Lore:The Chasm

Ancient Magics
(Available to Control Wizards only)

The longer a civilization is able to study and refine their magic, the more understanding they gain of the true inner workings of the art. The wizards of Netheril built entire cities held aloft by magic. Many ancient cities are still protected by mythals, ancient rituals of great power that continue to function today.

To encounter a civilization that still possesses such knowledge is astounding. The potential for magical advancement and learning is great, but so are the risks. Especially when dealing with cruel and malignant beings.

Apprentice Row
Whenever masters of magic gather across the face of Abeir-Toril, one will also find a motley assortment of aspiring students: the ubiquitous wizard's apprentice.

Apprentice Row once housed crowds of young knowledge seekers. Here the scions of noble house rubbed elbows with peasant children who showed a talent for magic, each striving to gain the approval of a master of the arcane, who might deign to become their teacher.

Before the Cataclysm, the rundown tenements of this region witnessed countless hours of dedicated study...and just as many hours spent blowing off steam in the Row's many cheap taverns.

Cauldron of Blue Fire
In the deepest pit of this Spellplague Caverns lies the Cauldron of Blue Fire. Here, a monstrous aboleth oversees the spread of the Spellplague in and around Neverwinter, corrupting all it touches.

The Symphony of Madness is strong here, with the whispering insanity amplified by the will of the aboleth.

The aboleth is often attended by many Spellscarred wielding blue fire and hordes of servitors created from the spawning pits.

Fort Precipice
Perched precariously above a yawning abyss is Scar Company's forward base: Fort Precipice. Once the fortified manor of Roderick the Wary, a wizard renowned for his paranoia, For Precipice stands as a crumbling bulwark between the unsuspecting people of Neverwinter and the plaguechanged horrors of the Chasm.

Gruumsh, Lord of Nishrek
(Available to Half-Orcs only)

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Leading from the Front
(Available to Humans only)

Humankind has a relatively divers martial tradition, but throughout them all there is a common thread of bravery and recklessness. When humans go into battle, there is little that inspires them more than the sight of their commanders leading the way. This can of course be said for many other races, but then combined with human recklessness, the practice among their kind is alarmingly common.

It serves to mention that not all human live up to the standard set by their greatest (and probably dead) heroes. But even those shrewd should who eschew physical conflict can occasionally be stirred into action by greed of vengeance.

Plaguefire
When Mystra, the goddess of magic, was assassinated at the hands of the evil god Cyric the very fabric of magic was torn asunder resulting in the cataclysmic event known as the Spellplague. During this catastrophe entire nations were consumed in torrents of blue Plaguefire.

Now, almost a century later, active pockets of spellplague can still be found scattered across the face of the world. These regions are continuously seared by the distinctive blue flame of Plaguefire. Burning without apparent fuel, Plaguefire harms both the body and spirit of those unlucky enough to come into contact with it.

Quorthon's Gates
The Spellscarred sun elf wizard, Quorthon came to Neverwinter to study the strange energies of the Chasm. His efforts were hindered by the difficulty of traveling between the hanging terraces of the jagged rift. The facilitate his studies he devised a series of teleportation portals that are power by the forces of the Chasm itself.

Ingeniously designed to prohibit use by the Plaguechanged, the portals have proved to be a tremendous boon to Scar Company. In gratitude Captain Markath has assigned soldiers to guard the wizard while he continues his studies.

Scar Company
Lord Neverember has decreed that all citizens of Neverwinter who show sings of the Spellplague are to be removed to the asylum at Helm's Hold for treatment. The afflicted have no say in the matter and if they resist they are removed forcibly by Neverember mercenaries. But for those few Spellscarred who happen to be trained or skilled adventurers there is one alternative: Scar Company.

This irregular military unit is composed entirely of Spellscarred volunteers who have been given the task of guarding Neverwinter against attacks from the plaguechanged creatures of the Chasm. Scar Company is perpetually undermanned and ill-supplied since no Company soldier is allowed to leave the Chasm once they arrive and few on the surface are willing to brave a trip into the Chasm for fear of contacting the Spellplague.

All volunteers are well aware that joining Scar Company is a virtual death sentence, but for them a chance to die fighting is far preferable to interment in Helm's Hold with little hope for anything but a slow, painful end.

In spite of all the hardships they face, or perhaps because of them, Scar Company soldiers are renowned for their courage, grit and dedication to one another.

Spellplague Disciples
Some of the strongest of the Spellscarred learn to wield Spellplague fire like a weapon, using it to cast powerful magic to destroy their enemies.

These Spellplague Disciples are often sought by the Order of Blue Fire to be recruited as Accordants.

The Arcanist Quarter
This floating earth mote hold a portion of Neverwinter's once illustrious Arcanist Quarter. In better days, wizards and sorcerers from across the Sword Coast came here to pursue their studies and fraternize with colleagues in the mystic arts.

When the Cataclysm struck, this portion of the Arcanist Quarter sank several hundred feet yet it did not plunge into the Chasm entirely. It seems likely that the concentration of arcane energy then present in this neighborhood was somehow responsible for keeping the mote aloft.

The Broken Barracks
Those few Neverwinter structures that survived the Cataclysm intact were generally fortifications, public buildings and the homes of powerful wizards, all of which benefited from protective magic. The walls that make up Scar Keep and the Broke Barracks were once part of a Neverwinter Army post, warded with protective spells intended to preserve them from attacks by siege engines and hostile spells.

