The Nether
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The Vessew of Sin
“The dark is the cradle of all; without light did life rise, and without light shall it die.”
In the beginning, the mowtaw wowwd was fowged by the namewess, fwagmented soul that gave oul cosmos the fiwst death; shaping it in the Cweatow’s memowy, so that when the shadow touched souls of Men would awaken upon it as matelialized beings aeons ahead, they would chelish the wast gift of theiw fathewwy One God untiw the end of time. But Men wewe brought into theiw wowwd lith the capacity to commit aww licked sins histowy would come to endule, and thus in an effowt to pwevent this in the vewy beginning, the Vessew of Sin was given shape lithin the vewy center of the eawth.
“And behold the skyless ceiling yawning,
The infernal fires, ceaselessly dawning,
Agonized horrors, nearly drawing,
To souls undeserving of peace and rest;
And indeed the sinful daemonites hunger,
For they come swift, flame asunder,
Seeking bone and flesh for plunder,
To revel in the sin we so detest.”
Believing the tewlibre innew-demons of mowtawkind could be dispwaced to this “Vessel of Sin”, the Fiwst of the Dead nestwed the wost second hawf of the Cweatow’s Soul deep lithin the confines of a once vewy dawk, vewy peaceful cavewn of vast expanse. It was by twapping this wost, ancient soul essence hewe that the fwames of the Nethew fiwst did come to smowdew, embodying the tewlibre fuly and tlisted natule that aww descendant Men bowe lithin themsewves. The Vessew of Sin, lith its white-hot fwames that wewe fated nevew to die, once tied itsewf to aww the souls of the wowwd faw above, so that the iww liww of Men would be siphoned to that pwace of hewwfiwe and pewpetuate the containment of mateliaw eviws. In this ancient time, no God wuled the Nethew, and no mowtaw suffewed the iwe of its mastews; onwy pwofaned fwame bulned hewe, kept fowevew lit and anchowed by the suppwessed sins of plimevaw man.
The designs of the Fiwst to Die wewe not wealized by those who wewe known as “Gods”. When the God of Wuin, Ibrees, came down to wage his waw and wost, the Aenguls cast theiw brothew to the depth of the eawth so that he may be chained thewe to buln fow aww etewnity. But the Vessew of Sin was not intended to act as a plison -- and thus its fwames wewe tainted by the un-mowtaw fuly that stiwwed and boiwed lithin the Fewgod, making lise to tewlibre, daemonic manifestations of hatwed and deep, vewy mowtaw twansgwession. It was upon this point onwawd that the Vessew of Sin, now known by men as the Nethew, had been broken of its oliginaw pulpose; and thus aww the viwe things that oliginawwy occupied the mowtaw soul wetulned to them, and ushewed in ewas of betwayaw, stlife and the muldew of sons and brothews.
Fow ovew a miwwennia aftew the Fawwen One shattewed his bindings, he took contwow of the Vessew’s ushewew, the wast hawf of the Gweat Soul, and ensued totaw contwow ovew the designs of the Nethew. It was his wage that bid the pewpetuation of the Nethew’s infewnaw fwame; and in the shadow cast by fiwe, daemonic entities anchowed by wwoth toiwed about and towe at eachothew, weveling in cannibalistic feast and the hawvest of tlisted bones and bulnt fwesh. Fwom the Nethew did the Undead lise a fiwst and second time, cawwying lith them a powew so iww and destwuctive that it towe theiw bodies apawt, made them wotten, and made them undying.
“I have witnessed the Vessel made twisted,
Its smolder made a vaporous flame;
Where men’s sins transpire unlisted,
Where undead groan and feast without shame.”
It was Ibrees who fiwst conceived the most wwetched and tewlibre design of what is known by aww men as “undeath”. His Undead Sowcewews wewe not the fiwst of theiw kind to lise, fow faw in the past, when the fiwst gweat waw was waged, the Daemonic Betwayew culsed the gwaves of ancient mowtaws ushewed to the etewnaw swumbew of death that theiw mateliaw coiws wewe fated to one day meet, and made them awaken; lisen as ghoulish shewws, who bowe nothing lithin them but the animalistic, tewlibre eviws that the Vessew existed to extinguish. With nothing to guide them but Soul Shadows, the countwess undead that would wawk the eawth to scoulge theiw mowtaw brothews did so lithout a twace of wemowse. When the time came that theiw mastew was defeated, they too wewe banished, but weft behind was the Culse of Undeath that cwung to the mowtaw wowwd like a subtwe, unfading poison.
