Oblivion:Planes of Oblivion

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This article discusses the actual planes of Oblivion. For more information about the gates used to enter Oblivion, see Oblivion Gates

As you play through Oblivion, you will travel through the Planes of Oblivion multiple times. Many of these oblivion worlds are associated with the main quest. There are also a small number of additional oblivion worlds that you can enter on Daedric Quests.

All of these oblivion worlds have a generally similar appearance. They are all fiery and sunless (which can be a relief for Vampires, for they do not have to worry about Sun Damage while in Oblivion), with large lava fields. The flora, fauna, and landscape are all dangerous, with many unpleasant traps. As described in the Tamriel entry on Planes of Oblivion, the plane of each Daedric prince is supposedly very different in appearance. It is therefore surprising that the oblivion worlds entered during the game are all so similar, given that they belong to at least three different princes (Boethia, Mehrunes Dagon, and Peryite).

In most Oblivion worlds (i.e., except for those associated with Daedric quests), there is a central tower which is your objective. At the top of that tower is a room containing a Sigil Stone; once you remove that stone, the oblivion gate will be closed, and you will be transported back to Tamriel.

Contents 1 Features of the Plane of Oblivion 2 Regions 2.1 Exterior 2.2 Caves 2.3 The Main Tower 2.4 Sigillum Sanguis 3 Standard Worlds 4 Random Worlds

[edit] Features of the Plane of Oblivion

There are several plants that only grow in oblivion and provide otherwise unavailable ingredients: Bloodgrass, Harrada Root, and Spiddal Stick. Bloodgrass is harmless, but the other two are not. Harrada Root plants (except for any hanging ones) will hit any nearby humanoids. Spiddal sticks will release a cloud of Drain Speed poison gas when approached.

There are a fair number of traps that are specific to Oblivion. Outside, one will find land mines, impalers, and towers that shoot fireballs. These are all described in more detail at Traps. In addition, those who visit an Oblivion world will encounter many more familiar traps: rock falls, guillotines, dart traps, etc. Any such adventurer should always be careful of the many ways to immolate oneself in oblivion: falling into the lava will result in rapid death (even with Resist Fire enchantments), and there are also many bonfires that are easy to accidentally back into when fighting the local creatures.

The Plane of Oblivion is not rich in loot, however, a small amount does exist. Instead of chests, one should look for Fleshy Pods, either hanging from rocks or sitting on the ground, and The Punished which have better quality loot, and are only found inside towers. Some Corpses hanging from the ceiling or sprawled on rocks might have some gold on them, but never more than two or three coins.

The inhabitants of Oblivion are Daedra and Dremora. Most daedra drop ingredients which can only be found in Oblivion and often have very useful alchemical properties. One can loot the corpses of Dremora for weapons and occasional shields, but their armor cannot be taken (except for Valkynaz). This may be a blessing in disguise, since the Dremora weapons are already so heavy that trying to bring all the weapons back from a trip to Oblivion can be very challenging.

There are a few beneficial items in Oblivion. In particular, Blood Fountains Restore Health and Magicka Essences Restore Magicka.

[edit] Regions

[edit] Exterior

You will emerge from the Oblivion Gate into a typical Oblivion landscape. The name of the landscape will vary: in random worlds you will find yourself in the Wastes of Oblivion; in most quest worlds you will be in the Plane of Oblivion, except for The Wayward Knight, which is in the Realm of Oblivion; on the Daedric quests, you will be in the Realm of Boethia and Realm of Peryite, respectively. With the exception of the Daedric quests, there is no apparent significance to the different names given to the landscape.

Other than for the Daedric quests, your objective is always to locate and enter the main tower. Although you may be able to immediately see the tower, it is not possible to just walk straight towards it. In some worlds, you will have to work your way through a maze of lava fields, cliffs, and/or rockslides; Acrobatics and Athletics skills can be an advantage. Sometimes you will have to go through a set of caves to make it past an obstacle. Or you may need to enter a peripheral tower, for example to activate the switch that opens a war gate, or to gain access to a bridge.

On your way you will have to contend with level-dependent Daedra and Dremora. Creatures aren't the only thing to worry about, since the entire place (even the vegetation) wants you dead. Watch out for a large variety of different booby traps and fire towers.

If you are not trying to get through the world as quickly as possible, it can be worth while to explore the surface more fully. In particular, the Fleshy Pods containing loot are often located off of the main route from gate to tower; peripheral towers or cave systems may contain The Punished, with better quality loot. Also, you can greatly increase the number of rare oblivion ingredients that you collect with a bit of extra exploration. However, you will also end up triggering more booby traps and fighting off additional daedra and dremora.

The exterior "islands" of each world are surrounded by a large lake of lava. It is possible, with enough health and healing abilities, to swim though this lava to the other side. You are also able to walk on the lava if you use water walking. However, it will still burn you. On the other side of the lava is just an empty plain. This plain lasts for a long time, and gives way to a long-drop cliff. The land after the cliff is the same as before, albeit lower, and stretches on forever.

