Underworld
The lands of the dead lie in shadow, watched over by the pale green light of the moons by night or the red light of the Underworld's dark Sun in day. The sky is dark purple, and starless. The visibility is limited by a fog of Traces beyond 10 meters, that flicker in and out and cause everything to have a strobe effect. Traces are pale, vaporous images of yesterdays imprinted on the fabric of time and ectoplasm and swirling toward Apophis. They are memories of place, like pictures of streets, of forests and fields, Mountains and seas. Traces can’t be broken or changed by most ghosts or arts. They may be used as keys to transfer to the shadowlands and the living world. They offer entertainment to ghosts who page through the accumulated past days. Some to watch their families and descendants. Others to view home settlements or friends or even enemies. Others burrow into the deeper past. Or they become fascinated by the events in the lives of strangers.
The senses of the dead are dulled and numbed. Ectoplasmic flesh feels only hard firm touches which feel like soft caresses. Some ghosts undergo whippings and torments of their ghostly flesh to just feel something. Hearing is dull, and sight overlaid with blurring Traces. The flowing moments in the living world cause everything to be followed by tracers of overlying images of the last few minutes motions. Everything is cold, even ghost fire. Magical and Soulfire flames are hot. Foods and drinks are bland and tasteless ash, unless fresh offerings. The scent of things is dust unless a fresh offering. Flesh and blood is full of vitality, warmth and fresh memory of life that is overpoweringly clear to ghosts. Ghostly ectoplasm may be consumed by ghosts but contains only the faintest recollections of smells, flavors and feelings. Many ghosts prefer this to the echo food and drink. Ghosts do not need to eat or drink, but they Hunger for sensations and many keep the comforting patterns of the living.
All things in the underworld are shot through with decay and reflection of death, time and wear. Philosophers say this is because all things spend far longer being, and accumulating wounds, breaks, cracks and becoming old and worn than as fresh and new. The memory of time records what they become.
The senses of the dead are dulled and numbed. Ectoplasmic flesh feels only hard firm touches which feel like soft caresses. Some ghosts undergo whippings and torments of their ghostly flesh to just feel something. Hearing is dull, and sight overlaid with blurring Traces. The flowing moments in the living world cause everything to be followed by tracers of overlying images of the last few minutes motions. Everything is cold, even ghost fire. Magical and Soulfire flames are hot. Foods and drinks are bland and tasteless ash, unless fresh offerings. The scent of things is dust unless a fresh offering. Flesh and blood is full of vitality, warmth and fresh memory of life that is overpoweringly clear to ghosts. Ghostly ectoplasm may be consumed by ghosts but contains only the faintest recollections of smells, flavors and feelings. Many ghosts prefer this to the echo food and drink. Ghosts do not need to eat or drink, but they Hunger for sensations and many keep the comforting patterns of the living.
Geography
The Underworld is a bowl shape with gentle slopes to the center. There is both the general down gravity and a steady light pull to the center. Or perhaps it is a push. The Underworld is the end of all things. It is where all yesterdays have gone to die.
At the highest level is the membrane of Barren Shores: grey empty foggy realm with smooth pale gravel. No sun, no moon. sounds are muffled. Lost souls and the resting realm of Hungry Ghosts. Ooozing between the gravel are fissures to the underworld, and at the center of the Barren Shores is a mouth of the Pit. Mists dark with heavy gravity drawing, pulling to underworld like small pushes or pressure. The push to the edge of the Pit may be resisted actively with will or passively by fetters or momentos like a tomb or monument, or use of both. It is accelerated by letting go. Travel by descending the Pit places one at the Oblivion Edge Crater in the center of the Underworld. From here one proceeds to the Abyss or Apophis. Oblivion pulls with. a force of gravity while winds push towards Apophis. The dead say they also focus on "down" and pass via the fissures to other places in the underworld.
