Metaphysics, Geography, History, and Society Or The Nitty Gritty Details In the world of Wraith, a discussion of the current state of affairs is meaningless without first discussing how things got the way they are and why. For this reason, the metaphysical nature of wraiths, their existence, their "natural laws" if you will, must be mentioned side by side with the geography and the history, ultimately leading into the current societal and political forum that the Shadowlands are. By no means is it expedient to record everything that could be written on the subject. As stated earlier, this version of the game is not meant as a challenge to the White Wolf and the writers of Wraith: the Oblivion. Readers who would plunge into greater depths on the subject are encouraged to consult the various Wraith books published by White Wolf Game Studios. While all of the books have some value to the discussion, certain books are of greater value. Wraith: the Oblivion (either edition) contains the best overview of wraiths, their nature, an overview of the Shadowlands, and a basic history of the Underworld. A more in depth look at the history of Stygia can be found in the book The Hierarchy, and an invaluable examination of the metaphysical geography of the tempest can be found in the Sea of Shadows. For the current and most recent societal changes, the Ends of Empire is the best book to consult. METAPHYSICS The Soul Continues One of the few undeniable truths of the spiritual world is that the soul is what defines life. All humans have souls; however what the soul actually is - that is open to debate. Religions all around the world, from the most primitive animistic tribal faith to the most organized clerical church, all have this one element in common: the existence of the soul is not questionable. At death, what happens to most souls is unknown, at least to the community of the restless dead at large. Some feel that heaven, or Valhalla, or Nirvana, or a paradise of sorts, awaits the virtuous, and any number of versions of hell exist for the damned. Others claim that a cycle of rebirth and reincarnation awaits those whose karma is in order. Only the most cynical and skeptical believe that all who do not become wraiths go straight to Oblivion. But, for whatever reason, the restless dead known as wraiths have not passed on. Denied their "natural" state, they exist in the Underworld in a tenuous state, caught on the threshhold of existence and Oblivion. For these wraiths, existence is a fine line that can easily be crossed at any moment. Only about five percent, or one in twenty people generally become wraiths. The figure is slightly lower during times of war and calamity, and slightly higher at other times, and so the average figure still holds. Roughly five percent of those who die ever become a wraith. The wraiths themselves do not know what happens to the rest; they have been denied their place among them. Nor do they completely understand why they still linger about the Shadowlands, able to see the Skinlands but barely able to affect it at all. A few certainties are known, however, about wraithly existence. Memories' Passion Most wraiths died with the feeling that some things were left unfinished: love was unrequitted, a great masterpiece was left incomplete, or a final farewell was never voiced. While this is not universal, it certainly does seem to be the predominant link between the various souls of the dead. This regret, it is theorized, is strong enough to hold the wraiths from the normal flow of death, consigning them to a dark existence on the other side of the shroud. Wraiths are memories, the remainder of a person. The body is gone; they are an echo, an extension of that person's memory across the shroud, reflected and coagulated on the ambient corpus that makes up the Underworld. The reflection, however, is spotty at best, and often rather poor. Most wraiths have crafted their corpus, what passes for their new body, in the manner they feel is most appropriate. For every wraith that has idealized herself, giving herself a far better appearance than she ever had, there is another wraith that believes that all ghosts should look like decayed corpses, and so he looks. Almost all wraiths display their signs of death, be they death wounds, the remains of a sickness, or the lingering traces of the event that killed them. Even if moliated away, these death marks often return. Many ghosts have speculated in the past that these death marks are important to a wraithly, and influence the manner in which that wraith should achieve transcendence. If regret created the wraith, and memory crafted her, then passion is what keeps her going. A wraith is passion personified. Their link to what they were, the passions that drive a wraith are often grand and complex, and they pursue these passions with relentless drive. To say that the passions of a wraith are what keep her going is not an understatement. Unable to eat or breathe, passion is both air and food to the restless soul. Indeed, wraiths have found that a palpable energy from the passions can be drawn upon, harvested, and used. They call this energy pathos, and it literally is what keeps a wraith going. There is a negative form of this energy, however, dark and destructive. It is called angst, and it is what fuels the shadows and specters of Oblivion. The Fettered Soul The shadowlands are a difficult place, halfway between what could be called the true Underworld and the lands of the living. The land mirror them; they are torn between their former lives and the existence that now lies before them. Fetters are what tie a wraith to the skinlands, allowing her to manifest in the shadowlands. In simplest form, they are the people, places, and things that matter to a wraith. They are the elements of her former life that still matter to her so much that she cannot let go, cannot allow them to pass away from memory. Fetters are both blessing and curse, for on the one hand they allow the wraith to access the shadowlands and maintain a tie to the skinlands, but they require time and effort to maintain, and prevent the wraith from letting go of her former life. One advantage that fetters give a wraith is the ability to slumber. A slumbering wraith sinks into her fetter, her corpus melding and dissolving into the fetter; size does not matter for this, as the slumbering process seems to transcend such concerns. While in slumber, a wraith regains her energy, healing any wounds suffered and generally restoring her corporeal state. For this reason fetters are highly protected; without fetters, wraiths cannot slumber, and in fact they are unable to manifest at all in the shadowlands for very long. The Restless Dead The wraith, then, is quantified memory and personalized passion. She no longer can be described as physical, although she may be described as corporeal. Unable to affect the skinlands, she can nonetheless still be affected by them. She is a spectator, forever consigned to watch as the world continues on about her, while she herself has become a static being. Change is difficult for wraiths, and growth nigh impossible. Wraiths are made of a substance called corpus. All wraiths consist of this substance (also called ectoplasm), as does most of the Underworld. Wraiths, however, have manifested their psychic imprint upon their corpus. As such, they appear as they think they should. This is less a conscious decision than a natural one. Some wraiths appear withered, others as they did as mortals. Some wraiths will appear to bleed when they are cut; others will not. Their corpora may strengthen or weaken due to various experiences and stimuli. Even when their corpus is spent and they discorporate, however, they may still exist, and reform given sufficient time. Wraiths may even voluntarily make themselves incorporeal, at least to the Skinlands. This state has the advantage of allowing the wraith to pass unmolested through the objects and people of the Skinlands, even if she is unable to do the same in relation to the Shadowlands. At death, a wraith's personality fragments into three distinct personas. This is not to imply that the wraith is three separate persons; all three personalities embody a different aspect of the former mortal. Now, however, the wraith is no longer one in purpose. The higher cognitive functions are known to the restless as the psyche. The psyche is the persona most players will assume. This is the personality that is driven by the passions and tethered by the fetters. The psyche is the closest approximation to what the wraith was in life. The darker aspects of a person gain their own voice, however, and this is called the shadow. The shadow gives vent to all selfish and base thoughts that plagued the mortal life of the wraith. No longer denied a voice, the shadow seeks to subvert all that the psyche attempts to accomplish. Ultimately, the shadow seeks Oblivion, an end to it's pain and