What They Don't Tell You About Climbing Mount Celestia - D&D

the single secret mountain of mount silesia rises from an infinite sea of holy water to heights barely visible and utterly incomprehensible the whole plane is the ideal model of justice kindness and order of celestial grace and inhuman mercy where the watchfulness of many eyes holds the rampart against evil it's one of the few places on the plains where adventurers can let down their guard mancelessia is the heavenly home of the best and brightest petitioners the paradise that all other planners would conquer if they could all petitioners are striving to reach their own goals to perfect themselves and help others do the same mount siliceous a promise too a promise of betterment and ultimate union with the powers of goodness and law for those that are worthy enough to climb the plane's path through the six portals to the heavenly city and then into the illuminated heaven for many others mount silesia's path is too demanding these arkhans stay lanterns forever eventually fading and withering or they wander away entirely or fling themselves as heroic sacrifices against invading fiends moderns or others their sacrifice is honored by the survivors for even these deaths have their place on mount celesia creating martyrs as examples of the order and majesty of the plane only the elect are permitted onto the heights of the mountain for mountailicious a plane of marvels that most creatures couldn't bear to look upon if mechanus is the home of the lost and machinery of the great ring mount elisha is the guardian of its spirit today we're going to talk about what one must do in order to climb the great heaven of mount silesia but before we do that let's talk about our sponsor today this video is brought to you by fables a new subscription based set of adventures made by ghostfire gaming the format is simple a fable is a full adventure and by subscribing to it you get a chapter of the adventure every single month each chapter is sizeable being about 80 pages long in pdf format with tokens maps and everything that you would need in order to be able to play it the first fable they are releasing is called the citadel of the unseen sun which is set in the lands of the estoyan empire in the grim hollow setting a land where the sun has disappeared and now vampires rule the place the service starts on january where the first chapter of this fable will be released and if you sign up now for it you will get a pretty sizable discount it's like 30 or something it's pretty huge if you sign up before january first so check it out give it a look ghost fire gaming does amazing content then the r looks incredible so go ahead and click the link in the description and check out fables the citadel of the unseen sun but now back to the video actually reaching mount silesia is not too difficult provided that you have the magic for it you either use a spell like plane shift assuming that you have the right tuning fork for it or you use a spell like astral projection and then make your way through the astral and then into the upper plane or i guess you could just die while being a lawful good person or venerating a specific lawful good god but then well you would turn into a lantern arkhan and where is the fun in that there's more specific ways that one could enter this heaven like for example using mount olympus or something like that but that's beside the point normally when you enter mount silesia uh you would be automatically dropped off in the sea see mount silesia is actually an island surrounded by the sea and in that island there are multiple mountains of which the center and biggest mountain is the actual mount silesia there are gods that have their own mountains around the perimeter of the island like for example it is believed that the trifecta of torm tear and ill matter known as the triad each have their own mountain on the island that basically forms like their own individual planes in any case the water on the sea is actually holy water like the whole thing is holy water and you're automatically dropped off in the middle of that sea so fiends that come into this plane typically have a really hard time invading the island but more so than that this actually shows you that this is not going to be a particularly pleasant journey into the mountain we described it before in our previous video but the process of entering mount celestia and then climbing it it's not meant to be a particularly pleasant experience because the idea is to test your spiritual power and then mold it into the ideal lawful good form and so you are going to be tested and complaining will yield no result in fact the opposite result now generally you're not going to drown unless you deserve it if you can't swim there's a very interesting race of aquatic creatures called the sovereign which solely live here on the first layer of the mountain who take a great effort into making sure that people can make it to wherever they need to go they're not necessarily mandated by anyone to do this remember this is mount celesia the creatures that live here tend to not just be good but will tend to be self-determined to be good in this realm not actively doing good is almost a tantamount to doing bad and so everyone has to go out of their way to strive for goodness in any case the sea itself is dotted with small little islands everywhere each with fortifications houses mansions and what have you people sometimes just enjoy living here and for good reason it's kind of a nice place to live in if you're not a lantern arkhan of course see archons the souls of the lawful good people that live here are almost by design forced to attempt to perfect themselves and so they must climb the mountain but normal people that being just like mortals who travel here manually don't have to do that they can enjoy the realm without necessarily feeling compelled to perfect themselves though these people are generally they're not respected within the societies of the mountain as you can imagine and because people can just chill here you as an adventurer have to be careful because hey look crime does exist here in heaven anyone can travel here especially tolunia which is the first layer see the motto of those that live in the mountain is that anyone can atone and become good no matter how bad you are like literally devils could live here and they would be granted every courtesy as long as they're actually and genuinely trying to better themselves so there are many evil people in here on lunia hiding now that being said crime is obviously hilariously low and the lore describes it as the sort of place where people would sleep with their house door open and stuff like that anyways luna is unique among all the mountains first because it is the lowest section which means that there is the sea of holy water and the harbor towns but also because there is no sun in here the sky of lunia is perpetually night with beautiful stars always resplendent now luna of