Below the Barren shore is the main Underworld: a cavernous dark world gently sloping down to the Pit at it’s core - the ghost forest, the waste, walls of the underworld (mountains) at the outer edge of the bowl, Dark Sea and sands. And The Ruin . Pillars of bone and stone that climb miles into the dark skies. Fortresses and occasional Tombs. The coiling spiral River of Forgetfulness - Lethe passes all the divisions. Ghosts caught in it will sleep and forget. The river flows to and spirals around the Mount of Oblivion. Ghosts cast upon the shore wander and fall in Oblivion. Many are sucked under the surface and said to pass to be reborn.
In the Underworld, as the Astral, all places are the same place. Marching steadily down to the center, Apophis and the Pit.
The Ruin: The ghost of all cities stretches broken into sections with battling factions from the mountains to Apophis. The streets team with the empty traces of Yesterdays - echoes of crowds and events. Lost Po, shadows, and creatures. The buildings of every culture and time..generally older toward the center. Long standing things leave a worn, pitted and broken ghostly memory Echo. The cities Echo their lives and deaths- hives of activity, trade, arts, and entertainments. The tumbled crumbling ruin, buildings on fire, places abandoned or drowned - streets with repeating crowds or scattered Trace or Echo bodies
The Waste:is the rocky deserts and scrublands, showing bones of stone and spotted with Echos of drought or starvation, of tornado and whirlwind spinning dust into the air and storm with lightnings and downpours, of fires and ice and snow.
Ghost Grass: dead plains of every grassland and alpine meadow with corpse copse of skeletal trees. Echo herds - grazing, running or dead of pestillence, slaughter or starvation. It is swept by Echo waves of fire, choking dust and deep snow.
Sands: Barren dunes and shifting sand burning in the sun and frozen in the night. Dotted with the carcasses of creatures reduced to baked bone and leathery bits of flesh. Dark caves haunted by darker things.
DarkSea - with the drowned, the carcasses of fish and great beasts. The ruins of ghostly ships- tattered and adrift, broken by storm and war or pirate, aflame, sunken in whole or part. And just beneath the surface swarm the drowned dead clawing and scrabbling over one another to climb on or pull down anything on the surface.
The sky is streaked with cloud in thin trails, ominous cloud and roiling tumult. The Tempest Sky is warped and shifts. Maelstroms periodically blot out the sky with mindless roiling and boiling violence, strong storms haunted by Wraths and tormented nightmares of elder Gods - sooty, oily, tentacles coiling and pulling everything not anchored and chained. Rains of salty tears. Of blood. Of ash and of bone.
And the Center. The very middle is The Pit of the devouring Oblivion. The Dead God that seeks to swallow everything and remake the world in it's new image of oneness. Everything in the Abyss is the Abyss. Small drops may be painfully pulled away, each a seed of the Abyssal Oblivion.
The edges of the Pit and it's walls contain maggot holes of Oblivion's minions and servants. The crypts of the Dark Fae Overlords . The Wraiths, shadows and manitou. Beyond the edge of the Pit are the Mountains of the Crater. And on the outward edge of the Oblivion Edge mountains circles the Wyrm, Apophis swallowing it's tail, circling and swallowingeverythinginit'spathasitcirclesandcircles. The River of Foretfulness flows to and gathers around Apohis, constantly consumed and drained along with everything washed down from the wide Underworld.
At the highest level is the membrane of Barren Shores: grey empty foggy realm with smooth pale gravel. No sun, no moon. sounds are muffled. Lost souls and the resting realm of Hungry Ghosts. Ooozing between the gravel are fissures to the underworld, and at the center of the Barren Shores is a mouth of the Pit. Mists dark with heavy gravity drawing, pulling to underworld like small pushes or pressure. The push to the edge of the Pit may be resisted actively with will or passively by fetters or momentos like a tomb or monument, or use of both. It is accelerated by letting go. Travel by descending the Pit places one at the Oblivion Edge Crater in the center of the Underworld. From here one proceeds to the Abyss or Apophis. Oblivion pulls with. a force of gravity while winds push towards Apophis. The dead say they also focus on "down" and pass via the fissures to other places in the underworld.
