Talos Cleft

Ice Mephit

Talos Cleft is a fog shrouded plateau at the center of Angvild. In the Dawn War, the island Angvild was dragged into this world by team of primordials. They pulled it from Chaos, through the Web of Magic and then to the world Bal-Kriav where it came to rest in the waters of Morwuld Briin. When the primordials finished this monumental feat, they turned to shearing away part of its highlands. The work of separating the area from its base was overseen by a young upstart primordial named Talos. Most of the hard labor was done by hundreds of storm archons, storm giants, cloud giants, and thousands of ice mephits. The latter creatures were forced to expend all their energy freezing rock and then having it blasted apart by bolts of lighting. The primordial Geb also helped in the task by supplying a powerful rock boring device called the Earthspear. When the valley and mountains were separated from their base, they left a rugged plateau overshadowed by a massive island. This floating island, buoyed by the entropic energies of Chaos, was named Krarkauk. Nearing the end of the Dawn War, Talos was captured and banished from the Mortal Systems. Before he was caught, he set Krarkauk adrift on the clouds. The plateau left in its wake became known as the Talos Cleft.

Talos Cleft is almost always shrouded in cold fog. The fog and the chill in the air are the residual energies of all the ice mephits that perished separating Krarkauk from Angvild. Thousands of these creatures were forced to kill themselves by expending all their cold energy against the rock. This "sacrifice" was oversaw by storm archon taskmasters which promised either eternal suffering in Piranoth's Steps or a release back to Chaos where they would be reborn into something greater for their sacrifice. After the Dawn War, most of the primordials and their minions were captured or driven away from the mortal realm, yet some remained. The ice mephits that once lived under the whip of Talos's taskmaster were considered no threat to the world, so the gods and angels left them on Angvild. These ice mephits tend to stay in the highlands of the island and preferably in and around the chilling temperatures of the plateau. Some of the mephits have been convinced to live in Mechantus where their cold radiance is put to use in refrigeration.

Apoxlin's Sentence

Apoxlin

Apoxlin is a powerful female angel serving under Phalgas. In 1485, a hell knight named Raxcvillibus Dumu'loc was sent on an important mission for the god Thasmudyan. This mission was actually a trap set by aforementioned god and the mortal Ta'khar Jagg. Instead of being assassinated, Apoxlin and her team captured Rax, then hauled him him back to Lunia.

He was taken to the Hall of Edicts where he stood trial for soul destruction. He was charged with other lesser things like being a leader of the Black Tide. These lesser charges did not stand up in court for they were affairs of the Mortal Systems and not universal crimes like destroying souls.

Raxcvillibus's sentencing was presided over by Danzar-Khâl and Athena. They were there to monitor Apoxlin to make sure she was impartial in the affair, and following the letter of the law.

Rax lost the trial. It was easily proven that his weapon Grarg was a Cairn Scythe, a forbidden class of weapons, and under questioning, the sentient weapon proudly admitted to devouring what it called "enemy souls". Apoxlin's sentence was read out to the charged. It took the form of a powerful curse stating that the defendant must serve nine years in the Hells and then he would return back to Bal-Kriav to serve out the next nine years, then repeating until the sentence finished. The sentence started in 1485, and ended 198 years later in 1683.

The prosecution thought Rax would die in his first rotation to the worlds of the Hells system, but he survived, and continued to survive. He actually came out mightier than when he stood in Nawenglorûs's highest court of law.

As part of his sentence, Raxcvillibus would go to the worlds of the Hells system eleven times. Of that time, he served nearly 30 years under Hells diabolical overlord Asmodeus. The most difficult part for Raxcvillibus during this time was that he would only remain in the Hells for nine years and then be yanked back to Bal-Kriav where he would live for nine years before repeating. As a result, he had no permanency for what he had done or accomplished; he would return to find all that he had built was gone or taken over by someone else. As a result, he became mercenary in his ways, offering his martial and leadership skills to those across Midrêth and when away in the Hells, to fiends.

Another aspect of Apoxlin's Sentence, a holy curse that he was bound to oblige by, was that each time he went to the Hells it was to be random on which world he arrived. Sometimes, it took a couple years to reach his master from where he was teleported in. Not even the awesome might of Asmodeus could help him. This was because Rax's divine curse made him invisible to things like crystal balls. The hardships were many, often having to blaze a path through enemy territory, or hiding for weeks on end as they camped nearby. Even in the hells, he was a dangerous appearing foe; a hell knight, donned in ancient ornate armor and bearing legendary weapons, was a sight to think twice before making any sudden movements.

