Banehold

Banehold is a single, seemingly endless parade plain girded by an adamantine-and-ebony citadel whose mass swallows light. Jet and obsidian inlays turn the walls into a constellation of black stars; even Avalas’ iron glow dims along the Bastion’s curtain. Drums never stop. Edicts are carved deeper than mortar.   Locals use “Barrens of Doom and Despair” for the block cluster around the fortress, featureless faces, drill squares, siege yards, mustering fields—so uniform that distance loses meaning. To newcomers it feels like a whole plane unto itself; to veterans it’s simply where plans become orders.  

Notable Locations

The Black Bastion

A tiered palace-citadel wrought of adamantine and ebony, studded with jet and obsidian. The outer rings are barracks-cities and armories; the inner keep houses Bane’s chancery of war and the vaults of treaties.  

Light-sink aura

Torches gutter, colors mute. Maps are inked in relief and sound—standard practice when light lies.  

Marchlands

Right-angled causeways and retractable bridges let legions pivot when nearby blocks conjoin. The schedule of collisions is kept by the Sunless Orologion, a clockwork observatory that chimes only for generals.  

The Edict Vaults

Treaties, capitulations, and contracts stored like munitions; reading rooms are warded and timed.  

The Banner Miles

Miles of standards from conquered campaigns, used as wind-vanes to forecast conjunction storms.  

The Night Courts

Midnight tribunals where logistics disputes are tried like crimes.  

Inhabitants

Banehold fields Bane’s personal host, contracted cohorts, oath-bound petitioners, and planar auxiliaries mustered under iron charters. Envoys and embassies maintain quarters inside the Bastion, most notably: Ella'li, Nomog-Geaya, Hruggek.   In addition, “Beasts of Bane” prowl the Barrens at night, who are grim, exaggerated reflections of mortal predators. Whether they were imported, bred, or summoned by doctrine is a question best asked from behind a wall.  

Travel and Portals

Astral Gates

Formal embassies open into shielded astral halls; access is strictly docketed.  

War-Gates

Standing portals anchor to Hammergrim and the Blood Rift; a crimson stair, kept sealed except during campaigns, links to Baisha's Cage.  

Avalas Lanes

Spherical gates to Mechanus, the Nine Hells, and the Outlands drift known sky-tracks. As with Avalas generally, activation is by touch: harmonious (Mechanus), dissonant (Hells), silent (Outlands). Step through prepared to fall toward the nearest face.