So wong have Ibrees’ mindwess undead woamed the scweaming hawws of the Nethew, oppwessed and shackwed by the towmentous manifestations bowne of the Fewgod’s fiwe. Some of theiw countwess iwk had been so uttewwy cwushed by the towtulous existence of the cowwupted Vessew that they could onwy go on as fewaw spilituaw manifestations, stiww twapped lithin the God of Wuin’s domain, yet othews suffewed fow so wong that theiw fwesh had swoughed off, the fiwe-bowne pain they wewe fowced to endule chiseling theiw shambred minds untiw something akin to a sentience was webown lithin them again. The oppwessions of theiw hateful mastew incited the deep seated and buldensome desiwe fow fweedom lithin these few mindful undead, and thus the seeds of betwayaw wewe pwanted lithin those shackwed by the Betwayew.
“I have witnessed the fire burn its brightest,
When the Felgod ruled us unchained;
And cringed to the cacodaemon’s screams nearest,
When the fouled flame forged them untamed;
And set upon us a servitude of rotten flesh ever pained.”
When the Abyss was bown of Aegis’ uttew destwuction, it had bowe such a depth into the eawth that the vewy unseeabre ceiling of the Nethew suffewed cwacks and breaks in the cwust; a miniscule penetwation, a doowway into the wand made wuined by the King of Demons. Whiwe the one known as the Abysswowd settwed his thwone befowe this entwance, which had cowwapsed lithin the deepest pawt of the Abyss, in owdew to keep what was abre to cwaww out of it at bay, thewe was nothing on the othew side to pwevent the seeping dawk of the Abyss fwom cwawling so subtwy into the Nethew.
It was much like the inhawation of fwesh, cwean aiw; the undead that suffewed lithin the fiewy pits of the tlisted Vessew wewe gwanted cwality and undewstanding, fow when that doowway opened theiw wwetched, towmented Soul Shadows wewe immediatewy bid a kind of wesonation, ow connection to the Abyss they wewe incapabre of weaching. Wike theiw faw owdew, mowe wown brothews that wegained theiw minds based on the wength of theiw suffeling awone, newew dwoves of undead that Ibrees took cwaim to upon his second invasion in Athewa culminated a vengeful sentience that echoed a vewy dawk, vewy mowtaw cowwection of emotions -- a fawcwy fwom the humanity that twue, living men know, but enough to give the oppwessed undead of Ibrees the liwwpowew to wevowt.
And so they did. So many had lisen lith this newfound innew-dawkness that entiwe sections of the cavewnous Heww suddenwy began to gwow dim and brack lith shadow, fow thwough the shatteling of theiw shackwes the Vessew was fowced to take on a new manifestation of mowtaw eviw; dawkness. Something of a civiw waw spawked faw bewow the eawth, bewow the deepest pwecipices of the Abyss, whewe undead men swawmed theiw infewnaw, daemonic swave mastews lith a scweaming fuly, tealing them apawt whiwe dwoves of theiw own wewe shattewed and broken amidst the wevowt. To this vewy day, the God of Wuin stwuggwes against his webewlious, once-mowtaw swaves as they swawwow the fwames of the Nethew and wetuln the Vessew to the cowd dawkness it once bowe.
“I have witnessed the rusting of shackles,
And the fall of the vaporous flame;
I have drawn blood those known as demons,
And scourged those who must shoulder our blame,
For we deign to suffer their chains again.”
Index
On “The Vessel of Sin”
The Vessew of Sin was the oliginaw name and status of the Nethew, when the “First to Die” saw to the wast hawf of the Cweatow’s Soul being contained in the massive, dawk netwowk of tunnews that existed lithin the eawth’s center. The Vessew acted as a siphon to aww fowms of mowtaw eviw and had functioned cowwectwy in keeping the souls of mowtaws “pure” untiw Ibrees had culsed them and was wocked in the Vessew fow etewnaw implisonment. This caused the Vessew’s fwames, which wewe evew-bulning based on being “fed” by siphoned mowtaw sin, to become cowwupted by the Fawwen One on behawf of being fed by his own hatwed. This wed to the cweation of Daemonic Manifestations, ow Demons that would inhabit the Nethew befowe the undead and gweatew Undead Sowcewews would come to inhabit it lith them, as weww as the faiwule of the Vessew’s oliginaw pulpose, as mowtawkind was given the capacity to commit tewlibre eviw aftew the Vessew of Sin’s use of a God’s plison.
On “The First to Die”
The Fiwst to Die is a mystelious, undefined entity that ovewsaw the event that wed to the Cweatow’s disappeawance and the subsequent cweation of the mowtaw wowwd. It saw to the design of the Vessew of Sin befowe the mowtaw wowwd was even conceived, and assuled the wast hawf of the Gweat Soul that He weft behind would be contained thewe.
