT of gods, so, I am building my knowledge as I make these explores vids.. I am literally exploring at the same time you are :)
The dwarves of the Dragonlance saga had a deity like the one you mention. His name was Reorx. The difference between the two is the edge of Reorx's forge put off sparks that become part of the universe. In the novels Flint Fireforge, a dwarves warrior, fights to the death and it is said he goes to sit by the forge to rest. Very touching story.
Very good video. It's refreshing to see someone talk about the good places instead of all the nasty infernal areas.
Chris yeah, I am glad people have expressed interest as they are great story locations.
Will you be going into the other good planes as well? Also I hope to see more focused videos on the far eastern nations of faerun.
Yep. amd Sigil as well, more detail as I go.
Keep up the good work. You're the only one putting out some quality info on different planes and such. Very interesting to learn about the different planes of the great wheel
10:35
I can imagine finding Hachikō, Laika and Barry (Menschenretter) romping around. It's beautiful.
Yeah, lovely spot. Actually not that easy to find good images of moonlit sea with mountains looming up..
That's unacceptable, you live in New Zealand- Mountains are all over your beaches.
This is quite literally true.. why just this morning, when walking to catch a bus, some beauty just popped out of nowhere and nearly tripped my over into a puddle of glorious vistas, I had to sit down and catch my breath from the pearly mist rising over the forested canopy overhanging the river running through the city, with the bridges arching over gracefully, loaded with the equally jaded morning commuters. The heart warming, soul soaring displays around here are just ridiculous, it is a wonder we get anything done.
Imagine if you filmed some sort of fantasy movie there... about like, a ring or something.
Great video! Very informative for my campaigns, I could actually imagine myself at the gates of the 7 heavens crying from pure joy, enlightenment and a feeling of safety, well done
imagine being the soul of a child free of pain and strife that never grew old and played or relaxed all "day" in the silver heaven.
i love celestia...and much of the the first portion of the story of my dungeons and Dragon's character Daegen Ryoku takes place in the first,second and fifth heavens. as he was spirited away as a child by bahamut just as his race was being wiped out.. and was trained by the platinum dragon himself (as well as his seven gold wyrms) in the ancient ways of the Dragonlords,along with his faithful companion and friend,a silver Dragon named Zephiron.
Great video!
Thank you for all the hard work and time you spend on us.
What can I say, AJ for the win!!! Nice man, very nice description. 2 thumb's up!!!
Very well done A.J.! As always great work!
So good to hear about the heavenly realms. They are the threshold of cosmic ascension.
seems like it would be a nice realm to relax or learn not sure weather i would want it to be a long term residence at least in some areas seems more like if wanted a vacation or something. feel if my personality was put into the dnd alignment system would be more chaotic neutral or good
My friend describes me as a Lawful Evil DM and a Chaotic Good person when not DMing.
im guessing your the constant final boss in your sessions :)
I would love to adventure in Celestia halfling heaven sounds great in some Forgotten Realms novels the halflings fly around with wings on. This video on Celestia is in my opinion the best overall D&D lore video on the internet who would not want to live in Celestia have a good day 😊 😀 👍.
This is the one I listen to at night to relax. No horror imagery.
Really enjoy your videos. Very helpful. Can't wait till you get to Ysgard.
Is it weird that I kept tearing up as you described each realm?
a little bit, but not like, sniffing peoples feet on the subway sort of weird.
The descriptions are just so pretty.
You weren't the only one.😊
The is great for DMs who want a reason why some players wouldn't want their character to be revived. maybe they decided to stay to become the greatest they can be in a safe place or find a greater calling. it could be they prefer to live in it compared to crawling in dungeons. You could do the same for evil or other alignment characters just in a different realm with different rewards. a harem of succubi or a army to lead into battle. Awesome videos as always.
31:36 So, you see for yourself, beyond all spoken explanation, the grand divine order behind everything. This lore, right here, shows that Good was ultimately in control the whole time. The devils' constant strife in the Blood War was needless panic and brutality; in truth, they only ever craved to have a purpose apart from Good (read: God), and it was granted to them. All other creatures, all other planes, all other gods- all strive for the mastery of their own subjective realities. But in the end, it turns out that reality is objective, and those who see its truth align to Lawful Good. It's a hopeful message that suggests: "In spite of everything, we're in good hands."
I love this setting but I've never used the works on the Upper Planes. I might have to take a look at it now.
My worlds equivalent to this realm is the homeworld of the light gods called Aquathul-Miravis, it’s moon is where their counterparts the dark gods live Aquathul-Sivarim.
