Acheron

River of Woe, the mighty Acheron is one of five rivers, which flow into the Olympian Underworld. At its apex within the Greece of Midgard, it is a meandering green and fertile river. The further one goes along it, the harsher the environs. The less grows, until the banks of the Acheron are dried mud and stone, the only life scavengers which drift off soon after for lack of food.

An unforgiving and listless place, Acheron's banks carry the sound of moaning dead, or the ragged conversations of those, who have not yet decided they belong to the afterlife.

Geography

It is a desolate place, dreary and unforgiving.The banks of the river are wild with dead foliage, roots of ancient plants withered and tangled. The river itself burbles along as if struck, even the sound of the water is gloomy. For the majority of the day, the sun does not touch the banks of Acheron, it remains clouded over and grey. In the evening, the stars are blocked. Endless grey skies, the burble of woeful water, it's worse than Vancouver after 65 days of no blue in the sky. What the banks of the river Acheron do have are copious outcroppings of rocks. Rocks and mud and the cracked earth of a place which once was beautiful.

Ecosystem

Close to the Underworld, Acheron is populated only by the shades of those who passed and not yet crossed over the river in Charon's boat.
Or those as Icarus Areides & Leander discovered, who could not pay the ferryman's wage.

Localized Phenomena

The listless dead and recently dead crowd the Acheron, either waiting for their turns to reach the other side of the Stygian rivers and enter the Hellene afterlife, or wandering until some worse fate befalls. Worst of all, is the service of Melinöe, Goddess of Madness & Nightmares, who prowls the banks of the river for shades who have yet to cross over. These are her prizes, souls who could be twisted and bent into nightmares and proponents of insanity in those they eventually haunt.

Climate

Damp and cold enough to be uncomfortable.

Fauna & Flora

The deceased. The dead. The Shades of What Once Was. The Recently Whoopsed. The Unalived. Charon.

Natural Resources

Groaning and rocks.

History

While some historians bicker endlessly about whether Charon pilots his craft across the river Acheron or the river Styx, they can all shut their mouths and make a cup of tea. The River Acheron feeds into the River Styx.

There.

What little history remains is this: Once someone of the Hellene faith is dead, Hermes acts as their Psychopomp to bring them to the banks of the river, where they are deposited with the knowledge they're dead and they'd better damn well have their coins or they're going to be very bored on the wrong side of the river without even the hope of reincarnation sometime when their shade wins the Pomegranate Lottery.