suffering. To this it directs all its efforts. There is a third part though, often overlooked. The higher, most selfless and noble ideals of a person embody the eidelon. This higer self is usually mysterious and aloof, but may direct the wraith towards purity and truth, and ultimately towards the oft conjectures state of transcendence. Being a Grim Reaper When a person dies, they awake to find themselves in the Underworld, yet disoriented. Their perceptions are clouded, their movements slow and deliberate. They move about as if drunken, unable to think or see clearly. This is because of the caul that covers them. Like being born a second time, newly dead wraiths (called enfants) enter the Underworld covered in a death-caul, an ectoplasmic film that covers them utterly, both body and mind. While their caul is on, they cannot think or perceive events clearly. Only the most powerful of wraiths has the strength to see their plight or remove their own caul. Therefore most wraiths continue to stumble about the Underworld, a target of any marauder or specter, unless they be released from their caul. Such a process is simple enough, and is called Reaping. The Hierarchy has employed countless legionnaires in this "recruitment" process, but renegades and heretics often compete to reap the newly dead, and fights often break out over the souls of the departed. The Drone of Existence Some wraiths arrive in the Underworld with just enough regret to manifest, but little cognizant thought beyond that. Trapped forever in the instant of their deaths, these drones reenact their final moments again and again, until Oblivion finally claims them or a slaver turns them into something more useful. Most wraiths don't really like drones; they are a sad reminder of what might have happened to them. Occasionally outside stimuli will awaken a drone, but this is highly unusual. The Powers of the Dead Ghosts are considered by mortals as supernatural creatures. This phrase is a little bit tricky, for it assumes that the wraithly state is not natural. Some restless would take offence at that. Whether or not the existence of ghosts is natural or not, it must certainly be said that their world has it's own unique natural laws, laws that are not always predictable. Moreover, wraiths have powers available to them that were beyond their ability as mortals. These fall into two categories: innate abilities available to all wraiths, and arcanoi that must be learned and honed. The innate abilities of ghosts are themselves quite powerful. All wraiths have hyper-sensitive senses. They can hear a conversation a block away, and smell the faint traces of an animals passing. Likewise, however, bright lights and loud noises tend to overwhelm them. Wraiths have an ability they call Lifesight, which allows them to examine the aura of a person, and tell their emotional state. Deathsight is the ability of wraiths to examine the decay that Oblivion is working in reality; while a depressing power to use, the chance to see where and how something is falling apart is an invaluable recourse. Finally, as almost anyone knows, the restless have the ability to become incorporeal and pass through walls and other objects. This ability does not make a wraith incorporeal to other wraiths or objects that exist in the shadowlands, but it does allow the wraith to avoid the hazards that the skinlands pose. The other powers of the dead are called Arcanoi (singular Arcanos). These powers have various levels of mastery, and individual arts that must be learned. All told, there are at least thirty-five different arcanoi, maybe more, but most are either unknown or undesirable to most wraiths, and thus the average wraith has access to only a handful of the arcanoi. Even this, though, is enough to grant the wraith undreamed of powers over her surroundings, varying from the ability to fly and turn invisible to the chance to cross the shroud and manipulate the living. The Darker Half Sometimes the shadow will gain enough negative energy, enough angst, that it will have sufficient strength to wrest control of the corpus from the psyche. This event is called Catharsis, and it is usually dreaded by most wraiths. When in Catharsis, the shadow is free to pursue whatever dark agendas it chooses. Afterwards the psyche is left to deal with whatever situations the shadow started. Some wraiths are in a sort of permanent Catharsis, and it is the psyche that is rarely in control of the wraith. Such a ghost is called a specter, and these creatures are feared by wraiths everywhere as dark and malevolent beings. The specters actively serve Oblivion, doing whatever they can to bring about the total annihilation of the world. These specters have a unique society all their own, and they dwell in the labyrinthine maze of passages carved from the walls of reality that surround the Void. They are ruled by the monstrous Malepheans that crawled from Oblivion and who are as old as the world. Transcendence There are rumors and legends of a reprieve from the shadow, and more. There are those who claim that Oblivion is not the only end that awaits the dead, and that another option exists. No one really knows what this fabled state is, although the various beliefs are collectively called Transcendence. No one can, however, agree as to what Transcendence entails. Some believe that it is a place, like heaven or Valhalla. Others feel Transcendence is a peaceful state of non-existence, free from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Some even believe that it is neither, but is the ultimate unity of being, freedom from the shadow. The only ones who have ever really claimed that they have any clue to Transcendence are the Ferrymen, and they reveal precious little of value to the enquirer. Other Denizens of the Underworld Interestingly enough, it is not just wraiths that make up the shadowlands. There are a couple of other creatures that make the shadowlands home (willingly or no), not counting visitors. Phantasies are the discarded dreams of humanity, the wishes and hopes for mankind that have taken form and consciousness. These are the collective dreams of humanity, and embody the best and the worst of man's aspirations. Angels and demons, unicorns and nightmares, all might be found in the Underworld somewhere. Most of these creatures reside in the tempest. They display the personality mankind oft has expected of them, but overtime they have gained a level of independent thought. If phantasies are the dreams of humanity, then phantasms are the dreams of individual people. These creatures rarely end up in the Underworld; usually they arrive here through the intervention of some unassuming Sandman. The Underworld is a harsh place, and few phantasms can survive for long this close to Oblivion before breaking down, often within just a few weeks. Nevertheless, every now and then one survives for a bit longer. No one really knows what plasmics are, or where they come from. It could be said that they are the only native denizens of the Underworld, as wraiths are only transplanted mortals. Plasmics rarely venture into the shadowlands, leading many to speculate that the "reality" of men is anathema to their nature. Plasmics are absolutely alien in thought and nature, and wraiths are generally well advised to stay clear of them. Other Things Worth Mentioning One of the biggest differences between the Underworld and the Skinlands is that very little is native to the Underworld. The Shadowlands themselves are a mere reflection of the Skinlands, and as such all the objects therein are mere reflections, and no more substantial than a reflection in glass. As such, the denizens of the underworld have adapted their needs to what is at hand. Obviously wraiths end up in the underworld, as they are the memory personified of a living being. But very few wraiths end up on the other side of the shroud completely empty-handed. Most wraiths arrive wearing their most (or least) favorite set of clothes, and maybe with a few common objects that they would feel lost without, such as a set or keys or a wallet. Carried for so long in the Skinlands, these objects have themselves become a part of the wraiths memories of who she is. These objects, merely memories of the true object, are called relics. Often the relic and the object exist in entirely different locations, for although a wraith may carry with her the relic keys to her Ford station wagon, the car itself (and the real keys) may have been sold at an auction and ended up in Wyoming. There is a second way that relics can come into being. When an object is infused with sufficient amounts of emotional energy and subsequently destroyed, the object has a good chance of crossing the shroud and becoming a relic. It is from this, for example, that the Viking tradition of burning their dead, and all they possess, originates. Many dead Vikings found themselves well equipped on the other side of the shroud. Certain