Abyss
The Abyss is the elemental plane of darkness, one of the primordial planes from the dawn of time. Deep beneath the earth, below even the very bedrock of the tallest mountains, this hellish plane of perpetual night exists. It is the home of daemons and shadow elementals, creatures born from the very stuff of nightmares. But it is not merely formless darkness, as the cold, formless caves lead to layers ruled over by Daemon Lords, supremely powerful beings born from the darkness of mortal souls. These domains vary in form, size and purpose, but they are all of them reflective of the shadows that live within us.
It is a strange, formless realm that represents the opposite of existence, the perfect sublimity of nothingness.
It is a strange, formless realm that represents the opposite of existence, the perfect sublimity of nothingness.
Geography
The Abyss is characterized by a deep, formless wasteland where nothing lives and only daemons and shadows move. Anything mortal that tries to move in the true darkness of the Abyss quickly find themselves lost as the formless smoke around them give no clue as to what might be up and down, left or right. The only chance a mortal has lies in forcing the formlessness to take form, using cthonic rituals or elemental artefacts, and hoping, praying or having an excellent plan for finding their way through the dark. Daemons can be hired, or bound, to guide mortals, but such deals should be made only as a last resort.
The Twilight Realm
The Twilight Realm, the ancient home of the feared and reviled Twilight Elves, marks the border between the Material Plane and the Abyss. Once a vast and formidable civilization, the Twilight Realm has now been reduced to naught but ruins, stalked by freakish abominations crafted by the Shadow-weavers and Crimson Hands tasked with making sure the darkness stays in its proper place. These ruins are protected by Drow, who make sure that any outsiders are kept away from the myriad treasures and dangers that can be found in the dark places of the world.
The ambitious, foolish and mad sometimes try to make their way to the ancient foundries of the Twilight Elves, seeking to pillage them and take their supremely powerful magical artefacts for themselves.
At the heart of the Twilight Realm lies the Abyssal Well. Part fortress and part magical powerhouse, ancient myth has it that the Abyssal Well stretches its obsidian claws deep, deep into the Abyss, to the very Heart of Darkness, and that the mightiest weapons of the Midnight Court were forged within its shadowy depths. Scholars with knowledge on the matter know that the Midnight Court and the Twilight King sealed themselves in the Abyssal Well with powerful timestopping magic, and that they remain there to this day, waiting to release their nightmarish wars upon the world once again.
The Corpse of the Mountainwalker
A titanic mass of red iron and grey granite is bored into the Abyss and spears through many of its layers. It radiates a dark green energy and gives form and permanence to the Abyss around it, solidifying it into perfect black stone and creating hellish fusions of earth and shadow elementals. The Corpse of the Mountainwalker plunges deep into the Abyss, and supposedly ends in a fist around the Heart of Darkness. It is one of the legacies of the First War, evidence of the titanic struggle between Er'eber'eus and Mejek'khul and marks the place where the First War finally began coming to an end.
The Heart of Darkness
The Heart of Darkness is said to lie at the deepest point in the Abyss, though any attempt to quantify where that might be would be an act of insanity. So deep in the Abyss, the shadow still retains its primordial essence and the dark bears no form. The Heart of Darkness is this shadow: the creator of the non-existent, the mother of the neverborn. Trying to describe would be pointless, how can one describe that which is defined by its nothingness?
Many of the most powerful daemons, such as balors and daemon lords, begin their existence crawling out from the Heart of Darkness. Some questions have been raised regarding the sentience of the Heart of Darkness, since it seems capable of spawning Daemon Lords that reflect the darkness of the mortal races, but most believe that this is simply a natural reflex of the dark power. Er'eber'eus was destroyed by Gargath One-Eye, if that was not so we would surely have notices.
Layers of Abyss
Between the formless wastelands, that seem to resemble walls, fogs and caves of shadow as the mind tries to decipher the unnatural sight before it, lie the layers of abyss. These are areas of the shadow given form to reflect something dark within the nature of mortal hearts, and the vast majority of them are ruled over by powerful daemon lords. The include:
The Twilight Realm
The Twilight Realm, the ancient home of the feared and reviled Twilight Elves, marks the border between the Material Plane and the Abyss. Once a vast and formidable civilization, the Twilight Realm has now been reduced to naught but ruins, stalked by freakish abominations crafted by the Shadow-weavers and Crimson Hands tasked with making sure the darkness stays in its proper place. These ruins are protected by Drow, who make sure that any outsiders are kept away from the myriad treasures and dangers that can be found in the dark places of the world.
The ambitious, foolish and mad sometimes try to make their way to the ancient foundries of the Twilight Elves, seeking to pillage them and take their supremely powerful magical artefacts for themselves.
