Witch Pipe

Witch Pipe

Witch Pipe is an active volcano sited along the eastern slopes of the Sournbracks. Like most volcanoes it begins somewhere in the deeps of the Underdark. Witch Pipe is nothing more than a cone, or pipe, in the Underdark region Phangul. It spews no lava in this region, but does warm up the waters of the Heliotrope Sea. In some areas near where it touches the sea, water seeping into pockets turns into jets of steam or pools of boiling water.

On the surface, a common misconception is that Witch Pipe is named for the Witch Horde or the many witches among the area's Theegans. The truth of the naming was that in the Horgon Era this volcano was the abode of a powerful fire troll shaman named Vuzara. As a mortal, she ruled for three decades, putting large tracts of Skycius under iron rule. Once she started getting old, Vuzara became a lich. It is thought that she learned how to do this from a set of scrolls or books plundered from what was then the ruins of Incubus. As an undead shaman, Vuzara ruled for another three centuries. In addition to an army of fire trolls and gnolls, she had a few red dragons. The hill and stone giants of the Sournbracks were her greatest foes. Many giant-built strongholds dot these mountains, with most built to defend against Vuzara's raiders. The reign of Vuzara ended when she was killed by a stone giant champion named Grazafar.

Witch Pipe has a lot of ruins on its outside and many labyrinths within it. Most of these were built during Vuzara's Reign (62 HG - 392 HG). These places are now the abodes of monsters and beasts with some of the higher ruins serving as aeries for chaos rocs, griffins, and dragons. The honeycomb of passages inside the volcano go all the way down into Phangul. They are the main reason why Theegans can be found pirating the waters of the Heliotrope Sea and living in the holds of the Underdark empire Gaereaus.

Locals say that Witch Pipe is cursed. This is because a number of liches have come to power in this volcano. Some are just a nuisance, but a few have been real problems for the region. In more recent times, two liches born to Vuzara's Curse joined up with the dragon cult at Phanaca.

Bingatho

Bingatho

Bingatho is one of the moons orbiting Marragh. It is a small habitable world, being only 1/20th the size of its parent. Bingatho is covered in jungles. It is a rainy, stormy place dotted with massive swamps and lakes and some few ridges and hilly ranges. Some of the more common things to encounter here are hydras, basilisk, displacer beasts, leucrotta, and similar terrors. The world is devoid of humanoid lifeforms, except possibly adventurers or those marooned here.

At the core of this moon is a trapped God of Creation. This being is who the moon is named after. Bingatho was a Tier 1 Creationist that worked with the same purpose of Io and others on the side of Law. They drew entropic energy from the Elemental Chaos and used it to create planes, worlds, and everything that goes in them. While Bingatho was creating Marragh's moon Githo, he was struck by psionic energy from within one of his conduits of creation. The psionic blast was so powerful that it made Bingatho lose his wits. Instead of making Githo diverse, he turned the entire moon into iron. On investigation, Io and Moradin found Bingatho to be insane and growing ever more chaotic. Bingatho followed the dictates of the Creationist Board of Inquiry and accepted imprisonment until a cure could be found for his mind and chaotic taint. Moradin and Io worked in concert building a moon, his prison, around Bingatho. They never found a cure but his chaotic taint did stop progressing once the moon bound him to its core. The mind blast that brain scrambled Bingatho came from a powerful psionic primordial named Nakh-Zennîm. Like other primordials, this being was intent on unmaking works of creation and returning it all to the Elemental Chaos.

In the Dawn War, the Anaz Rift was created by the primordial Beldileck. He did not use the rift as his skills were more suited for research and tinkering. It was instead used by Bryakus to invade Bal-Kriav from the area of Felbarum. The Anaz Rift is still open; serving as an inter-planar link between the world Bal-Kriav and this moon. The imprisoned Creationist serving as moon's core still carries on his works of creation. Bingatho no longer has the powers of a Tier 1 Creationist with his power having naturally degraded to that of a Tier 4 Creationist. The Anaz Rift gave him an avenue of spreading his creations to the world Bal-Kriav affecting areas like Goldarah and Turuk.