arcanoi, such as inhabit and flux, can emulate this process. Some objects, however, are never destined to make it across the shroud. While pens and pencils are quite useful, especially in a beauracracy as the Hierarchy, they rarely matter to an individual enough to carry across the shroud. Thus they must be created on the other side of the shroud with the materials available, and these are usually called artifacts. There are two main kinds of artifacts. The first, and most common form of artifact, is the soulforged good. Long ago the smith Nhudri perfected the art of soulforging, wherein a wraith's corpus could be smelted and forged into another object of varying size and shape. The art is, of necessity, quite painful and permanent to the unfortunate so forged, and is considered a death penalty by pretty much everyone. Because of its permanent nature, no one really knows if the subject retains consciousness after the process is complete, but the sighing of bricks and the moaning of the coins gives a nasty suspicion that at least some part of consciousness remains after the act. Swords, bricks, and coins are all made from this procedure. (The coins, its should be pointed out, are called Oboli, sing. obolus, and are worth exactly one soul, although like the old Spanish piece-of-eight they can be split into eight triangular pieces worth a fraction of the total.) Basically, anything that would normally be made from metal can be soulforged. Some objects, such as paper and wooden objects, cannot withstand the hammering and heating that soulforging requires. These objects, however, can still be fashioned from the corpora of other wraiths via the arcanos Moliate. This process, called soulshaping, renders the wraith into a malleable form that can be shaped at the whim of the user. Unlike soulforging, however, soulshaping can be undone by other uses of Moliation, and as such the victim is aware at all points of what befalling him. This makes gazing into a soulshaped torch quite disturbing, for the torch is soulshaped, and thus quite aware of the pain it is experiencing as it burns away to Oblivion. The Laws of the Land One of the curious elements of the Underworld, and proof that it is, indeed, a different world removed as it is from the Skinlands is that the physical laws of nature do not work as they normally do in the Skinlands. While time passes (relatively) normally in the Shadowlands, light works quite differently. Night is darker, and in many places in the Shadowlands daylight cannot filter through, instead replaced by a diffuse and dim light akin to a cloudy, stormy day. Shadows are cast irregardless of light sources, and some objects may cast multiple shadows while others cast none. Gravity is similar in mots regards, but can be overcome (see the arcanoi Argos and Outrage), and a few enterprising wraiths have learned to exploit this well. Combustion is non-existent, and relic matches and relic cartridges do not, in fact, work. Instead, pathos has been found to provide a similar energy source (see Combat and the arcanos Usury), and pathos can be "burned" to allow a gun to fire or a lighter to work for a brief amount of time. Massive amounts of pathos can set ablaze major conflagrations. These flames burn bright with the energy of passion. The brighter emotions, such as hope and love, create a flame of traditional color; such flame is called Kindleflame, and it burns quick and hot. The Hierarchy, however, has found that Barrowflame, created from the darker emotions of sorrow and despair, burns longer and slower, although it is numbingly cold and glows a sickly green and blue. The farther one gets from the shadowlands, and closer to Oblivion, the more the "laws of nature" run rampant. In the labyrinth, time itself seems possessed of a chaotic nature, and speeds up and slows down as the tide of the ocean. So, too, does gravity seem to obey a random set of commands in the labyrinth, and even light becomes untrustworthy. Such is the nature that Oblivion has on the natural laws of the world GEOGRAPHY Wraiths exist in another reality, another dimension, if it could be called that. Generally this is called the Underworld by most, although other supernatural creatures (most notably the shape shifters and the mages) may refer to it as the Dark Umbra. This Underworld itself consists of three realms: the Shadowlands, the Tempest, and the Labyrinth, corresponding to the Umbral ideas of Near, Far, and Deep respectively. The Shroud The shroud is the barrier between the living and the dead. It is like a one-way mirror. Very few mortals can see across the shroud into the Shadowlands, in part because it is too bright among the living. But in the darker Shadowlands, the wraiths can see across. In some ways it is more like a membrane, however. It can be stretched, sometimes dangerously thin in places. Some few wraiths even know how to project themselves through or across the shroud. This shroud is forever a curse to the restless dead. While most wraiths are able to see quite clearly across the shroud (specters have trouble with this), they are forever denied access to the lands of the living. And yet their passions and fetters hold them to the lands of the living. The wraith herself however, is not in the skinlands. She is forced to carry out her existence as a watcher in the shadowlands, denied the ability to affect those that she loves or the world which still matters to her. The shroud is quite strong in some places while being comparatively weak in others. Moreover, it ebbs and flows as well, gaining strength and losing it as time and events flow onward. Thus the shroud will be weaker at a spooky mansion next to a cemetary on Halloween that was the site of a grisly murder than in a sunlit laboratory on the campus of a renown university. Indeed, the collective consensus of humanity helped create the shroud in the first place, and their lack of belief in the restless dead affects the shroud appropriately. Only a few people, such as mediums and psychics, madmen and children, have the ability to peer past the shroud into the shadowlands. The Shadowlands The Shadowlands are the realm that lies closest to the lands of the living, which the Restless will refer to as the Skinlands. The Shadowlands are aptly named for many reasons. It is here that a wraith first awakens and discovers her new nature, and the Shadow that will ever after torment her thoughts. But far more than that, the Shadowlands are as a reflection of the Skinlands, broken and distorted by the Shroud, but a reflection nonetheless. Closer to Oblivion than the Skinlands are, the Shadowlands display the corruption and the darkness that seethes deep below it in the heart of the Void. Buildings appear broken and damaged, many of them covered in grafitti or charred and smoking. The pavement is cracked, the sidewalks broken. Cars, even those that can still move, have the appearance of dilapidated wrecks. Oblivion taints everything. Even the plants appear withered and faded. The sun never shines in the Shadowlands; a chill wind blows throughout. Within the shadowlands the Hierarchy has built and maintained various cities of the dead, called Necropoli. Most major cities, and even many smaller towns, are home to a Necropolis. The oldest of the Necropoli is London, but almost every great city in the world has its share of Restless that still dwell there. A necropolis is the shadowy reflection of an urban metropolis in the Skinlands. Most Necropoli in the western lands (Europe and North America) are Stygian outposts, although occasionally Renegades or Heretics may claim a Necropolis as their own. Sometimes they can even hold on to it for a while. Where the dead congregate, the Shroud has a tendency to weaken. The greater the degree of association and the longer the period, the greater the effect upon the Shroud. Such havens of the dead are generally referred to as a Haunt, although this quaint term can be applied to half a dozen different things. A powerful haunt is the kind of commodity that the Restless will fight each other for. There the Shroud grows weaker, and the living may be more easily affected. So, too, may the arcanoi be more easily used. Ambient memorium, gateways to the tempest, or a strong defense against the ravages of a maelstrom are all other benefits that a strong haunt may possess. In a given Necropolis, the strongest of the haunts is usually designated the Citadel. Usually this has been converted into a fortress of sorts, reinforced by stygian steel and maintained by the Hierarchy. Most Citadels oversee the surrounding areas as a castle might oversee the domain around it, acting as a seat for local government, a safe place to congregate, and a haven from the depredations of war and the storms. And yet, throughout the Shadowlands, reality frays. Oblivion tears at the Shadowlands, seeking to consume it in its inescapable maw. Cracks in reality show through, holes in the fabric of the