The Underworld and the Gates of Nergal

Quodeth, Onther Tower Catacombs (beneath the lore)

Tyarna Vorzin snored gently, wrapped snugly his new nimothan long coat. From one end of the fabulous barbarian fur, protruded her perfectly manicured toes, from the other, spilled golden locks  of  her hair.  The tattooed dhari sat legs crossed on the archive floor, studying a great map through a curved looking glass. The large map's curling corners were held flat by empty bottles of peacock wine, one of his boots, many dusty tomes, and a strange skull with a reptilian aspect.

"Hic." He covered his mouth, glancing over at the snoozing academic.  

"Please excuse me, Mistress of Histories and my future." He said, bowing his head slightly and winking.   

Putting down the looking glass, he leant forward, picking up one of the old books. In blowing the dust off the book, most of the dust blew back into his face and enough of it up his nose to force him to stifle a sneezing fit. Deftly he used a thumb to close one nostril while clearing its opposite with a sharp blow then repeating the manoeuvre for the other side to remove the dust from his nose.      

"The Gates of Nergal, by Hyar Thomel"  The Narthan read the title aloud.

"Now then Redspear let's see if your theory has the support of the Sage of Atlantis" He muttered. 

The Underworld and the Gates of Nergal, by Hyar Thomel 

In the sagas of the Nine, the Gates of Nergal lead to the underworld, the realm of the dead. The underworld is a sunless place where Nergal gathers an army from the souls of those who died in battle. In the secret scriptures of the guardians. Nergal leads them in the eternal struggle between the Nine and the horrors from beyond the stars. The multitude of lore, legend, and rumour that surrounds the Gates of Nergal always depicts the entrance guarded or protected by a challenge. In some stories, a river that induces eternal slumber, my favourite the three headed fire breathing wolf, and of course, there are many versions in which a dragon or dragons appear. 

In the stories, often, the heroes descend into the underworld to retrieve loved ones from the realm of the dead or seek out and slay terrible monsters. These collective memories turned into legendary stories are the Atlantean way of romanticizing of the natural world and not the reality of modern Thule. But why not let the truth get in the way of a good story, but the Nine don't dwell on Thule, and there is no evidence of Nergal's divine intervention. It is the personal ambitions of prophets, high priestesses, war chiefs who utilise the God of Wars glamour to galvanize their followers.

   

Yet there are other tales from a variety of sources of underground realms.  The Dhari have a legend of war with a race of giants. In this war, they ally with the Risen Apes and together defeat the tyrannical giants. In the story Hanuman the mighty white ape passes through the Gates of Death into the underworld, where he drowns the Giant King Lokra in a river of fire. The dwarves and elves also have their legends of World Gates. And then there is Ur-Ghom, miles of canyons and caves sacred to the Beastfolk, which can many unfortunate captives enter by the Great Skull Gates never to return to the surface.   

It is my theory the Gates of Nergal is no lone dread portal to the realm of the dead, but many entrances to the caverns beneath Thule. The cave and cavern systems may be linked to each other by natural or constructed tunnels, the beastfolk and the troglodytes are renowned diggers. The linked caves would create a potentially vast subterranean realm. There is historical evidence of Kal Keor's search for a passage through the underworld after his failed attempt to build a road across the Swamps of Phoor. The Ammur believe the Beastfolk utilise a network underground tunnels and subterranean rivers between the Ur-Ghom and Earthreach Caverns to conduct raids and transport captives back and forth. The likeliest location to the start of this Thulean Underworld would be the Earthreach caverns, the continent's deepest known cave system, and the site of many heroic quests into the underworld.

There is an underworld, and there is more than one way to reach it. 

But is it all connected, what inhabits its depths, and why would you choose to explore it remain some of the questions to be answered?