Nemux
Major Locations in Nemux
Limbia
Riverthreat Reach
Wandering Palace of Infinite Splendors
The Uncalmed Frenzy/Slaad Realm
Prime Chaoticians of Nemux
Major Locations in Nemux
Limbia
This part of Nemux is by far the most chaotic, for it is where Bel and Flamgart dwell, and every aspect of the plane is in near constant flux. Other regions of Nemux regularly shift such things as terrain, gravity, atmosphere, distance, and so forth; but Limbia does so far more extremely and rapidly than anywhere else. Only the will of Bel offers protection to those within this region from simply being ripped apart and incorporated into the mutable plane as it reforms.
In sharp contrast to the 'surface' of Limbia however, are the underground Mangrove Caverns kept in a state of near-total stability by the Keruv Zipacnah. They serve as a constant test of his mental fortitude, as well as an effective prison for his less imaginative and more volatile brother Cabrakan, currently out of favor due to trying to destroy Limbia on a whim.
Similarly, the Memory Gardens of Tonantzin are a truly stable region within Limbia that has been granted exemption from the external chaos by Bel himself. That said, Nemux continues to have an effect on the exact location of the Memory Gardens, since the dimensions and geography of the rest of the plane continue to shift and 'move' the region around at random.
With the exception of the Cocytus, each of the Five Rivers has an Emergence or Egress either within or extremely close to Limbia. Even Bel does not protect the foolish against the Five Rivers, for he knows and respects their power too well, and it is up to the individual to be aware of the danger involved in approaching them. The random path taken to and from the Confluence of the rivers, again with the exception of the Cocytus, does make this a far more difficult proposition than might usually be thought.
Riverthreat Reach
The single most consistent threat in Nemux comes from the Five Rivers, for at any moment, one of them may change its course in impossible ways and sweep over part of Nemux which was previously untouched. Even the Cocytus has a tendency to burst its banks and swell to extreme sizes at random intervals. Undoubtedly then, the most dangerous part of Nemux is Riverthreat Reach, for it encompasses the course of all Five Rivers to reach and leave the Nemuxite Confluence.
The bravest and most foolish, however, see Riverthreat Reach as an ideal location for gathering up souls that no other would dare to try their luck for. The potential rewards of finding a valuable and overlooked soul more than makes up for the risk of total annihilation. Mortals, unsurprisingly, number high among these lunatics, though at least they usually have the excuse that they are after the soul of a former friend.
Wandering Palace of Infinite Splendors
Strangely enough, despite the extreme danger all around, for a time the Wandering Palace of Infinite Splendors could be found here in Riverthreat Reach, nestled in a tiny bubble of safety doubtless created by the vibrant imagination of its inhabitants-- for no child has ever truly believed that harm could come to them. Since both the Wandering Palace and its mistress Sahuleh were manifested specifically in response to childish desire for protection, albeit originally in the Penumbra, this demonstrates that the mutability of Nemux is being actively, if unconsciously, wielded as a defensive measure.
The Uncalmed Frenzy/Slaad Realm
Relatively speaking, the Uncalmed Frenzy is the smallest region of Nemux, with practically nothing to differentiate any given part of it from any other given part. Nemuxites have no cause to visit here, unless they feel like it for no apparent reason, and there is even a significant dearth of wandering souls for opportunists to gather up.
This was not always the case, however, for it used to encompass the vast majority of Nemux. It was only after the Saraf Kenyotl created the Crater of Stability that the Uncalmed Frenzy began to change in ways that had never been seen in Nemux before. He did this by embedding the Scepter of Stability, stolen from Radha of Cogiton-- not merely a fellow Saraf, but his ontological opposite-- into the planar fabric of Nemux itself. Soon enough, new entities emerged and began to exert their mental influence almost unwittingly.
These were the race of slaadi, and they subsumed two-thirds of the Uncalmed Frenzy into their new Slaad Realm in a matter of years, before at last their spread slowed. Even today, their territory grows and shrinks according to the number of slaadi who think of expansion or isolation respectively. The disturbing stability of the Slaad Realm is currently set to a vast marshland of fogs and peat and mystery, but it may change to something else entirely at any time.
Prime Chaoticians of Nemux
Kenyotl
Domain: None
Position: Nemuxite Transmogrificator
Significant Titles: Planehopper, Urslaad, Fluxmaster, Warpwefter/Weftwarper
Primary Adjutant: Zipacnah
Other Adjutants: Camazotz and Tonantzin
A Brief Overview
The other Sarafai uniformly consider Kenyotl to be the most baffling of their number, not just because he was brought forth by Bel and is the exemplar of the chaotic mutability of Nemux, but because Kenyotl actually seems interested in helping them achieve their goals without wanting anything in return. Such consistent and pure altruism would be a surprising find even among the celestials of the Heavens, but for it to instead be found in the heart of a Nemuxite is utterly bewildering.
