The Abyss, also known as Unending Pit or Eternal Hell, was an outer plane of the Ochebana multiverse. It lied south of the prime material plane.

Structure

The abyss was mainly renowned for its odd geography. In contrast to most planes, it did not consist of one or a few layers, but of infinitely many. These layers were vertically aligned, with only the uppermost (called 1st Layer) being physically connected to the multiverse. Lower layers could be reached through various portals, the most common of which were volcanoes and "Hell's Rivers" which flowed down through the layers, infinitely far.

Magic

Teleportation from the abyss was generally difficult because of the barriers erected after the Celestial War. The vast majority of portals could only reach the first layer, while lower layers were exponentially harder to reach. For this reason, the furthest down a stable portal ever reached was the 22nd layer.

The Weave was of normal strength on the surface layer, and grew gradually weaker the further down one went. This made the upper layers even more valuable. Because of this decreasing power, casting spells - including teleporting - grew more difficult in the lower reaches, to the point where intentional teleportation was impossible and only natural portals between layers existed. Even lower - somewhere around the 1000th layer - even these natural portals were too far from the Weave, and travel between layers became completely impossible. In any case, these very low places - sometimes called the Bowels* - were almost featureless, with little to no light, hardly any terrain, and sterile ground. Even demons were few and far between down there.

Abyssal Society

The topmost layer had the most prestige and was very important in abyssal society. The most powerful lords fought each other for dominance of the upper layers, making them a war-torn scenery. Only rarely did an upper layer grow somewhat unified, when a large coalition host was arrayed to push beyond the abyss, usually northwards to the material plane. It essentially never happened that an upper layer stood under stable reign for more than a few years.

Lower levels, however, were much more stable politically. Many lords had a layer of their own, which they ruled with an iron fist and guarded against attacks from other demons.

Moving Layers. Power of a layer's sovereign was measured in how far up its layer lied; the higher up it was, the more easy access to the Weave it had, and the easier it was to mount a prestigious raid on areas outside the abyss. There were two ways for demon lords to gain more power. The most common one was to invade a superior layer, destroying or ousting the old lord and becoming the new ruler. Sometimes, but more rarely, great magical power - requiring a coalition of multiple lords - could make a whole layer shift positions, going further down or up. This could not happen to the uppermost layer and was more easy the lower down one went. Each layer, however, had its attributed number, and this remained even after one layer shifted its position. The count supposedly dated back to the Dictation. In any case, this made having an overview of the lower layers absolutely impossible, because the numbers were completely out of order and because travel to them was near-impossible.

Travel. While outside teleportation could not go very deep, connections between two layers went through teleportation. Actually provoked teleportation, even to a neighboring layer, was very difficult the further down one went, because the connection to the Weave grew more strenuous. Instead, a number of "portals" existed, such as rivers or volcanoes' mouths. These locations changed, sometimes randomly. It was very important for a demon lord to control its passages, because it could levy some fees of passage and guard against invasion.

The right of travel of more powerful demons was important in abyssal society. A lord could not forbid passage of a non-enemy traveler because of the fear of retribution from other lords. Leading an army up through the layers was more difficult and required special permission from each lord one passed by. Additionally, the final couple layers usually had to be fought across until a portal or land connection to the outside world was found.

Abyssal Layers