The Abyss

The Abyss

## Description

The Abyss has not one description. As every single layer is completely unique from one another, in addition to the fact that there is a limitless amount of them. Some examples of what the layers of the Abyss include, but are not limited to:

* Ash Desserts - Desserts of complete Ash, normally above or below planes that have extreme amounts of heat or fire, sometimes with wind, sometimes without it.
* Battlegrounds - Places of infinite war, typically with Demons against Devils, but sometimes with spirits or illusions.
* Caves - Cavescapes, large scrawling caverns or giant cave systems, sometimes with winds and plant life, sometimes without.
* Citadels - Giant one room planet sized buildings, sometimes with exteriors or outer walls. Some are infinite.
* Cityscapes - Giant cities that span across the entire realm, usually known as hub worlds, as sometimes mortals live here.
* Fire Seas - Giant oceans made completely out of fire or some other hot substance.
* Fleshlands - Giant living worlds, sometimes they can breath and talk, sometimes they scream.
* Floating Islands or "Chain Worlds" - Giant masses of land or other forms of matter that exist floating in the sky, seemingly with their own gravity. These islands are sometimes held by giant chains, that go down an infinite amount of miles downwards.
* Hellscapes - Large expanses of volcanos and basalt, where magma never cools and fiends that like fire exist.
* Ice Sheets - Giant lands of pure ice, sometimes with cold water below them.
* Infinite Jungles - Jungles that span across the entire layer, housing anything from normal plant and animal life to dinosaurs and mega flora.
* Infinite Swamps - Swamps or Marshlands that exist throughout the layer, with water of acid or mud. Sometimes Black dragons make their homes here.
* Material Realm Mimics - Places that attempt to look or feel like the material plane, with some differences, such as man eating flowers or cats that can fly.
* Mazelands - Giant mazes, with a beginning and an end. These typically house artifacts or imprison creatures.
* Mountainscapes - Giant mountain ranges that span infinitely tall, home to many creatures that aren't demons, and sometimes housing cliff cities.
* Mountains - One giant mountain that has no tip or bottom, a land that is always slanted or at an angle.
* Mushroom Forests - Forests made completely on fungi, typically controlled by demon lords of the same type. Some of these realms also contain humanoids or fauna that is controlled by or made of fungi.
* Oceans of Insects - Hoards upon hoards of beetles, worms, flies, maggots, or any other kind of insect or arachnid you can think of. These are also called "Decay Pits", and lots of bodies appear here only to disappear in a matter of seconds.
* Old Prisons - Realms made to specifically hold one creature or many creatures of the same type. Most of these have been broken out of, but some still hold ancient horrors that are unknown.
* One Material Realms - Realms that are solid chunks of one material, such as seas of iron or gold. Sometimes flesh or bodily fluids are also found here.
* Pools of Acid - Entire oceans of skin melting acid, very few creatures live here.
* Rainlands - Lands that are always raining something, be it blood, water, acid, smoke, ash, or sometimes bodies.
* Sand Desserts - Traditional desserts of sand, sometimes glass.
* Seas of Blood - Oceans of blood, not always from mortals.
* Skies - Infinite skies and open air, with no land in sight.
* Upper Plane Mockeries - Places that mock the upper planes, such as mountains with statues of angels being eaten alive to mock Mt.Celesia.
* Watery Depths - Oceans that seemingly go down for an unlimited amount. The Deepest creatures lurk here, and are typically predators.