At the heart of the Twilight Realm lies the Abyssal Well. Part fortress and part magical powerhouse, ancient myth has it that the Abyssal Well stretches its obsidian claws deep, deep into the Abyss, to the very Heart of Darkness, and that the mightiest weapons of the Midnight Court were forged within its shadowy depths. Scholars with knowledge on the matter know that the Midnight Court and the Twilight King sealed themselves in the Abyssal Well with powerful timestopping magic, and that they remain there to this day, waiting to release their nightmarish wars upon the world once again.
The Corpse of the Mountainwalker
A titanic mass of red iron and grey granite is bored into the Abyss and spears through many of its layers. It radiates a dark green energy and gives form and permanence to the Abyss around it, solidifying it into perfect black stone and creating hellish fusions of earth and shadow elementals. The Corpse of the Mountainwalker plunges deep into the Abyss, and supposedly ends in a fist around the Heart of Darkness. It is one of the legacies of the First War, evidence of the titanic struggle between Er'eber'eus and Mejek'khul and marks the place where the First War finally began coming to an end.
The Heart of Darkness
The Heart of Darkness is said to lie at the deepest point in the Abyss, though any attempt to quantify where that might be would be an act of insanity. So deep in the Abyss, the shadow still retains its primordial essence and the dark bears no form. The Heart of Darkness is this shadow: the creator of the non-existent, the mother of the neverborn. Trying to describe would be pointless, how can one describe that which is defined by its nothingness?
Many of the most powerful daemons, such as balors and daemon lords, begin their existence crawling out from the Heart of Darkness. Some questions have been raised regarding the sentience of the Heart of Darkness, since it seems capable of spawning Daemon Lords that reflect the darkness of the mortal races, but most believe that this is simply a natural reflex of the dark power. Er'eber'eus was destroyed by Gargath One-Eye, if that was not so we would surely have notices.
Layers of Abyss
Between the formless wastelands, that seem to resemble walls, fogs and caves of shadow as the mind tries to decipher the unnatural sight before it, lie the layers of abyss. These are areas of the shadow given form to reflect something dark within the nature of mortal hearts, and the vast majority of them are ruled over by powerful daemon lords. The include:
History
In the beginning the Abyss was a primordial shadow, a formless darkness underpinning all of reality. One might wonder what the original purpose for the Abyss was, since an elemental plane of light doesn't exist, what is the Abyss the opposite of? Some scholars believe that the Abyss was a proto-afterlife, a place for that which has form to return to formlessness. During the First War however, that changed. The darkness sought to gain power wherever it could: in the deep waters, in the dying fires, beneath eternal clouds, in the shadows of great trees and more than any other place, deep below the earth.
It was an insidious force during the First War, clawing its way onto many battlefields and marking countless lands in shrouds of dread. Many mortals were twisted, spawning the first Neverborn and dragging them into the Abyss.
The greatest fight stood between Er'eber'eus, the Abyss, and Mejek'khul, the Mountainwalker. These two lords of the deep fought for dominion of the underground, and eventually the battle reached a crescendo. Mejek'khul followed Er'eber'eus into the Abyss, hoping to strangle the Darkness at its roots. This proved to be futile however, and Mejek'khul succumbed to a thousand cuts. Er'eber'eus was victorious, but in its moment of triumph it was struck down by Gargath One-Eye, Mejek'khul's most loyal follower.
Er'eber'eus exploded into dozens of shards, and from its corpse the first true daemons coalesced. Creatures such as Orcus and Juiblex were born that day, and many more would crawl their way out of the darkness over the milennia.
As the mortal civilizations rebuilt themselves after the First War, the Abyss slowly took on a more and more absctract image. It no longer simply represented formlessness and darkness, but also the darkness that lives in us. Daemons are spawn of our own dark desires, and the Daemon Lords are our sins, wrongdoings and transgressions made into hideous flesh.
It was an insidious force during the First War, clawing its way onto many battlefields and marking countless lands in shrouds of dread. Many mortals were twisted, spawning the first Neverborn and dragging them into the Abyss.
The greatest fight stood between Er'eber'eus, the Abyss, and Mejek'khul, the Mountainwalker. These two lords of the deep fought for dominion of the underground, and eventually the battle reached a crescendo. Mejek'khul followed Er'eber'eus into the Abyss, hoping to strangle the Darkness at its roots. This proved to be futile however, and Mejek'khul succumbed to a thousand cuts. Er'eber'eus was victorious, but in its moment of triumph it was struck down by Gargath One-Eye, Mejek'khul's most loyal follower.
Er'eber'eus exploded into dozens of shards, and from its corpse the first true daemons coalesced. Creatures such as Orcus and Juiblex were born that day, and many more would crawl their way out of the darkness over the milennia.
As the mortal civilizations rebuilt themselves after the First War, the Abyss slowly took on a more and more absctract image. It no longer simply represented formlessness and darkness, but also the darkness that lives in us. Daemons are spawn of our own dark desires, and the Daemon Lords are our sins, wrongdoings and transgressions made into hideous flesh.
Alternative Name(s)
Elemental Plane of Darkness
Type
Dimensional plane
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