Mark of Talos

Birth of Talos

The Mark of Talos is a vast crevasse that begins in Badmaer and ends many Underdark regions beneath. This unusual area was created in the Dawn Era with the birth of a primordial storm giant named Talos. He was primordial blessed on an altar of gloomstar and then barraged for twenty days by lightning storm. The continuity of this lightning storm came from 26 primordial minions having the powers of a arcane hierophant. The lightning pulverized the ice and stone of the surface and then took on a life of its own as Talos grew from a baby to a over-sized adult storm giant. As he grew, the living lightning storm around him carved out a canyon with the altar buoyed aloft by continuous stream of electricity. As he grew over twenty days, the storm continued to burn and disintegrate a path downward. As it plunged further and further into the deeps, energy from the storm was absorbed by Talos leading to the narrowing of the canyon and then many smaller crevasses leading even deeper in into the Underdark. On the last day, the living lightning storm was absorbed by Talos giving him his awesome lightning powers. During the storm, Talos was fused with the altar of gloomstar. Some theologians says that Talos's great regenerative power is because of the gloomstar fused into his bones.

The Mark of Talos ranges from one mile to four miles in width at the top, but as it goes down it narrows to shelves of stone several hundred feet in thickness. On each of these shelves are a number of smaller crevasses that continue into the deep regions of the Underdark. By way of the surface, a huge flying creature could descend downward through three Underdark regions. The Mark of Talos is 28 miles long at its top, narrowing to a crack of several inches width at twenty miles down.

The entirety of the canyon and all the smaller ones beneath are a Focus for Lightning. This makes all electrical spells 25% stronger and their DC increased by 4.

Ark of Devgwer

Raptor Calvary

When the primordials were defeated in the Dawn War, some of those captured were imprisoned on the Prime in powerful warded vaults. This was necessary because moving them across the planes was just too expensive and time-consuming for the Nawirrûs Covenant; especially when they were now facing another threat from the demons in what became known as the Demon Spawn War. In the Horgon Era, a primordial engineer named Devgwer escaped his vault on Gatheghu. He was bound to the land with angelic runes so that he could not leave, so he devised a scheme to stay with the land while cutting it free of the continent. He put Cari'phis Icicles, powerful magical devices used to convert rock, sand, and earth to ice, across the northeastern part of Vhurghad. When these were activated, they turned the ground into a deep seam of ice forming a great half-circle all the way to the coasts. He then hired on storm giants, paying them with angelic and primordial spoils hidden away and left behind from the Dawn War. The storm giant workers were put to work with Mauls of the Titan (primordial relics first created in the Dawn War). These magical hammers were used to shatter an ice seam that stretched for three hundred miles. It was not necessary to shatter all of the ice, only crack it enough for it to weaken under pressure and heat. Two months later, part of Vhurghad's landmass broke free of the continent and began drifting out to sea. Devgwer rode this newly created island, the Ark of Devgwer, eastward into Nielalroch's powerful ocean currents and waves. The gap in Vhurghad's coastline became known as the Devgwer Rip. As the Ark of Devgwer moved across the ocean, parts of it broke free leaving a string islands that stretch from the Devgwer Rip to the mouth of Tarag-Khâlu. When the remaining Ark of Devgwer reached the continent Brucrumus, it smashed into sector Ara'phis of the Troll Bogs. This created an uprising of the land that is now called the Devgwer Humps. Devgwer was not the only thing riding on this short-lived island. On an island of nearly 10,000 square miles, thousands of dinosaurs were brought to the shores of Brucrumus with the Devgwer Humps and the Tiyalashe plains becoming their new abodes, and hunting grounds.

Varous holds of the Tarag-Khâlu Enclave employ dinosaurs as pack animals and steeds. Some even use raptors and like meat-eaters but this practice is rare. It comes with costly upkeep with the beast's high meat requirements and dangers of predatory instinct like when the mount turns on the rider to sate its hunger.

Plague Gullet

Otyugh

The Plague Gullets were birthing pools for otyughs, deadly molds, and other horrors that thrive in areas of rot and decay. The first Plague Gullet came about in Andibutt's sewers. This city was a refuge for mortals fleeing the primordial invasion of the Dawn Era. The primordial lord Mephirouth sent his agents into the sewers beneath this city and begin the process of turning this cesspool into a spawning area for his distasteful minions. These included those previously mentioned along with rats in the millions, hordes of dire rats, rat swarms and plague spewers. Andibutt suffered many years of plague and death from the sickness brought forth by all the carriers of disease coming up from Andibutt's Plague Gullet. Ten years after Mephirouth began his misdeeds, Andibutt was abandoned and then set on fire by forces of the Nawirrûs Covenant. There now being no hosts left in the area, Mephirouth lost interest in the place and moved on. He left behind his minions where many turned to preying on each other or perishing from starvation.

The second Plague Gullet formed in the triton stronghold Natar. This bastion served as a training area for angels and other water-breathing Nawirrûs forces. Here, the tritons trained those who may be able to breath underwater and get around, but were not skilled in underwater combat like those born to the element. Natar was built half underwater in the deeps of Nielalroch and half into the open chasm Irôchâr Plunge. Like at Andibutt, nefarious agents of Mephirouth came and polluted the area such that it had to be abandoned for nearly five centuries. Today, Natar is a powerful triton city-state.