He is loathed by the Cogitean Radha, from whom he stole the Scepter of Stability that ended up generating the first slaadi, and is viewed with some suspicion by Uriel of Caelestin, who he helped with the creation of the jengu angels but took no credit. Other than that, however, Kenyotl is spoken of with dispassionate, neutral courtesy by most of his peers.
The Malorish fiends, naturally, are an exception to this, but what is surprising is that they only hate Kenyotl with a distant kind of vitriol. Indeed, his mastery of transformative magics are of great interest to them, though they do not understand why he refrains from causing untold amounts of agony and suffering with these powers.
In particular, Pazuzu and Inanna regularly try to gain his secrets for themselves, but have gotten nowhere despite millennia of trying. Ephialtes and Demogorgon have also made historical overtures to Kenyotl, though he has spurned them no less harshly than any others. His resistance only makes him a greater prize, of course.
Kenyotl has a singular presence on the Material Plane, with his batrachian features and esoteric sigils regularly carved and painted onto the environment by the degenerates of Antarod. With even the Teregnaven finding it near impossible to reach this land, let alone study it properly, this seems to be one mystery that will not be solved any time soon. For his part, Kenyotl professes to know nothing about it.
Zipacnah
Domain: The Mangrove Caverns, below Limbia
Position : Champion of The Tempest
Significant Titles: River Prowler, Bearer of Crags, Crab-eater, Roarer in the Deep
Adjutanst: Bakhueh and Sahuleh
A Brief Overview
Zipacnah is one of the Keruvai of Flamgart, the brother to Cabrakan, but loyal and obedient, relatively speaking. Much like his creator, Zipacnah is utterly insane, being a narcissistic megalomaniac who considers violence and other shows of strength to be the answer to everything. This opinion is unfortunately somewhat validated by Zipacnah having once killed and devoured a Godsliver Fiend of Soggoth, the immense Karkinos.
He is perhaps the greatest rival of the Keruv Mykael, seeking him at every opportunity to test their strengths and boast of their glories to each other. When Mykael, stung by Zipacnah claiming that no Cogitean could triumph outside of a battlefield of order and symmetry, created his Crucible to test and overcome this belief, Zipacnah responded by trying to impose order on a part of Nemux through sheer willpower.
The effort resulted in the Mangrove Caverns, an area that is almost stable, and in which Zipacnah exults at having proved his mere thoughts to be a match for the intrinsic nature of the plane itself. Other Nemuxites oscillate between applauding and denouncing the achievement, depending on how they feel at any given moment. Zipacnah cares not for their opinion, however, and is eager for Mykael to come and see.
Zipacnah is one of the very few creatures with the power to survive in the waters of the Five Rivers, though he rarely swims in them these days. Part of this is an unspoken envy of the Godsliver Fiend Dagon, who actually passed through the Confluence to reach the Material Plane, a display of might so terrible that even Zipacnah does not dare to attempt it. Should the two ever meet, it is certain that Zipacnah will seek to overthrow Dagon and steal his power.
Tonantzin
Domain: The Memory Fields, within Limbia
Position: Archfey; Kyreion Agrarian
Significant Titles: Wise One, Queen of Harvests, Honored Matron, She Who Safeguards
A Brief Overview
Tonantzin is a self-admitted relic of an older time, before the disruption of the Feywild by the more mercurial children of Tal-Allustiel. Enough of these newcomers sought to carve out territories for themselves by violence to upset the status quo, encouraging division among the natives who argued among themselves as to what must be done, or even if they needed to do anything at all as a group. Tonantzin was one of those few who saw the inevitable result of this and championed unity in the face of the outsiders.
When the invading fey finished establishing a foothold and pooled their resources to complete their expansion into this new and fertile realm, Tonantzin was proven right, for all the good it did. Her gardens were among the first to be claimed in earnest by the invaders, destroying one of the only neutral regions in the Feywild. It was a genius strategy, for now none of her peers would visit these places to debate or consider joining forces.
Piecemeal, the Feywild became what it is today, and its old name forgotten. Tonantzin, more through luck than anything else, was one of the few to survive. She fled with what few seeds she could retrieve, gathering others around her in an effort to save them. It was a valiant but futile effort. The fey harried her across the plane, seeking to quell any possible future insurrection.
Finally, Tonantzin had to abandon the Feywild entirely, eventually becoming one of the Kyreions of Bel. Nearly all those who had come to her for safety were lost, incorporated into the fey courts. Tonantzin now tends the only region of actual stability in Nemux, a shelter amid the chaos enforced by the will of Bel himself, so that what used to be is never truly forgotten.
Bakhueh
Domain: Anywhere within Limbia
Position: Ward of Nemux
Significant Titles: The Renewer, Brightscaled Majesty, She of Bared Breast, Beloved of Chaos
A Brief Overview
Nobody is entirely sure just where Bakhueh came from, with the possible exception of the curious triad of Bel, Bunga, and Khuckduck. The younger gods of the hositan and gnomes simply appeared in Limbia one day with her in tow, and in private spoke long with the Lord Rogue. After they had departed, Bel presented Bakhueh to his court with the singularly straightforward warning that she was to be considered under the protection of Nemux itself.
