The Catacombs of Asherai/Agoth

The Catacombs of Asherai was created by the former Cadre members and necromancers who had taken Agoth as Realm Lord as well.  The name was changed to the Catacombs of Agoth after the ritual at All Hallows last year. Whilst Otion Wraithchild was declared the Tower Leader, he was a mindless being and never actually set foot within the Tower.  The real Tower Leader was Tiresias, the only surviving member of the original Dymwan Cadre pact into the Agoth experiment.

The Nature of Agoth

Agoth is a gestalt entity created by several high up students in the Dymwan in  order to try and gain as much power together as Cardinaris has gained by himself. Being a thoughtform it is not under the direct control of any of the people who contribute to make it. Each of them has put forth a proportion (if not all) of their consciousness and power into creating a spiritual entity which they have then nurtured. 

Due to a misunderstanding of the PotSD, or maybe manipulation by the “Nameless” of Maeglor (Otion very linked to Maeglor via the Darkwell) “Agoth” was “implanted” into the Void (i.e. the Darkness) rather than a Realm of the Sleepless Dead. The Darkness itself has no sentience as such except for the drive to consume all and return to the prime state of non-existence. Therefore what has come to be termed “the Realm of Agoth” is actually the whole Void, or the Darkness. 

The realm of Agoth touches all other Realms on the PotSD and is the borderland/boundary that you must cross in order to travel from Realm to Realm. There is also another plane that “fell to Darkness” which is Maeglor which is very linked to Otion Wraithchild. If you think of the Realms on the PotSD as islands, varying in size, then the darkness is the sea that separates these islands.  At some places the realm of Agoth is no more than a small river, easily stepped across and at other places it is a large river or lake you have to traverse to reach another Realm.  Most people who travel upon the PotSD normally cross Agoth’s realm without even realising it. However the Realm of Agoth only gains or loses size in relation to the Realms as the Realms are the ones that fluctuate in size. The Void is infinite, but there are bits of it close to planes (and attempting to “consume” planes”) and parts that are akin to deep space.

There are no natural inhabitants or spirits within the Realm of Agoth, just a great empty void of nothingness.  This is why most people do not register crossing this realm; there are no distinctive markings, types, inhabitants etc – just nothing, a large emptiness and flat expanse of grey land with no distinctive features.  The realm of Agoth has often just been referred to as a/the Void.  

At this stage the Agoth experiment had really not been much of a success for the Cadre, instead of becoming a Realm Lord and gaining an unlimited army of Undead and being able to swear new Necromancers, the sentience had become lord of a barren realm. 

However, when people or spirits cross this realm small pieces of them are siphoned of by this emptiness as the Darkness attempts to render them into non-existence.  This normally takes the form of a drain of the individuals’ power, spirit or essence.  This drain cannot be prevented and goes through any form of protection and cannot be regained whilst on the realm of Agoth.  Once the individual leaves the realm of Agoth they can rest and recover any lost power, essence etc by normal means, so this is not normally a problem.  This also explains why not everyone notices this, because most people are on the realm of Agoth for less than 30 minutes.  However, if you were to stay upon the realm of Agoth this loss of power and essence would continue until there was none left.  At this stage the individual would lose all sense of self with their spirit “consumed” by the darkness and their physical form would be broken down by the darkness over time. This is where Agoth comes in, the sentience that is Agoth has latched onto this process and because there are no inhabitants on its “realm”, intervened at the last stage and used these husks to create its first Undead – luring spirits from the Realms into them, as there are always some lost sprits crossing the realm as well. 

Gill, the necromancy expert of the Cadre, started trying to turn the realm of Agoth into a place that would fit what they created it for in the first place - being a Realm Lord and with the help of Tiresias the enchanter, they created a Soul Garden upon the Realm in order to trap wandering spirits acting as a beacon and drawing spirits from other realms to them.  As a spirit entered the Soul Garden it became trapped within a small vessel (jar/potion) and increased the power of the Soul Garden. As the power of the garden grew, it allowed Agoth to grow more powerful, exerting more and more awareness and influence across the realm.  In turn it created more and more Soul Gardens. This then allowed the Necromancers to start using Agoth as a Realm Lord also, having sworn to their own creation they sought to avoid the fate of Necromancers to become servants of the Realm Lord upon their death and made a Pact that this would not be the case. Upon the death of Assys Sorbonne and Miphon Hurst the others allowed their spirits to move on although what had already been tied up into Agoth remains until all are dead.

So the power of Agoth grew.  The next step was for Agoth to create minions using the powers contained within the Soul Garden (the majority of Agoth Undead have the prefix of Soul).  The first minions it created were Soul Harvesters (sometimes called Void Harvesters); these it used exclusively to travel his own realm and collect any lost spirits, harvesting their souls and taking them to the nearest Soul Garden.  This greatly speeded up the growth of Agoth’s power, quickly emptying its realm of any wandering spirits i.e. those that had strayed into the darkness and had not been able to leave.  The Soul Harvesters are now much more aggressive and are no longer content to just collect lost spirits; they use their powers in an attempt to turn still living, sentient travellers upon the realm of Agoth into Void Husks and collect spirits from the edges of the Realms of the Sleepless Dead. Putting the spirits from the Soul Garden into Void Husks created Agothian Undead. It is much more dangerous to traverse the realm of Agoth now.  It was at this stage that other Realm Lords, Necromancers and travellers upon the PotSD became aware of Agoth’s realm (although not Agoth).

