Pelinaios (ˌpɛlɪˈneɪɒs)

Pelinaios is a dormant volcano, and the highest point on the island of Kyrillos. It is part of the Téleia Óri mountain range. It is well-known among the Kaphtori people as the entrance to that portion of the Dream that houses the Kaphtori underworld, Vathýs.

It is said that the dead must climb the mountain and then descend through a series of caves to reach Nekrópoli, the city on the border of death. It sits on a black harbor, where ships await to take the eidolons of the deceased to the place where they will spend their afterlives. Some choose not to board, and instead remain in Nekrópoli, where they fade to nothingness in only a few years. Others are stranded in Nekrópoli due to the circumstances of their death - if coins were not cast into the sea for their passage, they will be unable to pay the fare. But the majority of the dead who arrive in Nekrópoli stay only long enough to board a ship that will take them to Vathýs, on the other side of the ocean. There, most of the eidolons will reside in the dark waters of Vathýs, slowly dissolving as their memory among the living fades.

Some of the eidolons who enter the waters of Vathýs do not simply drift in the shadowed depths. If the living world remembers them particularly vividly, they may find themselves drawn towards a different part of the afterlife.

Those who were particularly loved by their fellows will find a home among the islands beyond the ocean's floor. These are blessed places, and those eidolons who reside there do so in bliss. While they too will fade once they have been forgotten, the love they inspired in the world tends to sustain them for much longer than the dead who float in the deeps.

For those whose mark upon the world inspired fear and hatred more than love have a different path. They are pulled into the deepest, darkest places of Vathýs, where the Alas Maniés live. There, the Salt Furies devise individual torments for the villains in their charge, that will persist until they are finally forgotten in the living world and can fade into nonexistence.

Heroes have sometimes attempted to journey to Vathýs, with the intent of recovering the eidolon of a loved one. In some stories, they meet their beloved while they are still in Nekrópoli. These stories are the most likely to have a happy ending, for these eidolons may still be reunited with their original pneuma or spirit. However, in other stories the hero must journey all the way to Vathýs and seek the Eidolon of the departed in the waters. Even when successful, these eidolons are usually no longer capable of being reunited with their original Pneuma (which will have moved on). While they remember their lives and relationships, without the Pneuma these bonds have no significance to them, and they do not feel for those they once loved. When resurrected (by whatever means the hero could concoct), they are furnished with a different Pneuma. This typically is a drastic change, as their underlying nature has been changed - and it always means that the resurrected person no longer has the emotional response to the relationships of their previous life. In the worst cases, the resurrected person receives a Pneuma of a malevolent nature, and becomes a wicked parody of their former self. But even when this dire consequence is avoided, it results in an unsatisfying and tragic story, where the hero must face a beloved who no longer loves them.

Notable Spirits

The mountain itself serves as the body of the god Kheírōn, who is the gatekeeper of the dead. He manifests as an enormous centaur, and is also known to be the keeper of secrets, for he knows all that those eidolons who passed his way know. Sometimes, he will allow a mortal to wager with him for the answer to a question. Those who lose this wager must perform some service for the god. In some stories where heroes seek to enter the underworld, they wager for and learn the secret of passing Kheírōn by while still living. This secret is not disclosed by the stories, however.

Ecosystem

The mountain is thickly forested, with both deciduous and perennial forests, mainly of beech, oak, maple and chestnut trees, with olive, apple, and pear tree groves surrounding places with water.

Type

Volcano

Location under

Kyrillos

Geographic Details

Location: Southeastern Region
Latitude: 37.13 degrees North
Longitude: 45.94 degrees East
Elevation: 4,072 ft