Hades — The Underworld, Veiled Dominion
Theme: Law, memory, consequence, and the quiet mercy of endings
Gods: Hades and Persephone; Judges Minos, Rhadamanthus, Aeacus; Charon; Thanatos, the Erinyes
Tone: Somber, just, inevitable — not cruel, but unyielding
---
### Where It Lies & How It Was Wrought
Beneath the mortal world’s shadow, past the Mouth of Hades in the Shaded Underlands, the
Underworld unfurls across black glass plains, cavern rivers, and starless skies. When the first mortal
died, the world cracked to make room for memory. Hades claimed guardianship, Persephone gave it
seasons, and the Five Rivers carried the weight of all endings. Here, truth gathers like dew; every lie
left behind curdles into a ghost.
The Underworld is wider than continents yet intimate as a whisper. It shapes itself to the procession of
souls: crowded in times of plague, roomy during ages of peace. It remembers every footprint, even
those of gods.
---
### Atmosphere & Mystical Laws
Air tastes of pomegranates and rain on stone. Silence has weight. Light arrives from no sun; instead,
pale auroras ripple when the living speak the names of the dead.
Planar Traits
- Weight of Truth: Deception imposes supernatural strain; lies falter, secrets bleed into sound.
- Memory’s Price: Using Lethean waters to forget exacts a cost — a skill, a face, a name.
- Bound Oaths: Promises sworn on the Styx bind body and soul; breaking one draws Erinyes.
- Season of Mercy: While Persephone reigns, flowers bloom in Asphodel and judgments are
gentler.
---
## Regions & POIs of the Underworld
### 1) The Asphodel Fields (Plain of the Many)
An endless, gray meadow of whispering reeds where ordinary souls wander, content or confused.
- Hall of Lanterns: Guides record the names, stories, and final words of arrivals.
- The Windless Tree: Souls hang ribbons of memory from its branches; each ribbon hums a life’s
refrain.
- The Road of Quiet Feet: A path that cannot be heard unless you walked it in life — the honest find
it easily.
Hooks: reunite a family’s divided memories; find a ribbon cut by a living thief; escort a soul to a truer
resting place.
---
### 2) The Judges’ Circle (Court of Breathless Law)
A basalt amphitheater lit by cold fire. Each soul stands between three thrones.
- Throne of Minos: Weighs the governance of a life — justice, tyranny, mercy.
- Throne of Rhadamanthus: Measures adherence to oath and debt.
- Throne of Aeacus: Tallies labors and burdens borne for others.
- Archive of Wept Testimonies: Basins of tears that replay truths the dead could not speak living.
Hooks: advocate for a wronged soul; challenge a verdict by recovering missing testimony from the
living; defend your own oath under Styx-binding.
---
### 3) The Mourning Rivers (Fivefold Current)
The Underworld’s arteries carve canyons and vaults; each river is a god with its own law.
- Styx (Hate): Black mirror that seals oaths; ferries of iron.
- Lethe (Forgetting): Pale-blue water that erases — guarded by Lethean Keepers.
- Phlegethon (Fire): Burning torrent where sinners temper into penitents.
- Cocytus (Wailing): Fog river whose rapids echo every grief.
- Acheron (Sorrow): Broad, slow water bearing armies of the unclaimed dead.
**POIs:** Charon’s Holdfast (docks of bone and bronze), Bridge of Unnames (crosses Lethe;
pay with a memory), Phlegethon Forges (where chains and crowns are quenched).
Hooks: escort a soul without coin; reclaim a memory cast into Lethe; survive Phlegethon’s penitent
trial to cool a cursed weapon.
---
### 4) The Palace of Hades (Obsidian Court)
A citadel of obsidian and crystal gardens, quiet as snowfall.
- Persephone’s Orchard: White pomegranate trees; one fruit ripens each dawn for a worthy plea.
- The Glass Menagerie: Statues of moments saved from oblivion; each can be “listened to” once.
- Throne of the Silent Crown: Hades hears petitions here; his judgments change weather in the
mortal world.
- The Archive of Keys: Vault containing literal keys to living doors once locked by oath.
Hooks: plead clemency for a bound city; barter a winter for a life; return a stolen key before its
matching door vanishes from the world.
---
### 5) The Elysian Vale (Fields of Everdawn)
An island of sunlit meadows, cypress groves, and shining seas reserved for heroes and the truly
virtuous.
- The Heroic Portico: Champions debate ethics as sport.
- House of Remembered Hearths: Recreates a mortal home perfectly for one evening of farewell.
- The Silver Shore: Stand at the edge of ascension; choose return, remembrance, or star-ward
rising.
Hooks: persuade a hero to return for one final deed; uncover corruption that smuggles the unworthy
in; resolve a paradox where two lives claim one Elysian place.
---
### 6) The Iron Thresholds of Tartarus (Gates Below)
Where the Underworld descends into punishment and rebellion.
- Bronze Gates of Cronus: Sealed by a thousand hands; oaths hum through the metal.
- Eternal Pit: Roaring updraft of hot wind and voices; fall here and you fall for years.
- Rivet Hall: Where chains are named and prisoners become lessons.
Hooks: intercept a cult trying to pry a single rivet free; carry a message to a Titan without being
heard by another; return with your sanity intact.
---
## Inhabitants & Monsters (for generation)
Custom (Hellenara)
- Stygian Adjudicator (CR 10): Spectral judge with chains that bind lies into iron.
- Obol Warden (CR 6): Ferryman knight enforcing last debts.
- Lethean Shade (CR 4): Mist that consumes particular memories.
- Ebon Lamia (CR 12): Bargains resurrection for a price you will not see coming.
SRD-Compatible / Reskins
Ghost, Wraith,
Encounter tone: trials more than battles; when blades sing, they decide law as much as life.
---
## Faith, Customs, and Mercy
- Coin & Oath: An obol is a symbol — oaths substitute for coin when honest.
- Names Spoken: The living keep the dead bright by saying their names; the world listens.
- Mercy’s Season: While Persephone rules, petitions for reprieve are heard; in her absence, the
Furies’ writ expands.
- No Theft of Grief: To steal from the dead is to invite a personal Erinys until restitution.
Offerings: river stones etched with promises, pomegranate wine poured in circles, laments sung in the
tongue of your grandmother.
---
## Legends & Adventure Seeds
- The Missing Weight: A Judge’s scale is imbalanced by a mortal curse; find the living culprit to free
hundreds of stalled souls.
- The Unferried: A storm at sea filled the Isles of the Dead; Charon’s docks overflow — recruit living
oars to row the night.
- A Ribbon Cut Twice: Someone used Lethe to erase their crime and their victim’s name;
reconstruct a life from echoes.
- Keys Without Doors: Stolen keys are appearing in the mortal world with no locks; prevent a breach
between realms.
- Winter’s Bargain: Persephone offers a fruit for your city — a season of famine in exchange for one
life returned. Choose.
---
### Closing Reflection
Hades is not hunger; it is closure. Here the world keeps its promises to itself. Walk softly, speak truly,
and carry no stolen grief. If you must leave with a life not your own, be ready to bear its winter.