Sixth Splinter: Narakkas

The splinter of Narakkas is a place of endless earth striated with fissures and tunnels. There is no sun, no day and night. Just the oppressive closeness of an already claustrophobic landscape that may cave in at any moment.

Visual Interest Board

       

Properties & Geographical Features

Although Narakkas is solid, solidity does not entail stability. The substrate is in constant motion. Some of this is slow: shifting of tectonic plates, noticeable only on the timescale of millennia. Some motion is sudden and violent: without vigilant care and attention, the already narrow corridors could collapse, trapping the unwary in a suffocating prison of stone. Pockets that connect neither to other points in Narakkas nor to other splinters might often be the final resting places of things that should not be awakened.

Specific stones or creatures may glow; the only natural light sources in an otherwise dark, cramped splinter. No natural horizontal planes exist in Narakkas, making travel through its claustrophobic tunnels even more hazardous. Falling is a constant danger, building is treacherous, and rockslides are commonplace.

Full of closed spaces and sunless, narrow corridors, Narakkas is Devilkind’s prison. Devils found guilty of breaking the law suffer incarceration and punishment under the judicious oversight of the Archdevils Glasya and Maldrana. The churning chaos of this splinter is also home to demons and other fiends, but through clever Infernal stratagems, the most powerful among them are prisoners here as well. Prison breaks, riots, and attempted escapes are not infrequent. However, devils and demons will not work together, so when there is an opportunity to escape, even imprisoned devils will support their captors rather than allowing demons to seek freedom. When the creature Dagon escaped Narakkas, the previous warden was stripped of his rank, deprived of his power, and his corpse became Glasya’s stronghold.

Geographically, there are six divisions of Narakkas. Each is named for the most prominent secondary substrate (i.e., secondary to dirt and stone). These divisions are: Gem, Gravel, Sand, Mud, Smoke, and Darkness.

   

Notable Inhabitants

Glasya

Epithets

The Kingpin, The Dark Prodigy, Mistress of Mischief, Immutable Word of Law Benefits the Lawmaker

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Glasya, the Kingpin  

Glasya is devilkin’s most infamous criminal and highest warden. That Glasya can hold both statuses simultaneously is clear evidence that, in the infernal hierarchy, crime pays if one can avoid punishment. Of all the Archdevils, Glasya is the most unpredictable. Though all devils cleave to the letter of the law, she bends rules of tradition and law to an extent that shocks even other devils. Infamously, she is devilkind’s first organized crime boss, which makes her sphere of influence as the legal counsel of devilkind somewhat oxymoronic.

Mortals with audacious plans choosing to move against overwhelming odds may attract her attention, respect, or patronage. A notable portion of her petitioners are souls who pledged themselves to another Lord and want out of the bargain. Her minions scour every contract struck with other devils and approach those who might have exploitable loopholes in theirs. Glasya keeps other devils sharp, for even the slightest slip on their part could reduce their power and influence.

Glasya stands 5’6” tall and resembles an erinyes, with milk white skin and preternatural beauty. Unlike an erinyes, her eyes and wings are pure black. Her bull-like horns seem to be composed of red crystal. Wounds on her body do not heal to resemble flesh, instead scar over with crystalline deposits.

What is organized crime to a devil? Who's your daddy?  

Maldrana

Epithets

The Waking Nightmare, The Hag Countess, The Judge, Power Shall Be the Arbiter of My Law

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Maldrana, the Waking Nightmare (viewing on small screens is not recommended)  

Maldrana is unique among archdevils for being a Night Hag, a being that combines all the malice of a fey and a fiend. The Hag Countess’s guile and creativity are legendary. The legends say that she architected the defeat and imprisonment of Narakkas’s demon lords before Asmodedus appointed her an archdevil. They also say she ensured that one escaped, which ousted her predecessor and created an opening for herself. Now, she serves as the Infernal judge and jury. Distantly related to the fey of Evara, she delights in her control over contracts and deals. Her retinue consists of a coven of powerful night hags - though none as powerful as herself - and a cadre of other sadistic creatures who enact her whimsical punishments. She keeps a stable of Nightmares even though riding is impossible in the claustrophobic confines of Narakkas.

The Hag Countess appears as a stooped crone with pupilless, golden eyes. Black, ramlike horns curl amid a bird’s nest of coarse grey hair. Her warty purple skin is mottled and covered in weeping boils, blisters and sores. Her most striking features are her “wings”. Two masses of arms, hands, and fingers in vaguely wing-like configurations sprout from her back.

