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Acheron

The living-dead empire that nearly strangled Cadwallon in its cradle.

A necromantic human empire of the Meanders of Darkness under the Stag totem, Acheron is the realm of the living-dead — humans who turned the study of dark magic toward the conquest of death itself. It keeps no embassy in Cadwallon and never has; it doesn't need one. Acheron is woven into the city's founding more deeply than any embassy nation, because Acheron is the enemy Cadwallon was born fighting.

When the Dogs of War first raised their camp on this peninsula, it was an Acheronian army that tried to scour them off it — the same Darkness that had already thrown down the elven Cynwäll city before them. The assault was led by Sophet Drahas, commander of Acheron's armies and baron of Taer Haez, who called on his liege Feyd Mantis — the greatest lord of his home barony — and hurled hordes of walking dead against the mercenaries' wall. The dead lost. The Battle of the Wall of Earth was Cadwallon's birth and Acheron's great defeat in a single stroke.

Defeat only changed the shape of Acheron's claim. Drahas was not destroyed but bound — driven underground and cursed to remain — and from below he has seeded his influence through the centuries, until his name surfaces in half the lower city's legends. Acheron's war on Cadwallon never ended. It just went under.

Acheron Underfoot

The empire has no streets here, but its fingerprints are all over the dark:

  • Sophet Drahas, the [[The Court of Ashes|King of Ashes]] — baron of Taer Haez, bound beneath the city forever, running the hidden Court of Shadows from the Court of Ashes. The single most important Acheronian in Cadwallon and one of its deepest powers.
  • The way of the dead — smuggled gems of Darkness and necromantic materials reach the city through Shipwreck Bay and the deep tunnels, with Acheron the unseen source at the far end of the trade.
  • Soma's founding grudge — the fief's namesake was a runaway Acheron slave with a heart for justice, who broke Drahas's magical snares at the Wall of Earth. The whole Soma line defines itself against the empire it escaped.
  • The myth of the Stairway to Nowhere — the underground stair said to step outside time — is kept among the Dark-ones of Acheron.
  • Among the guilds, the Guild of Goldsmiths (who quietly fund Darkness) and the Guild of Thieves (who move its contraband) both count the living-dead of Acheron among their Rag'narok allies.

Relations

  • Sophet Drahas & Feyd Mantis — the two Acheronian lords whose founding-era feud still drives the city's deepest plots.
  • Soma — the fief founded by an Acheron runaway, defined against its origin.
  • Battle of the Wall of Earth — Acheron's defeat and Cadwallon's birth.
  • Guild of Goldsmiths & Guild of Thieves — its guild allies in the Rag'narok.
  • Dirz & Drune — fellow Meanders of Darkness human powers; Drune also bears the Stag totem, so keep the two distinct at the table.

Canon & scope

Drawn from the Cadwallon PHB. Acheron's homeland — its geography, its undead hierarchy, the full Drahas–Mantis history — belongs to the Confrontation / Rag'narok wargame line and isn't table canon until we adopt it. What's above is the Cadwallon-facing Acheron: the founding enemy, Drahas's origin, and the necromancy still running under the streets.

See Also