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The Abyss

The Abyss is the elemental hell of water. Those that have seen this diabolic plane have described it as a shoreline of mires and bogs that changes as the waters deepen and change from fresh to brine. Pilgrims who journey to the Abyss find that it is roughly divided into four regions, each deeper, darker and more perilous than the last, until the traveler passes from the deepest point of the Abyss into the Void itself.
The first zone of the Abyss is the Edgewater, a broad coastline of freshwater swamps, ponds, streams, rivers, salt marshes, and estuaries. The Edgewater is the shallowest, least hazardous region of the Abyss. It is a region inhabited by minor fiends and demonic undead. The most common fiends in this region are the Drowners, such as the rusalki, kappa, and vodyanoi, who dwell in rivers and millponds, where they drag down their unsuspecting victims to watery graves. Other fiends of the Edgewater are the black annis, child-eating swamp hag, tikoloshe voracious sexual predators, and mbulu, amphibious tricksters and impersonators.
The Far Fathoms are deep, gloomy lake-waters inhabited by fresh-water demons such as kelpies, aquatic shapeshifters that change from human to horse form, the nautical cities of serpentine water nagas, and the massive, frog-like wahwee that cause droughts and floods and bunyips, huge, seal-like, marine predators. There are even stranger denizens in the Far Fathoms, such as Munuane the demonic fisherman, whose eyes are in is knees. Munuane although slow-witted is a skilled ferryman and peerless archer, whose arrows not only target fish the often mark cadavers of his human prey. Ahuizotl is another unique fiend of the Far Fathoms. It believes all the fish of the high mountain lakes are its property and as such it swims out of the Abyss to crush the boats of “thieving” fisherman. Besides a dark shape beneath the waves, there is no description of Ahuizotl, for none who have ever truly seen the fiend have survived to play witness.
The Utmost Dark is a gloomy, brackish span of water. This is region is the abode of more lethal marine demons. It is the habitat of the merrow, demonic nymphs, whose seductive, haunting music rises up from the waves, siryns whose song lures sailors to their deaths, and the Ponaturi, evil water fairies that drag ocean swimmers beneath the waves, but are destroyed instantly by sunlight (which is totally absent in the Utmost Dark). Larger fiends also dwell in the Utmost Dark, such as Scylla, the sea serpent, and Charybdis, the floating island, who work in conjunction to sink ships in the Shadowlands but then return to the Utmost Dark. Further beneath the waves swims massive, squid-like kraken and other terrors of the deep.
The furthest, most foul and hazardous region of the Abyss is the Mare Tenebrosum, the Sea of Darkness. This is a region of black water is locked in utter blackness because of it directly borders the Void. It is a shadowy sea where the ghosts of lost ships and seamen sail forever in perpetual darkness. The Mare Tenebrosum has been known to leech into the oceans of the mortal realms, but is not marked on any charts and may even move slowly over the surface of the waters following the track of great ocean currents. Seamen never know that they have entered the Sea Darkness until night has fallen and the sea becomes mysteriously calm, no matter how rough it may have been before the sun went down. There is no moon or stars and the heavens are obscured by solid black cloud.
Then there is an agonized hail out of the darkness: the kind of choking, despairing cry that a swimmer might utter in the moment before drowning. This is soon followed by other sounds, voices: the savage yells of men fighting for their lives; the screams of women and children as a ship sinks beneath the waves; orders bellowed in the language of every seafaring nation. The sails of a full-rigged ship seem to glimmer through the darkness, or the oars of a war galley or the bows of frigates churn the water into foam. At last all the sounds coalesce into a bloodcurdling wailing, as ghostly ships loom up and disappear before the bow of the intruding craft. When a vessel might drift becalmed in the Mare Tenebrosum the sights and sounds are so appalling that dawn might find her crew in a condition of near insanity. Other vessels never leave the shadowy reaches of the Sea of Darkness but are instead drawn through it into the Abyss. These ghost ships then float out into the Utmost Dark to haunt the waters of the Abyss. What types of demons dwell in the Mare Tenebrosum remains unknown for none have successfully explored this region. It is known only that the most potent and virulent demons, such as the Leviathan, dwell here. Fiends so horrible they are never seen yet their legends are undying.

