16.4 The Soulforge
The Soulforge is a plane of infinite smooth, grey ground stretching to every horizon. The only location of any distinction or relevance on the plane is the Soulspire. It is a metal tower, five hundred feet across at the base and one mile high. The outside of the tower is adorned with beautiful and intricate sigils in an unknown language. Around the base of the tower, a small encampment of doomed souls repeatedly struggle to ascend the Soulspire, die in the process, and take corporeal form once again.
16.4.1 The Trapped Souls
The Soulspire seems to function similarly to an unusually limited afterlife. Every creature surrounding the Soulspire is a planeforged made from the essence of the plane. As normal, when a planeforged creature of strong will dies, they can maintain the cohesion of their soul and reconstitute a new body from the essence of their native plane. The essence of the Soulspire plane is highly malleable, allowing these new bodies to be formed in hours instead of the years or even centuries it can take on more established planes.
A long-standing legend based on murals at the base of the tower claims that anyone who reach to the top of the Soulspire can find their heart’s desire, which is generally interpreted to mean leaving the plane. Many inhabitants of the Soulspire take advantage of their effective immortality to lay reckless seige to the Soulspire, returning after each demise as long as their willpower holds.
There is a semblance of culture at the tower’s base. It shifts slowly, as over long centuries the old inhabitants give up on maintaining their individuality and become part of the plane itself. Traditionally, this is done by attempting one final tower ascent and not returning from the inevitable death that follows, though some have wanderered off into the grey void outside the tower and never returned. Whenever an old soul gives up its sense of self, a new arrival appears within a day. There are three classes of people in Soulforge: the ascendants, who actively try to climb the tower; the fledglings, who have never tried; and the sages, who once sought to climb the tower and have now given up.
16.4.2 The Impossible Ascent
Each floor of the Soulspire is a separate demiplane, most of which are far larger than the tower’s radius would suggest. There is always a portal on each floor to ascend to the next level, and there are often windows in incogruous locations that look out onto the original plane. The view from each window has an elevation about twenty feet higher than the previous window, and looks out onto the Soulforge. The windows can be seen from outside the Soulspire, and ascendants looking out can be observed, through their surroundings are never visible - only the ascendants themselves. This allows the fledglings and sages at the base to track the progress of ascendants. It gives the ascendants confidence that the Soulspire is finite, and that actually reaching the top is an achievable goal - though not an easy one. Based on the exterior windows, the Soulspire has two hundred and fifty-one floors. No ascendant has ever passed the fiftieth floor.
Aside from the constant presence of the portal and the windows, each floor of the Soulspire can be dramatically different. In addition to having highly varied terrain, each floor can have different gravity or otherwise break different fundamental laws. In general, the floors seem to expand in size and complexity as their apparent height in the tower increases.
Almost all floors are populated with planeforged imitations of creatures native to other planes. These creatures are almost universally hostile. In the unusual event that the creatures communicate with ascendants, they have never displayed any knowledge of the Soulspire’s nature or of any world beyond their current floor.
The Soulspire is entered through a large, golden gate at its base. It is activated by placing a hand against it for thirty continuous seconds. Once it activates, it remains open for thirty seconds before closing. Portals within the Soulspire behave in the same way, though their color and size may vary significantly. During the time that the portals are open, any ascendants who enter it always arrive at the same floor as each other. On rare occasions, ascendants may arrive at different locations in the next floor, but they usually arrive in the same location as each other.