Baifa Monü Zhuan
- Intent: To submit and detail aspects of the Atrisian underworld
- Image Credit: Generated with AI
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Afterlife
- Rift Name: Kameyama (literally "Turtle Mountain" – an ancient name referencing the myth that a great spirit-turtle carries the underworld on its back)
- Rift Alignment: Neutral
- Location: Atrisia
- Destination: The Atrisian Underworld – specifically the Mist-Shrouded Valley, the first and outermost layer of Kameyama. Beyond the valley lies the Sunless Lands (deeper underworld), and further still the Hall of Wutzek (final judgment)
- Direction: Both Directions
- Size: Small
- Accessibility: Located on the main Atrisian continent in Sharu Lake. The gate can be accessed easily enough by anyone able to get across the water to it and enter.
- Description:
- On the Atrisian Side: The gate is an ancient archway of dark red wood that never rots, never burns, and never weathers. It stands on a bare rock islet in Sharu Lake. Thick, braided ropes are corded across one side – these ropes are said to be the "ties" that keep the gate from fully opening. The lake around it is eerily clear, with smooth, dark stones visible below. The water is shallow (knee to waist deep) and unnaturally cold.
- On the Underworld Side: Upon crossing, one emerges on a narrow, rocky shore. Immediately, the air is thick with cold mist that glows faintly grey. The sky is featureless – no sun, no moon, only an unchanging twilight. The shore leads to a narrow passage between cliffs of wet black stone. From the cliffs, hundreds of ethereal hands reach out, grasping weakly. Voices whisper – not in words, but in impressions: regret, fear, longing. After the passage, the valley opens: a vast, enclosed depression filled with an ancient, gnarled forest. The trees are massive, their roots forming winding, deliberate pathways. Ruined city fragments (columns, arches, statues from Atrisian history) are scattered among the trees. Shrines to ancestors and darker gods (especially Wutzek and Loath) line the paths. In the center of the forest stands the Crimson Butterfly Inn. Beyond the forest, the land descends into the Sunless Lands – a black, still sea where the Ferryman waits.
- The ID Manifestation: The most dangerous effect. A visitor's deepest, most repressed thoughts, regrets, fears, and ambitions can coalesce out of the mist as a semi-physical entity. This manifestation takes a form drawn from the visitor's own psyche:
- A guilty secret might appear as an accusing figure.
- A repressed ambition might appear as a seductive guide.
- A deep fear might appear as a monster from childhood.
- Mechanics: The manifestation is invisible to anyone other than the visitor (unless it chooses to reveal itself). It can speak only to the visitor. It attempts to tempt the visitor to stay in the underworld, or to attack if the visitor rejects it strongly enough. It has physical strength proportionate to the visitor's emotional investment in that repressed thought – a minor regret might be barely tangible; a lifelong buried trauma might be deadly.
- The rift also contains autonomous entities – not manifestations of visitors, but native spirits born from Atrisian collective belief.
- These include:
| Entity | Description | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| The Split-Faced Woman | One half of her face is beautiful and young; the other is ancient and decaying. | She offers a choice: beauty or wisdom. Those who choose wrong lose something. She guards a shortcut through the forest. |
| The Drowned Man | A bloated, waterlogged corpse in fine robes. He weeps constantly. | He asks for directions to a home he lost centuries ago. Helping him earns a blessing (temporary water-breathing). Lying to him earns his curse (drowning sensation). |
| The Woman of Bones | A skeleton wrapped in tattered wedding silk. She carries a lantern made of a skull. | She seeks her lost groom. She will follow a visitor who reminds her of him, offering protection but also terrible jealousy. |
| The Ravenous Rebel | A gaunt, armored soldier with an endlessly bleeding wound in his chest. | He was a failed revolutionary. He will offer to teach a "secret weakness" of any authority figure – but using it binds you to his endless hunger. |
| The Gi | A massive, hulking shape of mud and stone, with a single eye. Slow and dim. | Neutral. It tends the "graves" (piles of rubble). It will not attack unless a grave is disturbed. It can be bargained with for passage. |
The Way Forward: The River of Hands
- Location: The narrow passage between the entrance shore and the valley proper.
- Description: The passage is a natural cleft in black rock, about 100m long. The walls are smooth and damp. From every crack and crevice, hundreds of spectral hands reach out. They are translucent, cold, and grasping. They do not speak, but they moan – a low, miserable sound.
- Effect: Anyone passing through must make a Strength or Will check (avoid being grappled). The hands do not pull toward the wall – they pull downward, toward the ground, as if trying to bury the visitor. If they succeed in pulling a visitor fully to the ground, the visitor is held immobile and begins to suffocate (as if drowning in earth). Other visitors must pull them free.