Another part, was while Rax was doing time in the Hells, his sword Grarg was forced to remain behind. The rule of Apoxlin's Sentence prevented the sword from joining Rax in the Hells.

The Ackairon

Two units of the Pillars of Horns are the 1st and 2nd Ackarion Squads.  They are the ship's light flying infantry, the outer screen for a enormous ship described as ponderous and slow-turning.  The Pillar is a battleship of the skies, built like a floating castle.  Some would say it is foolish to take a battleship out with escorts, but Rax did it anyway. 

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Talon, of 2nd Ackarion Squad

Ackairon, is the collective name for the bird-like humanoids of Moredhel. They have been living in this valley since the God Era.  After the Covenant victory in the Demon Spawn War ended, the Ackairon on and other mortals of that fought in the ranks of the angels and gods were left to make their own way in the world.

Over the next two eras, the Lith-Crillion Era and they God Era, Moredhel's Ackairon tended to favor their avian side over their humanoid one. This meant that a pair of them would take a large territory and try to keep it as animals would. This behavior, or what some might call cultural regression, kept their population low.

In the First Epoch, they were forced to band together. They took a unified front against the refugees created by the Great Minotaur Revolt. Having gained their freedom from the First Khazarkar Empire, the minotaurs sought unclaimed lands east, they figured that central Moredhel was for the taking being that it had no settlements. This humanoid incursion was nothing new. The Ackairon were already dealing with Gatiranda encroachment from the south. The minotaur crisis would end up with more mouths to feed, so the Ackairon decided it was to be for their mouths, so they encouraged, forcibly when necessary, the minotaurs to continue west.

In 1696, forces led by the Ba'lith Emperor Raxcvillibus conquered them in what some call the Ackairon Subjugation. Up until this time, they had resisted all that came against them. There was never a real concerted effort to push them out, since most feared Moredhel's closeness to the Broken Lands. Raxcvillibus took this area because he wanted them as soldiers. At first, they resisted, but when their fledglings were taken from them, sent to military schools, they joined the empire as reluctant citizens. In Ba'lith's military crèches where after a decade of military schooling they became soldiers. For many, this life as a soldier is all they know. After nine years of military service, they are free to go back to Moredhel. Most stay with Ba'lith's air force, where they serve as fast scouts or in the light flying infantry.

Sarurkane Branda

A running plot of GS1 (Godspawn) and GS2 (Godspawn - Awakening) involves Sarurkane Branda.  Rax believes that this head banker of the Bank of Paradomea and member of the Council of Nine (aka finance minister of the empire of Paradomea) is out to see him fail.   So, I ask you - Is Rax just paranoid or is Syndic Sarurkane Branda plotting to have him offed ?

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Syndic Sarurkane Branda

Sarurkane Branda was a merchant master of Paradomea City before it became the capital of the Paradomea empire. He became a Syndic of the Council of Nine on 19 Bliss 1290. As part of becoming a Syndic, he gave up his mortality by embracing lichdom.

For most of his first century on the Council he achieved little. This was largely because of the cost of bribes and naval action with the pirates of the Buccaneer Archipelago. In 1388 he forged the Westerlies Agreement, a trade agreement between Paradomea and Ivory Asylum. With it, joint policing of trade routes was started between the northern coasts of Izagunbar and the southern coasts of Hells Womb. For Ivory Asylum and Paradomea, this began a period of prosperity that lasted more than seventy years. This started to decline in the Black Tide War with trade dropping hard in 1465 when Ivory Asylum lost their colonial capital Ivory Ward.

Sarurkane gained notoriety and prominence on the Council of Nine in the Black Tide War. Rather than get involved in something he figured would burn itself out in a few years, he pushed for neutrality with the Black Tide. His plan of neutrality and growth from war production, was unanimously approved by the others. In 1466, a deal of neutrality, the Nullattîm Balance, was signed between the First Dead Council and the Council of Nine.

The Black Tide War ended up going on longer than anyone expected. The Black Tide of Thasmudyan did not run out of soldiers as the Council's Warmaster had predicted, instead they gained strength as their undead armies pushed into the Lands of Purity.

