Erebus

The third layer of Hades, **Erebus** is a dark realm of despair and shadows nominally ruled over by Ker, the Harbinger of Death.

## Inhabitants

Hades is the native home of all four breeds of Nightmare, and Erebus is home to the fierce Dethmares. Erebus is also home to the Tartarians, although most of these Titans can only be found imprisoned within the pit for which they are named.

The undead, particularly Shadows and Wraiths, are extremely common in Erebus and outnumber its Daemonic population by a considerable margin.

Whenever a mortal fully succumbs to the spiritual poison of Hades, their soul is shorn from their bodies to manifest in Erebus as a Shade. Torn as they are from the bodies of the living, Shades are not undead, but rather petitioners.

## Description

The third and final layer of Hades, Erebus is a dark realm of gloom and shadows. The Forever War, even, seldom intrudes upon the gloom and despair of this place. Ker, the Harbinger of Death, claims dominion over all of Erebus, although as with the other Daemonic Harbingers, her authority is tenuous at best.

Erebus takes the form of an enormous cavern, although ever-dying poplars, willows, and olive trees are scattered across this stony and barren landscape. By and large Erebus is simply dark, empty, and slightly chilly. Unlike the rest of Hades, Erebus has no natural illumination; the whole realm is pitch black. The darkness of Erebus is so great that it impedes even darkvision, halving the darkvision range of all creatures attempting to see within it. Natural sources of light simply fail to emit light in Erebus, while magical light sources manage, but only with considerable difficulty.

In Erebus, the grayness of Hades is all-consuming. There is no color here, only dreary shades of gray. Sounds are muted and sensations are dulled, imposing a -8 penalty on all Spot and Listen checks. Hope is a distant memory in Erebus, and even Fiends find the place generally unpleasant and best avoided. Erebus is to Hades what Hades is to the rest of multiverse; the nadir of despair where all color, sound, life, and hope are subsumed, replaced only with an endless insulting gray. The darkness of Erebus is a darkness of the mind and soul.

### **Mors**

**Mors**, the gloomfire-lit realm of Orcus, the Demon Lord of Undeath, can be found in Erebus. Befitting Orcus, Mors is populated primarily by neither Demons nor Daemons, and instead by throngs and hordes of the undead.

### **Mt. Erebus**

The volcanic **Mt. Erebus** provides access to Niflheim through its central crater. The Erebus version of the mountain is an active volcano streaming with lava, although the lava, like everything else in Erebus, appears gray and devoid of color - but with its heat very much intact.

### **Nekromanteion**

Standing where the Acheron, Cocytus and Phlegethon meet, **Nekromanteion** is an oracular temple.

### **The Pit of Tartarus**

Erebus is such a dreary and unpleasant place that it is difficult to imagine a worse place existing, and yet that is precisely what the **Pit of Tartarus** is. An enormous pit of perhaps infinite depth, the Pit of Tartarus is a place of torment and imprisonment for those souls so wretched that neither the Abyss nor Gehenna will deal with them. Other powerful and monstrous creatures are also imprisoned within the pit, a lightless void darker than dark.

### **River Acheron**

**The River Acheron** flows through Erebus, taking the form of a slow-moving current of foul and swampy water.

### **River Cocytus**

**The River Cocytus** flows through Erebus, taking the form of a metaphysical stream of wailing faces, their anguished laments audible even against the muffling effect of Hades.

### **River Lethe**

**The River Lethe** flows through Erebus, appearing as a normal, if dark and unpleasant, river of water.

### **River Phlegethon**

**The River Phlegethon** flows through Erebus, taking the form of a river of boiling blood.

### **River Styx**

**The River Styx** flows through Erebus, taking the form of a river of murky black water.

### **Thanatos**

Situated between the Acheron and the Styx is **Thanatos, the City of the Dead**. Populated true to name, almost entirely by the undead, Thanatos is the seat of Ker, the Harbinger of Death, the nominal lord of Erebus.

## Magic

### **The Gloom**

Every 24 hours a mortal creature spends in Erebus they must succeed on a Will save (DC = 30 + the number of consecutive days spent in Hades) or suffer a point of Charisma damage as Hades saps them of their emotions, memories, and even their very identity. Creatures which fail this save are also left Melancholic for 24 hours.

Creatures reduced to 0 Charisma by this effect are not slain, but instead are spiritually sundered; their souls shorn from their bodies. The souls of these unfortunate mortals are doomed to forever wander the gloom of Erebus as joyless Shades, while their soulless bodies are rendered emotionless Outines. Only Wish, Miracle, and similarly powerful effects can reunite the soul with the body of creatures so condemned.

All mortal creatures attempting to leave Hades must succeed on the same Will save or be unable to leave by their own volition for 24 hours, during which time they also have no desire to leave; or to do much of anything.

### **Spellcasting**

In Erebus, all spells which fall under the Death domain are cast as though Heightened by +2 levels.