## History

The Abyss is well known for it's lack of a limit. Previously used by the gods as a well to keep prisoners of divine levels, titans and other god-threatening beings used to live here, co-existing with a creature that was named in legends as "Dagon", who was kept in a brick of ice that never ended or melted. One day, however, a dragon god known as Reout came out of his prison, near The Abyss; and according to legend due to their burning soul, the ice had a single crack. This crack began to flood the abyss, and Dagon's consciousness was able to escape. This flooding of the abyss caused many of the titans and god-threatening souls to gain powers from the divine ice, turning them into beings of great destruction and power, now known as the children of Dagon. These creatures endlessly fought, but none where able to die due to their immortality. To stop them all from endlessly fighting, Dagon gave them each an amount of children equal to their power, with the less powerful getting more children. These children are known as the Demon Lords of the Abyss, and in prophesy it is stated that one day if all but one child of Dagon looses their children, then Dagon will bless the last one with the ability to kill their kin. This created the constant infighting on the Abyss, as the children of Dagon's children started to have children to save themselves, and those ones also had children, and so on so fourth.

## Cosmology

The Abyss is located next to Carceri and Pandemonium, being a mix of the two realms. The River Styx connects this realm by the very first layer, to Carceri's entrance and to Pandemonium's first cave. The Abyss is also connected to the Astral Plane, the Outlands, and The Elemental Chaos. All planes of existence being connected through astral soup, which allows the travel through portals and the River Styx.

## Afterlife

Only mortals who are specifically placed here by divine or demonic means make their way into the Abyss in their afterlife. To achieve this eternal hell, mortals have to anger a god or other divine power in a consistent and infuriating way (EX: Destroying entire churches of peaceful people to good gods, Purposefully destroying families after they help you, etc.), Mortals that are put here are formed as lemurs, creatures that have simple minds that are only able to feel pain, which they normally feel eternally. Souls that are accursed to live down in the Abyss can never leave, and if they are destroyed just reform at the first layer as a Lemur.

## Inhabitants

Demons make their home in The Abyss, in addition to some old beings in the lowest of layers. Demons are seen as inferior to The Old Ones, and are commonly given commands or other kinds of demands with expectation of fulfillment. Many Demons dislike The Old Ones because of their god-complexes, but some will serve The Old Ones in an attempt for a gain of power, protection from a stronger being, or in a scheme to assassinate them and become a demon lord themselves.

Demons and Old Ones are not too different from each other, however, as all demons came from the eldest of The Old Ones, Dagon. This is known by many of them, but isn't expressed as a form of kinship or compassion.

In addition to Demons and Old Ones, mortal caravans sometimes pass through the cityscapes or Homeworld, for trade of items that can only be found in the Abyss. Homeworld is a great example of mortal life being in The Abyss, where Demons and Mortals have to co-exist to keep the low level plane a peaceful place. In addition to the Demon Lord there being extremely pacifist, to the point where any violence is treated with heavy punishment.

## Realms

(WIP)

* Layer 1: Plane of Infinite Portals
* Layer 5: Homeworld
* Layer 6: Realm of a Million Eyes - home to The Great Mother (Beholder 'goddess')
* Layer 23: The Iron Wastes- home to those who serve Kostchtchie
* Layers 45, 46 & 47: - Azzagrat, the triple realm of Graz'zt
* Layer 66: Demonweb Pits, home to Lolth, the Spider Queen
* Layer 74: Smargard - home of Meershaulk, the Yuan-Yi deity & Ramenons.
* Layer 88: Abysm or "The Gaping Maw" - Home of Demogorgon and it's Brine Flats
* Layer 113: Thanatos - used to be Orcus' realm before he was evicted
* Layer 150: Dagon - The Realm of Dagon, and his infinite ocean
* Layer 176: The House of Deception - Home to Fraz-Urb'luu, the Prince of Deception
* Layer 222: Shedaklah or "The Slime Pits" - home to both Jubilex and Zuggtmoy who now share a realm, that's a bit of a come-down for them.
* Layer 333: Orcus - The Realm of Orcus and his realm
* Layer 348: Fortress of Indifference - outcasts and half-demons avoiding the Blood War
* Layer 489: Noisome Vale - ruled by a (missing) balor.
* Layer 570: Malcanthet - ruled by the Queen of Succubi, also known as "The House of Pleasure"
* Layer 600: Baphomet "The Endless Maze" - the endless maze that Baphomet roams
* The Blood Sea - Connects every ocean in the abyss