Chaos Ruins

chaos infused Erchinor

Mentioned in the book Godspawn:

Chaos ruins are areas that have been chaos infused with energy from Chaos. In the Cinazn Front, the cities Hareldocáno, Erchinor, and Sakarumân were warped by the passing of the 1st Horde of Chaos. The valley Idân was also ravaged. In the cities, streets shifted, with some ending against a building, or stacked in piles of rubble, while others were seen floating in the area as debris field. The buildings suffered the same fate, with some floating about as earth motes. There are also unusual eddies of air, water flowing in the opposite direction, and many other anomalies that one would expect from Chaos.

One of the oldest chaos ruins is Bor. It became chaos infused after an earthquake weakened the wards and seals protecting the labs underneath the city.

Once an area has been warped with chaos, there is nothing that can be done to revert it back. Sages assert that time or some powerful relic of law may be the only things that could bring stability to a chaos ruin.

Tân'ndith

Tân'ndith

Tân'ndith, also known as Tomb Rift, is the place of burial for those Minâth that served the Khazarkar Empire with distinction. It is sited just past the southern walls of the Khazarkar city Mirkathân. These walls are called the Tomb Cordon.

The more important dead that come to Tân'ndith, and not just those from the city next to it, but from across the empire, are buried in small pyramids and mausoleums. It is forbidden to enter these structures without orders from the Pharzîmrâth. In times of great need, Mirkathân's necromancers raise undead from this burial ground and send them off to the front.

Tân'ndith is guarded by numerous constructs, gargoyles, and magical beasts. Even if looters get past these guardians, they must overcome deadly mechanical and magical traps.

Near the heart of this rift is an enormous vault-like structure called Athullazîr. This vault holds a very old and massive sarcophagus. In the Lith-Crillion Era, explorers from Herfarel plundered the sarcophagus. The only thing they found inside of it was a single dried seed. This seed turned out to be the heart of a dead god, the artifact Tarfilerquar.

The undead created in Mirkathân and in this rift are more powerful than normal. It is believed that this is the result of an evil taint left on the area from the Tarfilerquar seed.

Godspawn Release

Eight months since my last posting on Blooger.  Sorry, been busy writing a book.  I used the material on my website to expand upon the story of  Raxcvillibus Dumu-loc.   Check it out -  Godspawn (see on Amazon).

Rax awaits the arrival of the Pillar of Horns

Below is a link for deeper reading or just general interest on the background of the characters, crew of the Pillar of Horns and other Bal-Kriav lore.

Godspawn - Additional Reading

Leza-Sîk

Leza-Sîk

In the Demon Spawn War, when forces under Loki and Silvanus were battling Graz'zt, the Ark'toan valley served as a camp for a fey army serving under the archangel Silvanus. Many battles were fought here and fortifications built. The most notable of these is Leza-Sîk. Before it became a formidable bastion it was a hastily built stockade meant to fend off a demon army. The Walking Palm army, a unit under Silvanus, was greatly outnumbered in this battle. Silvanus asked for treant volunteers to serve as a stockade, meaning that they would root themselves to the ground and then be petrified by spells to turn their trunk, limbs and branches into something as hard as stone. This petrified treant stockade saved the Walking Palm army from being wiped off the map, yet many of these volunteers perished in the process. This was because the battle resulted in much of the stockade being turned to rubble - un-petrifying something that is only half left is death to most creatures, including plant-life like treants.

A few months after the battle, Asmodeus ordered a bastion built here to protect the petrified wood. The fortifications of this keep were built atop these petrified timbers with viewing areas scattered all about the first and second floors of the walls and towers.

Silvanus named the place Leza-Sîk in honor of a centaur champion who died fighting Graz'zt's demons. The death of nearly 50 treants, and the way they died, has left a slight taint on the area. For fey creatures, this means they may experience mixed emotions and for the weak-willed these psychic impressions typically result in fleeing the area.

In the Lith-Crillion Era, 620 LC, two years after the founding of the Radiant Cross, the place was cleared of monsters and turned into the order's headquarters.