The Bridge of Souls

On the Woodland Loop, there is a bridge hanging in the air. Unlike when it was seen during the Jester’s Tale Spun, it is devoid of fish and shoes. During the Jester’s Tale Spun, all kinds of familiar things changed like toad-spools instead of fay mushrooms, rune-shtictz instead of runesticks, etc. When adventurers saw the Bridge of Soles, a bridge covered in fish and foot-wear, they just did not know they were seeing the Bridge of Souls.
To mortal eyes it does not look like much, just a little suspended bridge, but, if you carry a soul from Moonwood, you would notice a second, longer, more wraith-like bridge appearing beyond it. They are clearly the same bridge but one half is ethereal and more inexplicable there is a big gap between your side of the bridge and its second half. It would be impossible to jump from the solid bridge to the ethereal one. A section of the bridge is missing!
The soul-sight provided by your Moonwood soul would fill in the missing span. To your eye it would appear intangible but different from the first ethereal section you saw. Nevertheless, just seeing all three sections of the bridge together allows you to understand. The Soul of Bridges is the conduit of souls between this world and the next. The first solid section can be traveled upon by mortals. The second was invisible at first, because it can be traveled upon only once a person is a spirit and thus was invisible to your living eyes. The third section you were able to see only because of your soul-sight from the Moonwood soul. This final span can only be traveled on by beings who are no longer living and no longer spirit, but purely soul. Once a soul reaches the other side of the Bridge of Souls, it enters the place where it waits to be reborn.
What is that place you wonder? Why would mortals need to walk a dead end bridge though you think? Once again, the Moonwood soul would answer your question: mortals would climb the bridge to witness the journey of a soul.

Candle Keep

Candle Keep is Allahn's private sanctuary in the ethereal plane. There he keeps a host of beings both malevolent and benign. Some of the known areas of the keep are the Candles of Chance, the Hall of Unbearable Light, the Well of Lost Souls, the Hall of Smoke, the Wishing Well, the Hall of Truth and the Hall of Time. To gain entrance to Candle Keep you must perform this ceremony.

Eidenhomme

Eidenhomme is the woodland home realm of the Faerie or the Fay. For untold ages, the Faerie Troop that frolicked in the verdant forests Eidenhomme. When the Faerie Troop found a way to leave Eidenhomme through portal ways, called Faerie Rings and Faerie Mounds, they then began to spend six months of each year on the mortal plane, the Shadowlands, and six months in otherworldly plane of Eidenhomme.
It was this vagabond life that lead to the disbanding of the Faerie Troop, for many of the faerie began to revel in the physical life and no longer wished to live in Eidenhomme. When the time to return to the Court of the Monarchs came, those who would become goblins refused to heed the call the sovereigns of the Faerie, the White King and the White Lady. Instead, they fled to the dark woodlands seeking sanctuary from the wrath of their sovereigns.
This ended the days of Faerie Troop, and led to the splintering of the Faerie Race. Where there had been one race of the Faerie, now their existed hundreds such as elves, kobolds, leshy, leprechauns, sprites, dwarves, nymphs, dryads, satyrs, and dozens of other faerie species. Many of these new fay remained in Eidenhomme but many more settled in the Shadowlands.
After the Goblins rebelled against and fled Eidenhomme. The Goblins no longer had the blessings, protections of the divine monarchs or their fay magics. The Parliament of Ents charged Arboleth with guiding the goblins after they fled Eidenhomme and the White Lady’s aegis. They settled in a woodland realm adjacent to Eidenhomme, that they named Naggnarak and the other Fay mockingly dubbed Goblinhomme.
Other major events have shaped Eidenhomme such as the Great Sundering during the Wizard War. The battle for control of the Great School broke out in the shattered plains, near to the heart of the forest of Eidenhomme. The faerie were horrified at the wanton destruction of the sacred woods by the human, and quickly worked some of their most potent magic causing half of the forest disappeared in a flash. The remaining area was razed in the battle. There was no life to the forest, and it was christened anew... the Sundered Forest.
Humans were not the only being to damage the sacred faerie forest. During the Ascension War, three sprite brother-princes fought at Pixie Path Knoll for the crown of the Sprite King. One prince summoned wall of water that crashed into the pines and maples, uproot and drowning the forest. Flights of tiny fay tried to escape the deluge but were swallowed up by the torrents. The princes would have destroyed all of Eidenhomme in order to take the mantle of the sprites. Historians call this flood the Deluge of Eidenhomme.
A greater tragedy was when Thadun slithered through the indigo fairy ring in the Nexus of Water. Entering Eidenhomme, the Faceless One slaughtered of the White King and his Ten Faerie Knights. The fay sovereign was laid to rest in the White King’s Grove where his throne stood. The knights’ blades were hung upon the Tree of Swords and their corpses were laid to rest in a tiny cemetery that vanished into limbo when Mourning Bear was duped into finishing the Fool’s Quest.
To add insult to injury, Brudenko Silverblood with a band of goblins led by Blackboar the Raider pillaged Eidenhomme for its treasure. During this raid, Blackboar looted the White King’s Grove and stole his vacant throne. The throne was eventually restored by Rowan the Librarian.
Due to the destruction at the hands of non-fay, the faerie vehemently restrict access to Eidenhomme. Fairy rings still act as the magical portals whereby the fairy can enter the Shadowlands, but non-fay cannot use them to breach into the Faerie Realm. Recently, the elves constructed five Elven Pillars in the White Woods just above Fallenstar. The White Woods are a fay holy ground that permits humans to communicate face to face with fay emissaries and occasionally to enter pockets of Eidenhomme. Humans are allowed to enter the Sepulchre and recently a band of heroes from Fallenstar entered Eidenhomme after it had been eclipsed by Mechella. This was during a Midsummer’s Nightmare in 400 AF. Rowan, Gift, X, Madera, Auri Lee, Bear, Navlys and Erik, the virtue heroes, defended the shattered Sepulchre, traveled Atu’s maze, slew the undead Goblin King and ended the eclipse by vanquishing the Twilight Orb.

