This plane is considered a safe place for many to visit with the devils of the Nine Hells and is untouched by the Blood War. There is an enforced order through conformity, with little thought if that conformity is good. Armies wage war against each other, their only objective is the destruction of each other and the imposing of law and order on the other. There is little thought of accepting others for their differences, and in fact, that type of thinking is tortured out of creatures who try to express it.

The creatures who live here are those who loved to battle, regardless of why they warred. They roam these massive geometric shapes, waiting for when they may crash into another cube drifting through this plane and lead a charge against its inhabitants. The strongest armies on this plane are the armies of goblinoids and the armies of the orcs and its not surprising that they are constantly waging wars and striking at each other. The goblins despise the orcs and their lack of law, while the orcs are led by their god trying to find a home somewhere in the planes after fleeing from Gehenna and the Nine Hells after trying to take on more than they could.

Apart from the goblinoid and orc petitioners are the petitioners of duergar whose original deity who was exiled from the other dwarven deities in Mount Celestia, and they are a grave and somber lot who live on the second layer, Thuldanin. In their duergar city, they are constantly producing weapons to help protect themselves from the monsters who roam Acheron. The other major faction on this plane is the Mercykillers who see mercy as weakness and weakness as death. They are after order and punishment, for only punishment breaks the souls of those who would go against the group and against the order.

Absolute Souls

Many claim that every effect on Acheron has an opposite and equal effect. If you cast a fire spell, a cold spell somewhere else in the plane goes off as well. If a creature dies on the plane, another creature is born to this plane. Many go on to assume that the number of creatures on this plane is therefore finite and that you can never have more creatures on this plane than the set number, though no one knows what the number is. Many armies take this to heart and have decided that the only way to grow their numbers is to cause war and kill everyone that is not them, thus allowing more of their own petitioners to join their ranks.

Other creatures think this as well, except that they think this only applies to the petitioners, those who are already dead and it is their soul that has come here for their eternal resting place. Mortal creatures, like humans from the Material Plane or elves from the Feywild, do not count against the number of absolute souls allowed on the plane at one time, and thus many armies will hire mortals to be mercenaries… or if they mortals don’t wish to be mercenaries, they will simply press them into slavery and force them to fight for the army instead. Many see this as a loophole so that they may grow their army without having to lose any of their petitioners, only mortals who are only useful as being expendable.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere of this plane is much like the Material Plane, though the light is never brighter than a dull, overcast day and gets as dim as a full moon. No one is sure where this light comes from, but its dim shining can be seen everywhere. When cubes pass in front of the light, it causes beams of light and shadow, making many think there is a cube out there who glows with intense light, but its an infinite distance away as no one has ever seen it.

The natural hazards of this plane come mostly from the floating geometric shapes that will routinely crash into one another, destroying anything that is unlucky enough to exist on the surface of the blocks. Most creatures and armies have made their homes inside of the iron blocks where they are protected from being smashed into oblivion, though cave-ins still pose a threat. The most dangerous layer due to its atmosphere is the last layer, Ocanthus, as it is filled with flat shards of black ice that are a few inches to a few miles across. They shoot forward with great speed at all sorts of angles, causing any creature who arrives on the bottom layer to become punctured with hundreds of wounds in a matter of minutes or have their head sliced off if they are truly unfortunate.

The weather on this plane is aptly known as brooding, with its gray light and cold winds that howl through the plane. Blizzards and ice storms fed by the River Styx on the first layer can cause horrible problems for the armies during their battles, and the iron cubes that make up every layer suck all the warmth out of those who live here.