world. These cracks are called nihils, and they are a thing of chaos and Oblivion. They can be found throughout the Shadowlands, although they tend to grow wherever there is pain or suffering in the Skinlands. Dark alleys and the scenes of crimes often play host to the larger nihils. Some are hairline fractures snaking their way across a building or a sidewalk. Others are larger, wide enough to see through. A few are large enough to pass through. These cracks serve as portals, gateways toward Oblivion. Most of them lead into the nearby tempest, although a few spiral directly to the Labyrinth. They glitter with the light of destruction, enticing all to approach. But as they say, "Gaze not into Oblivion; for when you do, know that Oblivion also gazes back." Those who linger around nihils often find that there are things on the other sides of nihils that can grab the unwary and pull them into their domain. The lucky victims return from a harrowing all the wiser for their experience. The unlucky either do not return, or join the shadow-eaten. The Tempest Below the shadowlands, if such a term can be used, lies the tumultuous realm known as the tempest. To describe the tempest is near impossibility, for within its fluid reality are locations so myriad that a thousand books could never be written on it. Nevertheless, an incomplete description must be given, although it will be restated that the book The Sea of Shadows is invaluable in this regard. Once known as the Sea of Shadows, the tempest resembled a fantastic realm that bordered on the shadowlands, but was accessible only to wraiths. More than just a sea, it contained fantastic lands as well as the great sea for which it was named. Running through it was the fabled river Styx, which cut like a scythe straith to the sea. Beyond the sea lay the fabled far shores, and beyond them... none knew. At one time the Sea of Shadows was quantifiable, and the Ferrymen spent many long years attempting to map the realm. But with the onset of the First Maelstrom the geography changed slightly. Marred by the specters that spilled forth from the labyrinth, the geography of the Sea of Shadows had changed. This disturbed the Ferrymen greatly, for at this point they were given a view of what the future held. There was no guarantee that another maelstrom would not strike, and it was ill portents to know that the stability of the shadowlands was at the mercy of the vicissitudes of the Labyrinth. The Second Great Maelstrom struck, and again the Sea of Shadows was thrown into a tumult, only to die down once more, changed again by the passing of Oblivion. When the Third Maelstrom struck with its destructive force, the Sea of Shadows was never the same again. Forever after affected by the chaotic nature of the Labyrinth, the Sea of Shadows was now a nightmare realm, ever shifting and full of the horrors born about by close proximity of Oblivion. Renamed the Tempest, this roiling storm is capable of supporting specters, for its nature is now close enough to that of the Labyrinth to do so. Within its uncharted and possible infinite depths can be found locations both exotic and dangerous. Some places of stability exist, such as the Far Shores and other well-known Isles, but for the most part the landscape of the Tempest is an assault to all sensibilities, ever-shifting and always dangerous. A storm rages throughout the Tempest, similar to the maelstroms. Indeed, a maelstrom is nothing more than the tempest spilling over into the shadowlands. Within the tempest, howling winds carry debris and flotsam at a damaging speed. Only the harbingers, ferrymen, and the bravest or most foolish of wraiths dare the storm that forever rages beneath the Shadowlands. Without arcanoi such as Argos, even navigation in the Tempest is nigh impossible. Luckily for those without such abilities, the Hierarchy long ago established byways, safe roads carved out of the chaos that traverse through the Tempest. While not always well maintained, they provide the bets means of traversing the eternal storm with any degree of safety. Some byways appear as roads, others as footpaths or even streams. Their nature is in part determined by the portion of the Tempest that they pass through. For the Tempest itself can be land or water, or some dread combination of the two, even the lack of both. One thing alone is certain in the tempest: reality is fluid and dangerous. And yet, amidst the chaos, islands of stability exist. The Isle of Sorrows At the mouth of the River Styx, where the Sea of Shadows truly begins, lies the Isle of Stygia. Rising out of the surrounding Tempest, the Isle of Stygia, called also the Isle of Sorrows, is one of the greatest ports of stability in the shifting realm of the Tempest. Charon first discovered the isle thousands of years ago in his search for Transcendence, and it was from here that he established his republic, and later the Empire of Stygia. Stygia itself is enormous, having long since grown out of its possible boundaries. Only the fact that the normal laws of physics no longer apply allows Stygia to exist as it does. It is seven days travel across, and over a days' travel up. For Stygia is truly enormous, and incorporates the best and worst of architectural styles from all places and all times. As buildings fell in the skin lands, they were transplanted, either in whole or in part, into the Underworld, and eventually found the way to Stygia. Coliseums stand amidst skyscrapers; aqueducts connect industrial tenements. As the city grew, the city expanded upwards, building upon former buildings. The lowest levels of the city are a maze-like network of slums that are home to the most degenerate creatures to ever grace a metropolis. The higher one rises, teh grander the edifices. At the summit of the isle lies an imposing octagonal fortress. The palaces of the seven Deathlords (all save Fate) form a large courtyard open on one side. In the center is the Onyx Tower, the seat of Charon's might, while below it the city of death spreads out like a cancer. Surrounding the Isle of Sorrows is a sea wall, built to protect the city from the dangers of the Tempest that surrounds the city so closely. The waters within the seawall are called the Weeping Bay. Made from wraiths moliated into a liquid form, the Weeping Bay is what could be called a serene terror, for although placid, the sea is as disturbing a sight as can be imagined. Stygia has long since overgrown its bounds, expanding as it is into the Iron Hills that make up its surrounding shores. Numerous bridges connect Stygia to its mainland. A number of prisons and work zones are kept in the fringes, as are most of the forges that furnish Stygia with much needed smelted goods. The Near Shores In addition to the Isle of Sorrows, a number of other realms lie within the Tempest, close to the Shadowlands. Most notable of these (at least to the Western wraith) is the Isle of Eurydice, called the Isle of Fate. Long has the Lady of Fate kept her own council and haven on a distant shore. Eurydice lies a full days' travel from Stygia out into the Sea of Shadows. It is heavily protected by the Legion of Fate, and is famous for its odd breed of marsh weeds that grow along its banks, from which durable paper can be made. Numerous other havens of respite exist just within the Tempest. In the oriental lands of the Yellow Springs, both the Jade Palace and Ti Yu lie beyond the Shadowlands, but just. Many of the islands of the Sea Which Knows No Sun have no correspondence to any Skinlands location as well. And once, long ago, the Egyptian lands of the dead existed in the Shadowlands. These days, however, Amenti lies in the Tempest, difficult to find without a guide who knows the way. Other such islands exist within the Tempest, near enough to the Shadowlands to be accessible, but nevertheless removed from them. The Far Shores Deep within the Tempest lie a number of other isles, harder to reach and farther from the Shadowlands. These realms are collectively called the Far Shores. Once it was thought that these distant realms held the key to transcendence. These days such a thought is generally labeled Heresy. Nevertheless, the Far Shores do exist, often at least a week's travel into the Tempest. The Far Shores are quite varied in their nature and appearance. Some appear as various heavens, nirvanas, paradises, and utopias, open to all spiritual pilgrims as would make the journey to their shores. Others are veritable hells, tortuous and agonizing by their very existence. Others may be even more exotic yet. Some may even appear to be one thing, and are yet something else entirely. They are "run" by any variety of wraiths and charlatans, plasmics and phantasms, or even creatures beyond appellation. Long ago Charon forbade travel to the Far Shores, but that has never once kept the penitent wraith from his journey of faith. Whether the Far Shores truly do contain the hope for Transcendence or are