Realms of the Returned

Death and life are two sides of the same coin. Opposite, but eternally connected. One cannot exist without the other.
—Slighos the Body-binder

Before becoming a god, Phenax died, passed into Erebos’s realm, and ultimately escaped the Underworld. His escape route, the Path of Phenax (see chapter 4), has since been employed by rare, but over the ages innumerable, individuals. These Returned find the world of the living far different from how they experienced it in life—not that they remember their lives. Although they’ve escaped from the Underworld, the Returned still find themselves separate from the living, their memories lost and their unnatural states striking fear in most mortals. As a result, most Returned come to follow certain paths of behavior and gravitate toward two city-states, known as the necropoleis—cities of the dead.

The Returned

Walking the Path of Phenax doesn’t restore a soul to its life. Those who return from the Underworld are hollow shells inhabited by grim and purposeless spirits. These Returned are separated from their memories, which become wandering eidolons (see chapter 6). They retain their personalities and skills, but each Returned tends to be a very different being from who they once were. Their second life is theirs to do with as they please, but it’s typically a confused, cursed life, plagued by frustration, bitterness, loneliness, and melancholy. Such leads many Returned along dark paths.

Anographers

Anographers are the scribes of the Returned. On long scrolls of bleached white parchment, they write half-remembered names, images from dreams, and descriptions of places and people that might once have held meaning. Other Returned visit anographers and describe what scraps of memory they retain. Some believe hidden wisdom lies upon these scrolls, clues to ancient mysteries, or hints at the lost identities of the Returned.

Gray Merchants

Traders recognize Gray Merchants by their hooded gray cloaks and their carts piled high with useless trinkets. Their wares include components for sinister rituals, jewelry stolen from graves, cursed magic items, and other ominous goods. In return, they demand kitchen utensils, worn bridles, waterlogged books, and other unremarkable trash. There’s no rhyme or reason to what the Gray Merchants seek, and the merchants themselves never speak. They conduct business through gestures, making their unusual trades and plodding off into the shadows.

Kakomanteis

Returned kakomanteis employ powerful magic at a price paid in blood. Some theorize that in life each kakomantis was a spell caster, and the trip along the Path of Phenax corrupted their abilities. Regardless of how they came upon their grisly magic, kakomanteis keep small animals, such as rodents, snakes, and insects, close at hand to power their spells, though more potent magical effects demand more significant sacrifices.

Palamnites

While most of the Returned are listless and quiet, palamnites burn with envy and rage. They are vicious killers, destroying what no longer brings them joy. Palamnites burn villages, slaughter innocents, and steal wealth only to discard it later. Most stories of vengeful Returned stem from reports of these tortured souls.

Pseudammas

Pseudammas are cursed by fleeting memories of their lost children. They know that they were parents in life and that they will never again experience the love of their child. Though their plight is heartbreaking, pseudammas turn tragedy into horror by snatching mortal children and attempting to raise them. However, the Returned have forgotten the needs of the living and they have no concept of how to care for a child.

Asphodel and the Despair Lands

The influence of the Underworld leaches life and color from a peninsula south of the Nessian Wood. Here, the necropolis of Asphodel sprawls amid the bleak region called the Despair Lands.
The Returned of Asphodel seek to be left alone with their ennui. They rarely leave the city, venturing out only when spurred by fugues of emotion or fleeting memories. The streets are dusty and rarely walked, though the windows of dilapidated hovels glimmer with the staring masks of listless Returned. Asphodel is an echo of the grim cities of the Underworld, making it a tragically ironic home for those who risked so much to escape the land of the dead.

Coliseum of the Aphonai

Three ancient Returned called the Aphonai rule Asphodel. They wear simple, identical golden masks and long, drab robes, making them nearly impossible to distinguish from one another. From the Coliseum of the Aphonai, a perfectly circular stone building that stands at the heart of Asphodel, the leaders listen to cases brought before them and decide on the few matters of importance to the city. Trespassers caught within the city are often brought before the Aphonai for judgment. The elder Returned never speak, rendering their judgments only in gestures.

Order of Phaios

A cabal of mages known as the Order of Phaios defend Asphodel with their magic. The mages of the order devote themselves to studying arcane mysteries that could never be unraveled in a single life. Like all Returned, though, they have difficulty remembering what they learn. For this reason, the rooms of their order’s vaulted hall, the Stoa of Shadows, are covered with coded engravings that collect their wisdom. While the research of the Returned rarely leads them to epiphany, some of the few living mages who have stolen into the stoa escape with remarkable knowledge.

Hetos, the Bleak Mire

Asphodel perches at the edge of a sprawling marsh called the Hetos Mire. The necropolis stands on an elevated piece of land surrounded by treacherous bogs and tangled thickets. The inhospitable territory serves the Returned as a first line of defense against any intruders. Near the southern edge of Hetos stands an ages-old, crimson cypress called the Blood Tree. Color from the tree bleeds into the surrounding bog, making the swamp waters look like a charnel pit. Vicious and venomous swamp creatures are drawn to the Blood Tree and frequently drag prey into its foul midst.

Odunos

The Returned of Odunos despise the living, feeling sparks of pleasure when they destroy whatever the living value, be it property or people. Within their city, armed Returned gangs roam the streets, quarreling for no apparent reason. Beyond the city’s walls, undead raiders strike out, menacing the lands of Akros, Meletis, and Phoberos. These raids are led by the city’s de facto ruler, Tymaret the Murder King, a servant of Erebos tasked with returning Phenax to the Underworld. Knowing that Phenax could disguise himself as anyone, Tymaret slaughters all living souls, just to be thorough.
Those who would strike back against Odunos’s raiders must venture through mires corrupted by sucking bogs and necromatic horrors. Those who survive to reach the city find it heavily guarded, its towers bristling with sleepless guards and abominations of unliving flesh.

The Bothros

A bottomless chasm yawns at the north edge of Odunos. Nothing that has fallen into its depths has ever been recovered. After a successful raid, warriors from Odunos usually dispose of their spoils in the Bothros—caring nothing for their pillage. Occasionally this includes captives, forced into the pit during wordless executions.

Crypts of the Lost

Beyond Odunos rises a cluster of tors honeycombed by countless tombs. Few know who were originally buried in this morbid labyrinth, but the Returned care nothing for the corpses and dust. Occasionally, Returned who’ve grown tired of their half-lives congregate here, waiting for a final death to claim them. Some tales claim that treasures lie amid the crypts, but others say that Phenax first emerged from the Underworld here, and his path could be retraced back into Erebos’s domain.

MYTH OF TYMARET THE MURDER KING
When Phenax made his escape from the Underworld, there was one witness to his escape, an unremarkable soul called Tymaret. Sharing what he’d seen with the god of the dead, Tymaret received a cursed blessing from Erebos: he would be restored to the mortal world, but as a Returned, and with the task of slaying Phenax. Tymaret took up the quest, but as Phenax was masked, he proved difficult to locate. So Tymaret began slaughtering every mortal he encountered, confident that one of these victims would be Phenax. Yet, when Phenax became a god, he evaded his pursuer, leaving Tymaret and his legions of Returned to eternally, fruitlessly kill in Erebos’s name.