Nighthold
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
A country of midnight glass and whispered fevers, Nighthold lies where the Shadowfell frays into black wind. Obsidian spires climb from cracked onyx plains; rivers of liquid shadow thread canyons and, at times, pour upward into the starless vault. Every gust is a shadowstorm that carries a thousand soft voices, the realm remembering hurts and rehearsing new ones.
Pain as currency, ruin as aesthetic, endurance as crown. Beauty exists here, whether sometimes it is the beauty of lacquered scars, of precise poisons, of choreography across barbs and chain. Ella’li’s presence makes suffering legible, measured, refined, weaponized. Sometimes, it exists as a perfect beauty equals to Helena and priests of Helena.
Laws, Customs and Rites
Price of Passage
At each ward-gate, offer pain, confession, or cure. Blood on the lintel buys an hour; a named grief buys a night.Silence Before the Cut
No speech during procedures or punishments; only drum and breath. Breakers of silence receive the lash-song.Mercy is a Debt
If you spare a foe, you inherit their next hurt unless you bind the mercy into chain-law (oath, witness, and seal).Rite of Pain and Purity (seasonal)
Every season, there are circle dances upon thorn, glass, or wire; senior clergy whip in measured cadence while drums count endurance.Candle Rites
Every twelth month during a month, there is a procession through dark basilicas where flames kiss skin; ends with wine dousing by the high whipmistress/master.The Twelfth Judging
On the twelfth Candle Rite, precinct rule may pass, by Throne, by ordeal, or by plague-math (who saved the most, who made the cleanest kill).Geography
Nighthold’s terrain is cruelly sculpted, more punishment than sanctuary. The Chain-Gardens are bowers of razored links draped with funeral silks, their bone chimes whispering coded patrol routes in the shifting wind. In the Quarantine Basilicas, cathedral-hospices bottle plagues like vintages; glass organs hum with stored contagion while iron beds lie in endless rows. The Lash-Crypts stretch as mirrored processional halls where barbs line the walls, sanctuaries for rites of endurance and sacred torment. Along the Seam of Needles, a street paved with pins and thin coins hosts apothecaries who trade in venoms, antidotes, and whispered cures—for a price none can fully trust. The Glass Hive rises above, a black-crystal tower where shadow-fey archivists pin memories to crystal panes as if they were butterflies, cataloguing lives in frozen fragments. Finally, the Upflow Canals defy gravity, shadow-rivers climbing into the sky to spill into cloud-lagoons; smugglers with weighted skiffs ride their dark currents to ferry contraband between the floating markets of shadow.
The Lightline hums as a pale perimeter of ancient ward-work, hemming in Nighthold’s darkest exhalations. To touch it with a sincere plea for mercy is to find a narrow way out, but to lay a mocking hand upon it is to feel one’s soul scorched by a necrotic sting. At the realm’s heart broods the Traitor’s Throne, a jag-toothed seat of black stone that weighs every intention against its cost. Few who attempt it survive, for most are devoured by their own shadows. Yet those who endure its judgment gain command over a precinct of the realm, their authority lasting only until the turning of the next Twelfth Night.
Notable Locations
Traitor’s Court
A plaza of black silk tents where pardons are auctioned and revenges choreographed.Apothecarion of Black Mercy
A basilica-laboratory, where cures are perfected beside weaponized pox; the line is doctrine, not ethics.Market of Quiet Sighs
Barter in antidotes, anesthetics, and fake smiles; laughter is taxed.The Barbed Chorus
An amphitheater whose seats are hooks; the choir bleeds in harmony to recount verdicts.Travel and Access
Shadow Wells
Mirrors, wells, or even personal shadows can open if baited with fear.Plague Gates
Iron arches engraved with disease trees; pass with the correct antidote or the matching fever.Lightline Doors
Pale thresholds that open on mercy or medical oath; close on gloating.Acheron Chains
Rare chain-bridges drum a war rhythm to Ella’li’s holdings in Acheron; misstep and the links bite deep.Localized Phenomena
Shadowquake
A two-hundred-foot shiver of ground and vista; maps smear, paths re-deal, shadow walk veers.Whisper Plague
Secrets spread like coughs; anyone who knows a truth can infect others with troubled dreams about it. Cure: confession before three mirrors.Scourging Rain
Needled drizzle that raises welt-script, legible pain-runes that foretell the next ambush.Thorn-Glass
Fluted panes that grow from ruin; touch reveals a memory you tried to forget.Seed of Shadow
Failed gates plant a hungry blur beneath the skin; save or shed warmth and color until you adapt… or empty.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal. |
| Time | Erratic-drifting; Long agonies compress into minutes; brief moments of terror can stretch like nights. |
| Shape & Size | A domain of shifting precincts bounded by the Lightline; functionally infinite to the uninvited, precise to those bearing Ella’li’s brands. |
| Morphic Traits | Divinely morphic (Ella’li highly morphic to ritual pain, plague-signs, and oaths. |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant. |
| Alignment | Neutral, Mildly Evil. |
| Magic | Shadow, fear, necromancy, disease/poison, pain/focus, illusions of gloom; medicine that stabilizes to prolong witness; divinations that read trauma are enhanced. While, bright light, fire that warms, healing that erases scars, compulsions that comfort against consented suffering are impeded. Light still travels far, any glow can be seen tenfold its radius across the wastes. |
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