course marks the first place that you as an adventurer will be before you start progressing up however in order to try and go up the mountain there are a few things that you need to be aware of first of all flying does not work gusts of air buffet you back if you try and fly and even if you were good at avoiding them it wouldn't do you any good anyhow the mountain is technically infinite and every layer is technically infinite you can only actually go up the mountain if you find the right trail but you can only find the right trail once you are spiritually ready to do so see looking up at the mountain you would see big clouds that would bar your vision clouds that also illuminate light which would allow you to see however and this is kind of cool it doesn't matter where on the realm you are or in which layer you are if you look up you will always be able to see the tip of the mountain the seventh mountain of mount celestia though because it is so far and because it is like celestially illuminated it'll just look like a tip that glows that you won't be able to actually notice much of it but it does kind of beckon you into it which inspires people to want to climb the mountain now second of all magic does work a bit different here on this realm and it typically does on most realms to be fair in mount silesia any spell that encourages chaos disruption and evil are completely barred for example spells like chaos bolt would literally just not work but this also applies to many spells that you might not realize things like blur mislead confusion innervation mirror image those spells wouldn't work those spells are just chaotic and random and this is a plane of law where things are just not random characters that rely on chaotic features like the wild magic sorcerer or the wild magic barbarian are tremendously hindered on this plane as their magic either literally don't work or is severely hampered any conjured lawful creature serves faithfully and good creatures will do so willingly and without fail creatures that are evil or chaotic can only be summoned if given very specific magical keys which generally are held by leaders within the mountain but even so they are difficult to control and restraint so what that means is that unless you have the very express approval of a leader in manchelectia you cannot summon demons now any divination spell casted upon the mountain receives only true statements as quote falsehoods cannot survive the pure heights of the mountain and so they fail smothered by the purifying energies of the plane end quote healing spells have twice the effective effect but more interestingly death spells those being spells that insta kill you like for example power word kill instead of killing you they will instead grant you twice your stats like they will double your hp they will double your damage and your armor class increases for some time now being directly in the presence of the mountain also grants you certain benefits which are dependent on how high in the mountain you are by simple virtue of being on the first layer for example lunia you're granted a permanent bless spell and the protection from evil charm do note that in 5th edition they made it so that protection from evil also includes protection from good in the text but obviously you're not actually protected against good here only against evil anyways there are more improvements that you get as you go up the mountain but we will talk about that on our next video but yeah okay so much to talk about so and now that you know how magic works here uh we get to actually climb right not quite and you don't just climb the mountain you're supposed to become philosophically enlightened and then seek spiritual perfection so how the hell do you do that well the way it works is generally you pick what is called a path because see there are many ways into finding spiritual guidance and of course as you can imagine everyone has their own way there will be people in the mountains seeking students you know like monastic institutions that might help you find your karma or you might find an archon that would be willing to aid you but that's the thing about celestia is that normally stopping your work in order to help somebody else normally would slow down your progression into getting anywhere but not in mount celestia sometimes stopping to help someone might literally speed up your journey to the top since again it is not a matter of distance it is a matter of spiritual enlightenment so there's tons of people that can help is actually encouraged quote the paths of mount celestia are both physical roads and trails and spiritual journeys to the heights of purity and wisdom in the illuminated heaven physically even arkans that can fly prefer to follow the roads closely soaring above the pilgrims who toil up the slopes on foot the spiritual paths have many different names among lantern archons from different places in the prime the eighth full path the five virtues and so on adventurers can call them whatever they want the dark of it is they all sound easy but most of the lanterns don't stand a chance think about perfect unblemished valor mercy humility poverty chastity or charity there ain't any easy paths archons choose paths the way others breathe it comes to them natural like and it's better because an arkhan cannot advance to the higher layers of mount silesia and the higher forms of archon without succeeding in one or more paths it ain't quite so important to a planner especially since a planner's path ends whenever she leaves mount silesia when a planner cutter chooses a path she swores great oats to a patron power undertakes a vigil and a fast and offers a token sacrifice even then she can only follow the path as long as she remains on mount silesia once a cutter chooses her path she's obliged to stay on it until she reaches the next mountain when she can choose a new path fortunately planners don't have to choose past though those that do are protected by the lantern archons as one of their own those that don't had better fend for themselves and quote see it goes back to what i was saying before if you don't do things correctly the archons won't respect you and oh might not protect you from bad things that can happen and bad things guys can indeed happen i know that we're talking about like philosophy and stuff but you're still climbing a damn mountain people die climbing mountains okay you can fall there are avalanches i mean anything can actually happen and if you're immortal dying is very serious as you can imagine anyhow some examples of paths that you can take are the eightfold path which requires you to practice patience pacifism courage joy discipline generosity kindness and teaching others then there's the path of five virtues which requires for you to have complete honesty charity hope moderation and tolerance then there's a path of valor which only requires good deeds but you can't speak about your good deeds others have to be able to speak of your