Everwinter

Everwinter is the realm of eternal ice and snow that is ruled over by Ymir, The Keeper of Winter. Ymir, the Lord of Ice, has long ruled the frozen wastelands of the north and rule supreme one season of four. He long ago, almost completely annihiliated his hated foes the Jotner, but other creatures dwell in Everwinter. Few things that grow in Everwinter, but one is the eternally generous Tree of Offerings. Ymir’s land is inhabited by numerous winter fay, such as Uldra, Ice Fairies, and Gilders. It is also a land of restless ghosts such as Snowmaidens, the relentless undead Utburd or winter spirits. Ymir’s self-imposed charge is to silence the unquiet dead. Ymir and his followers binds these restless souls from ever doing harm again by freezing their spirits into the Sleep of the Dead.

The Forbidden Glade

The symbol of earth is a triangle, as are all the elements. This is not an arbitrary design. It is symbolic of the three aspects that comprise earth: Rock, Wood and Blood. Rock is the foundation. It is the soil, and mantle of the earth. Wood is the strength. It is the vine, the leaf and the trunk. It is the crown of earth. Blood is the diversity of life. It is the myriad of animals that complete the circle. The soil feeds the plants, the plants feed the animals, the animals return to the soil. But there is a disharmony in the perfection. For rock, there is the Pit, for Blood, there is necromancy, and for the forest... there is the Forbidden Glade.
The Forbidden Glade is a piece of primal of forest, ancient and raw that became corrupted by the blood of demons. It was warded off by the Ents so as to keep the corruption from spreading. Their earthen magics made this evil place detached from the living world. The Forbidden Glade and its Forest of Lost Souls can still be accessed by a witchgate by the brave of heart, foolish of nature, or evil by design.

The Hall of the Mages

The Hall of the Mages was originally a vault of one of the branches of the Great School. The name of this branch has been lost to time. It is known that Jequa, one of Fallenstar’s Founders, adopted this vault as his base of operation and served as its protector of centuries. Jequa used the magics within the vault to aid Fallenstar upon numerous occasions; to route the forces of the Marauder to ward the town further against the Dark Legion, and to defeat numerous evil spirits and wizards.
It was said that Jequa spent far more of his time in the Hall of the Mages than he ever did in Fallenstar. There he conducted innumerable magical experiments and created an endless number of arcane constructs, but what the end result of these studies is remains unknown.
The Hall of the Mages still floats in that limbo realm between physical and ethereal, and it rare that any ever enter it. In 391, the Jack O’Lantern did lead a small troupe of novice adventurers into the Hall there they passed a number of tests and met the spirit of Jequa, who gave them an Order Spell and the means to defeat the Chaos Weaver and restore peace between elves and humans.

The Haunted Plains

The Haunted Plains are a migratory region of the Shadowlands where numerous battles have been fought over the ages. For example, the bulk of the fighting of the Wizard War was fought on this cursed ground. This land was subject to so many warping magics and death that it became forever changed. It periodically vanishes and then reappears elsewhere.
Many adventurers have wondered why they cannot see the warping of the Plains, but it seems to be a function of the relative power of magic during the day/night cycle. The warped land does not appear during the daylight hours...the plains look perfectly normal then. But, during the night, many of the trapped and latent magics of the old battle return, and many of the participants of the Wizard War return in their spirit form to replay their final destruction posing great danger for any travelling the plains at night. These specters are dangerous, for their magics are real and are still capable of slaying an unwary person. Beware of nighttime travel on the Haunted Plains. These plains extend from Shadowglade through Fallenstar and to regions far beyond.
The true origins and the source of power that fuels this plain of eternal war-torn torment are still unknown but it is suspected that what has been seen so far is but the tip of the iceberg.

Limbo

Limbo is a unique dimension. Many describe it as the first layer of reality away from the Shadowlands. Limbo contains the pathways and nexus between dimensions. It is the crossroads for spirits, dimensional beings, gods and travelers. It contains few known denizen’s but it is thought to possibly be the plane of gargoyles, ethereal trees, and others enigmatic species.
Spirits are said to be able to pass effortlessly from the Spirit Realm to the realms of mortals. Living creatures need to generate some source of power or magic to open the gateway into Limbo. In some areas, living beings in the Limbo can interact with denizens of other planes without fully passing into that dimension. Travelers appear to those denizens as intangible shadows much like a mortal spirit would.