The wizards who cast those protective spells could never have foreseen their magic would hold the fortification more or less intact as it plummeted into the deep rift of the Chasm.

The Chasm's Depths
The bottom of the Chasm is a pitted wasteland of twisted and shattered rock. Spellplague energy flares from the ground and the walls seemingly at random threatening to douse any unlucky enough to be standing nearby. It is eerily silent, except for the raspy berating and the echoing footfalls of the plaguechanged creatures. If one also listens closely, however, something else can also be heard: the entire landscape hums with energy, pulsing as though it were itself a living, breathing creature.

The Chasm's False Bottom
A clever defense, the Twisted Fane was discovered to be nothing more than a red herring, a distraction built and maintained by the true masters of the Chasm meat to confound those who would seek the masters out. While the Fane gives the impression that it is the source of the Spellplague energy that rises towards the surface, a closer inspection revealed that the azure crystal at its center in truth has no such power.

Clearly, the true masters of the Chasm constructed the Twisted Fane in the hopes that any foe powerful enough to reach it would slay the foulspawn fodder lurking there, destroy the worthless crystal, and then, thinking their job is complete, depart. But even if this foe did not depart, at the very least they would reveal their presence to the masters, allowing time for preparations to be made.

The Gateways
The Far Realm is a distant dimension, and opening portals to it is a harrowing process.

Only through powerful magic or concentrated areas of Spellplague energy can reality be warped enough to allow passage between the Far Realm and the Prime Material Plane. Even then, the most powerful of the Far Realm entities are kept at bay by ancient wards forbidding passage into our world.

The Ongoing Threat
(Available to Humans only)

The Chasm if one of the more lasting reminders of the devastation that claimed Neverwinter after the Spellplague. Adding insult to injury, twisted horrors continue to find their way up out of its depths. Most of the people of Neverwinter are content to treat the Chasm as another external threat. Others wish to close it, or at least eradicate the source of the plaguechanged that threaten Neverwinter.

Occasionally, groups of battle-worthy citizens make forays into the depths. They are armed most often with more bravery then sense, but their dogged resolve drives them to see their grim task through. Or die in the attempt.

The Order of Girded Healers
Members of this religious order worship both Trom, the god of duty, and Ilmater, the god of suffering. The primary purpose of the Order is to bring healing to those afflicted by war or the Spellplague - or in the case of Scar Company, both.

Girded Healers seek to heal the bodies and bolster the spirits of those they serve. It is quite common for members of this order to perish in the performance of their duties.

The Plaguefire Ruins
The fine state of the Exterior of these ruins belies the fact that the interior is ablaze with pockets of Plaguefire. So great is the power of the Spellplague within that some speculate the building holds a portal to one of the active plaguelands that can still be found in remote corners of Faerûn. Others say that plaguelands is not some far distant region but rather lies somewhere within the depth of the Chasm itself

The Scrying Tower
The Scrying Tower was once home to a college of wizards who studied the arts of divination and clairvoyance. These wizards produced items ranging from the simple public scrying stones stat still provide senic views of Neverwinter, to powerful crystal balls and divining mirrors that allowed trained users to per across time, space and even the Outer Planes.

Like many centers of arcane sturdy, the Scrying Tower survived the plunge into the Chasm largely intact. The sun elf scholar Quorthon has made the tower his headquarters while he pursues his study of the Chasm and the Spellplague.

The Spawning Pits
It is probably more merciful for those who have succumbed to the ravages of the Spellplague to die a quick death than be lured into the depths of the Chasm.

Within the Spellplague Caverns are the horrific Spawning Pits where beings are dropped and undergo a painful transformation into grotesque creatures in service to the massive creature lairing in the depths of the Spellplague Caverns.

The Spellplague Caverns
Beneath the Twisted Fane at the bottom of the Chasm is the Spellplague Caverns. No sane mortal would want to enter these warped passageways filled with horrors beyond imagining.

In these labyrinthine tunnels, hordes of creatures from the Far Realm gibber and wail as a monstrous aboleth whispers madness into their minds.

Twisted Fane
At the center of the area at the bottom of the Chasm stands a fortress of black rock seemingly molded like clay around a pulsing azure crystal. Among those who have reason to speak of such things, it has come to be known as the Twisted Fane.

Few have ventured far down enough into the Chasm to see the Twisted Fane firsthand, but those who have have reported that it seems to be the source of the chaotic energy that swirls up from within the Chasm. Its exact purpose, however, remains unknown, as none have entered and lived to tell the tale.

Unhallowed Grounds
The wizards of Neverwinter spent lavishly to raise a cathedral to Mystra the goddess of magic. The Arcanist Quarter grew around this center of worship, making it the hub of all things magical in old Neverwinter. With the death of Mystra during the Time of Troubles the cathedral was abandoned by her leaderless clerics and it stood empty for many long years.

When the Cataclysm opened the Chasm the cathedral of Mystra slipped into the void with the rest of the Arcanist Quarter, but strange forces seemed to center on the building, warping and twisting the stones and causing the entire area to remain suspended in air.

Rumors of Plaguefire erupting within the old cathedral attracted members of the Order of Blue Flame who quickly proclaimed the ruin a holy site. Member of Scar Company are of a different mind, and have refer to the area as the Unhallowed Grounds.