Thanks for posting this is GOLD
“kind of like an eternal Switzerland”
Thanks!
Thank you!
Since we've done Lawful Evil, Lawful Good, and Chaotic Evil, where do Chaotic Good individuals go?
Pyrrha Rhodes oh we shall get there my friend! There are a few options.. my choice would be Ysgard.
I like Beastlands more :)
I prefer Arborea.
Chaotic Good characters go straight to hell where the devil's teach them the price of the sin of tax evasion.
@@juliuscaesar5397 Why do we have 3 essentially the same chaotic good planes?
Definitely a Kiwi. Good video btw.
are you going to do a video on the rulers of each layer of celestia?
Good idea.
Stark contrast to the Nine Hills and the Abyss, where everything is trying to kill you.
MisterTutor2010 evil folks don't have a nice time in Celestial realms :)
MisterTutor2010 can attest to this. Had a Portal mishap in an evil campaign long time ago and almost got sucked into Celestia. Terrifying.
AJ Pickett In the Nine Hells and the Abyss, everything is trying to kill you regardless of whether you're good or evil.
That depends on who you work for and what your doing there. If you go in an outsider your going to have a bad time. But if you work for someone, or have connections to someone important, you can skate by on whatever layer they inhabit.
MisterTutor2010 if you're evil, nine hells would be an okay place to live, the abyss is where everythijg is trying to kill you regardless of alignment.
Man, when I die, I wanna go here and play with all the doggos~
Bytopia is more my style personally.
Why do puppies float?
A) Because they're good buoys.
10:22 "there's also a realm of wise and good dinosaurs..."
I MUST ASCEND TO DINOSAUR HEAVEN! 8D
PHILOSORAPTOR IS REAL!
great vid. do they fish or eat flesh of any type? each level is limitless in size so providing a pc or whoever were lawful good could they build in this paradise??
I have an idea for a Bytopia mini campaign where all the characters turn into gnomes slowly, leading to physical hilarity. Especially from the Yuan-ti.
Yussss!
@@AJPickett "Whyy....ssss.. are there little feet coming out of my lower torsssssso?" 😂😂
Going through the backlog and doing research. Where did the idea of universities on Mercuria come from?
Probably planescape authors.
Hi AJ, great explore video like usual. I had a question pertaining to the inhabitants of this realm, more specifically about individuals who are the "rare exceptions" for normally evil aligned races, i.e. drow, minotaur. For a player character who is along those lines, I wanted to call them to a sort of "hall of redeption", where those types of characters gather to meditate on the moral struggles of their species, and discuss the methods and philosophy of "salvation" for their various races. Specifically, I wanted one of these sages to be an Illythid, a mind flayer whose cephalometamorphasis was errant, causing them to retain all the human memories of the monk they were implanted in, resulting in a lawful-good aligned mind flayer who is capable of empathy. Obviously they were rejected by the other Ilythid, imprisoned for study where they became a martyr by starving themselves to death, rather than consuming the brains of sentient beings. They would now devote their psychic energy to pondering what can be done to lead their people out of what they consider moral ignorance. My question has two parts- first, is this the kind of thing that, though anomalous, would draw the attention of the gods and allow them into Celestia? And the second question then, does that mean that when the Ilythid enters Celestia, they could be greeted by the spirit of the human monk whose body they incubated in, and whose memories they share?
I mostly looked this up to see how you pronounce Mercuria.
I think you left out how Bahamut, the platinum dragon, and his 7 gold wyrms live there in his palace made from his hoarded treasure.
Maybe I missed that part, but D&D lore goes so deep I don't expect anyone to cover everything about a location in one video.
It's in there
Cures insanity instantly made me think what happens if you try to drown an Oberynth on those waters and the effect it'll have on the maddened beings.. and then I get to the next level that talks about just being there during insanity and healing.
That was awesome. Do another upper plane.
You mentioned that once you go to this and 7th lair cannot leave but then you said at the end you can have Adventures there and go there to be healed
Never put anything in your game that the player characters are completely trapped by.
i would say that Chronius is where the GM(sorry i mean the luminous being or how i like to call it; the radiant entity) sits atop in the multi-verse :)
Could be
27:32 the platinum heaven or the "kamelot"?? I don't understand well the word . It sounds like catalog
It might be fun to have a character who's personal objective as a former litch is to get to the court at the very top for judgement. Might be fun to see that legendary event unfold.
MLP....Celestia...*where's the pones?*
Wonder what would happen if someone afflicted with a baernaloths curse went to Celestia. They killed a baernaloth and is now turning into one. His allies teleport to Celestia and plead for the Angels assistance.