The Mausoleum

The Mausoleum is the Vault of the Mediums. The Mediums branch of the Great School of Magic mainly exorcized poltergeists and sent spirits into death, not conversing with them on a daily basis as today’s Mediums do. Like all Vaults, the Mausoleum was where the Mediums hoarded the lore for the High Mages and potent spells like Gate and Death’s Hall. It was the duty of Master Jequa, the Gatekeeper of the Great School, to keep the Vaults safe from harm. He was responsible for the wards and sigils that protected them. During the Wizard War, he and his apprentices, Ezaria, Falkith, Casteig and Anthral, had to personally seal each Vault from invaders. They were often attacked and harried by the forces of the Lower School. It was during one of those attacks that his apprentice, Ezaria became trapped in the Mausoleum. Once sealed, there was no way to free her. Ezaria’s and later the Gatekeeper’s spirit languished were ensnared in the Mausoleum for centuries until they were eventually freed.
During that time Ezaria discovered that there is a mystical conduit between the Mausoleum where I resided and the elven crypt the Sepulchre. Strange spirits reside in both burial chambers. In the Mausoleum, there is the Library of Lost Souls where spirit like Mthgar the Champion, Geist the Spirit-Tongued, Bastion the Runologist, Odoss the Omen and many other reside.
Recently, while in the Spirit Realm, Kelloran the Restorer and Stone the Forestal had recently visited the Mausoleum and discovered extra-planer beings battling a Nihilist over a powerful magic blade. The two also found seven gray spirits lying in the ruins of the Mausoleum: Montu the Nihilist, Doro the Master Thief, Teris the Dowser, Gren the Guide, Melios the Miser, Lorne the Alchemist and Lady Ardias Greywind the Thirsty.

The Moon Tree

The Moon Tree is a living tree that exists in a parallel universe of magic. It leaves, blossoms and lives only under the moon of the realm of pure magic. It draws in the power of the moon's magic, and converts it into pure liquid energy. Its seeds, long stringy vines of glowing color, hold this power and can be used to provide a large magic output for someone not normally able to do so. Some of the adventurous mages of the Great School found this tree and used its powerful storehouse of magic to increase their own potency. The faerie are well versed in its lore, and are rumored to have some kind of initiation rite that takes place around the tree. The Moon Tree is impossible to see unless you can actually enter the realm of magic.

Moonwood

Moonwood was created by Crodez the Moon God as an access point between the Moon Realm and the Shadowlands to be a haven to spirits and souls from the growing Darkness. The black headstones on the bottom terrace are ordinary graves and can be spoken with in the usual spell-casting fashion at any point, day or night. The graves on the upper terrace can only be spoken to at night. These are the graves of spirits that are important to Crodez the Lord of the Moon. The majority of them are the Heroes of Virtue. Not all eight of these heroes reside in Moonwood yet, but all of them are black spirits. As such, they are dangerous to speak with unless you use the fourth level spell Speak with Black Spirits. If you speak to a black spirit without the protections of that spell, you will mystically share the black chains of punishment that surround the spirit.
The upper most tier of Moonwood can be only accessed through a ritual of opening done at night. Beyond the graves of Crodez’s favored is the Soul Forest, where souls hang from the boughs of trees. This is one of the places where souls await to be reborn. Souls are immortal and always move to come full circle. Some of you have the souls of great men and women within you. The mage Qwyrnn was able to tap into the ancestral power of the soul through his Spell of Succession.
Here in Moonwood, you will find the souls of many lives well lived. In the Soul Forest, you will be able to experience ONE soul’s essence. You gain intermittent feelings of that soul’s last life and temporarily gain the magics, powers and experiences. Although these souls can greatly aid and teach their bearer, they can also be inconvenient and sometimes dangerous for they compel their bearer to behave in specific ways. Not all souls are good and some may have difficult feelings to witness.
Each has something to share with you about the life they had lived. It is a gift of sharing, an exchange of knowledge. Remember, even evil people have something to share, A road not to take perhaps. Some information can be gleaned about the souls by casting Detect Soul and touching the hanging soul.

Naggnarak, Goblinhomme

In the dim past, before man began to write words on the ground up corpses of trees, Arboleth had been the guardian of the goblin race. The Ent settled his charges in a woodland realm adjacent to Eidenhomme, that they named Naggnarak and the other Fay mockingly dubbed Goblinhomme.
Arboleth taught his wards to survive on their own and find their place in the world of Fairedom and Man. He taught them independence and survival skills, but before the goblins evolved to the benign race he hoped they would Naggnarak was thrown into perpetual darkness. Arboleth discovered that the First God of Night’s soul had become trapped within the Twilight Orb and it had eclipsed his forest. Arboleth tried to find a way for he and his goblins to escape the benighted woodland but found they were completely trapped; all the Witch-Gates and portals to and from Naggnarak were sealed by the eclipse, not a spark of magic remained to ply a gate-spell of any kind.
Arboleth was forced to watch as his children’s society slowly devolved into anarchy and madness. The forest grew quiet and the plants died from a lack of sun, then the herbivores died, then the carnivores perished until only scavengers remained. The old and the young of the goblins died first and Arboleth had to watch as his children resorted to cannibalism and ate their dead. And he had to watch as they switched from scavenging the dead to hunting their own kind for food. He had to watch as the last of his children drank endlessly from the stream and chewed on wood to try to fill its empty belly and he had to watch as the last of his children shuddered and died. And for a century or an age, time had no meaning, Arboleth had to listen to the ghosts of his wards flit through the lifeless timbers and howl in remembered hunger and fear. Now, it is a cursed place, a dim woodland of deadwood and ghosts.

