Plane Shift: Alara

<div class='cover-header'>Plane Shift: Alara</div>

<div class='cover-footer'>Play in a world split into five shards in this article for the world's greatest roleplaying game</div>

\pagebreak

# Introduction
Hello, I'm Horror. And i have created another Plane Shift, this time for Alara, in the state before the conflux. I chose this plane not for any specific reason, yet because i was bored. This took me an unusually long time to make since i worked on it on and off when i was bored and had nothing better to do. Anyways, Alara is a world split into five very different shards; and it is nearly impossible to cross from one to another. This had happened since in Alara's earliest days, a magical event of such large magnitude pried the world into fifths, each such "shard" unique in the fact that each lack two of the five colors of mana, rendering anything of those colors almost utterly absent from the respective shard.

## The Shards

### Bant

Bant is a place of order, community, and righteousness, uncorrupted by the chaos of red or selfishness of black. It has a strict caste system designed for the greater good, protected by honorable knights and warrior angels. Bant is a beautiful land or roiling meadows and pleasant rivers, dotted with castles and settlements. Battles are still present, yet never without a cause; honorable duels are used as simple ways to resolve conflict.

### Esper

Esper is a world of cruel order and endless machinations, devoid of any sense of freedom or life that comes with red and green. In fact, its inhabitants combine their bodies with a magical metal called Etherium, rejecting life in a more literal sense. Despite its darkness, Esper is still a place of sophisticated beauty, with magnificent machinery and moonlit oceans. A small group of enigmatic and often tyrannical sphinxes rule the shard, keeping certain secrets to themselves despite often attempts at sabotage and bribery.

### Grixis

Grixis is what the people of other shards might call hell. It is ravaged by death, hate, greed, and all other flaws imaginable, the only traces of white or green being grim, undead versions of other shards' creatures. Demons and necromancers vie for a form of life energy called vis; used in the magic of death to achieve their fell ambitions. Those drained of their life essence are still considered alive, yet devoid of a soul and much mortal emotion. It is a fate worse than death the demons wil gladly give to any unwise enough to mess with them.

### Jund

Jund is anarchy; you need to be strong to be alive. The Shard's many dangers include very active volcanoes, steep cliff, lava pools, strangling vines, and many more. Without the magic of white or blue to save you, brutality is the only way to survive. Jund is a primordial world governed by its food chain; starting with lowly hordes of goblin and ending with fire-breathing dragons. Jund is as far from sophisticated as it could possibly get, with the most intelligent creatures being primitive human tribes and all language consisting of barbaric grunts at best.

### Naya

Naya is a flourishing jungle paradise lush with life. The elves, humans, minotaurs, and nacatl (leonin) worship the enormous behemoths that tread their land. Without black or blue, there is no deceit or complexity, only the elegant simplicity that is living a peaceful life among Naya's many beasts. Naya seems to be at a state of constant summer, being always warm and sunny. Its people often fight in casual combat as a sort of entertainment, not to actually kill, even though fatalities are accepted.

> ##### Art Credits
> Cover art is "Maelstrom Nexus", by Steven Belledin. This art below is a combination of the five Alara panoramas, by Donato Giancola, Franz Vohwinkel, Nils Hamm, Jaime Jones, and Hideaki Takamura. [I](https://www.gmbinder.com/profile/Horror "Horror's profile ") have photoshopped them together.

\pagebreak

## Races
Here i will detail the playable races of Alara.

### Human
**Shards: All**

Humans are found in every shard, and vary more than any other race so much that its hard to set details about them. They use the traits provided for humans in the Player's Handbook.

### Aven (Aarakocra)
**Shards: Bant**

Aven are birdlike humanoids that find themselves home in the lofty clouds of Bant. They serve as scouts due to their mobility over humans and rhox. Aven prefer ranged weapons and spellcasting, as it allows them to fight enemies on the ground from the air. They use the traits provided for Aarakocra in Elemental Evil Player's Companion.

### Rhox
**Shards: Bant**

Rhox are strong, proud, rhino-like people from the shard of Bant. They delight in combat, yet are disciplined and ordered in their ways, believing mindless fighting is a sure way to lead to failure. Rhox have the following traits:

**Ability score increase.** Your strength score increases by 2, and either your constitution or intelligence score increases by 1.

**Age.** Rhox age at about the same rate as humans.

**Alignment.** Rhox tend towards law and good, believing in order and goodwill.

**Size.** Rhox stand a little taller than humans and are quite bulky. Your size is medium.

**Speed.** Your base walking speed is 30 ft..

**Natural armor.** You have a thick, leathery hide. Your AC is equal to 12+ your constitution modifier.

**Gore.** You have a natural gore attack. This is a melee weapon attack. You use strength for the attack roll and are proficient with it. On a hit, the target takes 1d4+ your strength modifier bludgeoning damage.

**Charge.** If you move at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hit it with a gore attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 2d4 bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. The DC is equal to 8+ your strength modifier + your proficiency bonus.

**Martial advantage.** Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to a creature you hit with a weapon attack if that creature is within 5 feet of an ally of one of your allies that isn't incapacitated.

**Powerful Build.** You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

**Languages.** You can speak, read and write Common and Rhox.

### Vedalken
**Shards: Esper**

Vedalken are blue-skinned people of Esper. They constantly try to improve at their craft, whether it is magic or artifice. Vedalken believe themselves to be superior to all creatures other than the ruling sphinxes, and act with appropriate pride. They use the traits provided for vedalken in Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica.

