Helk

"Helk is a meandering, impossible city which lives on the inside surface of a spherical cavern, located at the centre of the world. Oh yeah... it's also the multi-cultural afterlife." - from the annals of time.

Demographics

Every creature with a semblance of intelligence ends up in Helk when they die, so one should expect to see everything and anything here.

Government

The city is ruled unilaterally by Erithien Darkmoon, the Raven Queen. Her servants are known as the Obsidian Knights and they act as agents and guards for her. They are also sent to the surface to hunt down those who would defy the Raven Queen.

Defences

The Seadshan sigils which line this place prevent unwanted travel and the path of Eternity is arduous enough that no army or force would dare attack this place.
The Queen’s Obsidian Knights protect the realm from anyone who does not belong, such as living interlopers.

Industry & Trade

There exists only three real industries in Helk. The first is that of creation. Powerful minds have the ability to create vivid worlds, stories, or displays for the entertainment of others. These experiences are formed of thought and need not follow the natural laws. Relinquishing your reality to a creator is a surreal experience.
The second industry is searching the offerings for Sedashan artifacts. Helk was created by their kind and remnants of their magical devices remain. While such things are gathered by the Queen to bolster her power, but many artifacts have been discovered in the hands of citizenry, obtained from thieves who call themselves Shadlings. 

While no soul may leave without the

Infrastructure

As you would imagine, there is little to no infrastructure required to maintain the largely incorporeal populace. Even those who have deceased physical form produce no waste, require no food, and have no need of shelter or warmth. However, the Queen has complete dominion over this place and has created homes and towers for which her citizens may live within and gather.
There are large skeletal constructs which pick through the accumulated detritus found within the offerings that are dumped down the hole by living devotees to the Queen. They retrieve items of use and value for the Raven Queen. Some enterprising few risk judgement by the queen by pilfering the treasures within.

Assets

The Queen possesses a sedashan cortex. This gem is one of a group of stones which in concert can create worlds. The queen’s single gem, bolstered by the sigils surrounding Helk, allows her to shape the environment to her will, like the gods of old. She has used this power to create a glorious home for the deceased here.
Additionally, the fabric between the Dream realm and Helk are very thin. This allows from Dreamkin to travel to this place and for subconscious creation to manifest. Your desires, conscious or unconscious, have a tendency to manifest here, spurred into creation by the dream realm. The images and conjured locations are ephemeral, only tangible to those sharing the desire. Lovers may conjure a private abode, while artisans may be able to hold tools not possible in the material realm.
Due to the proximity to the dream realm, the Queen has the ability to transfer a soul from Helk into the Dream realms’ ether. It resembles liquid creation and disassembles souls who enter it. The souls’ consciousness dissolved into nothing and the pure emotional essence of the former entity is added to the ether, recycled but incoherent and truly gone. Those who have grown tired of existence in Helk are able to petition the Queen to enter the ether. Only those whom she has displeased are refused.
The Queen is able to imprison souls entities who deserve punishment and not eternal life.

Guilds and Factions

Creators can also be used to torture the Queen’s prisoners. There are also artisans, who can craft for you a physical form to possess. This is nice if you miss tactile experiences.
The Obsidian Knights are the fanatical followers of the Queen. They have bestowed upon them physical bodies, often constructed using materials other than bone and laden with gems. They are practiced at possessing corpses to doggedly pursue their quarry.
An organization which actively worships the god of life exists here and are known as the Resilient. They openly defy the god of death and undermine her efforts through sabotage and performative civil disobedience. They hold that this isn’t death, but rather a new life, and that she should hold no sway over this realm.
Shadlings are barely organized, only working alone or in small groups to steal from citizens or the Obsidian Knights. They consist of thieves, forgers, and couriers. Since the penalty for their crimes is either torture at the hands of the Obsidian Knights or being cast into the Ether, a Shadling holds no real loyalty to their cohorts.

History

The spherical space in which Helk was founded was created at the beginning of time some 1000 years ago. it was prepared this way be design, as the Sedashan Mages purposely lured a world beholder to their freshly created reality. The beholder used its devastating eye rays upon the planet and bore a hole to the centre of the world. It was compelled to enter the hole and once in the centre of the world is was restrained by the sigils placed there to imprison the aberration. After a time, it grew large enough to mostly encase the space provided, and it eventually fell into an ageless slumber where it remained until the Knights of the Golden Order disturbed it while searching for Erithien Darkmoon.
Once the creature was killed it turned to ash and the space became available once again. They discovered that the beholder was fueling a spell within the world called the Knot, designed to prevent a co-mingling of the Dream realm and the prime material. With the beholder killed during Erithien Darkmoon's rescue, it was Steelbone's intention to repurpose the sigils to attract the dead souls and undead creatures to his realm so that he could rule over this place a the god of death. However, Erithien Darkmoon usurped his plans and took the mantle of the God of Death for herself. With the power of a cortex, she was able to shape the domain in to her will and formed the after-life known as Helk.

Architecture

Since Helk is created by every dead soul in Aventyr, you will find no consistent architectural aesthetic. Instead it's a haphazard, impossible city with every kind of building, hovel, shelter, and artistic display one could ever hope to see.

Geography

At the centre of the world you will find Helk.
In this place, gravity has been artificially created to pull you towards the outer walls of the great, spherical, cavern in which the dead roam as spirits or undead. Sedashan glyphs, supreme over material and Far-Realm Tear magics, prevent teleportation to or from this place. Unless you are the god of death, the only was directly into or out of this place is via Eternity, a great hole ont he surface which extends all the way down to the land of the dead.
The Sedashan glyphs draws souls of the newly dead to it, leading them to a unified afterlife. The path to Helk appears as a massive hole into which they are compelled to throw down. Really they're just falling through the world towards Helk. Those souls trapped in corporeal undead forms are forced to find a way to Helk by traveling there through the world. Mindless and corporeal undead make the journey by instinct, forever looking for a path downward. Intelligent undead who have succumb to the call of Helk travel to Eternity and make the plunge.
Sentient undead and powerful souls can resist the call of Helk, though it takes great force of will. In the end, however, all eventually succumb.
While no soul may leave via resurrection without the Queen’s blessing, there are those who would attempt a forgery of sorts, pretending to be a soul other than their own, and who are granted leave from Helk through deception. The perpetrators of these schemes are often alive but whom allow themselves to die in order to gain knowledge from a soul within Helk, to steal Sedashan artifacts via resurrection, or to trade places with an existing soul, a risky gambit to make the Queen believe that the escaped soul is still within her domain.

Natural Resources

Nothing is mined here, and little of value is created. Besides, with the easiest form of travel by death, there is no easy way to transport items to or from this place. That's where the couriers come in. These individuals have altered their souls to be able to bring back small Sedashan artifacts upon resurrection, specifically whatever is large enough to fit in one's mouth. They also trade in the secrets of the dead, which a courier can memorize and recall once their life is restored. Again, these activities are severe crimes in Helk and are sure to bring the ire of the Obsidian Knights upon any discovered perpetrating them.

Alternative Name(s)

Land of the Dead

Type

Large city

Location under

Aventyr

Owner/Ruler

Erithien Darkmoon

Owning Organization

Obsidian Knights