Matsu Xiangu
The Haruspex
Name: Behelian Canyon
Image Source: The beautiful artwork of Zdzisław Beksiński.
Classification: Canyon, plains at the bottom.
Location: Hell/Chaos
Size: Massive
Population: Unknown
Demographics: The damned
History: N/A
Description: Behelian was so-named for the nature of the damned that inhabit it – hidden, unseen, but undoubtedly watching as one descends in to the silent dark of the canyon.
Deep in the pits of Chaos, those wandering might find a yawning chasm leading even farther down in the Netherworld. The path to its depths is eerily silent, flanked on either side by walls thousands of meters high, carved with ancient effigies – those particularly worthy of damnation, skulls covered by hoods and staring at travelers below. The footing is sturdy but requires care, so flat and smooth it lends itself to slipping.
Once at the bottom the canyon reveals its secrets: a wide, seemingly endless plain rolling outwards to a horizon that logic dictates shouldn’t be there. Whether a psychological effect or a trick of the realm the plain tends to confuse and disorient, swallowing the unwary and convincing them to lie down and add their bones to the piles that seem to be the foundation of everything in sight. Skeletons of every species known to the galaxy – some ivory and new, but most ancient, marred by dirt and time – look up from the Earth at those passing by. Even the sparse trees that dot the landscape seem made of twisted skeletons, deformed and curled in twisted branches. Hillocks of wooden boxes hide bones tied and displayed like offerings though who made them is unclear – and perhaps should remain that way.
Those who wander without intention easily become lost and find this their eternity: rotting, becoming lax in the nothingness, a silent but no less torturous death than those that burn and toil elsewhere in Chaos. Escaping is possible…but only to those conscious of the desire to leave…
There is no wind here, no rain, no snow, nothing at all. Just dirt and silence.