merely a grand hoax perpetrated by the basest of individuals is still up for debate. The Labyrinth And below even the Tempest? Therein lies the Labyrinth, a maze of plasmic residue tainted by Oblivion and carved from the very nature of reality an eternity ago by the Malpheans that slumber there yet. This maze is ever shifting and constantly changing, going through seasons as it were, from barrow to kindle. More information on thi may be found in the section on Specters, and the reader is advised to consult the book Doomslayers: Into the Labyrinth for an in-depth discussion of the Labyrinth. The following paragraphs, however, may provide a brief glimpse into this realm of horror. If the Tempest is horrible, the Labyrinth is worst. If the Tempest is a nightmare, then the Labyrinth is horror from which few awake and none dare tread for fear of losing utterly any semblance of sanity. The Labyrinth is a maze of tunnels and passages of all shapes and sizes that exists somehow beneath the Tempest, surrounding the Void of Oblivion. Within the ever-shifting caverns of chaos specters dwell in perpetual service to the Malepheans, those dread avatars of Oblivion that have existed since time began. The Malepheans, too, exist within the infinite warrens of the Labyrinth, slumbering fitfully until the day when Oblivion will finally and irrevocably overtake the world. A more detailed explanation on the life-cycles of the shadow-eaten may be found in the section outlining Spectres. The Labyrinth is filled with every conceivable horror, from large spooky caverns to sterile hospital corridors, from dungeonesque hallways to railway stations. And due to the nature of Oblivion, the Labyrinth goes through periodic changes, adapting and changing as reality is torn asunder. Some places remain constant, however, for they have garnered a level of strength and infamy within the Labyrinth. The spectral cities (called Amphiskiopolis) of Industrion, Skylight, and Misery are well-know examples, as are exotic locales such as the Sunken Cathedral and the Veinous Stair. Storytellers have utter free rein when creating locales within the heart of madness. Oblivion And at the center of it all, deep in the bowels of the Labyrinth, lies the Well of the Void, the heart of Oblivion. The Oblivion is the heart of this harsh reality. It is nothing personified, and to gaze into its depths is to gaze into the madness that accompanies utter nihilism. A HISTORY OF THE UNDERWORLD Before there was, there was not. Reality, however, had other plans, and the universe was crafted. Oblivion no longer retained it's inviolate place as totality. To this day, Oblivion fights to gain back what was lost. Prehistory Originally there was very little distinction between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. Mortals kept in close contact with the spirits of their ancestors and the great heroes of their tribes. The spirits of the dead could manifest to the living, to offer warnings and advice to those who honored their memory and sought to preserve their heritage. At the same time, the living could make the dangerous descent into the lands of the dead, and many legends recount the story of brave wanderers such as Gilgamesh, Aeneas, Orpheus, and Hermod. But these idyllic times were not to last forever. No one really knows when exactly it happened, nor why, but a Sundering took place that forever separated the lands of the dead from the lands of the living. Some claim that a powerful group of mages devoted to a well-ordered world caused the Shroud to form, while others would claim that it was the inevitable breakdown that Oblivion eventually causes. Whatever the case, the Shroud between the quick and the dead grew stronger, and mankind became estranged from his forbearers. And yet the Shroud remains thinner in a few remote places in the world. In "primitive" lands, far from the trappings of the so-called "modern civilization," men can still, with great difficulty, speak with their honored ancestors. In places of great turmoil, such as sites of disasters, the Shroud weakens. Although it never disappears completely, in these powerful locations the lands of the dead are not quite so far from us. The Greatest of Ghosts No one knows exactly how old the Lady of Fate truly is, or what her true identity is. What is known is that she was the first of the dead to arise to any position of prominence. A master of the arcanos Fatalism (and some claim the originator of it), she never sought a position of leadership, but instead pointed to the coming of the savior of the lost souls, whose fate it was to build a society for the restless dead. And from long-dead Mycenae Charon emerged. The Lady of Fate awaited him, reaping his death caul from him and presenting him with a reed boat with which to navigate the River of Death. Charon looked out upon the throngs of dead, miserable and directionless. Charon established himself as the leader of these dead, and crafted a permanent establishment on the Isle of Sorrows from which he hoped to help the restless come to grips with the issues of their death and guide them thereafter towards a transcendence that many believed was waiting for them beyond their dead existence. From the Isle of Sorrows Charon also established the Ferrymen, an organization that quickly outgrew the basic tenets Charon established for them. The Ferrymen were charged with bringing the wraiths in their care towards transcendence. Shortly after their formation, the first specters emerged from the Labyrinth, and the Ferrymen spent much energy combating this threat. Charon took it upon himself to wage a personal war against this new threat. Armed with just a scythe and a lantern, the great leader of the dead descended into the very depths of the Labyrinth. No one really knows how long he was down there, and considering the fluid nature of time in the Labyrinth it would be pointless to even guess how long Charon was truly down there, but eventually he returned, supporting the body of Nhudri. Charon had rescued Nhudri from the bowels of the Labyrinth, where as a prisoner he had labored for the specters, crafting for them weapons of warfare from the very corpora of other souls. Nhudri was a master of soulforging, and in him Charon saw the seeds for a powerful tool in his war against Oblivion. The Founding of a Nation The Ferrymen that Charon had organized and ordered began their travels of the vast lands that made up the Underworld. Traveling far beyond the Isle of Sorrows, these Ferrymen searched throughout the sunless lands for the fabled heaven, for nirvana, for Valhalla, and for paradise. Sometime later they returned, their countenances bright and glowing from the lands from whence they had come. These Shining Ones declared their mission a success, that Transcendence was achievable, and that the road to Transcendence lie across the Sunless Sea, and could be reached by those brave enough to travel the distance. Much encouraged, Charon set out to found a republic, in the manner of the burgeoning republic of Rome. He named his capitol city Stygia, building it great and strong on the Isle of Sorrows. Charon invested enormous energy into the building of his republic. Relic buildings from the greatest cities of the world were transported en masse to the Isle of Sorrows: from Sodom and Gomorrah, from Babylon the Great, from ancient Skara Brae, and from Knossos and lost Atlantis. Nhudri toiled endlessly, building roads and architectural wonderments that defied anything the living had ever known. Slowly but deliberately the Citadel of Stygia rose above the Sunless Sea, its towers and walls a grim testament to the determination and vision of Charon, its founder and creator. Charon himself organized the burgeoning government. No longer merely the chief of the ferrymen, Charon organized a senate, in the tradition of the Roman republic. This senate included a total of nine seats. Charon himself served as chief consol, and the Lady of Fate retained her position of prominence under Charon's new republic. In addition, seven of Charon's most trusted and loyal friends were chosen to be Senators, placed to oversee the safety and the well-being of their charges. Charon's vision was simple in its methods. Each senator was to do all in her power to help those placed under her towards resolution, and ultimately towards transcendence. Be it by resolving fetters, overcoming passions, or quieting the shadows, the citizens of Stygia were to be helped in whatever way necessary. When they were ready to finally move on, the Shining Ones would guide the spirits of the dead across the Sunless Sea to the Far Shores, where they would achieve their deserved reward. It was the Lady of Fate who first noticed the Death Marks upon the dead, and that the manner of death had much to do with the means to resolution of one's fate. As such, Charon established each Senator over a certain cross-section of the populace. As a symbol of the