Na-Mishka, the Dream Realm

Some time, as time goes in our world, you lay down to sleep and dream. When you travel to the land of dreams, you come to a strange corner of the Dream Realm.... a land called Na-Mishka. It is the land of Chaos, for you cannot find yourself or find the other thousands who dream along with you. All seems random here, and though glimpses of truths and of law flash through, it is nothing more than random alignment of random factors.
In the dreams of Na-Mishka’s native son, the Dreamseer, the world is real and true like yours, though with one difference. Time has no meaning. Things that are dreamed and things that are real make no difference here; thus both ARE real. Things that have happened can be changed, at least with respect to the thoughts of the visitor. That is what makes a visit to Na-Mishka so dangerous.

The Nether

This is the way of things. Dark and Light ultimately in balance but constantly vying against each other, eternally pushing against each other, yet by doing so holding the other in check. You reside in the shadow of light and dark, in the Shadowlands. The Fay and many spirit gods rest in the Firmament, the High Realms of Light. There are other realms in the Firmament besides Eidenhomme. Just as there are many planes within the Darkness, like the Void, Nightwood, the Realm of Undeath, Goblinwood and many others.
There is a “mortar”, if you will, of these Dark Realms, a place and substance called the Nether. The Nether is a shadowy limbo filled with murky darkness that touches and connects myriad realms such as the Elemental Hells, Witchwood, your world and perhaps hundreds of others. It is a dangerous place where foul things wander: undead, hellspawn, nightshades, and other fell, shadowy fiends. Many get lost here and few escape, but there are an elite few who can navigate the Nether using it to travel from realm to realm.
Interestingly, portions of the Shadowlands or other realms can be hurled into the Nether by catastrophic releases of magic or other energies. This has happened several times in your recent history. The destructive magics of the Wizard War and hundreds of other more ancient battles hurled what is now called the Haunted Plains, along with the spirits of those who battled upon it, into the Nether. It still migrates from your world to the Nether and back again. Portions of the town of Shadowglade were sucked into the Nether when the town was razed by the apocalyptic battle of Thadun and Glandryth. The force of the Falling Star and the resulting Earth Storm threw the Rivenhouse into the Nether as well.

The Nexus of Flame

The Nexus of Flame was created at the moment of death of an ancient being known as Pyrus, in the Age of the Ancients. This nexus is a portal and way station between the Shadowlands, and the Realm of Fire. The nexus is guarded from both sides to prevent migrations of otherworldly creatures entering the other dimension. The Nexus is hidden from beings of this dimension. It takes a creature of fire like a salamander, or Flamebringer to guide mortals to it. The same is true for the Realm of Fire, firebeings call upon the Shadowlands’ gods, and beings of power to find the Nexus. The Nexus is locked with three Words of Power. It is locked with deadly wards, which will only drop if the names of the ancient being who died in the Nexus is spoken, as well as the name of his beloved wife. Within the Nexus itself is a stand of fire trees that will destroy any who enter. Once, in the Nexus two hurdles remain. Pilgrims most prove themselves in a test of intelligence, and finally find a method to tame the flame of the Nexus, or a random fire spirit might possess one of the pilgrims.
The nexus is said to house an ancient being who will tell of goings on of the two realms to those pilgrims, who pass the nexus' barriers. It is said voices and sometimes images of the two worlds echo in this place. Often devotees of the Lords of Fire, or mages and warriors with a bend towards fire magics would journey to the nexus in order to receive great quests and the tools to help achieve them.

The Nexus of Reality

The Nexus of Reality is an enigmatic place. The Nexus was torn open when Shadowglade was destroyed. It is thought to be a tear in the Fabric of Fate: the tapestry that the muses weave. Since it is an anomaly, it tends to shift in and out of existence. Travelers have inadvertently passed through its invisible portal to be spirited off to lands unknown, Many a great and wise mage has tried to close this gate, but to no avail. It is said to be held together by spirit magic of unknown origins. Recently Mechella, Queen of the Night, became drawn to the Nexus of Reality. There she came in contact with a counterpart of Thadun in a Nexus world and sought a way to open a gateway between worlds wide enough for the demon to enter this world. One of the most powerful rites of evil is to execute an innocent on the gallows of a Hangman. Such an act could a create massive disruption that would have torn the Nexus wide open. Fortunately, Mechella’s plan to trick a hangman into lynching an innocent was foiled by a troupe of adventurers from Fallenstar and the Nexus remains intact.