30:05 What if you are a good aligned Lycanthrope, that was natural born???
You said unlike those that "contracted" the disease, individuals naturally
born could have nothing done to reverse it.
Would a good aligned Lycanthrope that travel here via planeshift lose its
lycanthropy?? 🤔
Maybe celestial lycanthropes exist
Please do the netral good, chaotic good, chaotic netral, and netral evil outer planes.
I'll do my best :)
My pcs are definitely going to Chronius and they are definitely coming back after meeting me, the supreme being behind it all.
I wonder could something like a chaotic good being intentionally non violently force their way to the top or forcefully be brought by accident or something and.. become more?
Like the realm purges them painfully of their sins and chaotic nature whether strong or not but also keeps them from going insane or dying because the realm also heals such things.
Would the realm basically forcefully purge and transform said being into a lawful good being?
If your looking for cats there on the plane of chaotic good or the abyss
the first layer got my mind racing with possibilities. are the only beings on it animals, humanoids and celestials? or are monstrosities/ magical creatures, constructs, elementals and aberrations allowed?
Any books or suggestions for challenges a party might face when trying to ascend to different levels?
Lance White Eagle certainly! Ascending generally involves a taxing climb, you will reach a large ledge or plateau, this is actually a place from your character's past, a recreation of the memory, the scene unfolds and is a test of the goodness and duty of the character.
AJ Pickett awesome, thank you
Dear Mt Celestia, today I learned.....
Can I request a video on Ysgard?
So only the lawful good plane permits you to go beyond the universe ? What about all the other spectra of alignments ? They just become a part of the respective plane without chance to go further ?
There is a portal at the core/bottom of the Nine Hells, and I suspect there is a gateway in Sigil, it appears though, that being of Lawful alignment is the key, not whether one is good, evil or neutral.
Dang I was hoping to hear more about Jazirian when you talked about Solania
The elves got their heaven Avandor but WHAT ABOUT HUMANS!?
where is our heaven
Chronias is the "seat of Ao"?
Lunia sounds like a nice place to have a honeymoon.
Indeed.
Man i want a cool adventure in 5he seven heavens.
So, the pinnacle of excess Graz'zt hopes to feel is the euphoric pain of him, with all his flaws, standing in Cronius, wondering if he can step through that portal, and experience whole new sensations, in a whole new multiverse? Nothing about the description of Mount Celestia seems to explain how the Abyss could ever destroy it; I'd think even their strongest Demons would be expunged just by the aura of the place. While I get that we humans, and other living things, grow and mature through experience, and conflict, there were segments of several layers of Celestia that it seems unfortunate that some powerful archmage, or hierophant, doesn't just open a gate, march communities through, and skip the trials and tribulations of the Prime Material Plane, altogether.
At the risk of being dumb, though, it does make me wonder; if the Ruby of Ultimate Evil was plunged into the Elemental (Inner) Planes, where the tear formed the Abyss, why is it an Outer Plane, along the rim of the wheel, instead of closer to the hub? I'm sure the picture isn't literal; just a concept to help our lesser, mortal minds comprehend existence, but it's still a thought I had.
Why indeed? A great question.
"kind of like an eternal switzerland"
I'm so going to use that to describe something!
I was expecting Bahamut to be higher up the mountain.
If the mountain On top of the primordial were removed would he revive?
Does the non underdark material plane even have a centralized lore when it comes to geography and locations because it seems like most other planes do
Well, the Material plane includes all the different D&D Worlds, such as Toril (Forgotten Realms, Faerun) and Oerth (Greyhawk)
so is the GM weaker or stronger then AO (I don't know how to spell his name) just curious GMs have a shit ton of power we control all creatures, lands, planes, can change rules of world if we so wanted and can even control the whims of Gods and goddesses where do we fall on this power scale
Try to imagine me tilting my head to one side, like a dog hearing something weird.GM's control the entire game, we have ultimate say in everything aside from what the player does with their character.Ao is just an element of the story.
Ed Greenwood said the Forgotten Realms has opened portals onto our planet.
"Earth
SIZE E SPHERICAL EARTH BODY[1]
TYPE
Planet
CLASSIFICATION CODE
E●E
SATELLITES
The moon
SATELLITE OF
The sun
DAY LENGTH
24 hours
YEAR LENGTH
365 days
POPULATION
Humans
Inhabitants of Earth
.
Earth was a world on an alternate Material Plane.
