The Sepulcher of Eternity

⚠️ Spoilers. Stop reading if you are a player. There are heavy spoilers below and it may damage your game experience.

Campaign Premise

The Sepulcher of Eternity is the cursed heart of the Bone Dunes, where the Buried Throne of Veyra lies half-buried in a cathedral of bone and witchfire. Whispers promise dominion over death to whoever can endure its judgment — but the throne is no simple prize. It binds as often as it crowns, and even the mightiest risk being absorbed into its marrow.

Six factions have converged here, each staking their claim on the surrounding shrines and monuments. Each believes their path is the one that will awaken or remake the throne, but none dare yet make the first strike. The desert itself punishes rashness: battles fought too near the Throne stir the endless legions of the dead, ensuring any premature war could doom them all.

Thus, a fragile balance holds. Plots are spun in shadow, rituals tested in secret, and emissaries sent with whispered promises of alliance. The players enter a crucible of competing powers, where every choice could tilt the scales toward apocalypse, dominion, or something far stranger.

⚖️ The Six Claimants

Ukatan Ehetosh – Crimson Synod (Crimson Sands)
A blood-mage whose mastery over life’s essence makes him both revered and feared. Ukatan believes only rivers of blood can fully awaken the throne. His camp of scarlet tents and obsidian altars bleeds the desert itself for power.

• Strengths: Terrifying war sorcery, mercenaries bought with blood-gold.

• Weaknesses: Reviled as a parasite; allies fear they will be the next sacrifice.

Shadeweaver Maiwenn Pichon – Umbral Covenant (Throat of Dust)
A shadowmancer who slips between memory and oblivion, Maiwenn seeks the throne’s hidden truths rather than its rule. She whispers of forgotten laws buried in its marrow, secrets that could unravel kings.

• Strengths: Assassins and spies, mastery of shadows and illusions.

• Weaknesses: Distrusted for secrecy, prone to turning allies into pawns.

Mournlady Nambra Heikalyn – Shroud of Veyra (Veinwells)
Self-styled “widow of silence,” Nambra preaches that the throne is Veyra’s last tether and must be enthroned with a chosen Necrolord. To her, undeath is not curse but covenant. Her followers are bound by ritual and grief, ready to die — and rise — for her cause.

• Strengths: Undead legions, fanatical devotion, holy necromancy.

• Weaknesses: Zealotry blinds them; visions are cryptic and divisive.

Rotfather Dhurak the Molting – Ascendent Carrion (Carrion Grove)
A plague-priest whose body endlessly decays but never dies, Dhurak believes the Throne should bloom into rot and renewal. He preaches that decay is creation, drawing zealots and scavengers alike.

• Strengths: Plagues, fungal warbands, grotesque resilience.

• Weaknesses: His vision is too alien; allies choke on his sermons of filth.

Queen-Archivore Xyrrha – The Swarm (Mawspire of Ul-Thanak)
Once a scholar of the Argent Spire, now a flesh-hive matron. Xyrrha consumes lore and memories, corrupting them into the hive-mind. She believes the Throne itself must be eaten, its history erased so the Swarm may seed their own beginning.

• Strengths: Endless chitinous spawn, parasitic magic, stolen knowledge.

• Weaknesses: Inhuman motives; cannot truly bargain outside the hive’s logic.

Fallen Inquisitor Ertac – Order of the Abyss (Pit of Kharaz’uhl)
Once a judge of the Basilica of Chains, Ertac broke his oaths and shackles in pact with the Abyss. He declares the Throne is a lock — and he the hammer to break it open. His followers call for unbinding reality itself.

• Strengths: Abyssal pacts, infernal summoning, charisma of law turned heresy.

• Weaknesses: Arrogance, prone to alienating allies with his zeal to destroy rather than rule.

🌍 Key Locations

• Buried Throne of Veyra – The heart of it all. A ribcage-cathedral and throne of fused bone, spines, and witchfire.

• Sepulcher of Eternity – The ruined necropolis-city around the throne, littered with temples and ossuaries where the factions maneuver.

• Crimson Sands – Blood-soaked desert of obsidian altars, dripping with ritual sacrifice.

• Throat of Dust – A chasm that exhales whispers, feeding the Covenant’s assassins their secrets.

• The Veinwells – Rivers of glowing marrow, sacred to the Shroud. Drinking binds soul to silence.

• Carrion Grove – A forest of fungal bone-trees dripping with rot, sacred to the Carrion Lord.

• Mawspire of Ul-Thanak – Living chitin towers that pulse with hive intelligence.

