Ortho is a celestial body from the PLANESCAPE Campaign Setting, and is the homeworld of the Harmonium.[1][2]
Overview[]
Ortho is ruled by a planetary government known as the Harmonium, which is dedicated to the principles of peace and harmony, at all costs. The Harmonium have extended their rule to half a dozen other worlds, though none are as fully pacified as Ortho, and most still have pockets of non-Harmonium citizens. The Harmonium have also expanded their reach into the Outer Planes, having established footholds in the planar city of Sigil and the Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia.
Inhabitants[]
Ortho is a very rigidly controlled world, where dwarves, orcs, beholders, and humans all work together under the banner of the Harmonium. However, more chaotic races, such as elves or fey, cannot be found anywhere.
The Riven[]
When the Harmonium began conquering their world through force of arms and philosophy, they faced a great deal of opposition from those who viewed their attempt at imposing peace and harmony as subjugation and tyranny. These groups of dissenters were known as the Riven, and rather than slaughtering an entire people out of hand, the Harmonium chose instead to exile them from Ortho.
Most of the Riven fled to the Elemental Plane of Air, where they lived as nomads, travelling on airships and magically floating platforms before establishing the planar city of Blurophil.[3]
History of Ortho[]
About five hundred years ago on Ortho, a group of adventurers set out to rid their "country of chaos and bring peace to the land." It was a simple goal, one that many adventurers aspire to, but unlike most adventurers, they actually succeeded. Once they‘d brought peace and harmony to their own country, they moved on to other lands, and spread some peace and harmony there too.
It was hard work, and sometimes they found themselves fighting others that were good and lawful. They were saddened by these misunderstandings; how could two peoples, both essentially good and lawful, fight each other over what in the end were small details? It seemed to them that only when a people were united could they ever truly be at peace, and they wanted the peace on Ortho to last, even after their time had passed. Eventually they delivered the whole world into peace and harmony, even the so-called monster races, and united all people under a single government so that the peace they created would last forever. This government was called the Harmonium.
The Harmonium ruled the world with a firm hand, and there was peace. However, every now and then, chaos and discord would appear, and the Harmonium would have to deal with it and put it down. After much study, the leaders of the Harmonium determined that the source of the chaos must be off-world, for certainly their own world was now perfectly serene and pacified. In the end, they decided to mount an expedition to the home of chaos and evil on the Outer Planes – the Abyss. It‘s a testament to how little they knew about the multiverse that they thought an expeditionary force would be able to set up a beachhead there, and the problem would be dealt with within a few decades.
Of course, the force was decimated by the tanar‘ri and other demons. After being pushed from the Plain of Infinite Portals to the Caverns of the Skull Goddess and back again, they retreated to a more neutral location, the planar city of Sigil. From there, they learnt how the multiverse worked, and developed a new plan. Establishing extensive bases on Arcadia, the outer plane that most closely matched their alignment and ideals, they set out to convert other planar races, as well as the inhabitants of other material worlds.
References[]
- ↑ Monte Cook, The Planeswalker's Handbook, 1996, TSR 2620, The Prime Material Plane section, page 33
- ↑ Dori Jean Hein, Tim Beach, J.M. Salsbury, The Factol's Manifesto, 1995, TSR 2611, The Harmonium chapter, page 90
- ↑ Monte Cook, Tales from the Infinite Staircase, 1998, TSR 2632, City of Air section, Tale 5: Winds of Change, pages 75-76