power that rested in their hands, Charon bade Nhudri to fashion masks for his Senators. Nhudri did so, but forged them incomplete. The missing pieces were forged together to make one final mask for Charon. Nhudri also forged at this point Siklos and Lumen, Charon's scythe and lantern. This was the golden age of Stygia, the peak of her existence. Peace flourished throughout the Underworld, and Charon's citizens existed in happiness and contentment. It was also at this point that Charon declared the Lux Veritatis. In essence, his stated that the Republic of Stygia would do everything within its power to preserve the accumulated knowledge of man. Great works written by man were tracked, and when destroyed were recovered as relics and brought to Stygia. In this manner the greatest works of man lived on, in a fashion, beyond the grave. From Republic to Empire But not all who died were content with the peace that Charon had created. Those who in life had been destroyed by Rome, be they slaves, criminals, or subject nations, saw in Stygia a return to that which they so despised in life. Thus it was that the first renegades organized themselves, opposing Charon, his government, and ultimately all it stood for. In truth, each renegade was different from another, and their methods of rebellion were equally varied. Yet together they were a thorn in Charon's side and a threat to the Republic. It was around this time that the first followers of the Christ came across the shroud. These religious men and women were known as Fishers, a name they had apparently even been called in life, and they represented themselves with the symbol of a fish. Eschewing Charon's republic and means, these Fishers crafted their own ships and embarked upon their own journey for the Far Shores. Tied as it was with the Republic of Rome, the Republic of Stygia prospered. And when Rome fell, Stygia followed soon thereafter. In the year 476 a.d., the city of Rome fell to barbarian invaders, and the Labyrinth erupted from deep beneath the shadow lands. Carried upon its winds fearsome specters ransacked and destroyed everything in their path. Charon organized his citizens, and together they fought back this First Maelstrom. But when the winds died down and the smoke cleared, the great city of Stygia lie in ruins. His Senators were scattered, his buildings destroyed, his ferrymen defeated, his republic a shambles. Seeing the example of the skinlands, Charon set about to reorganize the remnants of his Republic. Taking his cue from the Caesars, Charon realized that a republic would not stand against the hordes of Oblivion. With this new understanding, Charon founded the Empire of Stygia. His Senators were reorganized and renamed Deathlords, each put in charge again of a faction of the populace. But Charon now realized that each citizen of Stygia had a duty to the empire, and Charon drafted all the citizens into legions, based upon the manner of death of each wraith. Charon himself was the Emperor of Stygia. The Ferrymen were outraged. They refused to serve a self-styled emperor. Most of them walked away, and in doing so were banished from Stygia. Charon was no longer a ferryman, but was now solely the Emperor of the Dead. His power was greater, his empire secure and strong, and his judgment final. It was at this time that Charon and the Fishers came to terms. In return for a portion of the goods they took in, the Fishers were allowed to set up a temple on the Isle of Sorrow. From there the great golden ships of the Fishers set sail, up and down the River of Death to ferry souls to their temple, and from the temple to the far shores. And as the nations of the Quick changed and grew, so to did the Empire of Stygia. Noting the trend towards feudalism, Charon instituted the Hierarchy, a system of government by which all in Stygia would know their respective places. This government became Byzantine and complex, and many noted that much of the energies of Stygia were directed towards the continuation of this power structure. But, reasoned Charon, order was maintained, and all in the Empire knew their place in the scheme of things. Soon the beauracracy became so overwhelming that the Empire became known more by its system, the Hierarchy. Noting the growing middle class of freemen that were slowly but assuredly growing, Charon opted to order some of his populace into organized and specialized schools of arcanos. These Guilds, Charon reasoned, would possess the more arcane and esoteric arts of the arcanoi, would control the learning of these arts, would study and discover new uses for the arcanoi, and would serve as brokers and teachers for the Hierarchy. In truth, it has much been speculated on whether or not the Guilds actually existed prior to this or not. Certainly they commanded much power very quickly, arguably more than Charon had intended. Moreover, some of the guilds had strong ties to powerful wraiths, and insinuations abounded that these guilds had been founded long before. Most notably, the Artificers traced their organization back to Nhudri, but others may have existed prior to Charon's decree. The Oracles long maintained a shadowy connection to the Lady of Fate, the Harbingers to the ferrymen, and such. Rumors of the Pardoner's ties to the Fishers, the Ashen Lady's connection to the Sandmen, the Skeletal Lord's connection to the Artificers and Alchemists, the Smiling Lord's ties to the Haunters and Spooks, and Charon's connection to the Monitors (or possibly the Mnemoi) are based upon speculation rather than any documented proof. Ironically, it was at this time that Charon drafted the Dictum Mortuum, the law that forbade trafficking with the lands of the living or the inhabitants therein. Charon reasoned that the living should be able to lead their lives free from the influence of the dead, and that the Empire of Stygia and here populace would be safer for it. Most interesting is the effect this had on the dead. Many scholars agree that this helped strengthen the Shroud profoundly, and a number of wraiths found themselves cut off from sources of pathos, and even from fetters. A number of the nascent guilds also found their newly acquired position of power undermined, as nearly half of them had means of piercing the shroud in one manner or another. But it was the Proctors and the Puppeteers who were hit by the Dictum Mortuum most hard. The Empire Struggles The Guilds quickly became powerful beyond Charon's reckoning, learning powers and arts beyond the ken of most wraiths. The Guilds, however, were unable to agree amongst themselves on matters of politics. Long had the Artificers lorded their position over the other Guilds. It was the Artificers who traced their lineage back to Nhudri himself, and who were entrusted by Charon with the forging of the empire. Jealousy grew in the hearts of the otehr Guilds, and in 1096 a.d. the other Guilds rebelled against the status quo and attempted to topple the Artificers from their vaulted position. This attempt might have been successful, save for the treachery within the other Guilds. The Guilds began to argue amongst themselves who would take the Artificers' place before the Artificers were unseated, and soon were fighting amongst themselves for the position of prominence. The War of the Guilds, as it was later called, drug out for centuries, with each Guild carrying on a covert war with the other Guilds. The Artificers were, through force of arms (a blessing they could afford due to their arts) were able, throughout this, of maintaining their position. And in 1347 disaster struck the lands of the living, as the deadly Black Plague hurled its way across the lands of Europe, bringing with it pain and suffering in an unprecedented way. With the plague came the Second Great Maelstrom and the armies of specters that accompanied it. Charon was better prepared this time, and his legions made a quick work of the specters, and Stygia itself survived the attack relatively intact, despite the ferocity of the storm and the rage of its attack. Charon was, however, quite upset with the Guilds, who had spent the time fighting amongst themselves rather than helping to protect the empire. In 1354 Charon stepped into the Guild War and put an end to the conflict, forcing the Guilds to end the conflict and sign a compact forbidding future hostilities. If the Artificers were unofficially the first of the Guilds before, their position was now formalized, for Charon vaulted their position even higher, praising them for their much need service of supplying the Empire with much needed goods and artifacts. Thirteen Guilds signed the accords, declaring peace for the future. Of the other three Guilds, their reasons were varied for being forbidden from that day forward. The Mnemoi, who acted as judge and jury for the Hierarchy, were declared by Charon to be traitorous, and Charon claimed to have proof of their duplicity. They were outlawed and hounded to the ends