Below the Barren shore is the main Underworld: a cavernous dark world gently sloping down to the Pit at it’s core - the ghost forest, the waste, walls of the underworld (mountains) at the outer edge of the bowl, Dark Sea and sands. And The Ruin . Pillars of bone and stone that climb miles into the dark skies. Fortresses and occasional Tombs. The coiling spiral River of Forgetfulness - Lethe passes all the divisions. Ghosts caught in it will sleep and forget. The river flows to and spirals around the Mount of Oblivion. Ghosts cast upon the shore wander and fall in Oblivion. Many are sucked under the surface and said to pass to be reborn.
In the Underworld, as the Astral, all places are the same place. Marching steadily down to the center, Apophis and the Pit.
The Ruin: The ghost of all cities stretches broken into sections with battling factions from the mountains to Apophis. The streets team with the empty traces of Yesterdays - echoes of crowds and events. Lost Po, shadows, and creatures. The buildings of every culture and time..generally older toward the center. Long standing things leave a worn, pitted and broken ghostly memory Echo. The cities Echo their lives and deaths- hives of activity, trade, arts, and entertainments. The tumbled crumbling ruin, buildings on fire, places abandoned or drowned - streets with repeating crowds or scattered Trace or Echo bodies
The Ghost forest: This is all forests ever. The trees are mostly bare with just a few leaves, palms or needles. The branches and boles sway to missing winds, groaning and whispering. The underbrush is grey, and brown stalks, crumbling vines and twisted twigs with scattered leaves and the occasional fruit. It is shot through with Echos of fires and ice, swarms of bugs, rushing prey pursued by predators, and broken, downed trees and cut stumps. Dark Iron and Soul Steel can cut the wood and it may be shaped by those who shape ectoplasm.
- Across the Ruin are Necropoli - the Relic tombs, crypts and haunted buildings that are homes of the dead. The places that the dead identify as their former Nations, cities, towns and villages.
- The Settle: beyond the Necropoli on the side opposite the Harbor are the Echo farms, fields, pastures and groves. Flickering in flame, being worked, barren and spread with bodies.
- The Harbor: a strip bay of the drowned, with sunken and ruined ships and full of rot and decay. Flooded city ruins swept by tsunami, battered by storm, steadily crumbling into the Sea. Beyond the Harbor wall and beacon fire is the Dark Sea.
The Waste:is the rocky deserts and scrublands, showing bones of stone and spotted with Echos of drought or starvation, of tornado and whirlwind spinning dust into the air and storm with lightnings and downpours, of fires and ice and snow.
Ghost Grass: dead plains of every grassland and alpine meadow with corpse copse of skeletal trees. Echo herds - grazing, running or dead of pestillence, slaughter or starvation. It is swept by Echo waves of fire, choking dust and deep snow.
Sands: Barren dunes and shifting sand burning in the sun and frozen in the night. Dotted with the carcasses of creatures reduced to baked bone and leathery bits of flesh. Dark caves haunted by darker things.
DarkSea - with the drowned, the carcasses of fish and great beasts. The ruins of ghostly ships- tattered and adrift, broken by storm and war or pirate, aflame, sunken in whole or part. And just beneath the surface swarm the drowned dead clawing and scrabbling over one another to climb on or pull down anything on the surface.
The sky is streaked with cloud in thin trails, ominous cloud and roiling tumult. The Tempest Sky is warped and shifts. Maelstroms periodically blot out the sky with mindless roiling and boiling violence, strong storms haunted by Wraths and tormented nightmares of elder Gods - sooty, oily, tentacles coiling and pulling everything not anchored and chained. Rains of salty tears. Of blood. Of ash and of bone.
At the very edge are the mountains, which reach all the way up into the Umbral realm. Full of mazes and caverns, twisted paths and drops where you fall for days.
And the Center. The very middle is The Pit of the devouring Oblivion. The Dead God that seeks to swallow everything and remake the world in it's new image of oneness. Everything in the Abyss is the Abyss. Small drops may be painfully pulled away, each a seed of the Abyssal Oblivion.
