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--- settings:beneath [2023/10/16 18:39] – quiddlesticks
+++ settings:beneath [2023/10/16 19:31] – quiddlesticks
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 ====== The Beneath ======
-A hellish world, the Beneath is the subject of many people's nightmares. It is home to all sorts of [[races:supernatural#infernal_origin|fiends;]] creatures that have been long known to feast on mortal souls for sustenance. Unlike many of the other planes of existence, the Beneath has a well-known, unchanging shape and form that consists of seven layers, each placed directly on top of the next in a shape that resembles an upside-down cone. It has been mostly mapped - and it is possible for a mortal to set up a permanent home here, although the quality of life in Hell is not likely to be anything pleasant.
+A hellish world, the Beneath is the subject of many people's nightmares. It is home to all sorts of [[lore:races:supernatural#infernal_origin|fiends;]] creatures that have been long known to feast on mortal souls for sustenance. Unlike many of the other planes of existence, the Beneath has a well-known, unchanging shape and form that consists of seven layers, each placed directly on top of the next in a shape that resembles an upside-down cone. It has been mostly mapped - and it is possible for a mortal to set up a permanent home here, although the quality of life in Hell is not likely to be anything pleasant.
-Flowing through each layer is a river of some viscous black liquid known as the **Way of Black Tears.** This river seems inert, like any other mundane river at first sight, but anything living that strays too close will meet an unfortunate end as the river seemingly comes to life, reeling the victim in with tar-like strands before dissolving their very being within its depths. Even the demons residing in the Beneath are not quite sure what the river is or why it does this, and give its banks a wide berth.
+Flowing through each layer is a river of some viscous black liquid known as the **Way of Black Tears.** This river seems inert, like any other mundane river at first sight, but anything living that strays too close will meet an unfortunate end as the river seemingly comes to life, reeling the victim in with tar-like strands before dissolving their very being within its depths. Even the demons residing in the Beneath are not quite sure what the river is or why it does this, and give its banks a wide berth. It is believed the Way of Black Tears is part of the [[settings:planes#the_void|Void]] that creeps upwards through the Beneath.
 ==== Demons as Adventurers ====
 For innumerable centuries, the Beneath was cut off from the normal flow of magic through the planes, and its inherently magical inhabitants were left with one choice: find some other way to eat, or starve to death. The solution for demons has, until recently, been the energy contained within souls. By forging contracts or simply devouring them whole, demons sustained themselves.
-However, in late 10080, a group of adventurers assisted in establishing an arcane wellspring within the Beneath, allowing demons to survive without the need to consume souls. Of course, a soul is still an immense bit of power, so the more ambitious and power-hungry individuals simply carry on as normal.
+However, in late 10080, a group of adventurers assisted in [[history:modernage#wellsprings_in_the_beneath|establishing an arcane wellspring]] within the Beneath, allowing demons to survive without the need to consume souls. Of course, a soul is still an immense bit of power, so the more ambitious and power-hungry individuals simply carry on as normal.
 Without a need to constantly harm others to survive, many demons found themselves with an entire world opened to them. Some began to live more peaceful lives within the Beneath, while others travel to the Cefa'zisto to become adventurers.
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 ==== Elysium, the Steel Republic ====
 //Laws: Speak in Warmth, Punish in Frost//
-{{  settings:elysium_zoekogut.jpg?500}}
+{{  settings:elysium_zoekogut.jpg?300}}
 [[settings:beneath:elysium|Elysium]] is the sole place that can be called a city in all of the Beneath. Though it has many laws, the greatest is that listed above. Elysians are well known for their extreme hospitality; contrasted by extremely draconian punishments. Most permanent residents of the Beneath live in Elysium. Elysium is ruled by the **Steel Chancellor** and their **Council of Six,** all mysterious fiends who have rarely, if ever been seen in public.
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 The Pits of Elysium are described here in short:
-  * **Pit of Succor:** This Pit has a tradition of hospitality which obligates every member to aid the local community in some way, shape or form, be it constant community service projects, donations to local businesses and organizations, etc. The members of this Pit all declare guests exempt from this duty and cover their costs for visiting and rooms with a community fund.
+  * **Pit of Succor:** While the demons of this pit share all they have with the community, thieves and the greedy are punished with a loss of all free will - essentially becoming zombies.
-  * **Pit of Cords:** Demons in this Pit tend to be very occupied with entertainment and delight in putting on shows, plays, musicals, dance routines and comedy sketches. Their preferred style of hospitality includes a good song and dance and merry revelry until the late hours of the night. A day doesn't go by where a citizen of the Pit of Cords doesn’t watch a thousand earnest entertainment productions, or star in them themselves. Inviting as many guests in on the fun as possible is standard practice.
