Kin-Li'in is a plane described in Beyond Countless Doorways, and previewed in A Look at Kin-Li'in. BCD is a planar sourcebook under the "d20" roleplaying system, edited and published by Monte Cook under the Malhavoc Press imprint.
What follows is a second step to mapping and filling out this plane.
Kin-Li'in is a chaotic plane, further infested with fiendish variants of burrowing destrachans and delvers; and so it cannot have a classical map. However, beings do live in the warrens of this plane with the will and ability to enforce local order; for instance, Xar-el over his Warren.
The plane most recently attracted the attention of other planes as the base of the demon prince Beligos. Until his demise 10 years ago, Beligos would have enforced what rules there were upon this plane's architecture.
The plane has long enjoyed the reputation of being the "lowest" plane in the underworld. This implies that before 10 years ago, the plane was oriented such that its rulers exerted their authority from below.
The Shadow Plague is not inherent to this plane. The terrorites unleashed it over the course of its history, and BCD implies that they did so during the past 10 years. The geysers of fire and frost, meanwhile, exist independently of the Shadow Plague; and the elemental cultists in this plane have nothing to do with that plague nor with the plague's terrorite sponsors.
I conclude, that until 10 years ago, the fundament of Beligos's tower was the lowest point in this plane. Beligos would have mandated that no-one could delve below that point. Moreover, it is most likely he would have mandated that no-one but he could delve below an inverted cone with that fundament at its point. As planar warden, Beligos could have had the plane itself enforce this law. In those days when this plane was not synonymous with shadow, Beligos would have used boiling lava and/or freezing mud to shut down the transgressing tunnels.
The shadowy terrorites, then, were spawned by the plane's chaotic energies in the infinite "shade" outside where Beligos was able to exert control. The terrorites may or may not be related to shadow-demons, but either way they have never suffered the presence of true shadow-demons since their first appearance in this form. During the first years after Beligos's fall, the terrorites united to expel additionally the plane's balors, mariliths, and palrethee. Xar-El has since permitted other 10+ HD demons into this plane, like nalfeshnee and kelvezu, but only singly and under guard.
The burrows of Kin-Li'in have been allowed to grow outward from this cone since then, under terrorite direction or otherwise.
The most notable city of Kin-Li'in today is Nar-Har'an. Right now, "Nar-Har'an" is just a label applied to a concentration of demonic warrens. On the assumption that demons, like people, do not leave behind where they have always lived; this city is likely the closest settlement to the fallen capitol, Beligos's Tower. That means: Nar Har'an's oldest portion is oriented above the tower, and so the city covers a mile-diameter circle at its base. Certain sectors of that portion likely collapsed, some as far as Beligos's Cavern, when its prince fell and the tower broke.
Before the terrorites, Beligos had mastery over fire and frost. If their fonts existed under Beligos, Beligos probably had both of them connected to the base of his capitol tower. It is possible, given this plane's chaotic nature, that he had the fonts actually AT this tower and that they have migrated apart over the years.
It would, then, be up to the DM whether these fonts are associated with magical artifacts which might be carried by a party; or if moving these fonts can be done only by a planar warden.
Either way, the fonts are now roughly equidistant both from the Tower and from the city; which is to say, each font is about on the same level as its counterpart from an up-to-down orientation. It is up to the DM whether Xar-El has set up his Warren closer to one or the other.
The following "maps" are cross-sections. Up and down represent, literally, up and down. Side to side does not, however, relate to any cardinal direction; besides, there is no polar or magnetic north in this plane. And I did not draw the maps to scale.
The central cone is Beligos's Cavern, and the mile-wide cylinder within it is the Tower. Below it are caverns which at their lowest point generated the fire and frost which powered Beligos's might. Directly above it is old city Nar-Har'an.
Beligos's Cavern is now mostly rubble below the tower's fundament. The Tower is broken. Surrounding it and below, nothing stops other creatures from extending the Cavern beyond its cone. Above it, the city has expanded as xenophobic demons seek solitude. And there is a Font of Fire and a Font of Frost, equidistant from each other and from the central caves.
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zimriel@sbcglobal.netThanks to Monte Cook for publishing Beyond Countless Doorways and to its contributors, Wolfgang Baur, Colin McComb, and Ray Vallese.
On 30 July 2006 I did a quick "stub" of this page. On 6-7 August I added the roles of the delving fiends, speculated as to the origin of the terrorites, and established the planar warden's policy toward other demons.