People
A number of human peoples of Faerûn originally came from another world, which is widely believed to have been Earth.[speculation] To replenish their population after a devastating plague, the mages of the Imaskar Empire in Faerûn opened two great gates to this other world, and kidnapped numerous humans to serve as their slaves. Those of Mulhorand hailed from a desert land given life by the seasonal flooding of a great river and those of Unther from another land. After transporting them back to Abeir-Toril, the Imaskari closed the gates forever. Intermarrying both with each other and the Imaskari, they became the Mulan. With them, they brought their own societies, mature culture, and later, the gods of the Mulhorandi and Untheric pantheons.
Later came a people from two lands: a collection of city-states known for their daring philosophies and a land of empire and glory; they had similar pantheons of gods. These were followed by folk from a rugged land with a culture tied to nature, the sea, and the warrior history of its dozen-king greater god. These brought their own societies and faiths, and settled around the time of the rise of Netheril.
In the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, an inhabitant of Earth called Ed of the Greenwood assembled various journals, maps, and other works from Elminster Aumar into the first publication of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
Laeral Silverhand also regularly traveled to Earth to visit Steven E. Schend and spoke to him of Waterdeep, even if she did tend to interrupt his writing. He compiled the lore into articles for Dragon magazine."-FR Wiki
Maybe some GM could bring those stolen people back...
The only thing we can do is use the 3.5 third party Immortal's Handbook (replaces Deities and Demigods) to create a Multi-Setting High Lord that can easily impose it's Will in our favor on a lowly Sidereal such as AO
Is there a place or plane that's true neutral? It's the one thing that seems to be missing as far as the wheel theory goes.
The concordant plane of opposition, the Outlands, home to the spire and the city of Sigil is a true Neutral plane and home of the True Neutral Rhilmani race.Also, one could argue that the Ethereal plane is also a neutral environment, but that is a whole other topic really.
Oh my! What is the name of the music played in the beginning? It sounds perfect for M. Celestia!
It's a huge choir, hundreds of people, found it on UA-cam, no idea what video it was now sorry.
AJ Pickett Damn. Thanks anyway AJ!
AJ Pickett Also Aj, the playlist you made for the planes of existence seems incomplete. Have you simply not gotten around to do all of the planes or have you done them all but they’re just not in the playlist? I’m very curious about the planes and you’re the only person on youtube who truly goes in depth about anything d&d really.
Is there a in world reaaon the levels of Celestia are named after our planets? Instead of relmspace, grayspace..etc
Writers
Your videos are awesome!
So do angels come from Celestria ?
PRINCESS CELESTIA lives there
What do you think would happen to a trifling with a close relation to an infernal parent if they entered through one of the color pools?
Edit: tiefling not trifling
Well, as long as they are of a good alignment, they will be fine on the first layer, since it is just a dip in some holy water and general restriction against all things evil.
Good to know, I have a NPC tiefling who basically acts as a servent of his infernal parent, Glasya, and he has access to the Astral plane. So there is another color portal he needs to avoid
He’s actually lawful neutral, unless of course he ends up turning into the villain
The city of seagull
Oh thank heaven for 7 of heaven, or was that Seven Eleven? Either way great video, thank you!
willynthepoorboys2 most welcome, please come again.
So what you're saying is that the first layer is the best because it has dogs who're good boys?
hmmm, there is a layer with hobbits...
If i was a vampire, would I be allowed into Celestia?
If i ascended high enough would my vampirism be cured?
thanks for this
It has been difficult for me to find much information on the good planes like Celestia, probably because they aren't seen as challenging
They would challenge evil player characters. Or maybe chaotic ones.
do Archdevils & Demon Lords go to Ao's 7th Haven to petition for their godhood?
JG R no.
They wouldn't probably be allowed to, even if they wanted to.
From what I've gathered from these lore videos, the very existence of evil itself in the D&D multiverse is due to the obyrith corrupting it by barging in with the Shard of Ultimate Evil - it was not at all in Ao's divine plan. Tharizdun went batsh*t insane by touching it, while (IIRC) Asmodeus fell from grace because of his proximity to Tharizdun's prison If not for that Shard, evil probably would not exist there. The only conflict would be between law and chaos.
Asmodeus, if I'm not mistaken, got his godhood by striking a deal with the Torilian deity of wizardry named Azuth, in which he got a portion of Azuth's power in exchange for helping him get the rest of his power back. That's why he's just a lesser deity.
@@JanusHoW Asmodeus is an avatar. And Ahriman is more powerful than azuth by a far strech.
Name dropped Draco Paladin
With my player group... I don’t think I’ll be using these planes..... them trying to escape it though might be fun
DnD writers had rats as pets methinks. They are loving, social, intelligent creatures and deserve their own city in Celestia.