 

Dwiergus

Epithets

The Chrysalis Prince, The Flesh, The Flesh Imprisoned  

Of Dwiergus the Chrysalis Prince, little is spoken. They are a house-sized, amorphous mass of demonic flesh whose features constantly liquefy and reform. In the days when the Dark Dimension was young, Narakkas was a crushing protoplasmic realm of hate and hunger. Between themself and Pale Night existed an uneasy truce: Dwiergus taught themself to form demons from this primordial sludge, and Pale Night created the maddening, twisted confines of their minds. Orcus, Graz’zt, Demogorgon, and Lamashtu each stole pieces of this knowledge throughout the centuries and repurposed it to create undead, fiends, and demons. The Chrysalis Prince desired to reshape all living things into demonic lifeforms. They were tricked into attempting to reforge themself, and now their own flesh is their prison. They are stuck in a perpetual cycle of making and unmaking, unable to exist long enough even to form a coherent thought. They are jailed in Darkness.

 

Lamashtu

Epithets

Mother of Monsters, Demon Queen of Deformity, The Scourge, She Who Erases and Rewrites  

Lamashtu is a predator in a mother’s guise. When she learned Dwiergus’s experimentation had formed demons, Lamashtu invaded Narakkas and killed his lieutenants. She tortured Dwiergus until he divulged the "art" of creating demons. She coupled that knowledge with the use of her own body to gestate demons, leading The Scourge to become mother and patroness of many misshapen and malformed creatures that crawl, slither, or flap in the Dark Dimension.

She is a cosmically deranged and grotesquely maternal being. Even now, from her prison in Smoke, Lamashtu’s influence can still occasionally infect mortal wombs, ensuring babies are born twisted or monstrous.

Much like smoke itself, Lamashtu’s prison is symbolic and temporary. Effigies of Lamashtu drowned in holy water mark the boundaries of her prison, and the blood of her demonic children can be used to control her. To replenish their supply of blood, Glasya's fixers regularly scour other splinters for creatures of her brood. Sometimes, they even take a moral whose birth was touched by Lamashtu. She is a recurring threat that must be kept at bay and, eventually, the means to control her will be gone. Were she to break free, her first order of business would be to kill Dwiergus so his secrets die with him. Her second would be to resume her campaign to become mother to the omniverse.

Pazuzu is nominally her lover, but this was a relationship of convenience for Lamashtu. If she is freed, she will take his armies and his life to accomplish her goals.

 

Pale Night

Epithets

The White Lady, the Veiled Shadow, Pallid Prisoner  

Pale Night is an unknowable enigma of unimaginable age shrouded in mystery. To peer beyond her veil is to witness a horror so great that it was rejected by reality itself. She is an entity of insanity, who spread madness and confusion before her incarceration. Her goals and desires were as inscrutable as she is. Now, her physical form is imprisoned in Smoke, but her cage extends beyond the corporeal. Within a never-ending loop of whispered truths and incomprehensible illusions, Pale Night’s mind is unable to escape the reflection of her own madness. She is guarded constantly by golems who are immune to her sibilant susurrations and who infallibly follow the jailer’s orders.

   

Places of Interest

Devils have complete dominion over Narakkas. There are no places that would be considered demon territory.

Carceri imajinér

Some say that the most frightening place to be trapped is within the dark places of one’s own mind. The imagined prison is often worse than the real one. The Imaginary Prisons are just that: a place made real only by our ability to imagine it.

Gem Mines

Get that fancy-ass rock! If you’re a mortal and you’re interested in money or reviving the dead or both, Narkkas’s sub-terraria is renowned for minerals, gems, and precious metal. Just watch out for dao, devils, and elementals.

Hag’s Moving Castle

Maldrana and her retinue manage the moving plane by being on the move too. Her castle walks on too many legs and can typically be found wading through the Styx like an unusual party boat. The devils’ portal to Fomor is aboard her vessel.

Infernal Iron Mines

Infernal iron bears a passing resemblance to regular iron, and is used to power all manner of infernal constructions from war machines to currency. Harvesting and processing the ore is extremely dangerous work carried out by prisoners, disgraced devils, and constructs.

Red Citadel

Glasya’s fortress, made from the bones of Narkkas’s previous warden. Though it shifts and slides along with the rest of Narakkas, she routinely keeps her audience chamber positioned right above the River Styx. Petitioners who waste her time are summarily dismissed directly into its waters.

The Soul Forge

It was believed that Dwiergus was on the cusp of more than forging flesh - they had nearly perfected a method to manipulate the metaphysical. Their research could have given demons souls, rendering them immortal even if they died in the Dark Dimension. Their experimentation did not end there. Their secondary goal was to reconstitute the souls of mortals - and rivals - and reforge them into weapons or demons. Each of these creations represented a complete violation of the natural order, a way through which fiends could enslave someone who hadn’t willingly surrendered their soul. When Dwiergus was imprisoned and Narakkas, remade, the Soul Forge was lost among the shifting stone.