Mythos of Aihrde

From the Coming Codex of Aihrde

A House at the End of Time

It is known that the Arc of Time served as a road for all things that left the living world. Drifting beyond the All Father's creations the listless dead followed the arc until its end in the Maelstrom. Here the spirits gathered, riding upon or being devoured by the seething cauldron of the Maelstrom. The All Father upon seeing this was unamused and he made great halls for the fallen dwarves, hall where their spirits might live out eternity until the Gonfed, the end of days. But the Stone Halls called only to the dwarves and the noble dead and heroes. For all the rest they gathered at the ends of the Arc of Time, beyond all sight and knowledge.

But one came to this end and built his house here, far from the eyes of all living creatures.

The Red Duke, Lord of Chaos and servant of Evil, constructed the Homeless House here upon the back of the Maelstrom, at the feet of the Arc of Time. He gathered the listless dead and forced them to labor upon the massive sprawling castle of walls, keeps, and dungeons. The House served him as a fortress for thousands of years; there he built his armaments, crafted sorcery, made beasts of wild abandon, guided his servants, tortured his enemies and devoured all that traveled the Arc forcing them to serve his will. Thus the Arc of Time ended in a nightmare.

His House gave a center for the madness that men later called the Wretched Plains, a madness that attracted creatures great and small, both good and foul, though more foul than good. Around the Red Duke the plains became a mad house of chaos, where thoughts took shape and the listless dead wandered in a state of confusion if not suffering. What was an afterlife of quiet dark and mindless waiting became a torment as the souls of the dead found themselves bound to the will of the Red Duke.

In the wars that came the Red Duke's enemies unearthed him and hounded him to his very doorstep. So that after he set one of his own vile creations to guard the way to the House, Tiamat a great five headed dragon. Her domain men called the Maw of Tiamat. She watched over the road, devouring all that came forth. The listless dead found themselves passing through and into the guts of Tiamat.

Beyond her the Red Duke fortified his House. He opened the earth and made a chasm between the dragon and his House; it opened a rift to the Maelstrom so that any who fell through plummeted into the cauldron and were forever destroyed. He threw a bridge across it and this he guarded with a mighty barbican with a massive portcullis made of the iron of his very will. No gate guarded the neck of the barbican for the Red Duke was always vain and did not believe any could pass his iron will.

All this made the Homeless House a place of importance so that evil men who sought evil council spoke of the House as a place to be held on high and worshipped; they made sacrifice in its name, constructed temples to mimic its shape, and called on the Red Duke for a place of power in the afterlife.