Shom is a large Astral Dominion that is a closely kept secret of many sages of the Dungeons and Dragons multiverse; It is also a great example of how something that was introduced in a previous edition of the game now drifts in an existential void, slowly becoming forgotten, already fading around its very outer limits but, it is a grand prize, one of the greatest in the astral expanse and is still home to some real cosmic power.
It's a bit like we found a missing planet in the Jedi archives, and we are about to learn about the Clone Wars... so sit back and grab yourself a tasty beverage; we are about to get deeply nerdy.
First, a brief history of Shom.
In the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, there was an entire culture of supernatural humanoids called the Illumians, one of my favorite characters of all time was a member of the Illumian race and a psion who became so powerful he ascended to godhood, so I have a lot of information on them, also we will learn about a secret cabal of some major gods including Erathis, Pelor, Moradin, Asmodeus, Gond and Bane.
When the God of the Word created Shom, he also created its sun and its moon - gold and silver spheres that orbit the planet. The god is long gone, but the spheres remain, enchanted with powerful wards that can destroy spelljammers and raiders who get too close to them.
Arriving at Shom, one is faced with arid, desert-like conditions, and yet the whole place is cold, not hot, so most visitors will find themselves favoring thick or layered clothing and being mindful of how much water they drink; it's easy to get dehydrated in Shom as the environment consists mainly of great, white sand deserts with orange stone islands large enough to have their own sand dunes, stone monoliths and natural formations breaking through like old coral reefs in a white sea. There are only a few sand storms on Shom, and the source of most of the stone used to create the monolithic structures is a bit of a mystery; the horizon always seems to be about 700 miles away, with some white mountains in the distance. The dominion probably formed naturally on the Astral plane a very long time ago with a few different powers and factions making use or claiming ownership of it; at the moment, the new power is Erathis and an army of Astral Giants who are determined to claim the whole dominion in her name.
So what happened to the Illumians? You can ask them, there are still a few around, illumians tend to have less shared folklore and common history than most races thanks to their origin being influenced by idiology quite heavily.
Since the Illumian culture is everywhere on Shom, you will find accurate information about their history written in many of the old books sealed away in their ruins. The story of their origin doesn't involve gods, for once, it was one man.
Tarmuid was a powerful wizard monk on another world. Born with a talent with languages, he discerned a fundamental shared language of expressed magical concepts and assembled it into the language now known as Illumian. As Tarmuid learned and spoke the langauge, he noticed the words contained and boosted residual magical power. His research after many years, led to the creation of the Ritual of Words Made Flesh which could turn a living being into a vessel containing the empowering words of illumian. His first success was his own transformation, but many joined the ranks of this new species of augmented human, until the first illumian children were born, already infused with the language and the ritual was largely no longer needed.
Just to be on the safe side, the illumians split up into small groups called Cabals, each holds a portion of the spoken transformation ritual. The ritual isn't needed to sustain the illumian race but it is sacred knowledge they could never bring themselves to destroy or lose, so, although the ritual can be used to create real horrors, they safeguard it within their culture as best they can.
The real problems within their culture began because one-half of all illusions have the syllable of the mind, and the other has the syllable of the soul, and thus, Splinter cabals devoted to peculiarities of one or the other syllable fueled discord. Illumians of the mind, encouraged by the lich god Vecna's whispers, created conspiracy theories where none existed. Holier-than-thou arrogance characterized the soul cabals, and the worst of them "determined" that the followers of the syllable of the mind no longer truly had souls and could therefore be treated in terrible ways.
The illumians firmly believe that the god Ioun gifted their kind two of the words of creation, one for mind, the other for soul, because of human loyalty to the gods during the dawn war, even after their creator god died, they carried on the fight, keeping the astral dominion of shom's energy vibrant, allowing it to survive the dawn war intact.
The newly created illumians withdrew from contact with the rest of the Astral Sea in order to study the words of creation, as they did, the sands of Shom flourished with the illumians building wonders and glories, but, eventually, the good centuries came to a terrible end. Those that know something about the illumians' fall consider the story to be a warning about how mortals cannot handle divine power without going mad.
There was a lot of warfare and it really got out of hand until the Illumian Cabals called in the services of the Lawful beings from Mechanus called the Maruts, and asked them to arbitrate the situation. At first. the Maruts attempted to avoid arbitrating the dispute, but the Illumians were insistent, so, finally, the Maruts just went on a rampage, determined both sides were unworthy, and rampaged across Shom, leaving nothing but ruins and death in their wake. The only illumians to survive were already off world when it happened, they have never sought to reclaim Shom, to them, mostly it is a grim mausoleum that reminds them of nothing but the crushing shame of their failures.