### Ogre
**Shards: Grixis**

Ogres are the other primary form of humanoids found on Grixis, though one could hardly call them intelligent. They are large brutes that take joy in slaughter, mercilessly killing other creatures. They use the following traits:

**Ability score increase.** Your strength score increases by 2, and your constitution score increases by 1.

**Age.** Ogres reach maturity rather quickly at around age 12, and live only around 50 years at best.

**Alignment.** Ogres are almost always chaotic, and often evil. Even though, some ogres are neutral, just wanting to fight for the sake of fighting.

**Size.** Ogres are bulky and strong, standing taller than humans. Your size is medium.

**Speed.** Your base walking speed is 30 ft..

**Powerful Build.** You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

**Rampage.** When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on your turn, you can take a bonus action to move up to half your speed speed and make a melee weapon attack.

**Languages.** You can speak, read and write common.

> ##### Variant Ogre: Incurable
> Some ogres have been afflicted with horrendous mutations as a result of strange magic. These "Incurables" are named so as nothing short of a *Wish* spell or divine intervention can cure these mutations. Only ogres can become incurables, and it is for the most part entirely accidental when one become such. If you are an incurable or become one, roll on the following table twice to see what features you get:

| d4  | Feature |
|:---:|:-----------:|
|  1  | **Four arms.** You have four arms instead of two. You can wield weapons and armor as such. For example, you can wield two two-handed weapons at the same time. |
|  2  | **Thick skin**. Your AC is equal to 13 + your dexterity modifier. |
|  3  | **Sunlight Sensitivity.** While in sunlight, you have disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on perception checks that rely on sight. |
|  4  | **One-eyed.** you have disadvantage on any attack roll against a target more than 30 feet away. |

\pagebreak

### Viashino (Lizardfolk)
**Shards: Jund**

Viashino are lizard-like humanoids that are believed to be, in one way or the other, related to dragons. In Jund, they gather in groups called Thrashes, each led by the strongest and mightiest Viashino. Viashino speak a rudimentary dialect of draconic. Like the Lizardfolk, they do not understand expressions and have a cold, emotionless behavior. They use the traits provided for Lizardfolk in Volo's Guide to Monsters.

### Goblin
**Shards: Jund**

Goblins are found pretty much everywhere on Jund. They are at the bottom of the food chain, with pretty much all other creatures preying on them, and the goblins only persisting because of their rather impressive reproduction speed. Goblins have been preyed on by dragons for so long they consider it to be a blessed fate, called "Divine Food". They use the traits provided for goblins in Volo's Guide to Monsters.

### Elf
**Shards: Naya**

Elves are the majority of Naya's residents. Drow do not exist, yet both High and Wood elves can be found, with Wood Elves being the more plentiful. Elves live in the canopy of Naya's enormous trees, creating platforms supported by magic and clever design. They use the traits provided in the Player's Handbook.

### Nacatl (Leonin)
**Shards: Naya**

Leonin, called Nacatl, are feline people of Naya. In the ages past, they had an empire built in the clouds, where the most noble and sophisticated of their kind once were. Now, only the ruins remain, and nearly all Nacatl have broken from that tradition, yet a group called the Cloud Nacatl remain, trying to maintain the ruins. Nacatl use the traits provided for Leonin in Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

### Minotaur
**Shards: Naya**

Minotaurs are very rare on Alara, and nor much is known about them. They are few and far between, known for preffering canyons and other such areas for their hunting. They use the traits provided in Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica.

\columnbreak

> ##### Art Credit
> Art is "Wild Nacatl", by Wayne Reynolds.

\pagebreak

## Extras!
These things are extra! EXTRA! read all about them!

###

just kidding. Here are things i don't know how to categorize so i'll just batch 'em all into one generic category.

### Traveling between shards
It is normally very difficult, near impossible, to travel between shards. However, you can make exceptions. Once in a blue moon does a portal rip open, or perhaps some mad artificer from esper made an artificial portal, or anything else you want as a DM.

### The Conflux
As some of you may know, i have based this off of Magic: The Gathering's Alara block, and in fact this whole series is dedicated to giving MTG planes that don't yet have one a plane shift, aka what you're reading right now, aka an article where i take an MTG plane and make it a d&d setting. So, as happens in the original Alara block, the Conflux takes place. And what the hell *Is* the Conflux? The event where the five shards got gradually merged together, with mana of the missing colors flowing into the shards, creating chaos (or in some cases, order). This allows you to quite literally walk between shards, only your journey will be dangerous, as something called the Maelstrom has manifested in the center, and nothing of the Maelstrom is quiet or easy.

\columnbreak

### Progenitus
An ancient, powerful being manifested as a gargantuan hydra with five heads. Progenitus slumbered for millenia under the ground of Naya, and was worshiped as a god by Naya's people. When the Conflux (detailed above) came, Progenitus awoke, and the world knew the meaning of true might.

### The Sundering
If the Conflux was the end of universe, the Sundering was the big bang. This was the cataclysmic event where Alara was brutally ripped apart, leaving the five shards each alone. At first, people took quite some time to readjust to their new settings, yet eventually, all knowledge of other shards vanished, leaving just wild tales and ancient stories.

> ##### Art Credit
> Art is "Maelstrom Pulse", by Anthony Francisco.

> ##### Credits
> * Made by [HorrorSpirit](https://www.gmbinder.com/profile/Horror "My profile"), aka me
> * Made with GM Binder
> * All image credits listed at the appropriate places
> * Inspired by WotC's Plane Shift series