Nightwood

On a mystic plane adjacent to the Shadowlands there is a forest of preternatural darkness where nightshades and other dark things dwell. Little is known about this realm except that is the abode of Mechella. Some in the New School of Magic theorize that Nightwood was an eclipsed like Naggnarak had been by the First God of Night's Nightmare Soul, the Twilight Orb.
One can only access Nightwood through magical means. The most common means is by casting a Night Gate scroll after dark on a hidden gate in the Moonwood Cemetery. No mundane illumination, such as ordinary candles or torches, function in Nightwood. Only magical light can pierce the eternal gloom. Additionally, the nightshades of the forest are drawn, like moths to fire, to the intense warmth of living bodies. To escape the notice of the nightshades, one must hide their living light and heat. One method to do this is to drink an Elixir of Night. The Elixir fills its imbiber with shadows, cloaking their presence in Nightwood.
Those that have journeyed into Nightwood have discovered several strange sights. One band, using enchanted flares, discovered the Twilight Orb suspended in the boughs of the benighted forest. Another group found Mechella's Cask of Night and was able to speak with one of the Eight Virtue Heroes whose souls are trapped within it. Another gathering of Fallenstar’s Favored actually entered Mechella's Tower of Night which resides deep within Nightwood.

Pentacles

In the Positive Pentacle, there are four elements aligned to work in conjunction with each other and the powers of Life, which include natural life and natural death. These magics are what the Druids refer to as Verdant Magics. These three gradations of magic all seem interlinked. Their commonality is that they are the fuel of change not static powers. Current theory states that realm of the Fay and the plane called the Firmament are what lays at the center of such a pentacle. Thus, the fact that there are at least five mushrooms in a fairy ring, one for each element and one for life, create a gateway to the lands of the fay. Remove any one of these five mushrooms and the gate is nigh irrevocably sealed. From the center of a positive pentacle, the Templars and other faithful draw Divine Magics for Prayers and Blessings.
The Negative Pentacle works much in the same manner, but it draws on the four Elemental Hells and life is replaced by that ultimate stasis Undeath. The four elements are misaligned to counter each other and Undeath is placed at the bottom of the Negative Pentacle creating a stable gate to the Void is opened. There are direct routes to the Void through the Gate to Undeath and in each of the Elemental Hells, the Pit, The Vortex, the Abyss and the Inferno. As would be expected, because of these direct routes to the Void, demons inhabit regions in each of these planes.

The Pit

The Pit is the Elemental Hell of Earth. According to those few mortals who managed to enter and escape, there are numerous way-points to the Pit in caves, grottos, gorges, and volcanoes. There are also mystical means to open gateways to the Pit such as the Ceremony of Perdition as well as some direct means such as Witch and Candle Gates. These travelers have described the Pit as a massive bottomless chasm honey-combed with countless side- passages, cul de sacs and mine shafts. At its midpoint, entire cities of excavated stone are embedded in the sheer walls of the Pit.
Countless species of earth demons reside within the nooks and crevices of the Pit. The populations of terrestrial demons vary by the depths they are found. The uppermost portion of the Pit is called the Catacombs and is inhabited by very minor fiends. There live Pesties and other skulking thieves and Knockers and Knackers, who taunt and befuddle miners with strange echoes of pick and hammer falls. Ages ago, the Sanctuary of Earth was attacked by the Goblin Horde and half of the temple was magically dragged into the Catacombs of the Pit. Pilgrims who journeyed there found the lost half sanctuary surrounded by minor earthen demons but the inside had not been defiled; they found the temple amazingly well preserved.
Further down the Pit is a region known as the Slope, a barren, rocky descent. Here more malevolent and perilous species dwell. The Slope is inhabit by the gNyans, evil spirits that inhabit trees and stones to spread disease and death to mortals, the Perits, female mountain demons who deform the backs of those they chose to punish, Manes, condemned souls of the Underworld, and Druhs, cave dwelling demons of wicked deception.
The Warrens are cities built into the walls of the Pit that houses the majority of the demonic populace of this elemental hell. All that is known of the Warren are rumors and tall tales, because mortal travelers who ventured there we quickly overwhelmed by hoards of enraged fiends.
Below the Warrens in the bowels of the Pit, stand the Grand Spires. It is said that here is where the gigantic, earth demons roam, like the behemoths, gargantua, colossi, rephaim, and the stone giants called genonsgwa, meaning “flint coats.” This level of the Pit is also the abode to dozens of other species of gargantuan demons, like the Thusir, hairy giants with huge ears that spread pestilence and madness, the Kalevanpojat, fiendish titans that turn fertile ground to wasteland, Aatxe, a diabolic bull that on stormy nights emerges from a cave to haunt the land, or Cherufe, a colossal brute that arises from volcanoes to feast on the flesh of maidens.
Beneath all these terrains is the Depthless Dark, believed to be the deepest layer of the Pit, situated just above the Void itself. Little to nothing is known about the Depthless Dark. It is believed that the most potent and foul demons reside within this shadowy chasm yet the exact types of fiends and the cartography of this region remain unknown. No known mortal has ever been known to descend to this level of the perdition called the Pit.