of the empire. The Alchemists were seen by Charon as useless and insignificant, and continued to exist only under the auspices of their older brother, the Artificers. As for the Solicitors, they were not trusted by the other Guilds, and were thus banned from the accords by their fellow Guilds. In the aftermath of the Second Great Maelstrom, Charon taxed all the populace of Stygia, to aid in the rebuilding of the Empire. The Fishers were incensed at the outrage, and demanded to be excluded from the tax. Words led to conflict, and Charon's forces overcame the Fishers, putting to the flame the temple of the Fishers on the Isle of Sorrow. Charon found further evidence of their treachery within, and he sent emissaries to he Far Shores for a final reckoning with the Fishers and their allies, the Shining Ones. Some time later his Knights returned with grave words. The Far Shores, they declared, were a sham, and the souls destined for them had been subject to slavery and worse. The Shining Ones had set themselves up as kings and lords over the various isles in the Sunless Sea, and ruled over the pilgrims with a cruel and vicious hand that defied anything ever seen among the living. Many of those that had attempted the journey to the Far Shores had been refused entrance, and had become prey to the specters that roamed the Sunless Sea. Charon was outraged beyond belief, and grief consumed him. To thin that for centuries he had encouraged wraiths to seek Transcendence beyond the Sunless Sea, when in truth he had merely been sending them to their doom. In response, Charon issued the Proclamation of Reason, stating that the quest for Transcendence in the Far Shores was a threat to the individual and the empire, and that any who dared to trust the charlatans that preached such doctrine were to be declared Heretics, and enemies of the state. Interestingly enough, many citizens of Stygia took this as a pronouncement from Charon that Transcendence was a myth, although in truth that was not his intent. Nevertheless, from this point forward Stygia no longer attempted to guide the souls in its care towards transcendence, but worked to maintain its own convoluted hierarchy. The increasingly beauracratic strangle hold the Hierrachy now enforced upon its populace grew to frightening proportions, and was destined to erupt. In the year 1500, the combined might of the various Renegade factions, strengthened by the throngs of wraiths declared Heretical, waged an ill-fated assault on the Onyx Tower, Charon's seat of power. Although it failed, the attackers managed to flee with a number of powerful artifacts that were never recovered, and they set the stage for all future rebellions. From that point on, the Renegades were no longer a threat consigned to the dark corners of the Empire, but a very real and present danger. In 1598 the Guilds made an attack on the Hierarchy, with the intent to sieze power from the hands of the Deathlords and maintain the power themselves. The attack may well have succeeded, were it not for dissension in the ranks. The Masquers and the Userers guilds, for whatever reason, did not join in the attack, and their efforts managed to convince the Harbingers and Oracles from fully committing to the attack. The result was that only nine guilds faced the full might of the eight legions, and the Guilds were soundly defeated. In response, Charon banished the remaining Guilds, thus ending their power base, or so he thought. For in truth, although the citizenry of Stygia were told of the banishment of the Guilds, the truth is that Charon could never fully eradicate the guilds, and they continued as subversive underground movements well into the present. Moreover, some guilds, most notably the Artificers, Pardoners, Monitors, and Harbingers, were deemed invaluable, and Charon could not be rid of their services entirely. These guilds were "assimilated" into the legions, and officially their services were assumed by the legions. In truth, however, they continued as they had previously. Meanwhile, the Age of Expansion had gripped Europe, and the peoples therein had discovered the new world, the Americas. With the armies of Europe, the throngs of the Heretics and Renegades fled, hoping to carve for themselves a nation of their own. What they encountered instead, however, was another Dark Kingdom, a land of Obsidian and Gold and Flint based upon the beliefs of the native American dead. Conflict ensued, and the wraiths of the Americas stood no chance against the might of the invaders. An entire empire fell into Oblivion, and the rebels of Stygia found themselves lords of the Flayed Lands. The Hierarchy followed them to the new world, and were appalled by the carnage and desolation; an entire empire destroyed in greed and arrogance. And on the heels of this greatest abomination, the Third Maelstrom struck. Greater in force than anything previous, it was all the Empire of Stygia could do to hold back the forces of Oblivion. Riding on the winds of the maelstrom many great specters flew about, and not a few of them were of Native American decent. A great and powerful general arose from the Labyrinth, an ancient Greek who called himself Coldheart. And although the forces of the Hierarchy eventually won, the Shadowlands were never the same again. The Maelstrom never fully died down, and the Sea of Shadows was tumultuous thereafter. No longer a placid sea, the Tempest boiled and churned with a malevolent energy that made traversing it dangerous to the extreme. History Marches Onward In the aftermath of the fall of the Americas, the fall of the various dark kingdoms of the Americas (called, collectively, the Flayed Lands), and the Third Great Maelstrom, Charon set out to strengthen what remained of his Empire. Charon himself was disturbed greatly by the storm, and the changes it wrought upon the shadowlands. He saw that each storm was successively stronger, and he feared that there would come a day when, no matter her strength, Stygia would fall to the ensuing Maelstroms. Moreover, Charon also noted that the frequency of the storms had increased, and he knew that Stygia's demise lay in the not too distant future. Yet he could never abandon his Empire, and set about to do all he could to help her weather the future. Charon realized that Stygia could never hope to hold the multitude of souls that poured through her gates daily. But more than this, Charon had come to a startling discovery. He, and those who served him, had, over the years, lost their connections to the skinlands due to neglect and inattention. Severed from their fetters, Charon realized that all wraiths who lived in Stygia faced a similar fate, and that many had already succumbed to such existence. Charon set out to found a series of citadels in the shadowlands, and his first and greatest citadel was to be built in the city of London, on the banks of the Thames river in England. This Necropolis, this city of the dead, was to serve as a satelite of Stygia, acting as government, stronghold, and ferry point for the souls of the Empire. Soon other Necropoli grew, and around the world the Hierarchy's strength grew with them. Meanwhile, Charon made sweeping reforms in Stygia itself. He herded up many of the wraiths who were passionless, who were on the verge of feeding Oblivion, and he consigned them to the forges. Hordes of thralls smelted and forged the very corpus of their fellow wraiths into bricks and swords and pipes and other needed goods that the Empire could not do without. Charon reasoned that these souls were destined for Oblivion anyway, and in this way they not only were spared the ravages of the enemy but served one final, useful purpose for their empire. Renegades and detractors, however, felt that Charon had instituted his most heinous pf policies, and cited the multitudes of wraiths consigned to the forges who were not mindless drones as example. They saw the wheels of progress crushing the unfortunate relentlessly beneath, and that many helpless wraiths were smelted and soulforged for no reason save the self-preservation of an empire grown out of control. It was then that Charon, tired of his labors and defeated in spirit, retreated from the Empire he had built, leaving it in the hands of his Deathlords to await his return. And Charon left, and none knew whence he journeyed or when he would return. The Modern Age And in the skinlands, a great war, a War to End All Wars, was fought, beginning in 1914. Vast amounts of souls crossed the shroud, their collective cry heard throughout the Underworld. The Deathlords scrambled to reap the hordes that entered their domain, but the numbers overwhelmed them. Many were lost to Oblivion, and many more went there straight away. For a number of people died whose life, under the industrialization of the modern age, was so dismal and hopeless that they crossed the shroud already consumed by their shadows. These specters made up a new caste of the