Naturally, some fools took this as a challenge. Whenever one struck her, a terrible brilliance erupted from the wound, stripping away their defences and then their flesh in short, but exceedingly agonizing, order. No matter how grievous, Bakhueh's injuries would then heal themselves, so completely that it was as if they never were. Some observers claim that there is nothing within Bakhueh except for that obliviating brilliance.
There have been other hints as to her origins, but few have come across enough of these to piece together a viable theory. By far the most disturbing of these is that Bakhueh is actually the final remnants of the shed skin of Salystra, cast off by the former Godsliver Fiend in order to adapt to her new environment within the Maelstrom of Friction.
Bakhueh is a familiar and comforting sight in Limbia, regardless of her past or status, and it has become something of a superstition among Nemuxites that not paying her a visit when in Limbia is to invite bad luck. She welcomes all with equal warmth and even affection, and even those who supposedly only visit to avert bad luck soon find themselves genuinely content in her company. All are given a scale plucked from her breast to carry with them as a token of her friendship, and to remind them that there is always a place where they will be welcomed again.
Sahuleh
Domain: The Wandering Palace of Infinite Splendors
Position: Kyreion Prostasion
Significant Titles: Bright Shield, The Star Mother, Shelterer of the Lost, Playful Queen
A Brief Overview
Both on the Material Plane and in the Heavens, it is a core tenet of all moral philosophies that children are exemplars of that fundamental good nature and innocent love, unrefined but glorious in its purity, to which all beings aspire, even those born to the Dark Folk. Perhaps this is because most philosophers are not themselves parents.
Children, especially orphans, who died too early for their actions to form any meaningful attachment to the Ontological Forces would theoretically be doomed to drift in the dark of the Penumbra without end, or at least until opportunistic fiends stole them away, or perhaps a rare passing celestial stumbled upon them. However, the yearning of the lost souls had an unexpected effort on the Penumbra, which manifested a protector for them in the form of Sahuleh.
Sahuleh is at once mother and sister to these unfortunates, and immediately upon her manifestation created a safe haven in Nemux-- which, as any parent could attest to, is perhaps the plane most closely aligned to the real nature of young children-- and swiftly drew their souls away from the gloom of the Penumbra. So as to help protect its fragile cargo of souls, the Wandering Palace never stays in the same place for more than a few minutes at a time, and is almost impossible to locate with any magic not provided by the actual gods. Even so, however, Bel has acknowledged Sahuleh as a personal Kyreion of sorts, and his word is final on whether or not the Wandering Palace may be found by those seeking it.
The vivid imagination of a child, made truth by the energies of Nemux, is as mighty as any spell or incantation, and Sahuleh needs do little but keep her charges in eternal play. Other inhabitants of the plane occasionally stumble across the Wandering Palace, and are sometimes even invited to join in the fun and games. Sahuleh has more often needed to extricate one of these visitors for their own safety from the overexcited children than the other way around, but nobody really minds too much, or for too long.
Cabrakan
Domain: The Mangrove Caverns, beneath Limbia
Position: None (see below)
Significant Titles: Planeshaker, Lord of Brimstone, Magma Prince, The Ruination of Worlds
A Brief Overview
Cabrakan, second Keruv of Flamgart and brother to Zipacnah, is currently out of favor in Nemux owing to an attempt at destroying Limbia, during one of its manifestations as a great city, as an impulsive display of strength. Being in a generous mood at the time, Bel bound him into the Mangrove Caverns fashioned by Zipacnah as punishment, dispersing the Keruv among its tenuous formations to ponder the error of his ways, and to appreciate the mercy shown to him.
This has not had the intended effect, for Cabrakan rages in his prison and strives to escape at every opportunity. His efforts literally cause the plane to shake and shudder, sending violent ripples across Nemux that only add to its glorious chaos. Expressions of his anger occasionally manifest as minor volcanic eruptions that threaten to consume the entirety of the Mangrove Caverns, unless his brother intervenes to subdue them by sheer force of will.
Whilst Bel is reported to be quite irritated by this turn of events, Flamgart is absolutely delighted. With every passing day, Cabrakan grows stronger and more violent. In another thousand years or so, he will too powerful to contain without direct oversight, and should Zipacnah have to leave his domain for any reason, Cabrakan will be able to pull himself back together, despite Bel's injunction to the contrary.
Flamgart has hinted at intending to shunt his Keruv straight through a portal into Cogiton when Cabrakan eventually breaks free. Whether or not this is still the plan, or indeed ever was, is irrelevant to the inhabitants of most other planes. The planar imbalance that would follow such an act would be, to their understanding, a simple precursor to the resumption of the Ontological War in its full and unrestrained horror. At the request of Cybele, the Sarafai are already colluding with intent to prevent this.
