The Sunless Depths
The Sunless Depths is a gloom-cloaked plane, a place of dim, stagnant waters, mist-shrouded ruins, and drifting echoes of lost souls. It is neither fully of the living world nor the realms of the dead—a twilight limbo, where the passage of time is uncertain and the very air hums with the memories of those long forgotten.
It is said that when enough Bogstones—arcane-infused remnants of decay—are placed in water, the surface does not reflect but instead yawns open, revealing a portal into this plane. Many who enter never return, their spirits becoming whispers in the mist, lost to the endless murk.
Geography
The Sunless Depths is a vast expanse of blackened swamps, sluggish rivers, and drowned ruins, cast in eternal twilight. The sky is a murky, clouded void, with no sun, stars, or moon—only a dim, silver haze that casts eerie, shifting shadows.
- The Drowned Wastes: A landscape of half-sunken structures, where the remnants of ancient civilizations lie beneath still, glassy water. These ruins hum with residual power, yet none remember who built them or why.
- The Veilmarsh: A labyrinth of fog and shadow, where unseen figures move at the edges of perception. The deeper one wanders, the more their memories slip away, claimed by the mists.
- The Hollow Reaches: An expanse of ashen bogs, where whispering shades take shape in the water’s surface, reflecting figures that do not match those who stand before them.
- The Abyssal Mirror: A still, fathomless lake at the center of the plane, said to be a gateway into even deeper realms of oblivion. It is rumored that gazing into its waters reveals not just the past, but the fate of one’s soul.
Ecosystem
The Sunless Depths is not entirely lifeless—it is inhabited by strange spirits, forgotten echoes, and creatures that drift between existence and non-existence.
- The Echo-Wraiths: Pale, shifting specters that feed on memories, latching onto travelers and draining their sense of self until nothing remains.
- Drowned Keepers: Hooded figures that watch over the ruins, their faces hidden beneath veils of water. They guard secrets no one remembers, attacking those who pry too deeply.
- Veilborn: Entities composed of fog and shifting darkness, whispering riddles and half-truths, leading the lost ever deeper.
- The Sleeper in the Depths: A being of unfathomable age and hunger, said to slumber beneath the Abyssal Mirror. Some claim it is the remnants of a forgotten god, others say it is what remains of all who are truly lost.
History
- The Price of Entry: It is said that one must offer a memory to enter. Some return with knowledge, but at the cost of something dear—a face they once loved, a childhood home, a name they will never recall.
- The Unspoken Bargain: Those who hear the whispers of the Sleeper in the Depths may gain power, but they will also begin to forget themselves, piece by piece.
- The Sunless Prophets: A cult that believes the Depths is the true afterlife, and all other realms are but illusions. They seek to return all souls to the Abyssal Mirror, where existence itself dissolves.
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