The edges of the Pit and it's walls contain maggot holes of Oblivion's minions and servants. The crypts of the Dark Fae Overlords . The Wraiths, shadows and manitou. Beyond the edge of the Pit are the Mountains of the Crater. And on the outward edge of the Oblivion Edge mountains circles the Wyrm, Apophis swallowing it's tail, circling and swallowingeverythinginit'spathasitcirclesandcircles. The River of Foretfulness flows to and gathers around Apohis, constantly consumed and drained along with everything washed down from the wide Underworld.
Ecosystem
The Underworld of the dead is a particular place. It is spirits. It is memory. It is Oblivion. It is fear. And it is hope and rebirth.
The dead may arrive aware or sleeping. Those who pass peacefully when asleep are more likely to be sleeping ghosts, covered in a caul membrane. They pass to The Barren Shore and drift to the Pit. Some shed the caul. Most of these dead have no possessions. They have no fetters or great passions that drive them to awaken or remain.
The active dead arrive in the places that reflect their deaths. Gallows and execution yards, war echoes, city streets of the Necopolis, wilderness, the Dark Sea. These are said to be Ba souls, though some say it is only Echos.
Some are Repeaters. Relatively weak ghosts caught in endless cycles of their last moments, sometimes warped by Specters and Wraiths that make them endless nightmares. They may awaken or be shaken from their torments.
The Restless dead awaken with choices. To cling to the shadow of life or to follow the pull and push of the winds to the river or the center They arrive with a few key possessions, the trappings of their personality and life. These things are part of the ghost body, a form of Echo, but subject to wear, decay and destruction unless efforts are put to keep them reinforced. These trappings can be lent or given but return to the owner at will so long as they exist.
The other resources of the Dead:
Po ghosts transfer from The Barren Shores or Underworld to the living world each night so long as their fetter remains (body). Without a remaining body to drive their manifestation, their slight substance is pushed to Apophis. Po may be claimed or owned by sacrifice and retain existence in the Underworld. They are hungry for life. If let free they will roam and attack ghosts for the pale vitality of ectoplasm while being pushed and pulled to Lethe, Apophis and Oblivion.
The dead may arrive aware or sleeping. Those who pass peacefully when asleep are more likely to be sleeping ghosts, covered in a caul membrane. They pass to The Barren Shore and drift to the Pit. Some shed the caul. Most of these dead have no possessions. They have no fetters or great passions that drive them to awaken or remain.
The active dead arrive in the places that reflect their deaths. Gallows and execution yards, war echoes, city streets of the Necopolis, wilderness, the Dark Sea. These are said to be Ba souls, though some say it is only Echos.
Some are Repeaters. Relatively weak ghosts caught in endless cycles of their last moments, sometimes warped by Specters and Wraiths that make them endless nightmares. They may awaken or be shaken from their torments.
The Restless dead awaken with choices. To cling to the shadow of life or to follow the pull and push of the winds to the river or the center They arrive with a few key possessions, the trappings of their personality and life. These things are part of the ghost body, a form of Echo, but subject to wear, decay and destruction unless efforts are put to keep them reinforced. These trappings can be lent or given but return to the owner at will so long as they exist.
The other resources of the Dead:
All Restless Dead have Fetters. Places and things connecting the ghost to the living world. A burial place or home, a weapon or furnishing, a place at a pub, a friend or family member in the living world. They manifest on the ghost at death as a small token Memoria or Relic item- a doll, a pin, a weapon, a small carving or such and ranked by Passion of the emotional connection. A ghost may draw essence from a fetter nightly by the rank of Fetter. They are strengthened by interaction and experience, lessened by damage (damaged or destroyed tokens reform if the mortal source remains, if the mortal source is destroyed or damaged so is the token). Passions are the oaths, obligations, desires and duties that keep the Dead from passing on. It may be one large item or many small ones. Ghosts may generate new ghostly Passions and Fetters with Runes and Ghostly magics, but they consume a Mortal Passion the ghost still possesses.
