In Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

, fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

, Arborea or more fully, the Olympian Glades of Arborea, is a chaotic good-aligned plane

Plane (Dungeons & Dragons)

The planes of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game constitutes the multiverse in which the game takes place.In the earliest versions of Dungeons & Dragons, the concept of the Inner, Ethereal, Prime Material, Astral and Outer Planes was introduced; at the time there were only four Inner Planes...

 of existence. It is one of a number of alignment-based Outer Plane

Outer Plane

In the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, an Outer Plane is one of a number of general types of planes of existence. They can also be referred to as godly planes, spiritual planes or divine planes. The Outer Planes are home to beings such as deities and otherworldly creatures such as...

s that form part of the standard Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) cosmology, used in the Planescape

Planescape

Planescape is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by Zeb Cook. The Planescape setting was published in 1994...

, Greyhawk

Greyhawk

Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...

and some editions of the Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms

The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...

campaign settings.

Arborea is also referred to as "Olympus" or "Arvandor", though technically those names describe separate realms within the plane. Arborea is stylised as a peaceful plane of natural beauty with a multitude of thriving environments. Much of the plane is dominated by vast tall forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s, but also includes glades of wildflowers and fields of grain. As a plane that also embodies chaos, it has a wild and often sudden nature. The weather can change drastically at short notice, changing from warm sunshine to raging winds and back again in just a few minutes.

Inhabitants

The eladrin

Eladrin

The Eladrin are a fictional race of creatures appearing in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Introduced in the Planescape setting of AD&D 2nd edition and D&D 3rd edition, Eladrin were described as a type of celestial of chaotic good alignment and hailed from the plane of Arborea...

s, powerful elf

Elf

An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...

-like celestial creatures are the protectors of Arborea, the most common of which is the Ghaele. Lillends

Lillend (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lillend is a benevolent half-snake outsider; a being from another plane.-Publication history:...

 are also common on the plane. Many types of celestial and anarchic version of common animals, natural creatures suffused with tendencies of good or chaos, are found in Arborea. Also, primitive Orc-Baboon hybrids known as Losel

Losel

In the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Losel is an orc-baboon crossbreed. Though roughly humanoid, they are little more than tool-using animals in many respects. Their name means "lost ones."-Publishing history:...

s dwell in its wilderness, occasionally migrating between it and the Beastlands

Beastlands

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Beastlands is a neutral good-aligned plane of existence...

.

Arborea has two main types of petitioner

Petitioner (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a petitioner is the soul of a deceased mortal.-Publication history:The concept of the petitioner first appeared in second edition for the Planescape setting in the original Planescape Campaign Setting boxed set , and appeared throughout the...

, the first of which are the spirits of the elven dead. Some take the form of celestial

Celestial (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, celestials are a class of creatures and monsters known as outsiders who are of wholly good alignment....

 creatures or others simply merge with the plane itself, as a final reward after death. The second main type are the bacchae, drunken revellers who perpetually indulge in wild celebrations, enticing visitors to join with them.

Structure

As an outer plane, Arborea is spatially infinite, further consisting of three infinite layers (or sub-planes). Arborea’s first layer shares borders with the neighbouring planes of the Heroic Domains of Ysgard

Ysgard

Ysgard is the Outer Plane of Chaotic Neutral / Chaotic Good alignment in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is also called Asgard, Gladsheim or The Heroic Domains...

 and the Wilderness of the Beastlands

Beastlands

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Beastlands is a neutral good-aligned plane of existence...

; travel is possible between Arborea and these planes at certain locations.

Layers

The wandering realm of the Seelie Court

Seelie Court (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, the Seelie Court is a large, loose confederation of gods that consists of the leader Titania and her consort Oberon, as well as the following gods: Caoimhin, Damh, Eachthighern , Emmantiensien, Fionnghuala, Nathair Sgiathach, Skerrit, Squelaiche, and...

 often appears on the plane of Arborea, always in a different location.

Arborea has three layers:

Arvandor/Olympus

In previous editions, this layer was known as Olympus, but the most recent edition of Manual of the Planes refers to it only as Arvandor. Principally, it is the home plane of the Seldarine, the good Elven deities, headed by Corellon Larethian

Corellon Larethian

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Corellon Larethian is the leader of the elven pantheon, and the god of Magic, Music, Arts, Crafts, Poetry, and Warfare. Corellon is also considered a member of the default D&D pantheon. He is the creator and preserver of the elven race, and governs those...

. This layer is mostly endless canopies of forest with huge clearings containing many idealized elven settlements. Arvandor has a day and night cycle matching that of the material plane. The goddess Eilistraee also resides in the forests of Arvandor, despite her banishment.

The realm of Brightwater, a separate plane in the third edition Forgotten Realms cosmology is located on Arvandor. Four goddesses have domains here, including Lliira, Sharess

Sharess

Sharess is a fictional Faerûnian lesser deity of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, for Dungeons & Dragons.-Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition :...

, Sune

Sune

Sune may refer to:* Lalah Sune, a fictional character in Mobile Suit Gundam* Sune , a Swedish children's book series* Sune , a fictional character in Forgotten Realms* Sune , a given name...

, and Tymora.

The actual realm of Olympus is found here, and is home to many deities of the Greek pantheon, including Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

, Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

, Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

, Ares

Ares

Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and...

, Artemis

Artemis

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...

, Athena

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...

, Demeter

Demeter

In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...

, Dionysus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

, Hephaestus

Hephaestus

Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else, according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes...

, Hera

Hera

Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...

, Hermes

Hermes

Hermes is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Kyllini in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and...

, and the titan Rhea

Rhea (mythology)

Rhea was the Titaness daughter of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, in Greek mythology. She was known as "the mother of gods". In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, the Great Goddess, and was later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the Olympian...

.

There are several other realms located on this layer, including:

• The aarakocra
  Aarakocra
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the aarakocra are a race of bird-like monstrous humanoids dwelling in high mountains...
  
   goddess Syranita
  Syranita
  In many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Syranita is the aarakocra deity of protection and watchfulness, and is the patron deity of the aarakocra.-Publication history:...
  
  's realm of Whistledge;
• The giant goddess Iallanis
  Iallanis
  In many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Iallanis is the goddess of love, forgiveness, mercy, and beauty in the giant pantheon. Her symbol is a garland of flowers.-Publication history:...
  
  's realm of Florallium;
• Trithereon
  Trithereon
  In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Trithereon is the god of Individuality, Liberty, Retribution, and Self-Defense...
  
  's realm of The Forking Road;
• Chih-Nii's realm of Loom of the Celestial River.

Aquallor/Ossa

When not with the Seldarine, Deep Sashelas

Deep Sashelas

In many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Deep Sashelas is the elf patron deity of aquatic elves. He is also a god of creation, knowledge, beauty, and magic...

 also has his own realm of Elavandor on Ossa.

Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

's realm of Caletto can be found on Ossa.

Historic influences

Arborea is based loosely on Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...

 in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

. Its name may be borrowed from the medieval Sardinian state of the same name, or may be independently derived from "arboreal".