Buldapulax

Buldapulax

In the Dawn War, the treant Buldapulax was an agent of Silvanus's spy network Roots of Núlananya. This agent was captured snooping around Eysveig's army which was preparing to attack Tiwa'erra. This happened on Šadullu in the last great battle of that continent before it was ripped asunder by the Nine Tongued Worm. Luckily for Buldapulax, he was too important to remain in the area of fighting, so a day earlier he was shipped off to a secret location. In Eysveig's Infirmary, a nightmarish place where the friendly and enemy wounded were experimented on, Eysveig's mindbenders and regular torturers tried to pry the secrets of the Roots of Núlananya from Buldapulax's mind. This proved unsuccessful with the primordial's interrogation techniques unable to break the link between Buldapulax and the spy network. As long as this link of nature energy was in place, it would be impossible for the captive to divulge anything about the spy ring. A more dangerous course of action was adopted. Buldapulax was taken into the deeps of Bal-Kriav and bathed in the entropic energies of the Decomposition String. As an agent of the Roots of Núlananya, he already had a bit of warp matter in him, so this bathing in the Decomposition String was like an overdose. Buldapulax was sickened bodily and had his mind corrupted making him even more chaotic and now evil. With his body sickened and constitution reduced, he suffered the effects of warp touch. This turned his body more humanoid-like, yet still having the hallmarks of having once been a treant. He was to learn later that by devouring the essence of feys he could recover his constitution and grow much stronger; without them he would continue to wither and degenerate.

Buldapulax proved to be a powerful minion of the primordials, rising to the rank Primordial Lord after only two centuries. As a Primordial Lord, he was charged with causing havoc in Sphere 411's regions Grashakh and Miradelgûn. This theater of the Dawn War was so large that he had little hope of holding the entire area. He suspected that this was the intent with those even mightier than he, other Primordial Lords jealous of his quick rise to power. One of the most lasting things he did in Miradelgûn was his creation of the Sea Breach.

Buldapulax died in the Dawn War battling Golruwyrm. His was tore apart in melee combat with this dragon yet his psyche remained. He waited patiently for his minions to get to him and dose him with bottled fey essence. This desire went unfilled, because when Golruwyrm perished from overwhelming numbers she breathed her last breath. This breath was a cataclysmic storm of sand that reduced Buldapulax and a multitude of others to near nothingness. These tiny particles, no larger than sand, were then carried on the winds and spread across a landscape that was to become known as the Sands of Hell.

History of the Dawn War is found in the Plaques of Aphalur. They would have you believe that Buldapulax was extinguished, but as Silvanus once said, nature finds a way. It is my theory that the high concentration of mischievous and evil fey on the fringes of the Sands of Hell are fey corrupted long ago from parts of Buldapulax. Today, the winds of the Sands of Hell blow eternal. We must warn the untainted fey of Durgat, Maar Gosvah, and Thithanorn of this potential danger carried on the Winds of Golruwyrm.

- Spring Flower, regional report at a Glade Summit - "Nature Finds A Way"

Sea Breach

Dil'lufeykro

The Sea Breach is a sheer cliff at the heart of sector Celedhrel. The fact that there is a cliff is here is not unusual, but 1500' down from the top of these sheer cliffs is rapid flowing sea water. This area is an extra-dimensional body of sea water called the Sea Tunnel. The only way to get down to this fast flowing sea channel is by flying or jumping; the latter an act of foolishness since the height of the fall will kill most creatures. Those at the bottom have an even harder time getting out because the water down there flows at 20 knots making anchoring very difficult and then you need to find a way up. These cliffs are not naturally formed, so they are sheer and smooth affording no footholds. Normally, the only thing coming up and out of the Sea Breach are those on the wing.

The Sea Breach was created in the Dawn War when the primordial lord Buldapulax had ten primordial sand worms slain here. The death of these creatures with their rift guts to Chaos, coupled with bursts of entropic energy resulted in a rift between the Prime and the inter-dimensional location of the Sea Tunnel. Buldapulax's objective was to damn up the Sea Tunnel by filling it with earth and rock, thereby preventing its use by the aquatic armies under Sashelas. Fortunately for Covenant forces, this did not happen with the falling debris forming no more than a few islands of broken rocks and some dangerous reefs. Since that time, these islands have become havens for various flying creatures, seals, and sea lions.

One can see stand on the edge of the Sea Breach for days and see nothing but flowing water and be sometimes harassed by harpies and wyverns, but if you are lucky you may be amazed, and perhaps befuddled, when you see a ship sailing north by west along the Sea Tunnel.

