The Dao are the genies of the Plane of Earth and are focused on amassing their wealth and treasures, of building their reputations and enslaving creatures as a way to grow their power. They live in the Great Dismal Delve, a continent-wide fracture in the Plane of Earth where their massive city resides, this is one of the few places in the Plane where the crushing stone is held back so that the Dao can conduct trade and entertain visitors.

Atmosphere

Because the Plane of Earth is solid stone, there are no natural sources of air and instead, travelers must either travel to a location inside of the plane that has air, like the Great Dismal Delve or be able to bring their own supply. In the earlier editions, the Plane of Earth was solid stone with small pockets that might contain air, ash, magma, lightning, water or just be a vacuum with no atmosphere. In 5th edition, the Plane of Earth becomes a twisting maze of caverns and tunnels built inside of massive mountains that reach so high up into the air that there is no air at their tops. While you can journey to the outside of the mountains, there is little to nothing out there

Traits

The Plane of Earth is one of the building blocks for the Material Plane and so the stone and other minerals that can be found on the Material Plane can be found throughout this plane, and typically in greater abundance. This plane’s stone is always in motion and passages open and closes constantly as the great stone slabs that make up this plane shift.

Travel to the Plane

Arriving into the Plane of Earth can be very simple, though it isn’t without consequences. By casting a spell like Plane Shift, where it takes you to a close location of your choice, you might appear inside of solid stone where you are unable to move or breathe, the ever-present pressure of the stone driving the air from your lungs where you eventually suffocate and die.

A safer option of arriving in the Plane of Earth is locating a vortex, these typically appear in the Material Plane at the roots of mountains far below in the Underdark. These vortexes appear to be a swirling mass of material funneling into a deeper cavern below them, though they lead to either the Material Plane or the Plane of Earth depending on where you enter them from. They are mainly used by the Dao to conduct trade business with the inhabitants of the Underdark, like the Drow and Duergar, the Dao are mostly interested in acquiring more slaves.

Traversing the Plane

Traveling through this plane can be very complicated if you lack any magical abilities or have little strength. If you have the ability to walk through stone or morph the stone into a passage, you can explore the plane, though you must also be able to create some way for you to breathe as there is little to no natural deposits of air in this plane. If you are strong, you can mine through the layers of rock and hopefully find the Great Dismal Delve or a vortex to take you out of the plane, though you also have to worry about how much air you have available.

While the Great Dismal Delve is the largest of its kind, there are a variety of other pockets throughout the Plane of Earth where elementals and others who are trapped on this plane make their home. There can be pockets only a few feet wide to miles wide, home to Mephits to Xorns to Dao looking for more slaves. Or you might stumble across a mining operation where the workers are worked non-stop as they dig out priceless gems and precious materials.

Fossil Remains

Journeying through the stone of the Plane of Earth, you might stumble across the fossil remains of creatures who were somehow transported to the Plane of Earth and stuck inside of the stone with no way to get out. They might be adventurers, great magical creatures or anything that has no innate ability to move through stone, some of these creatures might even still be alive if they don’t require air to live. If a creature dies while inside of the stone, they begin to fossilize due to the constant pressure of the stones pressing down on them and upon finding them, there might only be the metal equipment they wore, magic items and their bones.

Earthquakes

The Plane of Earth is made up of an infinite number of stone slabs that are constantly pushing and moving across each other. When these slabs move against each other, they create earthquakes that can be felt as a light shake or such a massive shudder that caverns collapse and creatures are shaken to death. This plane is constantly in motion, and earthquakes are incredibly regular, forcing any who wish to keep the caverns or tunnels clear of debris constantly busy. The Plane of Earth is tireless in trying to fill in every empty space inside of the plane with stone.

Locations

There are very few bastions of civilization in the Plane of Earth as elementals are focused on solitude and avoiding others. Hidden away in pockets throughout the plane, a very lucky adventurer might stumble on to a small town of Dao, travelers or elementals who wish to be around each other.

Great Dismal Delve

The only true city in all of the Plane of Earth is the Great Dismal Delve. This massive cavern is the size of a continent and the Dao work tirelessly to ensure that the Plane of Earth doesn’t destroy it or fill it in with stone. The Dao own hundreds of slaves each, with all the slaves working tirelessly on cleaning up debris, mining for materials and fighting back against the Plane of Earth to keep the Great Dismal Delve available for traders and travelers so that the Dao can continue to conduct their business and increase their wealth and power.

The Delve, in previous editions, wasn’t actually one huge, open space but rather a maddening twist of tunnels and mazes that marked the homes of small clans of Dao with their slaves and elementals that worked for the Dao. In 5th edition, this is changed so that the Great Dismal Delve, also known as the City of Jewels, is an open cavern with huge buildings and spires that rise up. These buildings are all decorated in lavish splendor, from precious gems that sit at the top of every spire, to precious metals worked into the buildings themselves.

Sevenfold Mazework

The Sevenfold Mazework, in some editions, is just another name for the Great Dismal Delve, like in 5th edition. In other editions, it is located inside of the Great Dismal Delve and is the home for the Great Khan of Dao. In this labyrinth is the royal court, the marketplace and twisting mazes filled with precious gems. There are seven distinct mazes inside of this mazework and each maze can only be truly understood by the Dao as its magical nature is quick to get anyone else lost.

Most visitors and common Dao are not allowed past the first maze of interwoven arches and balconies overlooking the city, here the most common of Dao can conduct trade or bring forth petitions to the Great Khan’s functionaries. Past this section, there are 6 more with restricted access, the further you go into the mazes, the higher up you must be in Dao society, and there are only rumors what one can expect deeper into the mazes. Stone slabs with glistening gems are said to be puzzles for Dao to solve, another maze is said to be a reverse maze where you must walk through the walls at the right sections to find the home of the Great Khan’s dignitaries and another section is said to be made solely of glass and Wall of Force spells so that you can always see the exit but never where the walls are.

Thievery in the Great Dismal Delve

With the vast amount of wealth on display in the Great Dismal Delve and in the Sevenfold Mazework, the Dao have taken special precautions and everything of value, from the tiniest of jewels to the largest slab of gold, is coated in magic. Each precious material has a sigil written into it that alerts every Dao in the Great Dismal Delve if it is ever taken by another creature, the punishment for stealing is typically enslavement for the rest of your life or a painful death at the hands of the cruel Dao.

Factions & People

Dao