Void (plane)

The Void
Negative Energy Plane

(Plane)

Subjective gravity

Unbounded

Void

Titles

Entropy's Heart
The Final End
Nothing

Sphere

Inner Sphere

Gravity

Subjective

Time

Normal

Realm

Unbounded

Structure

Lasting

Essence

Negative-dominant

Alignment

Mildly neutral

Magic

Enhanced and impeded

Denizens

Danavas, hunduns, nightshades, sceaduinars, wraiths, and other undead

Divinities

None

Description

A pitch-black expanse of hungry, devouring nothingness

Images of the Void

Source: Planar Adventures, pg(s). 112–117 (1E)
GM Core, pg(s). 175 (2E)

For other meanings of "void", please see void (disambiguation).

The Void—also known as the Negative Energy Plane, Entropy's Heart, the Nothing, and the Final End—is the energy plane considered to be either the polar opposite of Creation's Forge in the orthodox scheme of metaphysics or complementary to it in the esoteric tradition. It overlaps the Netherworld and is connected as all Inner Sphere planes are to the Ethereal Plane; its void energy, also known as negative energy, flows through both into the Universe.✝

The Void is a place of annihilation and destruction, leaching life energy from all who come near it. A barren wasteland of emptiness with few surfaces, the Void is the home of countless undead creatures, many of them intelligent and extremely powerful. In fact, the plane is the source from which all undead draw their power and un-life.

Properties

The Void and Creation's Forge, at top left, in the context of the River of Souls.

The plane is saturated with void energy that drains life from beings that rely on vitality, including mortals, within moments; most who arrive without magical protection or planar attunement immediately turn to ash and become wraiths. Food and natural materials, such as mundane cloth and leather, rot immediately, and metal rusts away within days. It is inherently dark—natural light sources go out on their own—and frigid. Gravity is subjective and directional, but movement is a matter of will more than physical force.

Holy power and magical light tend to attract the attention of the plane's resident undead. Closer to the plane's heart, negative energy consolidates into twisted obsidian-like crystals.

Geography

The plane mostly consists of bleak emptiness. The few exceptions include elemental pockets, where the plane intersects with the Elemental Planes, as well as a number of unique features.

• The Escarpment, cliffs on its metaphorical edge near the Material Plane where material worlds abut the Nothing. Cataracts of liquid entropy pour over parts of these cliffs, while the higher peaks are home to powerful outsiders.
• Chasm to Shadow, manifesting its border with the Netherworld as an impossibly deep ravine filled with shadows. The mixture of shadow and entropy produces a powerful, almost sentient malice that attracts passing fiends, drawing them into the Chasm's depths where they transform into nightshades.
• Floating Islands rent from the Escarpment by erosion, float into the void until they eventually crumble away and are often claimed by powerful beings.
• An array of planets consumed by the void, including Fallen Duromak, known as the Dead Worlds and haunted by the undead.
• Crystalline knots of negative energy that are home to, and birth, the sceaduinars.
• Dawn spirals, termini of black holes in the Material Plane, formed by fragments of matter drawn through the celestial bodies.
• Entropy sheets that manifest pure destruction and which often obscure ancient monuments and sealed gates.

Places of interest

• Eternity's Doorstep, a glass sphere that traps undead
• Malikar's Keep, a lich-ruled haven
• Xul Karanith, drifting city of sceaduinar

Inhabitants

A nightskitter, a type of nightshade.

Incorporeal undead creatures, including the plane's most feared nightshades, dominate the plane. Corporeal undead, such as liches and graveknights, also travel to the plane and meet or reside in protected settlements like Malikar's Keep.

The most prominent natives of the plane are sceaduinars and sceazirs, who spawn from crystalline knots of negative energy that form strange angles. Oblivions also coalesce from the entropy that courses through the plane.

Other beings who visit or live in the plane include daemons, at least one danava, devourers, hunduns, umbral dragons, and void-ravaged survivors who have acclimated to the void. A few movanic devas voluntarily brave the plane as front-line defenses against its inhabitants.

References

Paizo published a major article on the Void in Last Watch.