[edit] Caves

Caves must often be traversed to get from the entry gate to the main tower. Often, these caves will require you to jump down to a lower level, which will then prevent you from being able to return to the entry gate. So if you want to take any extra loot back to Tamriel, it's best to do that before starting through any caves.

In random worlds, the caves may also be randomized. The outside entrance to a random cave is labeled Nether Tunnels; interior doors from one zone to another are labeled Oblivion Cave. The cave is divided into three zones (start, middle, and end), each of which can be any of seven different layouts. See Random Oblivion Caves for more details.

[edit] The Main Tower

The main tower is generally the largest of the towers; it can often be recognized by the yellow light emanating from the Sigillum Sanguis at the top of the tower. The name given to the tower varies from world to world (and in some random worlds may only be determined at the time when you enter the tower). Non-random tower names are:

• The Blood Feast
• The Brooding Fortress
• The Chaos Stronghold
• The Fury Spike
• Portals of Natural Disaster
• World Breaker

For random towers, the front door is initially labeled The Tower Portal. Which tower you enter is determined when you first open the door. Exiting and reentering will not change the selection; after exiting the door is now relabeled The Tower Portal to ___ (where the underscores are of course replaced by the name of the tower). The five possible random towers are:

• The Claw Monolith
• The Dreaded Refuge
• The Flesh Spire
• The Gore Steeple
• The Lust Keep

When you enter the main tower, the first thing you will notice is the huge glowing column of fire at the center of the room; your objective is to get to the top of the tower and into the Sigillum Sanguis where this column ends. Any contact with this pillar, either at ground level or falling into it from a stairway above, will result in a fiery death for either you or any Daedra.

Occasionally the first hall will be empty, but more often than not you will have a welcoming committee of Daedra and Dremora waiting for you.

The map of the main hall can be very confusing, because it can show a dozen doors, even though when you look around you only see two or three doors. The map is showing all the different vertical levels of the tower squashed together onto a single map. Each ring on the map represents a different vertical level, with its own entrances and exits. It is generally easiest in the main hall to ignore the map, because it does not provide you any information on how to ascend, which is your objective.

To get to the top of the tower you will need to go through a number of side passages and sometimes teleporters. Each of the 11 towers listed above has a different interior layout, but they all follow the same scheme, and use many of the same names for the side rooms even if the layout is slightly different. Corridors of Dark Salvation and Rending Halls are particularly common names; you may also see Dead Halls and Desolations End.

The basic rule is simple: just keep going up. If you don't see any ramps leading up, look for a door to a side room, and follow that room up a level. You will encounter more leveled Daedra and Dremora. The towers also tend to contain multiple Blood Fountains and Magicka Essences for healing yourself. And be on the lookout for The Punished to obtain extra loot.

In some oblivion worlds, you will reach a locked door, requiring a key (no lockpicking possible). This door of course needs to be opened to make it to the top of the tower. The required Sigil Key will be found on a Dremora Sigil Keeper, who is sometimes found in a peripheral tower.

[edit] Sigillum Sanguis

This room is your primary destination in most Oblivion worlds, because this is where you will find the Sigil Stone keeping the gate open. The Sigillum Sanguis is always located at the top of the main tower. See the main article, Sigillum Sanguis, for more information.

[edit] Standard Worlds

These Oblivion Worlds are quest-related, and are always accessed by one specific Oblivion Gate. Details on the worlds are provided on the quest pages.

Bruma Oblivion World

• This world is accessed by the first gate that opens outside Bruma during the Bruma Gate quest.

Cheydinhal Oblivion World

• This is accessed by the gate that opens outside Cheydinhal during the main quest, and is part of the The Wayward Knight quest.

Great Gate Oblivion World

• This world is entered during the Great Gate quest in the Main Quest.

Kvatch Oblivion World

• This is the first Oblivion world you will enter, during the Breaking the Siege of Kvatch quest.

Realm of Boethia

• You will enter Boethia's Realm during Boethia's Daedric quest.

Realm of Peryite

• You will enter Peryite's Realm during Peryite's Daedric quest.

[edit] Random Worlds

Most Oblivion gates access one of the following seven random worlds. (Because two of the worlds have two possible entrances, it can appear as if there are nine worlds). The 90 Random Gates will connect to any of these seven; several of the city gates will connect to one specific random world.