Ingu'lumin's Second Rift

Feeding Gunul-Birum

This rift was opened five months after the closure of Ingu'lumin's First Rift. Like the first, Ingu'lumin's Second Rift was created by a primordial disembodied thinker named Ingu'lumin. Unlike the first rift which was opened from the side of Elemental Chaos, the second was opened from the Prime, inside the mountain Gunul-Birum. A mountain soon turned volcano from the rift's opening. He opened the second rift on the Prime side because the volcano was once part of the Elemental Chaos, made of entropic matter and fed by entropic fire. Its natural entropy caused instability in the area's Web of Magic, thereby making it much harder for the Web's weave spiders to repair.

Due to Ingu'lumin's lack of experience, his second rift collapsed on its own accord. When this happened, it sucked most of the volcano back into the Elemental Chaos. This left in its wake the great sinkhole Zurukthûr. It also tainted the land around it, creating the desert Rukhs. The volcano Gunul-Birum has internal fires that come from an entropic core still linked to the Elemental Chaos. This link is a narrow channel where only enterprising fire mephits could hope to squeeze through, yet big enough and with such constant lava flow making Gunul-Birum an active volcano.

Bul

Bul Cambion

Lake Bul is sited in the northern reaches of the Khizunul mountains. Its shores are a hazardous place to travel and its depths far worse. This is because in the Demon Spawn War, it was stocked with specimens brought over from Abyss.

It is said that Yeenoghu had an insatiable desire for fish and other aquatic delicacies of his abyssal home plane. When his forces captured the area around lake Bul, he had minions stock the lake with abyssal specimens. As his forces faltered in the Demon Spawn War, they were forced to abandon the eastern tracts of the Clans and his favorite fishery. Some of the things his minions put in the lake were intelligent, like the dim-witted skulvyn. These bestial demons normally haunt the reeking seas of the Abyss. Some out of either lust or macabre mortal experiments, mated with gnolls and other mortal humanoids resulting in a population of aquatic cambions. These half-demons are perhaps the most dangerous foes of lake Bul and the area around it. Over the ages, some have cajoled gnoll tribes into paying tribute and even serving them. An order of demon hunters called the Khalag Narkûn are based out of Dul-Kiz. This organization was established to deal with Bul's demon problem.

Hettar

Hettar

Hettar is a primordial creation of Piranoth. For a time, Hettar had the gift of creation. This boon was given to him by his father. One of the races that Hettar created are the hill giants. Piranoth later stripped Hettar of this power of creation after he sensed that Hettar had aspirations of becoming a Primordial Lord. Hettar would eventually become such, but only after proving his leadership on the fields of battle.

In the Dawn War, Hettar was a general of a super army group that invaded Bal-Kriav. He was a brutal and domineering leader. This war caused him to shift from chaotic neutral to chaotic evil. His success on the field of battle, even though he was becoming more dark, led to him being favored over the neutral ways of his brother Geb. Where Hettar would use any measure to defeat the enemy, Geb was more forgiving, thus more likely to act civilized to the defeated. Hettar's war activities were focused in the Great Expanse region. In sector Crotheise he had a permanent base in the Radveig valley. This area was a vast source of gold deposits. This gold was needed to cover the costs of Hettar's war operations on Bal-Kriav. The heavy mining of the area would leave the valley pockmarked with mining pits that came to be called Hettar's Spittoons.

Hettar was defeated by the dragon Bahamut. In the battle between these two, Bahamut drank the blood of a previously defeated primordial which combined parts of a hydra with that of medusa. The blood of the defeated foe allowed Bahamut to temporarily change his breath to one of holy petrification. Bahamut's holy breath of petrification overcame the immunities of Hettar, causing him to go rigid and fall backwards into Rumak. Even though he was petrified he did not lose conscious or die. His primordial essence took thousands of years to completely drain away, with him finally expiring late in the Horgon Era.

In the Horgon Era, he was worshiped by the Cûngin-Zar. The people of this empire dedicated many shrines and temples around Rumak to a figure that once led their ancestors in the battles of the Dawn War.

