Rhynihx

Rhynihx

Rhynihx was chief interrogator and head of the secret police serving under Asmodeus in the Demon Spawn War. Before entering his service, she was closely vetted with both magic and suffered intense questioning and loyalty tests. This was all done to keep spies from getting too close to the leadership of the Quara'tun Covenant. Rhynihx had an outstanding record of service and higher than average skill for reading someone. She proved her worth in rooting out demon infiltration and spies, yet nobody, not even Asmodeus ever figured out that she was a mole. She was an agent of Graz'zt sent to corrupt the morality of Asmodeus.

Rhynihx was a stunningly charismatic and attractive monadic deva. She became the consort of Asmodeus after spurning his advances for two years. Over the next two centuries, they were in and out of relationships, with Asmodeus always coming back to her. This led to a strong jealousy and the beginnings of the corruption of his morality. Rhynihx's trickery was often very subtle and done over a very long time so as not draw suspicion. One time she let herself be captured and tortured by a pack of demons, claiming to her rescuers that one had violated her. Asmodeus's rage from this incident was so unbounded that he wiped out the demons and then went on a campaign of slaughter. It was during this military campaign, that he gave the order "no quarter" which was generally not how war was waged by the Quara'tun Covenant.

Some think that Loki played a part in the corruption and downfall of Asmodeus, which even if true, paled in to comparison to the doings of Rhynihx. She played a major role in the fall of Asmodeus and him becoming a Fallen Angel.

The irony of the whole affair with Rhynihx is that Asmoeus undoubtedly figured out that she was a mole, yet his love and passion for her were greater than his principles to do what is right.

 - Athena, from a Plaque of Aphalur - "Rhynihx Seduction"

When Asmodeus was cast out of the Prime and sent to the Nine Hells, Rhynihx made the mistake of showing a brief grin. This was noticed by Pelor who then had her watched and brought in for questioning. They were unable to find any complacency in the downfall of Asmodeus, yet Pelor suspected something.

 Not a tear, just a grin at the loss of a close friend and companion of centuries?

 - Pelor, to Rhynihx - "Interrogation of Rhynihx"

Unbenowst to anyone but her, she was pregnant with the seed of Asmodeus. This was the only child she ever had with him and her only child. During the last days of pregnancy her pain was so great that she feared not making it. She implored Ares to have her sent to the Nine Hells. This questionable act by Ares, was the last act of morality undoing by Rhynihx. She took advantage of Ares's compassion for his former protégé Asmodeus and had her sent to the Nine Hells where she would give birth to something that would undoubtedly be corrupted by a wandering evil soul. Rhynihx died giving birth to what became the first erinyes. Before she passed away, she sent a telepathic message to Asmodeus to come and get his daughter. On returning to Nessus, Asmodeus built a monolithic mausoleum of beaten bronze for the only thing that he ever loved more than himself.

What became of Asmodeus's daughter and first erinyes has yet to be told.

Vaults of Ayaraigas

Vaults of Ayaraiga

The Vaults of Ayaraigas were created by the god Benevolence. He made them to safeguard his creations, the Nithians, during a volatile time when worlds and planes were being created and primordials were beginning to move against the gods.

Benevolence stashed the Vaults of Ayaraigas in secret locations across Giranakhar. Each vault held forty Nithians, and each was under a very powerful temporal stasis spell. The Nithians remained under this spell for 10,558 years, far longer than what Benevolence intended on account of his premature death. The Nithians came out of this spell in 2510 LC and moved into the Nilzanâth lowlands.

The Vaults of Ayaraigas are made of blutium, a metal specifically created by Benevolence to protect his creations. Inside this 5' thick outer wall was a 2' thick inner wall composed of saranite. When the Nithians started leaving them, they left in spider-like automations. In a few cases, when they left the Vault they entered a creature's lair and in one case from the heart of a deep gnome city that venerated the Vault like a monument.

It is not known how many Vaults are out there or if any were broken into before the Nithians came out of temporal stasis. Many of those that have been found since the Nithians left have been stripped of anything useful, sometimes leaving only a crumbling wall of saranite, while others have become the lairs of monsters. The Nithians made treks back to them and brought back technology that led to the invention of Clone Tanks.

Sparks of Creation

Creation Energy

Sparks of Creation are invisible motes of life energy. They are undetectable by all but the Gods of Creation. Sparks of Creation are used to create life, including new lifeforms if the user has an extremely high intellect and skill.

In the Demon Spawn War, Ingu'lumin found a Spark of Creation. It is assumed that he found one by chance or that his unusually high intellect found a means to acquire one. Ingu'lumin gave it to his master Yeenoghu, who in turned used it to create a race of humanoids similar to him - the gnolls.

Golruwyrm

Golruwyrm, young adult

Golruwyrm was the first child and daughter of Io. She was the first of the brass dragon sub-types. In the Dawn Era, Io tasked her with laying eggs across the habitable worlds that he created. All the brass dragons of the realm Bal-Kriav are her descendants.