- Secret: The hands belong to those who tried to enter the underworld and refused to confront their manifestations. They are not dead – they are stuck. A visitor who speaks a sincere apology to the hands (for no specific crime, but for the general cruelty of the world) will find the hands become gentle, parting to create a clear path.
The Guardian: The Looming Silence
- Location: The valley – visible from almost anywhere, but never approachable.
- Description: The Guardian is a figure of impossible scale. It appears as a hunched, robed shape, its head brushing the featureless sky. It has no visible face – only a smooth, dark oval. It moves very slowly, taking hours to complete a single step. It makes no sound. It seems largely unaware of visitors, or perhaps indifferent.
- Truth: The Guardian is Wutzek's shadow – a fragment of the death god's attention cast into the mortal-accessible underworld. It does not act because it does not need to act. Its presence alone enforces the rules: no violence, no theft, no desecration. Those who break these rules find the Guardian's gaze slowly turning toward them. Once fully turned, the offender is frozen in place and becomes one of the hands in the passage.
- Interaction: The Guardian can be addressed, but it responds only in visions – images of the asker's own death, shown without malice. It will not answer questions, but it will show the truth of a question if the asker is sincere.
The Ferryman (The Girl with the Boat)
- Location: The far edge of the valley, where the forest gives way to the Sunless Sea – a vast expanse of black, still water. No shore is visible on the other side.
- Description: The Ferryman appears as a young Atrisian girl (roughly 12-14 years old), dressed in simple, weathered clothes. She stands in a small, flat-bottomed boat made of black wood. She holds a single oar. She does not speak except to say: "I can take you away from the horrors. For a price."
- The Price: She does not want money. She wants a memory – a specific, happy memory chosen by the visitor. Once given, the visitor forgets it completely. The girl then rows the visitor across the Sunless Sea to … nothing. She simply rows in a circle and returns to the same shore. The "escape" is an illusion. The memory is gone, but the horrors remain.
- True Function: The Ferryman is not a means of escape. She is a test of desperation. Those who give up a precious memory to flee their fears are judged unworthy by Wutzek. Those who refuse, who turn back to face the valley, are marked as brave souls. The girl herself is a pitiful being – she was the first child sacrificed to the gate millennia ago. She cannot stop; she must offer the false escape forever.
- Alternate Use: If a visitor offers not a memory but a promise – a solemn vow to right a wrong in the world – the girl's eyes clear. She will then row the visitor to the true deeper underworld, the Hall of Wutzek, where the dead are judged. This is the only way to reach that layer without dying first.
The Crimson Butterfly Inn
- Location: The exact center of the forest, where the mist is thickest. It appears as a traditional Atrisian two-story inn, painted deep red, with lanterns that never go out. A large wooden sign shows a crimson butterfly.
- The Hostess: A woman who appears Atrisian, wearing a silk mask that covers the lower half of her face. Her eyes are dark and sad. She never speaks first. She offers food, drink, and shelter. The food is tasteless but nourishing; the drink is warm and calming.
- The Question: At some point during a visitor's stay, she will approach and ask, "Am I beautiful?" She asks softly, without pressure. This is the trap.
- If the visitor says yes, she removes her mask. Beneath is a horrific visage – her cheeks have been slashed ear to ear, and the wounds are fresh and bleeding. She asks again: "Am I beautiful now?" Any answer other than an honest no (given with compassion) causes her to attack. She is unnaturally strong and fast; she does not kill but marks – slashing the visitor's face in the same pattern.
- If the visitor says no the first time, she nods sadly, replaces her mask, and leaves the visitor alone for the rest of their stay. She will not ask again.
- The correct answer (known only from ancient texts) is to say: "Your beauty is not for me to judge. What do you see when you look at me?" This breaks the curse. She will weep, thank the visitor, and grant a boon – a single truthful answer about any danger in the valley.
- Origin: The hostess was once a courtesan who was mutilated by a jealous lover. She fled into the gate and has been trapped here for centuries. The inn is her attempt at normalcy. She cannot leave.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The ancient gates to the underworld or at least they were in legend but no one was ever really able to prove it. FOr centuries it stood there as Atrisia was united under the Jade Empress and later her son. It stood through the test of time as the Kital Phard dynasties became the Atrisian Commonwealth, an empire and the commonwealth again. The red wood or at least what seemed like wood with paint on it not chipping and not faltering until the Netherworld event tore rifts across the galaxy. On Atrisia a small one opened up leading to what had been described before. A mist valley o the border to the sunless lands. Filled with the greatest fears of the mind. As soon as the rift opened the gate that had stood there for centuries upon centuries suddenly had more interest. The belief that the ferryman would come to take the souls of the damned to hell. THe inscriptions upon the gate are also something but there is more in the old legends about being able to summon and consign souls to the netherworld for a price... as of yet there is no proof either way it is possible.
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