Maeraddyth Brigade

Hezxis wielding Webreaver

In the Demon Spawn War, the demon lord Hezxis sought to carve out territory for himself on the world Kriav. Opposing him, was the supreme commander of Kriav's military operations, the archangel Corellon. In a bold gamble, Hezxis sought to surprise and overwhelm the forces at a Covenant Holy Bastion named Liamenor. Hezxis, never one to lead from the front, sent nearly all his forces through the Hezxis Pocket with himself remaining behind in his Abyssal hold Una'gah. Corellon's spies, some even say a demon traitor lured by finery and precious stones, gave up information on this planned attack. While Hezxis's forces were besieging Liamenor, Corellon sent an elite unit to attack Una'gah and take out their leader. The elite unit was the Maeraddyth Brigade. Its leader a crafty and charismatic figure named General Maeraddyth. They stormed the place, beating down a token defense and trapping Hezxis with magic preventing the use of inter-dimensional escape. This all happened while the demon forces back on Kriav were close to breaching the walls of what was thought to be an impregnable bastion of good. Hezxis's head was taken back to Liamenor and displayed from high atop the battlements. This caused such confusion in the demon ranks that they broke-up the siege and began to quarrel over who would now lead the army and enjoy the piles of loot rumored to be in Una'gah's vaults. Those that escaped the wrath of Corellon's forces went back through the Hezxis Pocket and headed home. Along the way, they ran into the Maeraddyth Brigade which were hastily trying to make it back the Hezxis Pocket and home to Liamenor. In the fighting, the demons outnumbered their foes by two to one, had the advantage of mobility with many that could fly, and 1:1 on the demons were far superior to most mortal elven soldiers, with only the celestials able to go toe-to-toe, but they were only about 10% of the unit's composition. The demons captured all that they could, tortured them to no end, and then infused them with demoniac energy. This transformed the captives into something with only a vague resemblance to an elf, creating what is now known as the orc race. They were instilled with a hatred of elves that often supersedes other enmities. General Maeraddyth ditched his elven name, thereafter calling himself Gruumsh. The Maeraddyth Brigade ceased to exist, its soldiers divided out to various demon commanders. In the Demon Spawn War, they were taken to various war theaters, scattered across Prime worlds serving the demons until they could escape and even turning on them when given the chance. When it suited them, some allied with Covenant forces, but never to those answering to Corellon.

At Liamenor the actions of the Maeraddyth Brigade are honored with a memorial. At Aphalur, can be found a plaque expressing Corellon's grief of what happened to them.


If I could have helped General Maeraddyth and his men I would have done so. Kriav was being assailed by demons in great numbers, so to risk opening a rift and going to the Abyss was not something I could afford. They succeeded in killing a demon lord, saved Liamenor, but suffered a terrible price. They became twisted and malevolent and having a hatred for elves that only the demons could have conceived. When he became an orc, my old friend Maeraddyth changed his name, becoming my arch-enemy Gruumsh.

- Corellon, from a Plaque of Aphalur - "Maeraddyth Brigade"

Amphitrite

Amphitrite

Amphitrite is one of fifty daughters (the Nereids) of Nereus and Doris (the daughter of Oceanus). Poseidon and Amphitrite were lovers. One of their most well-known children is Triton.

Midway through the Dawn War, Amphitrite had a change of heart, she left the destructive side of chaos and joined the forces of law. She rose through the ranks of the Nawirrûs Covenant becoming a general of operations in the Sea of Mourning. Her song of the deeps, the Amphitrite Hymn, was so strong that it could calm sea creatures and break any mental domination of them by even primordial lords like Poseidon. She became such a problem that Poseidon forged the artifact Buldadel to capture her. He reasoned that this Cairn Scythe weapon would hold her and over time he could bring her back around to helping the primordial cause. Sadly, the weapon was used with malign intent by one of Poseidon's merfolk champions. The killing blow to Amphitrite was supposed to capture her soul energy, but the weapon broke causing her essence to be drawn back into the Elemental Chaos where it dissolved into raw entropic energy. Amphitrite was so highly regarded by her triton army at Fëamanirya, that they had the citadel renamed in her honor.