Which world you enter is determined at the time when you transport through the Oblivion Gate. If you wish to alter the world that you enter, you can save your game immediately before activating the gate, and then repeatedly go through the gate until you are satisfied with the world you find. Since in all cases the world you enter is identified as the Wastes of Oblivion, the name alone will not tell you which world you are in. To identify the world, start by determining which direction you are facing, then use the following guide:

• Facing North:
  • If there is a fairly open area in front of you, with a war gate between you and the main tower (with another tower visible on either side of it), you are in World 1.
  • If you are standing on a broken bridge section, with five towers and a dead horse visible in front of you, you are in World 3.
• Facing East:
  • If you can see a tower to the southeast, with two charred corpses at the base of the gate behind you, you are in World 5 at at the northwest entrance.
  • If you can see two towers to the west (requires climbing on top of some rocks), you are in World 6, at the northeast entrance.
• Facing South:
  • If you are standing in front of a large rock, with seven towers visible in front of you (some may be hidden behind others), you are in World 2.
  • If you see three towers in front of you, with a road leading away from you and passing under a bridge, you are in World 4.
  • If the only tower is visible to the west (more clearly visible if you step forward), you are in World 6, at the southeast entrance.
• Facing Southwest:
  • If in front of you the path curves up a hill, with a tower half-hidden by smoke on top of the hill, you are in World 7.
  • If you can clearly see a tower to the northwest, and two charred corpses in front of you, you are in World 5 at the east entrance.

The game will only have one Tamriel gate connected at a time to each of the nine possible gates on the Oblivion side. So if you already have gates open to a couple Random Oblivion Worlds (and have not yet retrieved the sigil stones and closed the gate), any new gate you open will not reconnect to one of the same places. If you keep opening gates and returning without closing the gates the game will eventually (after nine gates) be forced to recycle and will reset the previously opened gates (i.e., you lose any progress you made and will lose any equipment you left there).

Both worlds 5 and 6 have two entrances. If you find the other entrance, you could return to Tamriel through it as long as you have not yet reached the maximum number of opened gates at that point in the game. Typically the other entrance will randomly teleport you to a new location in Tamriel. It is possible to emerge at a gate that was not previously marked on your map. If, however, you have been entering oblivion worlds and not closing the gates, it is possible that the other gate is already connected to a specific location in Tamriel, i.e., to the location at which you previously entered this world. When you remove the sigil stone in one of these two-gate worlds, you will be returned to the site of whichever gate you most recently used, and only that one gate is closed. If you return to the other gate and re-enter it, you will now be connected to a new random world.

Within the random oblivion worlds, there are additional elements that are randomly determined. In most of these worlds, the name and inside layout of the main tower is random. Cave systems may also be randomly determined. These elements can be random even in the city gates that always connect to a specific world. See previous sections for details on these random elements.

Random Oblivion World 1

• You will exit this gate facing north. A path leads away from you to a war gate, with three towers visible past the war gate; a fourth leaning tower can be seen to the west.
• The Bravil gate always connects to this world.
• The main tower in this world is randomly determined.
• See Random Oblivion World 1 for more details.

Random Oblivion World 2

• You will exit this gate facing south, with a large rock right in front of you. On the opposite side of the rock, you will see multiple towers (there are seven in all, but some may be hidden behind others).
• The Chorrol gate always connects to this world.
• The main tower in this world is always the Portals of Natural Disaster.
• See Random Oblivion World 2 for more details.

Random Oblivion World 3

• You will exit this gate facing north. A broken bridge bearing a dead horse leads away from you towards five towers.
• The Leyawiin gate always connects to this world.
• The main tower in this world is randomly determined.
• See Random Oblivion World 3 for more details.

Random Oblivion World 4

• You will exit this gate facing south. A road leads away from you, immediately going under a bridge that joins two towers. A third tower is on the other side of the bridge.
• The Skingrad gate always connects to this world.
• The main tower in this world is always The Brooding Fortress.
• See Random Oblivion World 4 for more details.

Random Oblivion World 5

World 5's E entrance (facing SW)

World 5's NW entrance (facing E)

• This world can be entered at either of two entrances.
  • E: You will exit this gate facing southwest. A medium size rock with a couple of tufts of bloodgrass is right in front of you; two charred corpses lie on the ground in front of you; a tower is visible to the northwest.
  • NW: You will exit this gate facing east, with a tower visible to the southeast; there are two charred corpses at the base of the gate, behind you. Finding this entrance in the construction set is difficult; it is located in an anonymous "Wilderness" cell at coordinates (15,19).
• The main tower in this world is randomly determined.
• See Random Oblivion World 5 for more details.

Random Oblivion World 6

World 6's SE entrance (facing S)

World 6's NE entrance (facing E)

• This world can be entered at either of two entrances.
  • SE: You will exit this gate facing south. There is a smoky pyre to the southwest, but no immediately visible towers. If you step forward, you can see one tower to the west.
  • NE: You will exit this gate facing east, with no immediately visible landmarks. If you jump up on the rocks behind the gate, you can see two towers to the west.
• The main tower in this world is randomly determined.
• See Random Oblivion World 6 for more details.

Random Oblivion World 7

• You will exit this gate facing southwest with a path curving away up the hill in front of you. At the top of the hill (semi-obscured behind columns of smoke) you can see one tower; another tower is partially visible to the southeast.
• The Anvil gate always connects to this world.
• The main tower in this world is randomly determined.
• See Random Oblivion World 7 for more details.