Guide to the Gray Waste of Hades | D&D Planescape



The most comprehensive video on the Gray Waste there is.

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Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:10 The Morality of the Gray Waste
9:43 Overview of the Gray Waste
15:41 Creatures of the Gray Waste
24:32 Yugoloths
49:50 Magic in the Gray Waste
55:28 How to get there
1:00:03 Hopeless
1:07:05 Oinos
1:30:36 The Wall of the Faithless and non-belief in D&D
1:40:57 Niflheim
1:57:27 Pluton
2:13:39 End

Sources:
Dragon Magazine 113 (1986)
Manual of the Planes 1st edition (1987)
AD&D 2e Player’s Handbook (1989)
Monster Mythology (1992)
Planescape Campaign Setting (1994)
Planes of Chaos (1994)
Planescape Monstrous Compendium 1 (1994)
Planescape Monstrous Compendium 2 (1995)
Planes of Conflict (1995)
Player’s Primer to the Outlands (1995)
On Hallowed Ground (1996)
Hellbound: the Blood War (1996)
Faiths and Avatars (1996)
Faces of Evil: The Fiends (1997)
Guide to Hell (1999)
Manual of the Planes 3e (2001)
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3e (2001)
D&D 3.5e Player’s Handbook (2003)
Dragon Magazine 324 (2004)
Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss (2006)
Dungeon Magazine 149 (2007)
D&D 4e Player’s Handbook (2008)
Manual of the Planes 4e (2008)
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide 4e (2008)
Demonomicon (2010)
D&D 5e Player’s Handbook (2014)
5e Monster Manual (2014)
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)
Sigil and the Outlands (2023)

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30 thoughts on “Guide to the Gray Waste of Hades | D&D Planescape”

  1. Post watch: I for one enjoyed that Fugue plane/Wall of the Faithless/non-belief discussion. I have to admit I've struggled with similar in the past. I think the first time I ran into such a case of confusion was when reading the OG 2E PS box set, and read about Yen-Wang-Yeh's Palace of Judgement in the Outlands. I found it an odd and jarring inclusion, as it had earlier been established that the spirits of the dead went to the Outer plane that matched their Alignment. Thereafter, local rules apply. But then I thought, sure, lots of cultures contain ideas of 'judgment' to decide the ultimate fate of a spirit. Searching sources, I don't recall finding any more such 'temporary pitstop' variations on the standard protocol, so I figured it must be religion specific. My over-analytic mind abhors these kinds of exceptions but, on the other hand it does add favour.

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  2. Perhaps due to the strict order in the ranks of the Yugoloths, they have therefore moved to Gehena. Gehena is an evil plane that strives a little more towards Lawful. So that Yuholoths have effectively undergone a cosmic realignment. Away from pure evil and towards a little more order.

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  3. In my imagination, I believe that the DnD multiverse works something like this on a cosmic scale.
    When the multiverse was created, 17 phiolospheres evolved. The 17 outer planes. How exactly, only the ladies know. To test these 17 phiolospheres, the multiverse launched the ultimate test – life. You are born and live your first life. Through this first life in the prime material plane, the multiverse wants to place you in one of the 17 planes. this is what happens when you die. Your soul travels to the plane that most reflects your life. As a Petitioner, it is now your task to become morally pure enough to become one with that plane. Upon merging, you have passed the test and add your own view of your beliefs to the multiverse. This is how the multiverse develops and becomes more and more complex.
    The greatest evil, in a cosmic sense, is therefore to remove a soul from this cosmic test. And that is exactly what Gray Waste does. It erases your faith and thus removes you from the grand cosmic scheme of things. Perhaps the Gray Waste is the most recent level born out of all these failed tests. The multiverse has recognized the flaw in its plan and found a solution. This solution is Gray Waste. The manifestation of the error in the cosmic process. The death of belief, the failure of the cosmic test. Something that may not have existed at the beginning of the multiverse and only came later.

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  4. 1.21-40 "to many reptile Race in dnd"
    That's the first sentence where I have to disagree with you. Personally, I find the reptilian creatures more interesting than the many mammalian creatures.

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