The Descent

Where Gods and Good men go to Die

"There are some who call it a temple dug in forlorn soil, and others who name it the source of all evil. As for me, well I just think it's a hole that's too deep for the sunlight to reach the bottom, and let me tell you, nothing good ever happens where the sunlight does not reach and men think their actions justified by the divine."
~ Taken from the Journal of Keppet Burrow, page 267

When all else fails, go to the Descent and ask impossible questions of dead gods and priests carved from stone. That is, if you believe the stories and are mad enough to act on them.
The Crypt of Gods, more commonly known as 'The Descent', is a hole of enormous proportion and depth, supposedly housing the graves of thereafter named Buried Gods from the time before the rise of Visaginism, the Church of Masks. Though many see the tombs more as a metaphor for the dying of the religion and their followers. Where it was intended to be a a burial ground for the gods and their slain followers, it instead grew into a place where those who had turned their backs on the Church of Masks or those dabbling in the occult gathered in equal number.
Those who make the descent, walking with bare feet down endless stairs, are the people who have lost all hope and when they reach the bottom may shout a question into the dark. Though the cost is a higher price than any man can pay, what is left to do when the world crumbles and your faith hides behind a mask of deadened eyes.

Architecture

Lords of Snow watch over me,
as I make my journey reverently.
Descending into pits of dark,
as hope is lost and feet embark.
A choice to shatter all before,
my soul to give at heavens door.

~A nursery rhyme concerning the pits. Origin Unknown

Looking out over the endless planes of the old lands the snow is broken up by a scar in the land. Few could tell you how the Pit was ever dug, both because of its depth and the climate, but the result leaves little to argue with. Standing on the edge, wary not to fall into endless depths, one would be confronted by only looming darkness, as the sun does not often shine in this part of the world and even then its bleak rays would only serve to cast a shadow of the edge on the opposite wall. So far north we are, the Drifting Glades on the Horizon. Despite its supposedly man-made origin there is little architecture to speak of, and most would describe it as a hole in the ground. Granted, a very large hole, but still a hole. Its edges are of frozen earth, but coming lower, where no light is allowed, the walls transition into cold stone with water of melting snow running along them. Getting lower however also reveals that there are many halls and corridors that lead away from the thin staircase that hugs the wall as it spirals down. These halls are said to be the tombs of gods and men, though none have ever taken down light to look upon the supposed wonders there and lived to tell the tale — despite many conflicting reports claiming otherwise, told in taverns the world over.

History

Most often the task of Gods is to blame them for sadness and loss that you yourself have caused, but few acted on it quite as thuroughly as we did in the days our world was lost.
~Tareman's History of the Modern World, page 564

Following the Desolation of the old world and the rise of Visaginism, better known as 'the Church of Masks', the gods of the old world became a thing spoken of in hushed tones and spiteful comments. The old gods, The Shepherd King at their head, had turned their backs on their followers, so in turn the people of Arthenaw buried them, deep under the ground where none would go to look for them — or so they thought.
In the far reaches of the north, where those of the Everlake ventured and the creaking of the drifting glades invaded ones mind, they decided to dig a hole of unmeasurable proportions, their means by which to do so still unknown to this day. As it neared completion the news of its creation had spread far and wide, but none could have expected the bloodbath it would cause. On one side stood men and women who felt betrayed or who had turned to visaginism with shovel in hand, while on the other stood those who still believed in their gods and would die in stopping the creation of their crypts -- or worse, those who wanted to be buried with them. Whatever the cost might have been, there came a day when men dug to a point of impenetrable darkness and the blue sky was no more than a faint promise above their heads. On that day the corpses of those who had now been branded heretics were thrown into darkness and the gods placed into coffins of cold and rough-cut stone, though few could tell you if there was ever anything in them aside from the promise of a new age.
As years passed the tents of the refugees from the old world were replaced by houses of stone, and tales of the desolation were now told by hearth fire. Hatred of the old gods wavered and now only served its purpose in curses bearing their names. No religion is perfect however, and it wasn't too long until the abandoned and hopeless looked to myths and fairytales for salvation. What had previously been a site shunned by all and nearly forgotten in the northern wastes now became a place of last chances and superstition. The attempts of the Church to silence rumor about the pits in this context quickly became reason for even more to hear about it, and that some returned from there with riches and wishes fulfilled also did not help the Church's attempts to foil a resurgence of the old faith.
At first it was only those seeking to fulfill a single last wish who swarmed to the Descent and climb for days on narrow stairs, but they soon all made way for thieves and mad priests looking to the Descent as a way to gain riches or power. What had once been the old faith was refashioned into a strange occult religion that sprang up around the descent, forbidding light within its stone embrace and asking for sacrifice and gold to enter.
These days few still venture north, talking of thiefs and mad priests sitting in shadow and sacrifice deep beneath the earth. Still, every so often one might meet a wanderer heading north, his eyes dull with loss or insanity. Then you know he is a man who has lost everything and goes to ask an impossible question of dead gods and priests carved from stone.

Alternative Names

The Crypt of Gods, The Old Pit, Hope's End

Type

Crypt