Near the place where Llovar began his fateful journey into the T’mara T’rusheen, early Uthuk Y’llan warlocks raised The Spire of Ruin to commemorate the birth of Uthuk demonic powers. The Spire was said to bless visions of greatness upon those who flayed themselves with its sharp stones. It was never found or destroyed during the scourging of the wastes, and its location is now a mystery. As the Uthuk reclaim their home, they search for the Spire, for the Sisters of Q’aro Fenn have pronounced its rediscovery a portent of their hoped-for revenge. Also seeking this gateway between worlds are powerful groups and individuals including warlock covens from the shadows of Daqan, necromancers searching for the secrets of true undeath, and even Djinni and dragons who see it as a way to restore their kind to glory.
Though many covet the power that this rift offers, reaching the Spire is an almost impossible task. Even the Uthuk tread with care, relying on the guidance of their strongest witches and warlocks when they travel in search of the cursed place. Demon winds bellow forth from the hole in reality, gusting out across the Darklands, and as travelers get closer, the land itself becomes tormented and twisted by its power. Valleys with teeth that tear at the earth, clouds that scream their hatred at the ground, and rivers that swerve from their beds to drown those on their banks are all possible. Monsters this close to the Spire are almost always possessed by demons, their bestial minds overwhelmed and consumed, leaving only the drive to hunt and kill. Creatures natural and unnatural mewl out their hunger as they rip themselves apart or tear at each other in an endless cycle of predatory violence.
The Spire of Ruin rises up from the ground like a spear thrust into the sky. At its tip, the rift into the T’mara T’rusheen—the spirit realm and the Ynfernael beyond—glimmers like a red star, hungrily sucking the surrounding air and the earth below into its gaping maw. From the gateway, it might be possible to travel between worlds—if one can fight one’s way past the hundreds of foes and horrors that nest in the Spire’s warren of tunnels and then climb to the great altar just beneath the rent. Legend has it that if one can cross the threshold and find an Ynfernael Lord, one can either offer it one’s oath, or kill it and gain power unimagined in return. Of course, these same legends warn that the rift is not just a door, but the first step on a path that can lead to any number of places, whether the twisting mirror worlds of the Ynfernael Lords and their burning keeps, the umbral depths where secrets forgotten by the living come to hide, or the sorcerous planes from which all magic springs and reality can be shaped with but a word.
References
- Realms of Terrinoth