Carceri - D&D Lore Through the Editions

In this video I do a lore deep dive into Carceri, AKA Tarterus, the CE/NE plane in the Great Wheel Cosmology of D&D, and the prison of the multiverse.

0:00 Intro
0:48 Description
4:47 Traveling
9:51 Properties
13:45 Inhabitants
20:18 Othrys
30:47 Cathrys
37:44 Minethys
41:06 Colothys
48:42 Porphatys
50:57 Agathys
54:37 Outro

Sources:
Manual of the Planes 1st edition (1e) 103-104
Planes of Conflict “Liber Malevolentiae” (2e) 4, 6-23
Planes of Conflict “Monstrous Supplement” (2e) 14-15, 26-27
Planes of Conflict Carceri Poster Map (2e)
On Hallowed Ground (2e) 159, 166-167, 175
Monster Mythology (2e) 79
Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II (2e) 16-17, 114-115, 120-121
Manual of the Planes 3rd edition (3e) 104-108
Player’s Guide to Faerun (3e) 146
Manual of the Planes 4th edition (4e) 110-111
Dungeon Master’s Guide 5th edition (5e) 63

Music:

Images:
Black Ice by Paul Walker

The ice highway by Ian Mackenzie

[Kualinar]

My players once exiled someone to Carceri's fifth layer, Porphatys. His task to get out was to gather 100 peoples from that layer and lead them to the fourth, where he needed to gather 200 more, doubling for each layer, all the way out of the plane. If any died en route, he need to get back and find two replacement for every loss. He, nor any of those gathered, couldn't demand ANY form of payment, AND display one more virtue at every layer. Those demands also apply, but to a lesser extent, to those he need to save. Starting virtue : Generosity. Second virtue : Truthfulness. If he ever manage to escape, he'll be a prime candidate to become a paladin of good and order.

[simonbehrendt-nw]

Can't believe they derived the word incarcerated from a DnD plane

[the_swazzler]

One of the most underated channels on this site. Keep it up Genghis!

[Mavarok]

Man the imagination of these people was astounding!

[ckmishn]

Another terrific video. I hope at some point viewers and the YouTube algorithm give you the much higher view count that your videos clearly deserve.

[XraynPR]

just about perfect timing for in depth lore on a game I never played but is still fascinating in the lore

[johngleeman]

These guides are fantastic for all the plane-heads out there. Thank you!

[webchef]

Well alright alright.... GS is back at it👊

[sergioserranogranados]

YEAH!!!, Our boy is back with more lore, boys!

[ericep]

If anyone wants some more Carceri lore, I can offer some speculative lore about what Carceri is like to live on, done on film in a well done movie.

PS before I talk about that I want to say: very well done as always Genghis Sean, this was cool to listen to and informative, you are getting better at narrative storytelling by keeping it changing yet coherent and interesting at the same time.

Ok, the movie I was talking about is MANDY starting Nicholas Cage. There is a group of killer hippies like Charles Manson and the movie portrays a descent into madness when Nick Cage's wife is brutally murdered by this group who spike their LSD with mystical hornet poison from their stingers and as he goes on a violent revenge spree his dose seems to have imparted more of the trip into reality. It definitely 'feels' like Carceri, it's a chaotic hell of lawless gang fights and the and even shows the sky of earth having multiple planets that looks very similar to Carceri.

Anyone see the same thing as my gf and me ?

[Zinkhar]

Legendary video. I've been running a campaign in carceri and was disappointed there was so little content on it.

[cernunnos_lives]

If i get around to collecting more old Dragon Magazines, i think i just found someone worthy of it's inheritance.
Passion needs to be rewarded. This is how complete strangers here know one another at heart.

[JinZanmato]

Been waiting a long time for this. Thank you! 🫠

Hoping for a Pandemonioum video in the
future. One of the worst places of them all to be stranded on.

[jocelyngray]

I really appreciate that you did Carceri and Demodand videos. There's so little info about them. I appreciate that you aren't using AI. And I hope you get more support!

[adamgrogory]

Absolutely incredible, goated video. No other video has this amount of info regarding Carceri. Amazing!

[stefvanroey]

I am so lucky to be writing a planar adventure and then have these vids coming out at the same time. You are a godsent right now man

[WesleyMcLain-kjif]

CARCERI VIDEO LONGER THAN EIGHT MINUTES!!!!

[kylemason]

Great video man, glad you are back at it. You are becoming one of the best D&D lore channels on the platform, though I am biased. You rock dude, keep it up.

[iwgdbtp]

My favorite implication of the plane’s text description is that since the glowing red ground is the only light, everything here is monochromatic red, a spectrum of shades from bright crimson to black but always red. Sort of like real world streets lit by low pressure sodium lamps except red instead of yellow. Though in Othrys everything in the sickly green glowing swamps is presumably lit up in green, yellow, or orange as the lights mix (mixing light is fundamentally different from mixing pigments, green being primary and magenta, yellow, and cyan secondary colors)

[quillogist]

Great and well researched information! Thanks for all the time you spent on putting it together.