• Pit of Kharaz’uhl – A smoldering crater of abyssal chains and fire, where Ertac preaches the breaking of worlds.

🕵️ Factional Stances

• Crimson Synod: Blood is power; bleed the desert until the throne drinks.

• Umbral Covenant: Knowledge is power; unearth truths hidden in bone.

• Shroud of Veyra: Faith is power; enthrone death’s chosen heir.

• Ascendent Carrion: Decay is power; let the Throne rot into rebirth.

• The Swarm: Memory is power; devour history and replace it with the hive’s.

• Order of the Abyss: Freedom is power; shatter the lock and unleash the Abyss.

⚔️ Arc Structure

Act I – Whispers in the Bonewind
Players arrive amidst shifting alliances. Factions court them as pawns, emissaries, or saboteurs. Small rituals and skirmishes test the waters.

Act II – The Sepulcher Stirs
Artifacts unearthed, rituals attempted. The Throne whispers more strongly, tempting all. A betrayal or discovery tilts the balance.

Act III – The Bone Legions Awaken
A faction strikes too boldly, rousing the Sepulcher’s skeletal guardians. The fragile stalemate shatters; PCs must choose sides or fight all.

Act IV – The Claiming of the Throne
One leader makes their bid — Ukatan’s blood rites, Maiwenn’s secrets, Nambra’s necro-covenant, Dhurak’s rot, Xyrrha’s consumption, or Ertac’s abyssal unbinding. PCs can stop, aid, or even attempt their own claim.

Act V – Dominion or Silence
The Throne crowns, binds, or annihilates. The outcome reshapes Tarsus: an empire of bone, a world devoured, a gate of unmaking, or silence eternal.

The Whispers of the Buried Throne

Lore Entry (GM Use)

The Buried Throne of Veyra does not speak in words but in whispers carried on the bone-winds. Each listener hears something different — promises shaped to their deepest hunger. The Throne offers not merely power, but fulfillment of the self in its most extreme form.

No one who has lingered near it leaves unchanged. Some emerge hollow-eyed, convinced they are chosen. Others hear nothing but the voices of those they’ve slain. For some, the whispers are gifts; for others, they are chains.

The GM may use the whispers to tempt, corrupt, or even aid players — the Throne is not purely evil, but it is never safe.

What the Throne Whispers to the Faction Leaders

• Ukatan Ehetosh (Crimson Synod): “Bleed enough into the sands, and rivers of crimson will carry you to godhood.”

• Shadeweaver Maiwenn Pichon (Umbral Covenant): “In marrow lies the truths even gods feared to write. I will show you.”

• Mournlady Nambra Heikalyn (Shroud of Veyra): “Sit upon me, widow, and you shall be death’s bride eternal.”

• Rotfather Dhurak the Molting (Ascendent Carrion): “Let me rot, and from me a garden shall bloom. You will be its first fruit.”

• Queen-Archivore Xyrrha (The Swarm): “Consume me, and my history becomes yours — a hive with no past but eternity.”

• Fallen Inquisitor Ertac (Order of the Abyss): “I am the lock. You are the hammer. Break me, and the world unravels.”

What the Throne Might Offer to Players

The Throne’s whispers adapt to a character’s temperament, desires, and flaws. Use these as rumors or inner voices, keeping them ambiguous so players can interpret them as prophecy, madness, or genuine power.

• For the Ambitious (power-hungry, leaders):
  “Bend the knee, and rise a king of bone. No army will resist you.”

• For the Compassionate (healers, protectors):
  “I can preserve all you love. None need die, if they will but kneel.”

• For the Vengeful (those wronged, seeking justice):
  “Every foe who wronged you can be raised to serve you. Let them atone in chains of marrow.”

• For the Curious (scholars, seekers of truth):
  “The marrow remembers. Every secret buried in the world lies written in me.”

• For the Faithful (devout, spiritual characters):
  “Your god is silent. I am not. Serve me, and your prayers will always be answered.”

• For the Corrupted (already touched by shadow, abyss, or decay):
  “You are already mine. Sit, and complete what was begun in you.”

Rumors Players Might Hear In-Character

• “They say the Throne speaks, but never the same way twice.”

• “Those who sit upon it return… different. Not alive, not dead, but something in between.”

• “A man once swore he heard his dead wife singing from the Throne’s marrow. He slit his throat to ‘join her’ before dawn.”

• “The Throne does not lie. But it never tells the whole truth, either.”

• “Step too close, and you’ll hear your own voice calling from the shadows, begging you to sit.”