shadow eaten. Initially called Mutiles, these creatures came to be called Mortwrights, and the dead contended with their ilk ever after. In 1916, the greatest battle of the War to End All Wars was fought. At the Battle of the Somme, 14,000 men died in the first ten minutes. That number would grow to nearly 70,000 by the end of the first day. Never in the history of the world had so many men died at once. And the Labyrinth opened its maw and vomited forth the Fourth Great Maelstrom, whose strength and fury would last well past the events later called the First World War. Stygia rocked, Stygia faltered, and Stygia broke. The Necropoli were cut off from the Isle of Sorrows. To make matters worse, the Deathlords jockeyed amongst themselves to see who would be heir to Charon's vacant throne. The end seemed inevitable. The Empire nearly collapsed. And, in the end, Charon returned. He put the Deathlords in their place and brought the empire back under control. Under his enlightened leadership, the hordes of Oblivion were defeated. Order was restored. The Hierarchy, indeed all the underworld, were saved. In the ensuing years following the Great War, the Hierarchy came into conflict with a number of other Dark Kingdoms. The lands of the Orient were ruled by one Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor, who ruled his Jade Kingdoms with even greater power than Charon ruled the Empire of Stygia. The African lands were themselves ruled by the Ivory Queen, and she ruled the Bush of Ghosts as a mysterious and powerful, near mythical figure. These kingdoms and others Charon and his empire encountered. Conflicts arose, and treaties were struck. Cities like San Francisco and Hong Kong were split between the Hierarchy and the Jade, while New Orleans boasted the presence of Stygia, Ivory, and Les Invisibles, a nation of Caribbean wraiths with ties to creatures of great power. But the living continued to wage their wars of destruction, and in 1945 the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by the unprecedented destructive might of the atomic bombs. Not surprisingly, the Fifth Great Maelstrom erupted from the Labyrinth at these locations, tearing through the shadowlands and tempest with a fury never before seen. From the Labyrinth emerged the most fearsome of specters, a Malephean called Garool who threatened the very gates of Stygia. Charon himself took his scythe Siklos and his old reed boat with which he had navigated the River of Death centuries before, and set out to confront the monster. Using his awesome command of the arcanoi, Charon summoned up a whirlpool with which to devour Garool, but was himself consumed by the massive energies he had unleashed. Both monster and emperor were swallowed by the storm. Without the Emperor, who appeared to be lost forever to the Hierarchy, the Deathlords made a noble effort to unite and drive back the hordes. This they did, but their efforts met with only marginal success. While it is true that the Fifth Maelstrom was defeated and the forces of Oblivion pushed back, the damage to the empire had been indelibly wrought. Eddies of chaos and destruction continued to plague the shadowlands, for in truth pockets of the tempest raged continuously thereafter in the shadowlands. Moreover, the Empire of Stygia was now bereft of their Emperor. The Deathlords did their best to pick up the pieces, and a detente of sorts ensued, where none of the Deathlords had the strength of resources necessary to take on the combined might of the others. Thus no single Deathlord dared to make the first move that would precipitate a conflict that would unite the other Deathlords against him. Recent Events In 1998 reports reached the Deathlords of a city of vampires that had been established in the tempest. Seeing a chance to unite the populace of Stygia under a common banner once more, the united Deathlords declared war against this conclave of vampires, who, it was later determined, had themselves engaged in reaping souls in defiance of the Hierarchy. The next year war was declared, and the forces of the Hierarchy were committed to the attack. But treachery sought to destroy the Hierarchy from within. The Smiling Lord, Deathlord of the Grim Legion, had made a pact with the Jade Emperor. With the assistance of the Guidlmaster of the Chanteurs, the Smiling Lord conspired to bring about the downfall of Stygia. It was the Smiling Lord who had decided to declare war on the city of vampires, that the troops of the Hierarchy would be committed elsewhere, and unable to fend off the onslaught that Yu Huang had planned to destroy the Hierarchy. For their part, the Chanteurs had sent the remaining guild members on a wild goose-chase, on the rumor that Charon himself still lived. In July of 1999, the weave of fate constricted on the Hierarchy. The Smiling Lord, in what would prove to be a mistake, dropped upon the city of vampires the relic of the atomic bomb that had destroyed Hiroshima. The resulting blast not only utterly destroyed the vampires living in the underworld, but triggered the Sixth Great Maelstrom. Yu Huang's forces had just begun their assault on the various Necropoli, most especially London, when the Maeltrom hit. Both the Hierarchy and the Jade Empire were utterly devastated by the assault. Stygia was overrun by specters, many of them caused by a fatal mistake on the part of the Pardoners. Salvation, late as it was, came in the form of Charon, returning from his sojourn among the living. Aided by the Ferrymen and the banished guilds of the Oracles and the Mnemoi, Charon rallied the remaining forces of Stygia and defeated the forces of Oblivion. But the destruction was unimaginable. The Maelstrom, while lessened in intensity, continued. Although Coldheart and the greatest minions of Oblivion were defeated, so too was the Hierarchy. Charon himself was no more, some accounts saying that he was destroyed fighting Coldheart, others that he Transcended. The Detahlords were themselves destroyed. Stygia was destroyed utterly. The final conflict, while over, was a loss for both sides. The Present And yet, no good thing is ever destroyed utterly. From the ashes of the former Empire, the survivors emerged. Like a phoenix, life arises from the fires of destruction. The Necropoli were abandoned by Stygia in the Final Maelstrom, but themselves have gained a level of freedom never before known. Some continue as they had before, carrying out the will of Charon and continuing as if the Hierarchy would one day return. Others crafted new governments: some democratic, some feudal, and even other forms existed. The war with the Jade continues, albeit in the form of scattered skirmishes, with neither side really knowing why the fight is on. Indeed, many of the Jade troops sent to the Stygian Shadowlands have been abandoned there by their own emperor. Some surrender to the local Necropoli, some battle on, and some settle down to carve for themselves a piece of territory. In the light of the return of the Mnemoi and their aid against Oblivion, the Guilds have returned in force. In many Necropoli the Guilds now exist openly. Not only have the Mnemoi returned, but the Solicitors and Alchemists have followed on their tails, and truly all the Guilds have enjoyed a resurgence. It is difficult, however, to say who is trusted least, for many still distrust the Mnemoi, despite their aide in the end. The Solicitors have always been despised, but the remnants of the Chanteurs are themselves avoided, for although many of their number were not involved in the great betrayal, yet the legacy of treachery lingers on. And the Hierarchy? It, too, continues, albeit in weakened form. Marcus Stavaston, a commander of the Silent Legion, has done much to restructure the remnants of the Hierarchy. His efforts have met with quite a bit of success, for many welcomed the order that Stygia brought, and they see in Stavaston a wise and benevolent ruler, who would govern firmly and fairly. The legions them selves continue, albeit with a few changes. The Grim Legion has split, and those who betrayed the Hierarchy before are hounded mercilessly by their compatriots who have remained loyal to the Hierarchy. The Penitent legion, too, has split. Many of its members were disliked before. Some have joined the Grim Legion (both factions), nevertheless as small remnant continues. And the Legion of Fate, under the command of the Lady of Fate, has to a large part withdrawn to the Isle of Eurydice, although like the Penitent a token legion remains behind. And the future? It is hard to say, and harder to see. The Oracles are having increasingly difficult times seeing into the future. And the Lady of Fate isn't speaking of it. But perhaps the New Hierarchy will rise and triumph, and defeat the Sixth Maelstrom once and for all. And maybe the Guilds will solidify their power base once and for all. Any number of possibilities exist, and this is the scope and legacy of the game. |