Underworld (CofD)

Beneath reality lies the cavernous deeps of the Underworld, also called the Great Below, the home of the ghosts whose ties to the living world broke. Some places in the world of the living are closer to it and form cenotes, places, where the dead haunt the living. This place is not Hell, but neither is it Heaven, and most ghosts are not happy to be here as they can no longer attempt to complete their business from beyond the grave. It is not a safe place for the living to venture, for some ghosts are sorrowful, some are vengeful, some are mad, and all are desperate. The traveler is always moving downhill or uphill, never flat. The subterranean halls are bleak, but often punctuated with bright colors, reminders for the dead of the living world. This place offers many dangers but many rewards.

Access
The Underworld can be entered through an Avernian Gate. Avernian gates usually occur in places that have some connection with the dead and the idea of death in general. Avernian Gates require a special "key" to be opened. Keys range from extremely broad (any woman of childbearing age can open the gate) to narrow (to open the gate, one must find the body of a man that never took a wife, remove his left index finger, grind into powder, mix the powder with 100-year-old brandy, and share the brandy with two mortal enemies). Some Avernian Gates have more than one key, and some have multiple keys with various permutations. Some people are gifted with the ability to open every Avernian without the use of an key.

Sin-Eaters can use their Geist as an key for an avernian gate, while mages can use the death arcana to stabilize and open a gate. The Lodge of Death among the Uratha knows a special rite to open an avernian gate, while Blood Sorcery can do the same for a vampire. Changelings can access the Underworld by opening an avernina gate with the Contract of Shade and Spirit and Prometheans can fall into it by dying for the first time in a very guresome fashion and waiting for their azothic resurrection.

Besides, every graveyeard contains at least one entrance to the Underworld. Graveyard Gates have a degree of sentience, it seems, and they are hostile to the living. They aren't intelligent per se, but they have will and desire, and that desire is for death. They don't necessarily want to see any particular living person die. Causing death, for them, is about physics. They often open without any form of control, sucking unfortunate living mortals into the Underworld.

Another way is using gateways in the Shadow. They often form in places that have been saturated in death, such as graveyards, morgues, battlefields, or death camps. In the Shadow, they look like little more than a cavern, which can mislead a wanderer into thinking that the Underworld is another part of the Shadow. These gates generally don't have keys, and may have death spirits hanging around.

It is also said that True Love and True Hate can open a gateway into the Underworld, provided the dying person left a ghost behind.

Geography
It is not easy to orientate himself in the labyrinthine maze of tunnels, even in the Upper Reaches,


 * First, you come into the Autochthonous Depths, sometimes known as "Erebus" or the “Upper Reaches.” All ghosts are subject to a kind of gravity: the longer they’re here, the deeper they are pulled into the depths. The Upper Reaches are home to ghosts who’ve been here roughly a century or less. The tunnels here are tighter, maze-like, and often reflect more human cultures (anything from the New York Subway System to the tombs of New Orleans, depending on where one made an ingress). This is were most visitors come and do their business.


 * The first River marks the end of the Upper Reaches and the descent into the Dead Dominions. What river will be found is usually a matter of luck.


 * After the River is crossed, "Tartarus", the Lower Mysteries and the Old Laws await. The longer a ghost remains in the Underworld, the deeper they are drawn. To leave each Domnion behind, you ahve to cross another River. The Dominions are much harder to map, and many report seeing the same Dominions at different depths. The Lower Mysteries become more and more strange as one travels deeper and arrives in the Dead Dominions. The deeper a Dominion is, the more Old Laws it is likely to have and the more powerful and alien the inhabitants become.

- Dead Man's Hand: The first Dominion has two Old Laws and is controlled by a Krewe. It is easiest found when lost and has some distinct Wild-West features.

- The Killing Fields: This dominion has three Old Laws and is the battlefield of two kerberoi and their respective armies, who are locked in an eternal stalemate conflict.

- Lowgate Prison: Overseen by the Kerberos Yama, this Dominion serves as jail for those who broke the Old Laws in other Dominions until they are suitably punished, and, hopefully, disabused of all vice. It has four Old Laws.

- The Junkyard: This Dominion has four Old Laws and is place of an endless Darwinian competition to be the strongest machine, who acts as the Kerberos.

- The Forge of Orcus: In this Dominion, souls are forged into material goods that are sold to other ghosts and visitors for a price. It has five Old Laws.

- Oppia: The Dominion is home to a Geist named Plenty, who captures the essence produced by people who remember the dead and convert it into an endless supply of food. All work within the dominion is performed by slaves who have violated the Old laws. It has five Old Laws.

- The Athenaeum: This dominion houses all forgotten and destroyed knowledge in a gigantic library. All lost information is available there excepting the information stored in a single, destroyed hall. It is guarded by two sphinxes and home to countless hungry owlings, who bring th lost knwoledge into the Dominion. It has eight Old laws.

- Mictlan: Home the the Kerberoi Mictlantecutli and his wife Mictecacihuatl, this domnion is structured as a vast challenge of will and virtue, which, if completed by a visitor, will permit him or her to leave the Dominion with the soul of one person he asks for. It has eight Old Laws.

- The Grave Dream: Within this Dominion, all forgotten dreams can be found. This dominion is rumored to have some connections to the True Fae. It has nine Old Laws.

- The Ocean of Fragments: The last accessible Dominion is the home to all forgotten memories in the form of a black ocean, cruised over by a singel ship. By submersing oneselve in the water, the Dominion absorbs your memories and if one would dive to the ground of the ocean, one would cease to exist. It has twelve Old Laws.

Inhabitants
Within the Underworld, various ghosts and geists well, oblivious of their state. Kerberoi patrol their Dominions and enforce the Old Laws. Ferrymen and Psychopomps pratrol the Rivers and within the deeper Dominions, the deathlords dwell.

Connections to other Realms
The Underworld is most firmly entrenched into the Material World, but has its ties to the Shadow, exspecially in the form of death-spirits. Mages have speculated that Supernal Stygia was once one of the Dead Dominions, raised by the power of the Oracles. It is also rumored to have connections into the Lower Depths.

Speculation
It could also possible, that the realm of Duat, home to the Judges of Duat, is a dead Dominion "forgotten" by modern explorers of the Underworld.