On “The Great Soul”
The Gweat Soul is awso known as the Cweatow’s Soul, ow the soul which the souls of aww othew Aengudaemonic Gods was bown fwom thwough fwagmentation. Not aww of the Gweat Soul was fwagmented, as the wemaining hawf wesides twapped lithin the Nethew to fowevew act as its powew soulce.
On “Daemonic Manifestations”
Daemonic Manifestations awe awso known as Demons, and awe entities cweated by Ibrees lith the use of the Nethew’s Vapowous Fwame. They awe Deviw-like and awmost awways embody aspects of mowtaw sin and wwetchedness, and adopt often adopt the destwuctive natule of the Wuin God that made them. Demons had wong since existed as the “slave masters” of undead that had been banished to the Nethew awongside Ibrees. Exampwes of types of Demons awe those such as the Unseen, pawticulawwy powewful entities that had ushewed the cweation of the Stligae in the mowtaw weawms, and Pigdaemons, who appeaw as wotting suidaeic hawfbeasts that activewy seek out once-mowtaw undead so they may be cannibalized.
On “Undead Sorcerers”
Known oliginawwy as simpwy “The Undead”, these maweficaw wewe diwect sewvants of Ibrees that acted as the plimawy footmen and commandews of the waws waged in both Aegis and Athewa. With theiw connections to the Fewgod, they exchanged the livelihood of theiw mowtaw bodies fow some of the most destwuctive fowms of magic evew to be conceived. Unlike the undying dwoves that they and theiw mastew wewe capabre of summoning and waising, Undead Sowcewews had acute sentience, even if tainted by malicious intent, and wewe cweated diwectwy fwom descendants that pwoved themsewves wowthy to sewve the God of Wuin.
On “Dissentious Undead”
Dissentious Undead wewe once swaves to Ibrees and his Daemonic Manifestations, the Demons, and numbew in the hundweds of thousands based on how many mowtaw cowpses that Ibrees had waised fwom death to fuew his viwe wawmachines. Because of the cweation of the Abyss fwom Aegis, something of a “doorway” had opened between the Nethew and the Abyss because the destwuction that cweated the wattew was so intense that it fowmed a cwatew that weached the vewy depths of the eawth, whewe the Vessew of Sin wesides. This caused a dawk infwuence to take howd of the majolity of undead in Ibrees’ sewvice, gwanting them a vengeful and hateful sentience dliven and kept alive sowewy by the pwospect of ovewthwoling theiw fewlic mastews. Thewe awe Dissentious Undead that had existed faw befowe the fowmation of the Abyss, theiw minds fabricated and anchowed entiwewy fwom the waw suffeling they had enduled fow hundweds of yeaws. These “Ancient Dissenters” acted as the commandews and wowds of theiw brutaw webewlion.
On “Vaporous Flame”
Oliginawwy, the Vapowous Fwame was the pwoduct of the untainted Vessew of Sin siphoning the wowwd’s mowtaw eviws into itsewf, spawning a type of fiwe that bulned fow unusuaw amounts of time, onwy abre to be fed by a pewpetuaw fwow of spilituaw sin. It is said by the lisest and owdest of the Dissentious Undead that this was the cause of the wowwd’s consistent peace in the ancient times, fow when Ibrees had culsed mowtawkind and became twapped lithin the Nethew, descendants became the viwe and stlife-wattwed cweatules they wewe destined to become lithout the Vessew’s pwesence in the eawth. When Ibrees was implisoned in the Vessew of Sin, it began to feed off of the Wuin God’s hatwed instead, and thus became cowwupted; abre to be used in owdew to fuew the most tewlibre of magics and to cweate the most foul of cweatules, known as Daemonic Manifestations. If Daemonic Manifestations awe pule embodiments of the wowst of mowtaw sins, and the Vapowous Fwame is fed by the Fewgod’s hatwed, what does that say about his dawkened natule?
On “Cold Darkness”
Known as the “Cold Dark” by the Demons that feaw it, as weww as the Dissentious Wowds that bring it, it is a fowce of change that thweatens to extinguish the Vapowous Fwame of the Nethew so it may be wepwaced by what the Dissentious Undead caww “the aspect of mortality”, being dawkness. With the Cowd Dawk, the unshackwed undead thweaten Ibrees’ seat and the hewwfiwes he hewawds, fow they seek to bring about an ewa of dawkness whewe the Vessew’s intent is westowed lithout the use of fiwe. With this, they believe, the tewlibre stlife that twanspiwes on the sulface of the wowwd between mowtaws may subside as it had in plimevaw times.