- Phoslomor, excerpt from the book "Phoslomor's Survey of Midrêth, Ch. 3-2"

Warm humid air travels along the Sea Tunnel from its main entry point, a thousand miles away, at the whirlpool Typhoon Nexus. The climate of this place of sector Enkii Jusk is reflected on the surface around the Sea Breach. This is in the form of a verdant jungle for many miles in all directions outward from the cliffs. In the Lith-Crillion Era, researchers out of the Sands Pyramid of Power transplanted jungle creatures to this area. After the Lith-Crillion were long gone from Bal-Kriav, and into the Horgon Era, the jungle became home to the green dragon Dil'lufeykro. This very old wyrm sought to turn the entire area into a jungle maze with the maze's core serving as her lair. Traces of this jungle maze are still visible today if one flies high over the area.

Khilgand

Bones of Khilgand

Castle Khilgand is north of the Branchard hills. It is the abode of the red dragon dracolich Nveryioth. This beast has been around since the Horgon Era, and even though it is a dracolich, she spends a considerable amount of time sleeping. This is not an unguarded sleep, because she is served by the cultists of Sos Vrii, a regional cell of the Cult of Dragon.

Khilgand was built in the Horgon Era by those that worshiped Nveryioth as a god, along with thousands of slaves. She had the mortar of the place mixed with the powdered remains of a primordial sand worm named Khilgand. The petrified remains of this worm, one slain when Golruwyrm perished in the Dawn War, were plundered from the Sands of Hell and then carted and carried nearly 400 miles to the construction site.

Late in the Horgon Era, the forces of Khilgand threatened as far north as Belêth-Kazîr where they were checked by the eldritch giants and their army of mages, golems, and magical creatures. By the beginning of the Second Epoch, Khilgand laid claim to territory as far west as Sareon and always were in some sort of conflict with the minions of Rilthang. Later on in the Second Epoch, Nveryioth was no longer the aggressor with the Orchish Empire proving too big to tackle. The High Command forged a treaty with Nveryioth that alloted her gold for maintaining Khilgand and other expenses. In return, she would aid the Orchish Empire in any conflicts in sector Thingrorn. As time went on, Khilgand became a place to support the Cult of Dragon rather than a marshaling area for conquest.

Khilgand's garrison is comprised of several hobgoblin tribes which given protection to the place and in return have a dragon at their back, or at least the threat of one. Khilgand's defenses also include a skeletal legion which is mainly used to occupy the vastness of the place and deter any who seek to plunder its rumored riches. These rumors are often spread by Nveryioth with the intent of luring adventurers into her lair.

Nelaryotar

Reborn Rock Golem

Nelaryotar is a magical forest of northern Miradelgûn. It came about in the Lith-Crillion Era from rogue experiments performed at Belêth-Kazîr. In this crystalline tower, an insane Lith-Crillion used a forbidden magic called temporal shunting to phaze a part of the Feywild into the Prime. The forest that was here was shifted to the Feywild, and the one on the Feywild world Kriav was moved here. This was supposed to only work temporarily, but for unknown reasons (perhaps a breakdown in the arcane energies of the Web) it was a permanent temporal shunt.

Nelaryotar is an exotic otherworldly forest made even more maddening in what can be found here. Arcanists who have studied the area say that disruptive arcane energies abound here. In some form or another all of the energy types can be found here. Nelaryotar is home to both normal and magical creatures. Here you can encounter nearly any magical creature ever conceived, disenchanters, digesters, lamia, dragonne, displacer beasts, living spells, arcane oozes, and constructs to name just a few. This latter group can range from as small as the homunculus to huge constructs like iron and blutium golems. These constructs were former guardians or servants of Gimir-Zarun. They were made thousands of years ago, have been destroyed an untold number of times, yet are always reborn as a amalgamation of their surroundings. A stone golem broken and destroyed by time or foes might look like a rock golem with living plants growing out of it and leaving a trail of water behind it from an attached watermote.

Some of Nelaryotar's vegetation have been seen spontaneously catching on fire, only too regrow in their entirety from their ashes. Even rarer, are those comprised of living metal that usually only be found on the plane Mechanus. Sprouts and saplings of this stuff are much sought after for sale to those who can afford their exorbitant price. The anomalies of this forest go far beyond just these with many having not yet been recorded. This is because exploration of the area is extremely dangerous with all the area's magical dangers.

The arcane energy coursing through this forest makes it a Focus for the Arcane. The means that any arcane spell cast here has a +4 DC and is treated as if it was empowered (as the feat Empower Spell). Casters also recover spells with only half the normal period of rest.