- Relics: Ritual bound grave goods and offerings. Real world items buried or placed in a grave make an underworld copy when ritual bound - so multiple copies may be found in the underworld. Relics are strengthened and improved by the intent of the rituals. Relics food containers such as bottles, casks, bin or boxes or nest boxes once daily produce foods and drinks that retain the memory of flavor and smell for 1 hour from dispensing. A tomb or crypt may be a relic building with the correct rituals. They otherwise behave as Memoria.
- Memoria: Grave goods and common offerings sent with prayers. They are Echoes that are damaged by Sunlight. They may be clothes, dishes, items, weapons, gold, gems, furnishings, food containers or even buildings/ tombs or effigies (statues of people or animals or creatures - that become simple Golems), if destroyed they return to their owner the next night. They may be traded or sold linking them to a new owner. If the owner passes to Lethe or Oblivion they dissolve. Stolen items remain linked to the owners. Food containers produce food or drink each night that are bland and tasteless. Fresh offerings retain flavor, scent and satisfy Hungers of ghosts for just 1 day.
- Offerings: small sacrifices to the dead offered in fire or laid at tombs and crypts -replica items (fake coins, replica weapons, a toy bed) produce flimsy weak ghostly items that find their way to the intended dead who haunt the Underworld as Ghosts. Wine, foods and meat, spices and incense, gold, and flowers or even blood or fresh flesh no more than an hour old. These find the intended Dead, manifesting as a blood red stone (Bloodstone) that feed an Urge and provide a touch of vital energy when consumed. They may be given or sold, but stolen ones are never more than 1 essence. Free Bloodstones offered to ghosts who have passed to the Pit or rebirth, have a faint glow and may occur around Trace Temples, Trace graveyards or shrines or be found as drops of Blood of Gods.
- Sacrifices: Given to the Dead by intent and ritual. Animals, creatures or beings appear as ghost versions bigger, and more powerful. And they are marked with a brand, ideograph or other mark of ownership. Beasts are Po, loyal and obey their ghost master and grave bound servants, fighting to escape captivity or restraint and if dissipated return to the owner the next night in the underworld. They are damaged or dormant in the sunlight mortal world. The owner may use their own energies to heal or restore them. Beings and intelligent creatures become Fetters and servants bound to the owner, marked with a brand, mark or Icon. The willingness and loyalty gives rank ( unwilling =1, a lover or beloved slave =5). Both sides sense the other. The master may draw power upto 2x Fetter rating from the Sacrifice - but the servant may not. Servants may be Freed. If the Master is destroyed the servant must fight the draw of Oblivion or Lethe.
Po ghosts transfer from The Barren Shores or Underworld to the living world each night so long as their fetter remains (body). Without a remaining body to drive their manifestation, their slight substance is pushed to Apophis. Po may be claimed or owned by sacrifice and retain existence in the Underworld. They are hungry for life. If let free they will roam and attack ghosts for the pale vitality of ectoplasm while being pushed and pulled to Lethe, Apophis and Oblivion.
History
In the creation, the Primordial Gods crafted the world and planes. They stumbled over themselves coming and going and established a direction of time. Yesterday spools away moment by moment through the shadow of the world carrying the memory of the day. They flow to the underworld, layer upon layer. Moments. Days. Months. Years. Centuries. Millenia. In the Underworld the memory of yesterday mingles with the spirits forgotten or destroyed. All places are one. It all flowed to Apophis, the great wyrm that is the Wheel of recreation and return sending tendrils from beyond to Bardo to create the moments that are next, and the future. Spirits and all things returned reformed.
And then the First Gods Warred.
The Gods of the world had created the cosmos of planes. The light and true shapes of the Astral, The shadows of the Umbra and the Dreaming and the dark Underworld. Other Gods had wandered. Or made their own. Or watched. Some wanted it for themselves. Others to make changes the creators refused. Still others sought to sweep it away. And so they fought. For long ages and with unimagined powers and the first God died.