After some time necromancers from other planes also became aware of Agoth and some attempted to forge pacts with it. The first of these was named Vere Mezakorah and was the first to make a pact with Agoth. Vere travelled his home plane and gathered together Necromancers of note, offering them promises of great power and glory.  These Necromancers in turn convinced simpler and desperate men to join their cause – thus the Minions of Agoth were created.  When a living individual (not a necromancer) opens their soul to Agoth, a small ritual is performed that allows Agoth to totally dominate the host.  They then blindly follow Agoth’s instructions, normally through the commands of an Undead (Soul Reaver, Stealer etc).  Agoth and his Undead happily throw these Minions into battle extinguishing their lives; as they die, their souls go to the Realm of Agoth, drawn into a Soul Garden, thereby increasing the power of Agoth.  The Minions of Agoth are normally plentiful, but not very skilled (low hits and damage), although because of the link with Agoth they can normally release some Evil Invocations through their weapons.  The Agothian Undead on the other hand are normally quite powerful and difficult to kill.

Agoth attempted to encroach upon other realms on the PotSD and steal the spirits resident there; however, the nature of the PotSD meant that this was particularly troublesome and not very fruitful.  Like the sea it proved difficult for Agoth or its minions to venture far from the borders, to encroach upon other realms.  At best it could capture a few spirits who strayed to the ends of their realms, but as time passed the other realms and their Realm Lords grew wise to this and became proficient in halting the encroachment of Agoth onto their realms.  A stalemate ensued where Agoth would constantly lap at the other Realms but make no real headway.  However, Agoth always stands ready and if a realm becomes weak, or its Realm Lord is slain, Agoth is quick to take advantage and rush forward to consume the realm.

Therefore Agoth sought to expand the realm in the same way that the PotSD sometimes expands by merging with other planes. Agoth then promised Vere great power in return for merging a part of his plane with the Realm. Note that this fits the “desires” of the Darkness to return all to non-existence and by now Agoth is become the expression of sentience for the Darkness always seeking to “consume” more and more.

Gill & Otion Wraithchild travelled to Kulthea (Vere’s home plane) to aid in the ritual that Vere was to perform to merge a part of Kulthea with the Realm of Agoth. However the chaos and destruction caused by Vere and the minions of Agoth had not gone unopposed and a race of elves called the Reyhan attacked the ritual. They broke the protective circle as the ceremony came to its conclusion and the realm of Agoth entered Kulthea and began stripping the power/sprits etc from all those present. Wraithchild shadowshifted away but Gill and Vere were both caught in the attack of the darkness at the same time the Reyhan struck Vere down and his spirit became the first to serve Agoth as a slain necromancer high priest. When the Reyhan realised what was happening with “the sundering” which was like a much more concentrated version of what happens if you stray onto Agoth’s realm they attempted to leave and performed a teleport or similar however this coincided with the ripping of spirits from bodies and the spell misfired sending spirits & bodies to random places, sometimes not even in their original form. Gill was stripped from his body and instead of being consumed was fully incorporated into Agoth. Once All Hallows had passed Vere, Necromancers and Minions of Agoth had gone and left behind a large barren area devoid of all life.

Since that time. The necromancers calling upon Agoth have grown in number and the number of high priests that have been slain and become Vere (named in honour of the first Vere) has also grown.

This is now the modus operandi of Agoth.  It will send forth a Vere to establish a foothold and recruit more followers to the cause.  In particular the Vere will select one of the natural (most powerful) inhabitants of the plane to be consumed.  This selected individual will be chosen to become a Vere, through a serious of rituals and ultimately by being slain in the correct manner, in order to be elevated to the status of Vere.  Once this new Vere is created they will be able to complete the necessary rituals to draw through the realm of Agoth onto their plane at the next appropriate All Hallows.  It is worth pointing out that Agoth does not consume or take the Plane, but only takes the souls of any living encountered by his Soul Harvesters.  Also, the whole plane is not consumed, just part of it.  When All Hallows has passed, the plane is still there, just much diminished in life.  Each time Agoth does this his power grows. (although the Darkness may break down the existence of a part of the plane also).

As Agoth grows it has increased the number of its Undead and more powerful followers.  In particular it chooses one powerful individual from each plane to act as the “Avatar of Darkness” or “Vere”, and imbues them with some of its power. This Avatar of Darkness has become essential in the Sundering and responsible for bringing the Darkness along with Agoth’s awareness onto the planes Agoth wishes to consume.

On Orin Rakatha Otion Wraithchild and Tiresias continued to work their plans although the Agoth “project” has become more and more important to them over time. Tiresias originally being from the Labyrinth of Xenos knows that there is “the void” at the centre of the Ikarthian Triangle and has spent much time investigating how this was created. The LoX use the Void to transport things off-plane by travelling through it (although this has become much harder for them since Agoth has created its Realm.) Tiresias has studied how the Triangle was created and thinks that it could possibly be repeated/strengthened during a Sundering.

Wraithchild was working toward further strengthening the Realm of Agoth and was using the power of Maeglor and its link with Orin Rakatha to lengthen the time the plane of Maeglor eclipses Orin so that the Plane of Shadows conjunction lasts longer, thus weakening the Light. This had an unforeseen side effect of making All Hallows eve (the period of time the PotSD conjunction) last longer also with the two conjunctions eventually meeting at All Hallows last year. 

Wraithchild was working to use the Darkwell & the Void as a basis for summoning an Agothian Sundering onto Orin Rakatha but to make it a permanent sundering so that Agoth could scour the plane clean – although people would be able to hide away in their towers they would still have to venture out eventually. At this stage Wraithchild was mostly living on Maeglor and had joined with the “Nameless”. 

Tiresias is now the last of the students who created Agoth left alive and compis mentis and is running the Catacombs of Agoth.