+  * **Pit of Cords:** This is a pit of art, with most demons putting on grand shows of music and dance, and inviting guests to join in the fun. However, transgressors here are spirited away in the music to sewers, where they are tied to the walls by black cords and iron hooks, tortured in constant agony.
-  * **Pit of Worms:** The demons of this Pit value materialistic wealth in the forms of collectable curios and nice looking articles of clothing as well as unique magical items. They believe that a proper greeting is woefully incomplete unless some object of any value is exchanged and all hospitality must end in a gift exchange, each trying to give the other the better deal. This is the location of the **Market of Worms,** where one can find strange magical items which quickly lose their value when outside of the Beneath, as well as many other things in the wide and never ending Bazaar.
+  * **Pit of Worms:** This pit is home to the Market of Worms, a place of affluence and trade. Wondrous things are sold here, from unheard-of mystical items to the best food one has ever eaten. The punishments here, though, involve being stripped of all possessions, bound, and made to struggle on the bazaar's ground like a worm.
-  * **Pit of Eyes:** Demons of this Pit offer medical exams and treatment to guests, so great is their propensity for offering these checks that nearly every building in this Pit is built to serve as a makeshift triage. It is considered poor form to let a guest leave without at least providing them with ample healing supplies for a journey.
+  * **Pit of Eyes:** This is the hospital of Elysium, where residents are well trained in triage and healing. However, wrongdoers here are bound such that their eyes may never shut, forced to gaze up at the sky until their eyes dry away.
-  * **Pit of Beasts:** The demons here are a dull sort, far too busy, in their estimation, to do anything other than the humdrum of day to day life. Most demons of this Pit are engaged in some work or labor or similar endeavor which keeps them occupied during most of their time, so much so that they can't spare the time to greet or welcome many guests. Instead, citizens of this Pit decide to leave their homes unlocked and set aside refreshments, goods, and/or supplies in their homes in case a guest needs them.
+  * **Pit of Beasts:** This place is rather dull by comparison, with demons going about regular jobs like regular folk. The only excitement comes from watching the punished, who are transformed agonizingly into strange beasts and made to fight in some twisted form of blood sport.
-  * **Pit of Burdens:** This Pit has a tradition for hospitality which is most like what people expect of a gracious host, an open door, a warm room, filled with kind people offering what they have to weary travelers. The demons here are kindly folk that are quick with a story or a laugh and will gladly engage in conversation no matter the time of day or night such is their zest for life and living.
+  * **Pit of Burdens:** This place is almost provincial by Elysium's standards, with the folk of this pit being likely to invite a weary traveler in for a bite to eat and a warm fire. The punished here are tortured into forms that can act as tools to lighten the burdens of others - for instance, skin flayed to upholster a rocking chair, or bones sawed away to form the crutch for someone with a broken leg.
+==== Golgotha, Graveyard of Regrets ====
+//Law: Silence Or Obliteration//
+The law of this land is simple and straightforward: if one speaks, they find themselves marked and swiftly hunted down by shadowy beasts - the vigil of the Golgotha graveyard is not to be disturbed at any cost. This layer is an accursed graveyard, a monument to the war that was fought so long ago and where traitorous demons are sent to be stripped of their power.
+Outsiders who wield the forces of any magic will find themselves to be weakening with every step (all spells and disciplines in this place cost one extra unit and the users lose a unit every minute while in the sixth layer). Those who provide offerings to the Fallen will find some respite from the sapping of strength, and some demons come to Golgotha to make offerings to appease the Sovereign and his fallen host.
+Golgotha’s ground is made from the charred and grounded bones of ancient enemies and fallen allies, giving the ground a strange feel and its blackened appearance. A winding road called the Penitent Path leads travelers to various shrines and monuments that honor the fallen demons of the first war against the gods. Upon a hill to the south of the road, one can see the Rods of Oblivion: massive towers where punished demons are chained and nailed. The towers slowly and painfully strip any that touch it of their power, reducing them to a shriveled and dead shell with minds and souls erased.
+This layer is watched over by Valak, fallen servitor of T'or, and his Abyssal Guard. They maintain a constant silent vigil, and rarely fight - as battle is considered to violate the law of the land. Some notable locations in Golgotha follow:
+  * **Paimon's Sepulcher:** A massive sepulcher dedicated to the Beneath's first Sovereign, **Paimon.** Demons whisper that at the center of this tomb, both //Paimon’s mask and ring// can be found. Some even claim that Paimon themself watches over their own tomb. So great was their power that not even death could claim them, and they wait ever so patiently for the chosen few to enter so that they may take their throne once more.
