Talion Court

Planar Traits

• Fire Affinity: Attacks with the fire keyword gain a +1 bonus to the attack roll, and attacks with the cold keyword deal half damage (ongoing cold damage is not affected).
• Planar Seal: Though teleportation is possible within Perdition, only the Gates may be used to pass out of the plane. This seal does not extend to methods of extraplanar communication.

The Court-City of the Talion Gods
Though its proper name is Perdition, this extraplanar city acts as the planar entryway into the various Hells of the Talion Gods.

Perdition is built on a plane of dark ash, its stone all black basalt and gleaming obsidian that reflects firelight. The plane itself is limited in scope, surrounded by a wall of black-red fire that ripples malevolently, and a sky filled with smoke behind which flashes of fiery lightning burst, revealing the shapes of flying devils and horrifying gargantuan leviathans swimming through the murk above.

The majority of the denizens of Perdition are tieflings, who are organized into massive, formal noble Houses, each of which is aligned with one of the Gate-Citadels (and thus, one of the Talion gods). The next most common of the city's citizens are devils, particularly weak devils who do not formally serve any single of the Talion Hells, but offer their services to many and sundry as needed. Imps, cambions, tar devils, legion devils and succubi make up the majority of its devils, but there are a scattering of more powerful devils as well. The least populous of its citizenry are extraplanar races, including those from the mortal planes, as well as some odd outsiders, such as githzerai and genasi.

The Great Rune of Perdition

Perdition & The Talion Court

In the center of Perdition lies a rune carved of the very streets of the city. This rune - a piece of divine magic - is a safeguard, preventing any Primordial from entering into the plane it guards. Since the Talion Hells lead only into this realm, it is a final safeguard against the resurrection of any Primordial; even if one should manage to reconstitute itself within one of the Hells, this rune prevents it from escaping that Hell.

The Talion Court

In the center of the Great Rune sits a tall tower swarming with devil-kind. It bears eight great entries in its uppermost peak, each a great door of basalt glowing with the unholy symbol of one of the Talion gods. These passages are the doors through which the Talion gods enter into the Court, a massive chamber in which the wicked gods of Perdition hold council with one another.

Lower levels of the Court host personages and creatures of importance to the functioning of Perdition, or simply those powerful enough to have won their way here. They number among them several freelance pit fiends and legion devil masters, as well as Atuxum Nahai, a great red half-devil dragon that claims one entire level of the Court as its lair. Beneath the tower is the Caverns of the Damned, a labyrinth at the center of which is the Hell-Seer, an infernal oracle said to receive visions and prophecies concerning (but not from) the Talion gods.

The Gate-Citadels of Perdition

The only means into and out of Perdition are through one of the Gate-Citadels, great castle-like constructions that protect the planar gates that lead into and out of the realm. The only exception to this is the Hellsward, a walled-off district imbricate to the planar crossroads city Liminal.

The Citadel of Thorns & Brambletown

The Citadel of Thorns leads to Wildhell of Admaak'Raas, the god of madness. Great thorny vines have emerged from the Wildhell, wrapping about the dark towers of the Citadel and extending outward into the rest of the district. Brambletown is an all-but-abandoned neighborhood that has gone back to a wild state. Only the poorest and most desperate dwell here.

The Shardgate & the Iron District

The Shardgate is a vast citadel crafted of spiked black iron, the citadel that leads to the Hellshards of Makoryn. The Iron District is perhaps the only reason Brambletown has not grown out to swallow the whole of Perdition. Its craftsmen and soldiers are dedicated to the creation of an orderly society, and the district is known as one of the most orderly places in all of Perdition.

The Viridarium & the Silken Quarter

The Viridarium (a term that means "pleasure garden") is the gate-citadel to the Last Seraglio of Iritsa, the whore-goddess. The Silken Quarter stands in contrast to the Iron District, for it is a place well-known for its entertainments and nocturnal pleasures. It is said that those who dwell in the Iron District come to the Silken Quarter to blow off steam.

The Citadel of Fens & Rat-Town

The Citadel of Fens is a vast, open-walled construction thick with crusted lichens and mold of all sorts. Half-sunken beneath brackish water, the Citadel of Fens leads to the Plaguemarsh of Gildammar.

The Scarlet Bastion & the Blades District

The Scarlet Bastion is a massive keep, with thick walls of basalt and black iron spikes rising from its crenellations, upon which the latest souls of The Red Lady's hell writhe in agony. A thousand-thousand carrion crows - massive hell-tainted corvids who follow the Red Lady everywhere in anticipation of the feast that her slaughter brings for them - perch upon the walls and peck at the dead until one of the Red Lady's devils comes to carry them off into the keep and thence to the Scarlet Charfields, her Talion Hell. The Blades District is home to makers of infernal weapons and armor, to mercenary companies of devil-led tieflings that operate across the planes and to the taverns and inns that serve such warlike folk.

The Gate of Twilight & the Thieves Quarter

The Gate of Twilight is precisely that: a massive, arching gate of basalt, with exactly 800 bowls of burning pitch set along its arch, their flames casting the gate in a hellish light. It is impossible to see past that gate, as a dank fog that smells of blood and caustic poisons seeps out of the gate, all greenish-grey, obscuring the path into the Towers of Dusk, the hell-city of Varum, the Lord of Poisons and god of murder. The district that surrounds the Gate of Twilight is a poorly-lit, tightly cramped slum the likes of which does not exist in the mortal planes in which thieves, murderers and the poor too impoverished to live elsewhere try to eke out another day of life.

Citadel of Night & Labyrinthtown

With tall, stately towers built of sheerest obsidian that seems to swallow the light, the Citadel of Night is all sharp angles (literally - its edges have been known to draw blood from those who touch them) and tall, horrible spires. Within the Citadel is the passage to the Labyrinth Benighted, the realm of Augdos. The town around the Citadel is well-named, for it is a confusing morass of walls that abut the streets, buildings pressed closely together with only tight winding alleys between them, switchbacks and turn-abouts. It is both claustrophic and confusing, and its denizens - the working poor of Perdition - are ill-tempered and surly as a result.

The Eighth Gate

The Eighth Gate provides passage into the outer realms of the Elemental Chaos. Standing floating freely in the fires of raw ravening chaos stands the Perdition Gate, a passage guarded by the Legion of Devils, who charge nearly extortive fees to entry. Despite this, many traders know that a great demand for their rare goods lies on the other side of the Perdition Gate, and so they pay them. The area around the Eighth Gate has no standing buildings, but is a wide open basalt plaza, onto which are built many tents and other mercantile spaces.