good deeds for you now those are kind of very generic but some paths can be like really tough like the path of renunciation which requires three things constant charity for anyone who asks for it it requires poverty which basically means that you have to beg for meals and lodgings like you can't hunt or work for your meals you literally have to force yourself to be poor and beg for every single thing and the only thing you're allowed to keep are one set of clothes everything else that you ever obtained you have to give to somebody else's charity and then the last requirement is uh mortification of the flesh which basically means that you have to suffer in some way typically people you know go for flagellation or fasting uh some decide to do this by swearing off sex or physical contact with others while some the oats of silence basically the whole process just has to suck for you but yeah these are just a few examples of the past that one might take in order to become enlightened and climb the mountain basically once you become spiritually adept the mountain trails will open to you and you will be able to climb then at the end of every individual trail there should be a portal at the end typically protected by a warden archon who makes sure that you're not doing any shenanigans or anything some might even request a duel or something along those lines to make sure that you're ready for ascendance depending on the nature of the warden or depending on the path that you have taken these types of literal tests are not too uncommon on the mountain and you might have to pass through a few in order to go up the most famous of all of course is a test that stops most of the applicants at the end of the fourth mountain on our next video we will talk about each of the individual mountains and what you can find in them but i did wanted to talk about this one test in particular because it is quite notorious and it is directly linked well you know to the actual climbing process which is the focus of this video so i so i figured it would make the most sense to talk about it here see on the fourth mountain the mountain that we call selenia it doesn't matter how enlightened you are or for how long you have been doing good you will not pass through the fifth mountain that is because a very peculiar test lies in weight from the tallest portion of the fourth mountain as far as you can climb you're literally supposed to throw yourself off and free fall quote virtue untested is merely innocent untempered iron can never become steel each journey is a journey unto death but each death is a rebirth only through failure can one go on as snow melts into the stream and the stream flows to the rivers and the rivers into the silver sea so do lives flow into each other from the sea to the clouds and back to the rain all lives return life's cycle returns again and again until after enough time all spirits are released to rise beyond the vault of the heavens the forgetfulness that erases pain is the greatest blessing of the merciful powers end quote this is the hardest of all tests for you are supposed to relinquish your life to the mountain to in some ways give up almost as if understanding that you're insignificant in the grand scheme of things the ultimate show of humility sometimes it is as they say virtue untested is merely innocent i mean you can preach all you want but you must walk the walk what value is your humility if you're not willing to give up your life for your cause when you fall off the tallest portion of selenia instead of splatting onto the ground and die you instead reach uroboros an entirely airy place with no floor a realm of lightness relief and utter bliss feathers floating through the realm as do flying creatures this is the realm of a very powerful and ancient power one likely much older than all of the other gods that reside within the mountain in fact it might be even older than the mountain itself according to some legends this is the realm of jasirian the god of the quartals who of course according to some creation myth was one of the two serpents who created the multiverse if you're interested in that bathurst by the way be sure to check out this video over here there's some really crazy stuff in here that you'll probably enjoy but anyhow the realm itself is interesting because words are the ultimate tool of power here and this place is designed so that words are made flesh the things that you say sort of just happen around you in real time and magic that relies on speech becomes incredibly more potent for example a barred singing might summon angelic choirs around itself that will help verbally cursing a person might make the curse real a person that casts a spell like speak with animals might become itself an animal that can speak with the other animal it's it's pretty wild from the moment that you arrive on this realm you are trapped in order to leave there are two options one option is that you can either accept or issue a challenge onto another pilgrim who is also trapped winning that challenge allows you to leave though that won't quite let you pass solania into the fifth mountain the other option is to meet with jasirian and then answer his riddle if you do then you get to ascend quote the highest heights of the fourth layer of mount silesia are a barrier to many planner and petitioner pilgrims great numbers of them remain lantern or hound archons for years serving in the smithies of the dwarf petitioners or searching for the gateway among the snowbound peaks and distant lonely valleys despite the searching there seems to be no way to reach the gate to the fifth layer some sods fall into despair but others always vanish and that gives those left behind hope that they can find the gate as well the portal to the next layer is a place that lies within each petitioner and can be reached from any mountaintop only after answering one of the riddles of jasirian can a body progress to the fifth heaven end quote and there it is the challenges and tasks of mount silesia i hope that this gives you an idea of just how this all is supposed to work for those who attempt to reach the top of this mountain and how you know difficult it can be it can be a whole campaign really now our next video will actually focus on each individual mountain we will cover each and every single one of them including what you can find inside and of course every single bit of its eccentricities i will do my best to put all the mountains into a single comprehensive video but there's there's a lot of info so hopefully i can make it happen thank you guys so much for watching i would like to personally thank my patreon supporters barry maskind 5v magic shop morgan johnson rusty rayne doc feeder the great codini omega scales terry kolp benjamin busters faulky 951 or toric sabine kurshab solarensis thomas hunt nathan mccomb 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Length: 20min 58sec (1258 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 22 2021