In the Dawn War, she met her end battling a primordial army and two primordial lords. The area she fought in is today called the Sands of Hell. This area became a desert when she died. In the battle those that she did not kill, were blasted into nothingness when she died, her last breath a storm of blistering sand that if it did not burn you to death, ripped your flesh off and then reduced your bones to powder. Her death also created the landmark Diiv Prok, a cliff face resembling the back of a towering dragon. This cliff is not hundreds of feet long, but hundreds of miles long. The size of Golruwyrm was no where near as large as the cliffs. One Plaque of Aphalur says that Io had some doing in making it an unimaginably large memorial for his fallen daughter.

Âni-Zandân

Âni-Zandân

The Âni-Zandân is a ship made from a nautilus-like organism that flies the skies of Spactan. These androgynous creatures are called Âni and have the unusual capacity of being unharmed when bio-engineered. The first people to experiment on them was a team of scientists comprised of the future gods Anubis, Hades, Ptah, and Set. These four Lith-Crillion created living compartments in them and added mechanical attachments. Io was so impressed with what they did that he made them lantern archons. They were then taken to join the other angels preparing to meet the threat of the primordials in the Dawn War.

Near the end of the God Era, the Lith-Crillion on Spactan used the Âni-Zandân to cross into the Void. They journeyed to Bal-Kriav and established centers of study on the island Arcana. The Âni-Zandân that came to Bal-Kriav gave birth to others similar to it, but not the same. Its progeny became more at home with the deeps of the ocean than floating among the clouds. The Âni-Matîrûn and Âni-Nâthil are descendants of Âni-Zandân.

Strategem 11

Gimrune

Callarduran was a God of Creation. Late in the Dawn Era, he created the gnome race. In the beginning, there were no forest gnomes, deep gnomes or Gimrune, just gnomes created in the likeness of Callarduran. Their civilization began on the continent Hezmort. In the Demon Spawn War, Hezmort was invaded by the demon lord Jurusalax. The gnomes were so hard-pressed by the demons that Callarduran fought in the battles to stem the tide. At the time, their were rifts all over the realm of Bal-Kriav, with demons invading on multiple fronts. As a result, commanders like Ares, Athena, and Clangeddin agreed that they could not save every area of the realm, some must be given up so we can win the war and not just a battle.

The number of demons coming against is almost a 100:1 - we cannot save every area, some must be sacrificed for ultimate victory.

- Ares, from the Thuaxor Keozhal - "Strategem 11"

Discus of Ares

a lesser version of Ares's Shear

In the Dawn War, Ares battled Bryakus in the wasteland Felbarum. The then archangel Ares used his shield Ares's Shear in this epic combat.  One of the properties of this artifact was that it enlarged whenever it was hurled in combat, matching the size category of the target. When the shield's razor edge severed one of the necks off of Bryakus it became lodged in the primordial's great body. Bryakus's blood ended up destroying the great size of the shield and breaking it into many parts. The destruction of Ares's Shear left pieces of arjale scattered about the battle site. This arjale of Ares's Shear has been used to make a few powerful magic items, like the Discus of Ares. - "a mortal version of the legendary Ares's Shear".

Xorn of Stafknir Hrerbjof

Xorn

In the Dawn War, the Dezellâm were sent to the Sands of Hell by the primordial Storralk. They were tasked with harvesting crystals growing from the bodies of xorn. Being a pacifist people, the Dezellâm followed catch and release procedures when they harvested the xorn's precious cargo.

Xorn of Stafknir Hrerbjof roam the shallow Underdark beneath the desert. Since they are not native to this plane, they produce a white crystal on their bodies that grows like cyst on flesh. Storralk learned from  Geb that the crystals are a variation of deep crystals and useful for holding psychic energy. Storralk wanted these crystals to help his troops against psionic heavy primordials that turned against him and to combat those angelic foes with great psionic potential.

In the Demon Spawn War, the Dezellâm used powdered deep crystals to fortify their ceramic shields. This powdered deep crystal is used when making ceramic, resulting in the material ceratimus. The krivian ghouls are thought to have learned the process of making ceratimus from Dezellâm tomes found in the ruins of Gallo-Bagd.

Harpies of Logor

The rune hounds of Logor are just one of the area's dangers. Some of the Vines of Núlananya are

Jurusalax and his demon hounds

corrupted, probably suffering some chaos taint from the Dawn War or the Demon Spawn War. This corruption had made them carnivorous and a very dangerous predator of the forest.

Another dangerous area of Logor is along its northern rocky coasts. In this area are the nests of hundreds of harpies. They live in intricate tree houses, in hollowed out trunks of Logor's black oaks or in cliff caves. The harpies of Logor were once sprites that served under Silvanus in his campaign to drive back the demons. Jurusalax gave orders to capture these sprite rather than slaughter them. When they were captured and brought in for "special treatment", Jurusalax had them infused them with his own blood while at the same time taking their blood into himself. Only five sprites out of possibly a hundred survived these demoniac blood transfusions. One legend says that the blood that Jurusalax took from the sprites was like an aphrodisiac to him. The sprites that survived being infused with demon blood were corrupted, changing into abomination of their former selves. These corrupted and changed sprites became the realm's first harpies.