Purgatory

The true orgins of Purgatory are unknown but it has existed for three millenia as a way-station for lost souls and enigma to generations of mortals. It is the realm of redemption and the throne of the long ago fallen god, Maltuez.
Maltuez was a Lord of Fire who sat with many other Firelords defending the Mantle of Fire during the Age of Kingdoms. Maltuez was the god of magma, divine judge of souls and keeper of the fiery subterranean afterlife, that humans in the Age of Kingdoms called the Inferno. Those evil souls that Maltuez judged beyond redemption he cast into the Inferno. Those that must suffer for their sins before reincarnation or those who were banished to eternal limbo he cast into the Hall of Hanging Souls in Purgatory.
Long before there was a Forest of the Condemned, it was the Hall of Hanging Souls where souls would go to pay for their evil acts before leaving life forever. During the Age of Kingdoms the Gateway of Death was adamantine and spirits and souls were one and the same. Upon death, spirit and soul would be led by their deity or guardian seraph through Death’s Gate. The people of the Age of Kingdoms believed the faithful and virtuous would be led into a nirvana-like afterlife and eventually their soul, devoid of spirit, would be reborn in a new body. This was the cycle of birth, death and rebirth as mortals viewed it.
Presently, the Gates of Death lays asunder and spirits spend their afterlife in the Spirit Realm. It is the spirit now that suffers for the crimes of their lifetime. Only once these spirits reach redemption can the soul venture into Death. Despite the metaphysical changes in the continuum of spirits and souls, some lost souls still remain here suffering for their ancient evils that make them unsuitable for the next world. New souls have also been cast here by fire deities both demonic and divine.
Maltuez is gone now, as are most of the Lords of Fire, and he is no longer is the Guardian of Purgatory. He fell in the second War of the Flame with ten other Firelords and was returned to existence as a volcanic demon. The defiled Maltuez conspired with other fire-demons to enslave the then forgotten Moon God. Using an artifact known as the Terra Amulet, the Moon God was imprisoned in the Hall of Hanging Souls. Many decades later, the Moon God was freed by his Three Champions and rose from here as the spirit-god Crodez. In Maltuez’s absence, a neophyte Firelord has become the new Guardian of Purgatory. He is Allahn, the Candleman. Upon their deaths, Allahn gave the Heroes of Shadowglade sanctuary in Purgatory so that they might escape the Necromancer’s spirit-catching spells until they could be raised from the dead. Allahn also found ways to enlighten the Heroes of Shadowglade by discovering hidden magics within Purgatory, such as Purgatory Puzzles, and portal ways into the Inferno and to the Tome of Ages. The Tome of Ages explained the importance of reclaiming Frgomer. In the Inferno, with an Oil of Fire Resistance to protect him, one of the heroes found the tome known as The Binding of the Demon which told of the true relationship between Necronias and Thadun. The puzzles that the heroes found had messages for them each.
Allahn remains Purgatory’s keeper, as was evident in more recent years. In 393 AF, The Four Slayers of the Wight-Goblin King entered another region of Purgatory from Allahn’s Candle Keep known as the Well of Souls. To gain guidance in how to defeat the undead Firecur, they had to chose from a number of souls some benign, some malevolent. Purgatory remains an ancient, ever-evolving mystery.

The Sepulchre

The Sepulchre is an ancient tomb that was constructed by the Faerie. Any non-faerie vagrants whose remains end up in faerie lands, such as the White Woods, Eidenhomme, the Glade of the White King, etc., are moved into this tomb until the fay can figure out what to do with these spirits or until a wandering mortal lays claim to one of the skulls, and its adjoined spirit, that are entombed here.
The fay do not wish for potentially hazardous mortal spirits to interfere with the goings on of the fay so the spirits of the monstrous, the valiant and the hapless are all with equal diligence resettled and enshrined.

