Abystyx

Abystyx

Meta Info

Scope

Abystyx

Author

sword-of-stabbing

Demographics and Culture

Languages

Cadmean
Standard Stygian

Intelligent Species

Kobolds
Humans (Abystyx)
Dragonkin

Ethnic Groups

Cadmeans

Nations

Cadmea

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Deeper than all else, there is the Void

This content is a part of Abystyx.

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Abystyx is a world comprised of an atmosphere, a dome of air, mounted on a lithosphere, a mass of rock. Water pervades the middle layers of the world. The very top of the lithosphere is the Surface, full of continents, seas, islands, and oceans. The rest of the world above is the sky, and the world below is the Abyss. Magma pervades the middle layers of the Abyss, although it reaches to the rest of the world in some amounts. There is nothing outside of the rough capsule of reality, save for a firmament of stars.

Cosmology

Stars

Surrounding Abystyx, a shell around the capsule of the realm, is a firmament of stars. These stars all swirl around the world, making a full cycle every year. One star, the Polestar, positions itself directly over the center of the world every year. This is commonly used as the frame of reference for calendars.

The stars are said to have strange properties, abilities to tell things once and future, but those secrets are all but lost to dead eras. Astrologers spend their lives trying to regain a fraction of what was once known about the stars.

Sky

The heavens of Abystyx are filled with air. In the Sky, clouds coalesce from the sky water, called Hadad. This creates rain when they fall, and thunder when they are impassioned and energized. The highest mountains reach far into the heavens, near the roof of the world. These places are frigid, yet some live there anyway.

In the sky there are four moons, which sit equidistant from one another and orbit above the Surface. The first is the yellow moon, the Moon of Day, which provides Light and Heat to the world. Next is the white moon, the Moon of Tears, which controls the Waters of the world and inspires a Void of loneliness. Afterwards is the blue Moon of Frost, bringing Cold with the structure of Earth. Finally is the black Moon of Souls, which gives off only Darkness but fills the Air with the thoughts of all people.

Surface

The earth exposed to the sky is known as the Surface. The Surface is the most illuminated of all parts of the world, as it is exposed to the Moon of Day but is large, unlike the sparse peaks of the Sky, enough to catch significant amounts of light. The Surface is mostly ocean, which is called Tiemet, but not by a large proportion. The lands of the surface are split into continents as well as dots of islands. These continents contain deserts, forests, plains, hills, mountains, tundras, and many other biomes. Rivers and lakes flow across them, the groundwater being called Abzu. The Surface's time is governed by the Moons of the sky, as the level of light affects the waking times of diurnal, nocturnal, and crepuscular creatures.

Abyss

The Abyss is all that lies below the surface. Past a certain depth, a gloom sets in as the Sky can no longer reach down. An underworld of caverns, crevasses, karsts, and even entire underground cliffs, canyons, ravines, and mountains. The inhabitants of the Abyss are well-adapted to its environment. Most life in the Abyss resides in the upper levels, where there is more heat from the Moon of Day brought down by Abzu, but life still exists in the middle levels and somewhat in the lower levels due to heat and light from magma.

As the Abyss gets deeper, it becomes darker, colder, and more lonely. Large sectors of the Abyss, seeming like entire underworlds, are known as Nethers, while smaller tunnels and channels are simply referred to as caverns. The depth of the Abyss also corresponds to the amount of Nethers compared to caverns.

Stygia

The upper levels of the Abyss are known as Stygia for Styx, the underground water. These parts are the most lively and verdant. Stygia is made up of many caverns, with some Nethers. Most of the Folk inhabiting the Abyss live in Stygia. In Stygia, underground rivers and lakes are plentiful. Lakes and streams of magma are present as well.

Stygia is the most filled with underground roads, tunnels, bridges, crypts, dungeons, and other manmade structures. This is because firstly, it is the most populated, and secondly, it is the most eroded, so the construction and furnishing of rooms to resist such corrosion is necessary. These structures are not only used by the Stygians who live in the Abyss, but are often used by the very rich Surfacefolk who hold the Abyss in a spiritual or mythical regard. Stygian villages exist just outside the graveyards of ancient kings of the Surface.

Chthon

Chthon refers to the middle layers of the Abyss, characterized by having more Nethers than Stygia, except for its own middle, also called Cthon, being the very middle of the Abyss, which is completely devoid of Nethers, only having tunnels and caverns, serving as a sort of division between the upper and lower Abyss.

Chton is a gradient between the layers above and below it, but is notable for the presence of preserved ruins from times long past, being close enough to Stygia to have been inhabited long ago but too far to be so in the present. Many of these ruins are slighter modifications to the already-present terrain, as the deeper parts of the Abyss have steadier and squarer rock. In addition, Cthon has the least magma out of any part of the Abyss, yet is not the coldest part, remaining ever so slightly chilly on average.

Hell

In the deepest layers of the world, far below there where mortal Folk willingly dwell, a place so dark, isolating, and forbidding exists that it is rumored to be either the final or most vile abode of the dead. It is Hell. Hell is vaster and more open than any other part of the Abyss, being almost entirely made of vast, interconnected Nethers. It may be more accurate to refer to Hell as one large Nether, one massive hollow in the depths of the world. It is said that Hell resembles the Surface during the darkest nights, when the Moon of Souls pulsates with the dreams of all Folk.

No person should be able to live, or even survive for long, in the depths of Hell; and yet, many buildings, ancient ruins and monuments or otherwise, are spread throughout Hell. These buildings are clustered around the various reservoirs and rivers of magma in Hell, or at least are assumed to be, as in the darkest and coldest parts of Hell, buildings unreachable may yet lie. These spots of magma are the only refuge from the frigid air of Hell, but still they seem searing hot. The main constant of Hell's environment is its hostility, no doubt.