+  * **Rods of Oblivion:** Black stone spires where punished souls are chained and nailed. It is thought that the Way of Black Tears somehow flows up inside the towers, and slowly strips any that touch it of their power and self. After some time, those tied to the Rods are reduced to shriveled, dead shells void of mind or soul.
+  * **The Night Keep:** Home of Valak and central base of the Abyssal Guard. Getting close to the keep, one will begin to feel the weight of the guilt of both the living and dead weigh them down, choking them with tears and coughed-up blood as they try to approach. Only those granted an audience may enter safely.
+==== Nox, the Shattered Epicenter ====
+//Law: [[settings:beneath:silentpact|The Silent Pact]]//
+This is the epicenter of the creation of the Beneath. There is no solid ground here, only great mounds of rock that are chained to the bottom of the sixth layer and each other, spreading out wide. Each chain is about fifty feet across and twenty feet high, forged of pure adamantite. Every so often, they clank and creak as the islands shift, but never break. Navigating between “islands” can be achieved by walking carefully along a chain, bringing some sort of flying machine, or hitching a risky ride on one of the deadly Harull worms that prowl the border between Nox and the Void.
+The islands themselves are gilded cages, each with an intricate interior of rooms. Inside these stone palaces, every luxury that one could hope for can be found - though, giving into these material temptations is a dangerous endeavor. They nearly seem to be sentient, and some have theorized that the palaces themselves are a kind of demon even the Fallen Servitors dare not cross, as their power is neither magical nor martial. Time and space alike distort within the palaces, as they seek to keep their inhabitants within them forever and drain their power until the unfortunate victim wastes away entirely.
+In the center of the islands, the Way of Black Tears empties down into the Void, which is situated directly below Nox. Built here is a palace like no other: the home of the Sovereign, the **Malhela Rego.** The Malhela Rego has no inhabitants; the only visitors are those seeking to attempt to take the throne, or those who claim to know the Sovereign’s will and communicate it to the rest of the Beneath.
+Here, the only law is that of the Silent Pact between the Sovereign and the [[:gods|Fourteen.]] But as of now the Sovereign's throne is empty, and only the laws that were set by the last Sovereign remain. A single physical copy of the Silent Pact hangs in the air, words seared by hellfire into skin leather. Legend has it that this copy is written on the flayed skin of Paimon themself.
+Those that attempt to sit on the throne of the sovereign will meet an untimely demise as it will absorb all of their magical power and obliterate their very being... the only survivors, deemed worthy by the Throne, take the Sovereign's position.
+===== History of the Beneath =====
+The creation of the Beneath was unique. Many demonic planes once existed around the Cefa'zisto, each a reflection of the fears of mortalkind, but they had neither form nor organization. However, one of these demonic planes was bursting with magic energy, so much so that it threatened to tear itself apart before it had even begun, but fate had different plans - as another demonic plane was attracted to this energy. It then collided and fused with the plane.
+This was enough to briefly stabilize the plane, but it still was generating more energy than it could hold and again threatened to tear itself apart. Another demonic plane was attracted and it too fused with the plane. Hundreds of years passed, and countless demonic planes fused with the original until it eventually stabilized itself for good. Thus the Beneath was formed and settled “below” the material world.
+While much of the history of the Beneath has been lost, there are many stories that the priesthoods have made. They paint the Beneath in a variety of different ways, but the most common one is that it is a place where only the wicked and damned go, or those that have committed atrocious crimes against a priesthood or society.
+This isn’t actually the case. What can be agreed upon by both priests and demons is that a war was fought between the Gods and their servants against the Sovereign and their legions of demons and the three other fallen gods. The true reason for the war is lost to both sides, though both would argue that they were in the right. Whatever the reason for it, this led to the most important event that forever shaped the Beneath: the [[settings:beneath:silentpact|Silent Pact.]]
+After the Silent Pact came the Rupturing, a calamity which cut the Beneath off from the rest of the world and formed the Way of Black Tears. It was during this calamity that Nox shattered into pieces and came to rest above the Void.
+The Rupturing saw the death of the most recent Sovereign of the Beneath (whose name is Xa’los, pr. ZA-LOSS) as well as the splitting of the Beneath into its seven layers, as the Void forced its way into the plane. Since then, the Sovereign’s throne has been empty, and various warlords and pit lords have vied for control of the throne.