The weight of it's being and memory, it's transformation to unlife fell and crashed into the underworld's core, drawn by it's gravity and the spooling of yesterdays. Apophis choked and gagged and was broken by the God and the sudden flux of all memory of the fallen God pulled to it's Dead form. The Dead God became Oblivion the all consuming and the end of all things. It lies in an inescapable black hole Pit consuming all it can reach. The Wyrm Apophis now rings the crater of Oblivion, swallowing it’s tail and the waters of Lethe, the forgotten souls, the detritus of yesterdays and anything in or around it and passing them to the realm of Bardo to reincarnate tomorrow. It is possible to crawl over or under Apophis after crossing the surrounding waters of Lethe. Then climb the crater edge to look down to the Pit, ever sinking and pulling the solidified soil of compacted ages into it's maw. All around are maggothole mazes of tunnels made by minions of the Abyss that is Oblivion. The lesser pits of other fallen Gods. And rising from the Pit is a vapor that are the fears, nightmares and fever dreams of the dead ancient Gods. Blasting into the purple sky to create storms of rage, tears, blood, smoke and soot.
And then the First Gods Warred.
The Gods of the world had created the cosmos of planes. The light and true shapes of the Astral, The shadows of the Umbra and the Dreaming and the dark Underworld. Other Gods had wandered. Or made their own. Or watched. Some wanted it for themselves. Others to make changes the creators refused. Still others sought to sweep it away. And so they fought. For long ages and with unimagined powers and the first God died.
The weight of it's being and memory, it's transformation to unlife fell and crashed into the underworld's core, drawn by it's gravity and the spooling of yesterdays. Apophis choked and gagged and was broken by the God and the sudden flux of all memory of the fallen God pulled to it's Dead form. The Dead God became Oblivion the all consuming and the end of all things. It lies in an inescapable black hole Pit consuming all it can reach. The Wyrm Apophis now rings the crater of Oblivion, swallowing it’s tail and the waters of Lethe, the forgotten souls, the detritus of yesterdays and anything in or around it and passing them to the realm of Bardo to reincarnate tomorrow. It is possible to crawl over or under Apophis after crossing the surrounding waters of Lethe. Then climb the crater edge to look down to the Pit, ever sinking and pulling the solidified soil of compacted ages into it's maw. All around are maggothole mazes of tunnels made by minions of the Abyss that is Oblivion. The lesser pits of other fallen Gods. And rising from the Pit is a vapor that are the fears, nightmares and fever dreams of the dead ancient Gods. Blasting into the purple sky to create storms of rage, tears, blood, smoke and soot.
The Phenomenae of the Underworld
Traces: This is the base material. It is imprinted moments on a skin of time with a substance like smoke. It is the substance of yesterday and of today and it constantly spools flowing into the underworld. Traces can't be changed or worked by Ghosts or ghostly entities, but they may be pealed apart one by one and then played as a flip book.
Sediment: The long ancient ages make the rocky ground of the Underworld. Untold millenia before the Gods brought out material forms, the scroll of time ran and deposited in layers before the cycle of Bardo. And even then other ectoplasmic things crept across the unformed Underworld. Things were caught in the layers of Sediment. Bloodstones , Soulstones , Echoes, Aether stone , Bone Ice and lines of Dark Iron .
Echoes: These are the base ectoplasmic material -The substance is weak like tissue paper or fragile cloth. They are the long standing thing or place etched in the memory of many and reflected over and over. They may be a massive event witnessed by many, or something of great significance to just one or a few. Long standing things leave a worn, pitted and broken ghostly memory Echo.
Echoes may be nearly mindless repeating events seared into the memory of the world and the beings that died in that event. They may be mass events or a single sudden all consuming death, or a long standing thing etched in the memory of many and reflected over and over. It may be a Po stuck by a single piercing emotion. It may be a ghost lost in a physical memory. Each Echo component is a whole thing and can't be broken down or reduced but parts may be separated. The fire and the house. There are just a few exceptions: The Dark Sea may be harvested for small amounts of Echo material but the drowned will battle. Likewise Ghost wood may collected. And the Sand. Echo foods may be consumed.
Ghost Ectoplasm. The bodies of Ghosts, Po and Echos are made of different densities of Ectoplasm. Some may be worked and crafted to assume other shapes by secret ghostly arts kept to magical Guilds. Things crafted from Ghostwood , Bone Ice or ghostly flesh are highly valued. Most items in the Underworld are made of the cold Dark Iron or Echoes.