The height of their civilization may have only lasted a few centuries. Still, they amassed a considerable motherload of mystic knowledge, magic items and artifacts, alchemical genius, and quite a few technological wonders from distant worlds. It turns out humans are found all over the place, but while you do find quite a few wandering the sands of Shom seeking treasures, there are other commonly encountered inhabitants and a couple of locations of note.
First are the Maruts, from the mechanical nirvana of Mechanus, they move about the sands of Shom in their mobile citadels. Their chief concern seems to be guarding particular groups of ruins- and any ruin the Maruts guard that has been looted in the past has proven to be well worth the extreme difficulty involved. Maruts tend to create blockades around Oasis restricting access to water and food from other races to get them to comply with Marut law and order.
Second. the other guardians in the half-buried cities: constructs. Immortals, sphinxes. Nagas. Ghosts. Golems. and numerous even more bizarre creatures and traps guard the Illumians' treasures. The guardians were intended to protect against other Illumians; no one counted on the Illumians suddenly being removed from the dominion's equation. The security systems and ageless guards remain intact. Still standing against those who would plunder what they protect. There are also quite a lot of Illumian mummies that are triggered into violent action when their bound resting places are disturbed. Mummies and hordes of undead in dusty old white stone ruins with lots of deep spiral stair cases and rooms with dry fountains are a hallmark of Shom, as are Illumian habits such as creating grand entrances to residential areas, with wide staircases and many split level balconies, otherwise with modest room sizes, build to purpose, each room is not an orderly square shape, many walls are carved with raised fresco murals.
Then there are the raiders and loners that poke around for anything valuable sticking out of the sands. Cultists of Vecna are stubbornly persistent "archeologists." Githyanki love the oases of Shom. flying in on their dragons from ships sailing outside the dominion. The Quom are less predictable and Neogi tend to arrive periodically to try raiding a single ruin, usually a pretty rich, but very dangerous one.
Out in the desert sands, creatures that have become native to the astral dominion roam. There might be brown, gray and blue dragons present, along with some scrawny but very toxic wyverns and some serpents that have escapes the plane of Tytherion. Closer to the life giving oasis, tiny enclaves of survivalists dwell, rarely interacting with strangers, hiding from travellers, particularly those who can fly and lately, any giant, thanks to the Astral giants hunting them down slowly but surely.
Those recent additions to Shorn make up the sixth group-astral giants in the service of the goddess Erathis. By hunting down the survivalist outsiders for sport, they are exceeding the orders Erathis gave them. But Erathis does see Shom as vital to constructing the Lattice of Heaven. She contracted the astral giants to sweep through Shom and try to kill the monsters that the maruts seem unwilling or unable to destroy. Several bands of astral giants are performing the mission to the best of their ability and might even appreciate help from the characters.
However. at least two of the giant bands presently in Erathis's employ are bullies that may prove quite dangerous and determined enemies.
Erathis is the unaligned god of civilization, inventions and law. She is said to be in a relationship with the god Pelor and is allied with Moradin and Ioun. She is a good fit for humanity and hobgoblin society and is closely allied with the gods Gond, Bane, and Asmodeus because tyranny can be quite effective in establishing and enforcing civilization.
As for the Lattice of Heaven, I am not sure what it will look like once complete, but it includes things like the network the angels use to move around the cosmos incredibly fast.
There are also important anchor stones in other locations, such as Limbo and Pandemonium that can stabilize entire areas. But, speaking of some notable locations, within Shom can be found the Oracle of Oarma-Thaal, which is a fresh spring located between two mesas, the waters of the spring are enchanted to provide knowledge to those who drink, but, the location is guarded by a formidable legendary great sphinx known as the Voice of Sarpoth.
You may also arrive on Shom closer to the Tombs of Eurhondas, a location busy with a large number of Maruts, there is a circular trail in the broken dunes made up of giant statues and bright flame-skulls, tiny undead patrolling around the Halls of Elirhondas, also known as the City of Philosophers, it contains great treasures but also intricate a deadly traps. This was a capital city, and so contained a great many levels and holdings, as hundreds of dungeons all crammed closely together. The deepest halls exist in utter darkness, having only ever seen the light of the symbols orbiting around the illumian's heads, gently glowing in the endless night.
You should beware that glow, it usually means a bunch of enraged illumian mummies are about to lurch into range, sending swarms of noxious vermin in before them.
Shom holds great secrets, great battles, fiendish traps and puzzles, a lost civilization, ancient magic, enormous wealth, prestige and challenges enough for any adventurer.
Well worth a visit. As always, thanks for listening, and I will be back with more for you, very soon.
