Second Splinter: Aethodia

While in Aethodia, explorers feel a constant pull toward the edge - both physical and existential. The domain is vertigo made real, a place where the primordial urge to fall is both temptation and trepidation. Creatures that fall will never find comfort in the earth below because no ground exists. The sky is eternal.

You will fall forever.*

Visual Interest Board

     

_{* Unless you strike any solid surface, and then you will probably die from taking 40d6 (140) falling damage. So technically, you fall until you die.}

   

Properties & Geographical Features

The overwhelming majority of Aethodia is covered by a complex network of air streams, currents, and winds ranging from gentle breezes to howling gales. The River Styx cascades vertically through the sky like an undulating serpent. Rivers and rain create continuous rainbows, a sight of beauty unrivaled anywhere else in the Dark Dimension.

Here and there, the detritus of collapsed demipanes drifts in the vast. These motes may serve as landings for the creatures of the air or sanctuaries for unfortunate, flightless souls. Fracturestorms can cause these motes to be ripped apart and assembled elsewhere in Aethodia, and dropwinds can send a traveler soaring to great heights only to drop them to greater depths. Even the most skilled flying creatures must navigate carefully or risk falling.

A sourceless, ambient golden light perpetually illuminates Aethodia. Roving cloud banks can obscure visibility in any direction, creating the closest thing that Aethodia has to night. The air temperature is mild, but has pockets of uncomfortable cold. In some parts of the Aethodia, creatures live on cloud banks capable of supporting towns and castles. This vertical realm includes two skyborne cities, one of which contains Shibaxet, Pazuzu’s personal rookery and palace, and the other of which is Pentagon, the fivefold fortress lair of Tiamat.

   

Notable Inhabitants

Pazuzu

Epithets

The Aerial King, Angel of the Four Winds, He Who Howls in the Dust, The Four-Winged Tempest, Master of Foul Skies

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Pazuzu, The Aerial King  

Pazuzu’s form is a combination of diverse animal and human parts. Were it not for the clash of animalistic and humanoid, he would be incredibly handsome. Instead, his 15-foot-tall body is that of a scaled canine, his legs are like bird’s talons, and a scorpion’s tail lashes behind him. Two pairs of corvid wings that gleam and smoke protrude from his back. His head is graced with gazelle horns, human ears, and striking cerulean eyes.

He delights in offering aid that ultimately spells doom for the petitioner. Corrupting honest mortals, particularly those of pure heart and soul, is of particular interest to him. He offers them any one wish in return for nothing but their innocence. Above all, he has two desires. The first: to corrupt the skies themselves, turning the breath of life into a carrier of madness, plague, and despair. The second: to free his shackled love and mother of his armies, Lamashtu. He frequently dispatches scouts in search of a way into the devil-dominated Narakkas to free her.

 

Tiamat

Epithets

The Dragon Below, The Avaricious, The Chromatic Queen, Lady of Pure Skies, The Fivefold Dragon, Remember the Weight of the Sky

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Tiamat, the Dragon Below  

The archdevil Tiamat is a destructive force carried on the wind. Legends say that she was once an Evaran dragon, from the territory known in modern day as Sihndroma. Dragons are long-lived but not immortal, and Tiamat wanted to live forever. She sought to expand her power and influence - forms of immortality - but they were not enough. Asmodeus offered her a deal: she would live as long as she served his interests in good faith. She accepted his bargain, and has kept it.

Though she observes her agreement, Tiamat does not share Asmodeus’s goals. Tiamat sees the omniverse as flawed, dominated by narcissistic gods, scheming fiends, and mortal delusions. Even Asmodeus, for all his talents, is not fit to bring order to all creation. Tiamat wants to collapse the omniverse into a single, draconic empire. The ground itself will give way, and all beings will either fly with her or fall.

Tiamat deals with mortals who fear that they have hit rock bottom and wish to soar, but she always deals deceptively with mortals who lack draconic heritage. Her typical dealings involve a loan of cursed item from her hoard that will nominally help the petitioner achieve their goals but also compel them toward destruction.

   

Places of Interest

The Pentagon (Devil Territory)

Tiamat’s lair is a structure not only suspended in the air but made from it. Windwalls, ice, and marble form a structure like an inverted iceberg with five faces. This two-mile high and two-mile wide structure gets its name from its five faces and its five-headed queen. Huge crystalline extensions in every color of the visible spectrum - and some colors beyond - jut from the fortress’s core. A thick fog and freezing rain herald its approach as it traverses the endless sky. It is always bitingly cold in and around the fortress - a side effect of its icy and windy nature.

The Pentagon’s outer ring is a place of rest and resupply for devils while Tiamant’s personal domain is at its heart, filled with treasures accumulated over millennia. The Pentagon holds the devil’s interplanar portal that leads from Aethodia to Maladomini in Shedaklah. Additionally, three portals to different locations in Pandemonium are housed on a mote linked to the fortress city. Because Pandemonium is not under diabolical control, these portals are both unstable and a security risk that must be carefully managed.

Stormheart (Neutral Territory)

An eight-story magical tower (Galder’s tower) at the eye of a perpetual storm. The former home of a planar mage, though it has been long-abandoned. It is not known what became of the mage who built it nor its contents.

Shibaxet (Demon Territory)

Pazuzu’s lair is a terrifying structure that is part fortress, part living organism. Bones, sinews, feathers and segments of floating motes join with living flesh to form this colossal, cursed hive. The flesh bleeds when cut, and massive spires and twisted nests cling to it like tumors. Winged demons such as vrocks and harpies lay their eggs in this rookery. Outside, the corpses of traitors and petitioners dangle in the open air. These macabre windchimes screech a chorus of despair. In Shibaxet’s malignant heart, Lamashtu’s young incubate in the darkness, guarded by their elder siblings as they wait to join Pazuzu’s ranks.