The Abyss: A Realm Beyond Human Comprehension
In the unfathomable depths of the Abyss, the rumored 666 levels are but a naive underestimation, an attempt to impose some semblance of order upon a realm of unyielding chaos and darkness that likely harbors a far greater, inconceivable number of sinister dimensions. No sage or scholar has returned with their sanity intact to testify of the atrocities that lie in the layers deeper than those known to mortals, their minds unravelled, forever tormented by the horrifying secrets they have glimpsed. Each wicked entity that resides there claims dominion over countless layers of the Abyss, their gruesome reigns intertwining in a monstrous, ever-changing tapestry of fear and suffering.
The Horrors of the Abyss: An Exercise in Futility
The mere contemplation of an endless expanse of these planes of torment, each vaster and more malevolent than the last, has the power to shatter the human psyche, leaving the 666-layer estimate as a mere consolation, a feeble grasp at maintaining some shred of hope in the face of an incomprehensible and darkening vastness.
Demonholme: A Universe Forsaken
In the Abyss, every conceivable form of malevolence amalgamates with relentless chaos, giving birth to a realm of grotesque darkness and brutality, where the essence of cruelty feeds upon the agony of the weak, engulfing all in perpetual suffering. It serves as the nefarious womb for races of beings so demonic and perverse, their existence is a blight upon the realms of existence, a cruel joke forged in the infernal fires of malevolence.
Names of Fear and Sorrow: The Abyss in Various Realms
Those in Gladsheim and Jurgarten refer to this festering wound in the cosmos as Demonholme, a place where hope is slaughtered daily on the altar of despair. The inhabitants of Arvandor know it as the misshapen lands, a realm so twisted and corrupt that even the bravest dare not speak its name, a place where the very fabric of reality seems to weep in agony, cursed to bear witness to an endless cycle of darkness and violence.
Pazunia: The Entryway to Hell
In the oppressive hellscape known as the Abyss, the only fractionally mapped layer is the initial sphere of torment, ominously named Pazunia, after the dread lord Pazuzu who notoriously frequents its unhallowed grounds. Also known as the Plains of Infinite Portals or the Palace of 1,001 Closets, it stands as the terrifying gateway to layers of the Abyss so numerous, they defy mortal comprehension. A place devoid of life’s grace, it languishes under the ruthless glare of a blood-red sun, a beacon of relentless suffering.
Features of the Abyss: A Landscape of Despair
The desolation is so profound that not a single blade of greenery dares to breach the surface of its scorched and ashy plains. These barren lands are violently disrupted by three harrowing features: gaping maws in the earth that seem to breathe despair, towering iron gates that groan with the weight of countless sins, and the infamous river Styx, its dark waters echoing with the cries of the damned.
The Iron Fortresses: Bastions of Evil
The abhorrent fissures scattered across this forsaken layer serve as unholy conduits to the even darker and unimaginable layers lurking below, where the twisted and malevolent souls are dragged helplessly, forsaking all hope of return. Much like the conduits in the Astral Plane, they ensnare those who dare venture close, spiraling them into an abyssal descent from which there is no salvation.
Fortresses and Servants: Guardians of the Damned
Dominating the desolation are the looming iron fortresses, infernal strongholds housing the corporeal forms of demons of higher ranks and despotic lords when they traverse the astral realms. These fortresses throb with a sinister life of their own, protected fervently by demonic servants bound in unyielding servitude. With a ferocity born of eternal damnation, these servants clash in battles that only end in the true death, a brutal and final cessation of existence, all in the name of safeguarding their malevolent master’s corporeal vessel. The entire plane exists in a state of relentless darkness, a testament to the ultimate triumph of evil over the fragments of good that dare to challenge it.
Conflicts and Warfare: The Continuous Battle
Demons frequently engage in brutal conflict, especially when one ventures into the Prime Material plane, intending to destroy their rival’s physical shell and either obliterate the Power or strand it in a hostile Prime realm. The first layer of the Abyss is a hotbed of relentless sieges, as demon lords fervently fortify their bastions against relentless assaults. Alerted to threats against their true body, they rush back desperately to thwart any potential harm. Meanwhile, the eerie river Styx meanders ominously across this topmost layer, a silent witness to the constant turmoil unfolding in the Abyss.
The River Styx: A Journey of Dread
Some streams diverge into abyssal chasms, while others contribute to the enigmatic river of oblivion through backwards-flowing waterfalls. Voyagers are sternly warned to enlist the services of the ferryman Charon or his minions for navigation upon these perilous waters. A hapless individual cast into an unpredictable layer of the Abyss—be it through curse, artifact, or ill-fated conduit selection—might find themselves engulfed in ceaseless, horrifying landscapes inhabited by the vilest of entities.