Traces: This is the base material. It is imprinted moments on a skin of time with a substance like smoke. It is the substance of yesterday and of today and it constantly spools flowing into the underworld. Traces can't be changed or worked by Ghosts or ghostly entities, but they may be pealed apart one by one and then played as a flip book.
Sediment: The long ancient ages make the rocky ground of the Underworld. Untold millenia before the Gods brought out material forms, the scroll of time ran and deposited in layers before the cycle of Bardo. And even then other ectoplasmic things crept across the unformed Underworld. Things were caught in the layers of Sediment. Bloodstones , Soulstones , Echoes, Aether stone , Bone Ice and lines of Dark Iron .
Echoes: These are the base ectoplasmic material -The substance is weak like tissue paper or fragile cloth. They are the long standing thing or place etched in the memory of many and reflected over and over. They may be a massive event witnessed by many, or something of great significance to just one or a few. Long standing things leave a worn, pitted and broken ghostly memory Echo.
Echoes may be nearly mindless repeating events seared into the memory of the world and the beings that died in that event. They may be mass events or a single sudden all consuming death, or a long standing thing etched in the memory of many and reflected over and over. It may be a Po stuck by a single piercing emotion. It may be a ghost lost in a physical memory. Each Echo component is a whole thing and can't be broken down or reduced but parts may be separated. The fire and the house. There are just a few exceptions: The Dark Sea may be harvested for small amounts of Echo material but the drowned will battle. Likewise Ghost wood may collected. And the Sand. Echo foods may be consumed.
Ghost Ectoplasm. The bodies of Ghosts, Po and Echos are made of different densities of Ectoplasm. Some may be worked and crafted to assume other shapes by secret ghostly arts kept to magical Guilds. Things crafted from Ghostwood , Bone Ice or ghostly flesh are highly valued. Most items in the Underworld are made of the cold Dark Iron or Echoes.
The main populations of Ghosts are Humans and Ghenid. Octnon are transitory and almost always go straight to Apophis via the River of Forgetting. Very very few linger. The Fae, Bahku, Centaurs and Minotaur do not normally pass into the Underworld. The main exceptions being Necromancy and Ghenid Aedoteerua: The Soul Chain. Bugbear may linger in the service of Deathlords, but they are irresistably pulled to Apophis or if they hear about it, Oblivion. Bugbear will rush to escape rebirth and embrace nothingness or consumption and loss in Oblivion.
Of the other kinds, Gods have fallen and always plunge into the edge of the Pit and the Mountain. Elder Gods dissolve into the world and leave no spiritual remains. Most demons and spirits have assigned places and by-pass the underworld. Animals are Po souls that may be sent in rituals and rarely achieve more than Hungry Ghosts or Echo. The Dead Kings/ Titans are Necromancers that pass into and out of the Underworld. The Primitive cousins, the Titans now enter the underworld. The ancestors were all harvested by the Deadkings of the Damamila. Others follow their relations and ancestry.
Yokai and varous monsters are Asura level beings that do not pass through the underworld.
Of the other kinds, Gods have fallen and always plunge into the edge of the Pit and the Mountain. Elder Gods dissolve into the world and leave no spiritual remains. Most demons and spirits have assigned places and by-pass the underworld. Animals are Po souls that may be sent in rituals and rarely achieve more than Hungry Ghosts or Echo. The Dead Kings/ Titans are Necromancers that pass into and out of the Underworld. The Primitive cousins, the Titans now enter the underworld. The ancestors were all harvested by the Deadkings of the Damamila. Others follow their relations and ancestry.
Yokai and varous monsters are Asura level beings that do not pass through the underworld.
Included Locations
Underworld map by Mutterwolf
Yes, I tried to do fancy columned formatting. It resulted in a total mess with some columns squeezed against one wall as a string of single letters. Other columns unevenly distributed. The end is wall of text. Too bad.
I also tried boxed text. FAIL