Lethe - River of the Underworld

The River of Forgetfulness. It is is the ghost of all the rivers of the world, overlaid with the flowing scenes of days and events. Flickering from moment to moment it is flooding, swollen with rain flow or suddenly nearly dry. Vaporous echoes of boats and barges ply the waters, along with ghostly traders, ferrymen and pirates. Likewise the ruins of broken ships scatter the river's path. Skeletal Hungry Ghosts may climb from the water in swarms in mindless attack.

A life spent on the water. Now the afterlife as well. The sea was cold. This river is cold as death. Strange how everything ripples and flickers- like you are closing and opening your eyes over and over really fast. The winds cut, and the rains, if you can call them that...blood, water, bones and stones. The only times there is smell. Even the swamps of the drowned lands barely stink. No salty breezes. No smell of the water right below you. Nor from the skeletons and ghosts that can be seen below. They taught me right quick that there was no fish! Old bones crawling up the line! Here even the fires are cold. The only warm drink is if someone remembers you up above and makes an offering cup. Still the water has always been calling me. Though now it whispers about sleep, let go and drift away.

Ghost sailor on the River.

Geography

It forms from the Barren Shores dripping down the walls to flow from the Mountains in roaring rapids and falls, spiraling across the Underworld  and passing through or over all the domains. The Ruin - the jumbled mass of the ghosts of all cities with ports along the necropoli. The Settle - the image of all the farms and pastures where the only crops are what are given as offerings or lost to disaster in the mortal world. The Ghostwood, which is the ghost of all the forests, impressions in the ectoplasm of the underworld reflecting the images of wilds and haunted by the ancient giant trees. The drowned lands which are all the swamps and marshes and every flooded place. The waste, and haunted plain. It crosses the Dark Sea as a unique current cutting across the turbulent waters. The river ends in a circular lake at the outer base of the Mount of Oblivion, in a channel worn by the eternal circling, writhing and engulfing Wyrm, Apophis.

Ecosystem

The river teams with traces - the simple ghostly reflections of fishes, crocodiles, beaver, otters and other creatures, bussing flying insects and plants. None may actually be caught or interacted with, as traces are semitransparent memories of yesterdays passed from the mortal world and swirling toward Apophis. Like pictures / impressions in the ectoplasm. Not material enough to interact with. Faint outlines of trees on the banks and in the channel may be seen, along with the navigation hazards- bars, rocks, and deadhead submerged logs. And beneath the waters are the ghosts of the drowned and the mindless, immersed in the waters with their minds swept clean and recalling nothing of lives or times as ghosts. These are carried by the current to eventually be consumed by Apophis and cycled into rebirth. The air on the river is icy cold and the water colder still. The splash and bow wake split a fraction of the sound of mortal waters. Still as death and nearly silent.

The river passes each region of the Underworld in several points, providing a mode of travel and transport of Ghostwood, ores, captives, memoria and artifacts. It is also home to roving pirate bands, and heirarchy patrols. Most Ghenid know nothing of boats or sailing so they have a very small presence on the river. Shadows, wraiths and spectres haunt the river shores and empty lagoons. There are tales of other ancient ghosts, banes and unknown things that roam the wastes and empty places.

The water is icy freezing cold. Numbing to the touch.  Drinking the water causes a short time of fugue and loss of memory for a a minute or two.  Immersion of ectoplasmic entities results in torpor, and gradually washing away layers of ectoplasm and memory.  The dead who fall into, or are cast into the river eventually are reduced to animate skeletal remains responding to stimulus and basic drives. If left undisturbed, the river carries them to Apophis, which is the gateway to the Bardo.

Localized Phenomena

The river, like other locations may be ripped by violent storms howling with the torment of a thousand voices, or perhaps of lost dead gods. Lightnings amplify the usual strobing, and rippling airs and vision of the Underworld as each passed moment ticks by impacting against the one before in ever increasing deposits of dead and passed seconds, minutes and hours. Or all vision is lost in black lightless cloud or grey fog that ranges from merely obscuring to smothering and blinding.

One may hear the calls of sailors capturing the cold breeze as they shift sails and rigging, watch for threats or hazards or sound the river to check the depth. Or the accursed drums or chants of galleys propelled by ghost oarsmen shackled with soulsteel in place and whipped if they are not working hard enough for their masters. Either could be indicating traders or pirates, or either depending on your strength and position.

Just as unsettling is the faint crackle and groan of phantom iceburgs that dot the river in places. These are trace iceburgs- vaporous phantasms of the memory of ice flows that carry no true threat or hazard but seem to still possess tortured voices.

Location under

Underworld