The Legions of Avalas

The Legions of Avalas is a book discovered among the treasure looted by the Legion of the Black Hand.

## Description

The Legions of Avalas is a secondary account of the history of the Outer Plane of Acheron, known also as the Infinite Battlefield. It seems primarily focused on the region of the Plane known as Avalas, occupied by legions of hobgoblins fighting beneath the banners of The Black Hand and The Battle Chief.

## Research

### Completed by Ronan

Acheron is a place of simultaneous exhausting hardships and unyielding glory. Nowhere is this more prevalent than when considering the first layer of the Plane, that of Avalas. While the regions of Thuldanin, Tintibulus and Ocanthus have their own novel properties and so are subsequently of interest to researchers, explorers and other individuals of all manner of origin and creed, it is for Avalas that most think of Acheron. The Iron-Shod Battle Planes of Acheron garner their name from the blocks of the layer, each populated by cone-shaped mountains and tapered pits occupied both by iron fortresses of countless armies. Dark and metallic, the blocks collide without upheavel or tremor, for instead it is the sound of marching troops, battle orders and the clash of blade against armour that echo most truly. All beings slain in a war without purpose are said to find themselves on the Plane with their demise, serving as an eternal hell for most - both for those who serve deities that make Acheron their home it serves as a reward for a life well spent. From Nishrek, Clangor, and the Black Bastion orcish and goblinoid legions alike spill for eternity to sow conflict of equal permanence, and every sunrise that arrives overlooks bloodshed stretching beyond the horizon.

There have been those that have visited Avalas, guided by a wide range of motivations. Some seek long-lost companions, hoping to guide them to an afterlife filled with more peace and respite, others instead seeking powerful artifacts and weapons wielded by the creatures of the Plane. A few - bold, or foolish - instead simply covet the possibility of proving their own personal might and power against an infinite hoard, even if for a short time. Few return from the Planes, fewer still successful in the definition of their desires. Nonetheless, the beings occupying Avalas are said to appear mortal, living and breathing, dying and growing cold, but all are reborn come the morning. In truth, they are undead spirits and by the measure of most trapped in a cursed state by nature of their demise or mortal creed. Departure from Avalas does not change this, natives need not food or water, sleep and rest on the Prime Material Plane, and so many have sought to recruit from the Iron-Shod Battle Planes to bolster their own numbers with an unfaltering force.

It is said that the strength of the being from which the spirit is claimed defines the power of the individual when in Avalas. The largest Legions are predominately hobgoblin and orcish for this reason, owing to the life-long martial nature of their mortal progenitors. A meek serf killed in their Lord's petty war will remain equally defenseless in Avalas and thus easy targets for those fly banners depicting blackened bloodied hands, notched two-headed battleaxes or spears decorated with a bloodshot eyes. Few can deny the strength of the Exarchs of the Greater Deities that occupy the Plane, for they hold the spirit of beings immortal. Legends state that Thabar was created from the first drop of blood spilled by He Who Watches, whereas Thurkaervaeri was brought into existance by the breath that carried the first rallying battlecry of Bane. Both are inherently bound to the lands of Avalas, reconstituting there come sunrise, but can be summoned into alternate Planes of Existance if suitable willing vessels are provided. Lesser creatures are insufficient to hold the lifeforce of these Exarchs and oft are destroyed by their mere proximity to the ritual, but should a more resolute beings offer itself up then the transformation process can wrought a formidable force indeed.