Zephuros Mark

• Previous
• Next

The Zephuros Mark is a massive cavity near the top of Morteban. This circular hole has a diameter of 120 miles and plunges into the ground for half that distance. For many on the surface and beneath, it is impassible terrain. Those that make it their home are creatures that can take to the wing or move about the area with skyships or other magical flight.

The air currents and weather in this unnatural cavity are often different than what is outside it; it could be calm and sunny outside, yet inside the Zephuros Mark a thunderstorm rages. The unusual nature of Zephuros Mark comes from the fact that it is both part of the world Bal-Kriav and part of Chaos. If one were to fall all the way to the bottom, they would disappear from this world, finding themselves flailing into a stream of elemental air that courses across Chaos.

This marvel of the realm was created in the Creation War. In a battle at this very spot, the primordial lord Talos defeated the archangel Zephuros. Rather than yield to his primordial enemy, Zephuros activated a spell that ripped a hole between Bal-Kriav and The Void. This rift into space sucked everything in the area into it, obliterating Zephuros's already battered army and wiping out those under Talos. Even though Zephuros's death wiped out an entire primordial army, it did not achieve its main goal of killing Talos. This is because Talos had been wise enough to ward himself with the spell Teleport Trigger. This spell activated when he was near death, taking him away safely from a stormy vortex of devastation where rocks and debris broke apart and pulverized everything falling inward. As fate would have it, Talos gained the storm domain from the demise of Zephuros.

Zephuros Mark can be hazardous to flying creatures. This comes from the fact that it is littered with floating rocks and debris left behind from the area's creation. Some of these floating rocks are quite large with fields of vegetation and even forests on a few of the larger ones. Some are linked up with vines and bridges giving access to other nearby floating islands. Those with bridges are in the deeps where the pit passes tunnels leading into the Underdark.

How Talos took a part of Zephuros's divine power when he was spirited away (by teleport magic) and when it was Zephuros that killed himself and not directly by the hand of Talos has some thinking that the workings of divine power transference have a bit too much Law in how they work.

- Hades, from his tome Ascendant - "Workings of Divine Power"