The Spirit Realm

The Spirit Realm is where spirits exist in their private afterlives, reliving the moments of their past. After Necronias shattered the Death Gate, spirits found they could view and even manifest in the lands of the living. It is rare that the living travel to the realm of the spirits. At times, the Jack O’Lantern, the keeper of the spirit realm, will welcome mortals into his domain. The Jack O’Lantern has created a safe haven for travelers in the Spirit Realm. Within its boundaries, no act of evil or violence can occur, but travelers may encounter non-hostile spirits. Be warned though do not step beyond the borders of his glowing jack o'lanterns, for the spirit-god will be unable to protect you beyond that point.
Those who have journeyed there report many wondrous sights. A strange tree grows in the Spirit Realm. It is called the Tree of Souls for from its limbs hang of those that are somehow lost. It is a beautiful sight, but sad, for upon this tree hangs the life essence of all manners of beings. The difficulty travellers have is in choosing the right soul for their quest, for there are many colored souls are on the Tree of Souls.
Often clues to the right soul can be puzzled out by finding spirit runes and the Treasures of the Dead. These treasures are small baskets in either large or small orange and black pumpkins baskets with a variety of lead and copper coins.
On the All-Graves Day of 403 AF, Kelloran the Restorer and Stone the Forestal found themselves tossed into the Spirit Realm hot on the trail of Shiver the Ghoul King and his minions. In the Spirit Realms, the two find themselves in the Fallenstar of their own afterlife. The graveyards are empty as the spirits are wandering the Shadowlands on All Graves Day. There were only a few signs of their friends in the ghost town, Signs of Life. These images of our friends appear when glimpses of the Living World bleed into the Spirit Realm. Speaking a prayer to the Jack O’Lantern and casting a Speak with Spirits spell upon the Signs of Life turn the spells into Speak with Living. This spell allowed the two to hear what their living friends were thinking at the moment the Sign of Life captured their visage. These thoughts of their unwary friends help the two in their quest.
Kelloran and Stone did find that the town was not entirely abandoned. In Fallenstar, they meet Argus the Revenant and his recently reassembled Shadow Company who are hunting Shiver and the ghouls. Apparently both Ghouls and Revenants can move at will between the lands of the living and the dead. While traveling in the woods of the spirit realm, the two adventurers found different treasures of the dead Muse Skulls, Death Gourds, and Ghost Gourds. At night, they discovered that the Mausoleum is linked directly to the Spirit Realm and the Mausoleum and the Sepulchre are also connected. Inside the Mausoleum, they discovered an extra-planar being, a Virindi, battling a Nihilist over a powerful, magic sword, the Runic Blade. In the end, the two friends destroy the Runic Blade and keep it out of the hands of the Ghoul King. They departed the Spirit Realm knowing that Shiver was forced to flee with Shadow Company on his heels once more.

The Sundered Forest

Once, long ago, there grew a wide and mighty forest. This forest had a spirit of it's own, and was revered by all who stepped foot into it. Some say this forest is where all life began. It is here where the first tree grew and its children the Dryads and Ents emerged as rulers of the forest. It was here where the first faerie child danced among the trees and it was here where all fay go to die.
Until, that is, the coming of Necronias and the wizard war. The battle for control of the great school broke out in the shattered plains, near to the heart of the forest of Eidenhomme. The faerie were horrified at the wanton destruction of the sacred woods by the human, and quickly worked some of their most potent magic. Through some means unknown to us now, half of the forest disappeared in a flash. The remaining area was razed in the battle, but soon grew back. However, there was no life to the forest, and it was christened anew... the Sundered Forest.
The Sundered Forest stood for centuries outside of Shadowglade, but when the town was destroyed and the haunted plains were razed by the destruction of the appointed day, the Sundered Forest remained untouched. Survivors who fled to the Sundered Forest said they saw a shimmering light about the boughs of the trees that protected the desolate woodland. These same survivors, who took shelter in the cursed forest, said that just as the first rays of light dawned on the smoke filled horizon the entire woodland vanished.
Since its capture by Thaleus, the Sundered Forest has reappeared, but this time in the valley of the dryad. The woodland has grown darker and more menacing, as evil creatures are seen flitting about its dark stands and no Seely faeries will enter it.

The Vernal Hall

The Vernal Hall is a well source of green magics and rebirth. It is the Nexus of Green. It is only from here that fay that are dormant during the winter can be contacted with the proper commune spells. It is from here that numerous keys to witch gates and other fay / green portals can be gained if the seeker asks a boon. Unlike the woodland altar though, a specific fay’s proper name / title must be used not just the name of the race you wish aid from. This fay must also be allied to the green magics.
A circle of Nymph’s Tears can be found here, each from a different species of nymph: dryads, oreads, napaeae, naiads, slyphs, astria, leimoniads, oceanids, nereids, and the rest of their kin. Each Nymph’s Tear communes with a different primal force. Like must faerie treasures a curse is incurred if a person carries more than one Nymph’s Tear out of the Vernal Hall.

Witch Gates

Witch gates are mystical portals aligned to the element of earth that are hidden throughout the world. When opened, they allow travelers to step into a doorway between two tree trunks. The pilgrims then sink into the earth, journey through the soil and roots and then reappear many leagues distant. Some witch gates are known open doors into other dimensions and even other times. The arbor portals are by gate-stones, mystical gemstones that act as magical keys to the witch gates. Some gate-stones appear wreathed in blue fire when activated; others remain unchanged upon evocation.
Witch gates are recognizable by two identical metallic symbols painted on the bark of two near-growing trees, one symbol per tree. The gate stones are usually found elsewhere, often in the stewardship of mortals or spirits.
Several witch gates are known to exist in Fallenstar, especially in Melcynda’s Peace. A circle of ever shifting witch gates that lead to myriad locales and planes surrounds the Peace Glade. The region of Crossroads is said to have four permanently opened witch gates that connect the four cities that use it as a trading hub. The area itself is rich in earthen magics and, as such, is rife with witch gates.

 

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