Navigation and Barriers: Hazards of the Abyss
The top layer of the Abyss harbors interplanar portals resembling vast chasms, spawning chaos for voyagers attempting to traverse through the Abyss to distant realms. This route is largely shunned by seasoned travelers. The iron bastions stand resilient to the intrusion of astral viewing portals, shielding against unauthorized entry from the Astral plane. In this initial layer of the Abyss, definitive barriers are conspicuously absent, an anomaly in the chaotic expanse. In contrast, barriers in deeper layers are fiercely protected secrets, hoarded by the ruthless denizens residing there. These barriers, existing in any conceivable terrain within the Abyss, might open up into an array of landscapes equally unpredictable and forbidding.
The Abyssal Horde: A Conglomeration of Evil Entities
The Abyss teems with a malevolent horde of demonic beings, a vile congregation of nefarious entities whose numbers seem to defy boundaries. Their swelling ranks might have sowed panic across other planes, if not for their innate propensity for betrayal and savagery amongst themselves. The brutal cycle of dominance and subjugation runs rampant here; the mighty incessantly prey on the frail, who in turn plot the downfall of their oppressors. In the treacherous corridors of the Abyss, allegiances are fleeting, as yesterday’s allies morph into today’s adversaries in the blink of an eye.
Demon Lords: Masters of the Abyss
The sovereigns of distinct layers usually command enormous perpetual armies within their native realms. These demon lords, epitomes of malevolent strength, dominate one or several layers of the Abyss, yet their reigns are perpetually marred by unending strife and schemes to amplify their territories. Engaged in a relentless tug-of-war, they constantly vie with one another, plotting and counterplotting in a never-ending cycle of ambition and treachery to expand their hellish empires.
Secrets of the Abyss: A Dark Journey Awaits
The sole binding element amongst them is their visceral loathing for all that is good and orderly societies. The precise realms ruled by these demon princes remain concealed, a terrifying mystery left for the unfortunate wanderer to unearth.
The Unrevealed Dwellings of the Demon Princes
The rumored dwellings of the demon princes are as follows:
• The dwelling of Orcus is a great palace made of bones, rising out of ground bone meal. His guards and servants are undead. From his empty halls Orcus rules many layers and is said to have conquered a number of Prime Material planes.
• The realm of Demogorgon spans several layers, yet each is a jungle filled with dinosaurs, wild apes, and bird-like monsters in addition to the standard complement of demonic life.
• Yeenoghu’s great mansion is the size of a city. It rolls across the barren salt-waste of his layers, pulled by slaves and controlled by gnolls.
• Juiblex has a layer made of living fungus and rot. Here all matter is decaying and all manner of slimes and molds live off each other’s putrid forms.
• Lolth controls a number of adjacent planes but is reached through a great web built in the midst of a primal maelstrom.
• Baphomet lives at the center of an infinite maze that spans his layer and the layers adjacent to him. The maze is said to change as it passes between the layers. It is rumored to be populated by all manner of minotaurs, some of whom have breath weapons and magical abilities.
• Fraz-Urb’Luu has only recently returned to his home realms. He is still in the process of removing those lesser creatures who usurped his domains during his absence. At its height, Fraz- Urb’Luu’s realms rivalled the beauty of those of the Twin Paradises or Arvandor, but this is only a cruel deception, for beneath the illusion is decay and rotting flesh.
• Graz’zt makes his domain in a great palace that fills an entire layer and dominates the nearby layers of lesser demon lords. Here Graz’zt marshals his army against the forces of Orcus and Demogorgon.
• Kostchtchie’s domain is only part of a single layer, but the hatred of this demon prince spans the layers of the Abyss. His plane is a glacial place, filled with all evil creatures of cold.
• Pazuzu has no abode, but is ceded the air above the surface of every layer of the Abyss. The demons depend on Pazuzu (and to Charon in those layers where the Styx runs) for ready transportation, making him that rarest of beings, a well-liked (or at least tolerated) demon.
• Zuggtmoy has several realms scattered among a number of layers of the Abyss. In general, they appear as normal environments overrun by fungus and lit by a purplish light. All manner of fungoid creatures inhabit the realms of Zuggtmoy.
Demon lords and princes are considered Lesser Powers in their home planes. If slain in the Abyss, they are dead (though another creature will evolve into a being similar to the deceased demon to fill the gap).
