Stygia (WOD)

In Wraith: The Oblivion, Stygia is the capital of the Dark Kingdom of Iron, located deep in the Tempest. It was founded millennia ago on the Isle of Sorrows, at the mouth of the River of Death. Its population of many millions has grown so large the city's urban sprawl now also covers several nearby islands, as well as the shallows of the Sunless Sea. Many of the major organizations of western wraith society have their headquarters here.

Getting there

Stygia can be reached by boat, train or flying. Boats are common along the River of Death; it has tributaries across the Shadowlands that join to the east of where the Isle of Sorrows rests in the Tempest. Many of the Empire's ships are armored or naval vessels. The island's inner port, the Weeping Bay, is filled with a viscous liquid. Apparently soulforged by Nhudri himself, this liquid, officially called the Sea of Souls, has a strange consistency that prevents ships from capsizing and slows their approach. According to local legend, this liquid also anchors the island.

Visitors can also arrive by the Midnight Express. Like the River of Death, the train tracks similarly converge a couple of miles from the city, where portions of Grand Central Station, Gare de Lyon, Union Station and other mortal railways have been fashioned into the high tracks, soaring some 100 feet above the sea. The Midnight Express is able to pick up travelers from any Stygian station at the same time (midnight in local time), making it highly convenient. It's also free to travel. Visitors can also fly in, but the storm winds make this a risky proposition; the city's regular zeppelin transport stopped in the 1970s, after a series of powerful maelstroms. During the Twilight Era, Harbingers avoided the Shadowlands–Stygia journey, colloquially known as "Maelstrom Road", due to the risks posed by the Fourth Great Maelstrom.

The islands

The main body of the city is located on the Isle of Sorrows: a sickle-shaped mass of land which spans eight miles from tip to tip, and measures 15 miles along the eastern curve. The island's arc generally ranges from three to five miles wide. The outer eastern edge of the "curve" rises gently from the River of Death, while the inner western edge has a steeper incline, including several cliffs overhanging the bay. The southwestern edge has a network of channels across marshy lowlands, across which, a few miles away, is the Emerald Keep – the closest landmass to the Veinous Stair. Past the shallows, the island is ringed with a tall black soulsteel wall: the 100-feet-tall seawall. Beyond this, to the north and east of the Isle of Sorrows, are the eight islands called the Iron Hills. These were joined to the mainland by a series of bridges in the early 20th century, when they were officially annexed to Stygia to house the rising population around the time of the Great War.

On the Isle of Sorrows, the city proper is built upwards – in different strata characterized by the architectural styles popular when the relic structures passed into the Underworld. The ruins of classical Greece and Rome form the bottom layer, with subsequent layers becoming more and more modern, occasionally resulting in mile-high structures. Where necessary, construction has expanded the available landmass outward into the marshy shallows to contain the city's multitudes. Building has also extended downward, so that Stygia's lowest levels are far beneath the surface. When structures inevitably crumble or fail, they are often submerged in the bay, creating more opportunities for land reclamation. In these dark streets, lighting is provided by "living torches" made of soulforged wraiths, while time is measured by the city's tide-based waterclocks.

Popular history says there are seven hills on the Isle of Sorrows. There were probably at least nine hills originally, but the others have been hidden in the construction. These hills rise roughly along the center of the island, and each is occupied by one of the Deathlords' citadels. From north to south, with each at least a mile apart. they are: the Seat of Shadows (Iron Legion), the Seat of Dust (Skeleton Legion), the Seat of Burning Waters (Grim Legion), the Seat of Succor (Penitent Legion), the Seat of Silence (Silent Legion), the Seat of Golden Tears (Legion of Paupers), and the Seat of Thorns (Emerald Legion). Preferring her privacy, the Lady of Fate instead has her seat on the Isle of Eurydice, some 20 miles offshore. Above even the Deathlords' places stands the Onyx Tower, a lighthouse built by Charon. It is the oldest structure in Stygia, sitting at the highest point on the northwestern tip of the island. The lighthouse was continually built upon by subsequent generations of wraiths, although the black tower used by Charon has been locked since he left to confront Gorool at the end of World War II.

Getting about

The main thoroughfare is the Road of Lords, which winds along the central ridge of the island, from Onyx Point to the Emerald Keep. It is sheltered from storms by a cantilevered, windowed roof, and right of way belongs to the Legions' forces. The Deathlords' citadels can be reached by several smaller streets which cross the Road of Lords.

Running around the entire outer edge of the island, the Road of Steel rises five feet above sea level on a retaining wall, held up in multiple places by bridges. As the widest street in Stygia, it is spacious enough to transport whole buildings on their platforms during the city's many periods of construction and reconstruction. It is made of silver-white soulsteel which is not used anywhere else. Stygian steel sidewalks rise a foot above the rest of the Road of Steel, making room for pedestrians, while piers jut from the Road of Steel's retaining wall.

The two-tier Road of Souls cuts across the island from east to west: rising from the outer scythe edge to meet the Road of Lords in the middle, and then running down to the bay between the Seat of Burning Waters and the Seat of Silence. The larger, open-air upper tier is reserved for larger traffic, while the lower tier is used by pedestrians and smaller vehicles.

Changing cityscape

Wr20 Stygia Map Poster From Onyx Path Publishing

Stygia is described as constantly changing – as relic and artifact structures collapse, are destroyed, or cease to be of use, new structures are built in their place (or even on top of them). This means that Storytellers have significant leeway in describing how Stygia looks and where things are. Despite this, there are some constant features in the Stygian cityscape. Descriptions of Stygia almost always include the following locations:

• The Onyx Tower, the tallest building in Stygia and the seat of power for Charon.
• The Palaces of the Deathlords where each Legion of the Hierarchy is headquartered. The "realm" around each palace is controlled by the relevant Deathlord.
• The Pardoners' Guildhouse, one of several "chapter houses" belonging to the Pardoners Guild, and home to their infamous Angst Battery.
• The Forges of the Artificers, where those who offend the Hierarchy are made into something more useful to their agenda.
• The entrance to the Veinous Stair that winds deep down into the Labyrinth.
• The Great Library, formerly known to the living as the Library of Alexandria and the place where all surviving Stygian history is kept.
• The Agora, or Marketplace, near the Onyx Tower. It is the site of a rebellion in Wraith: The Great War.
• The Temples of the Shining Ones who betrayed Charon; these ruins stand on the edge of the city as a reminder of their treachery.

Also common to all descriptions of Stygia are the echoes of buildings from the Skinlands that were destroyed and transported to the Isle of Sorrows. Modern skyscrapers jut up from ancient Roman ruins from the city's founding, and demolished factories sit alongside beloved family homes.

Districts

Typically, each of the main districts is managed by the Legion whose citadel is closest to it. Each Legion fields civil patrols of self-armed locals to act as everything from police to petty bureaucrats, favoring members of the Legion over others. Closest to each citadel, three-quarters or more of all wraiths in that district likely belong to the respective Legion; the rest are those members of other Legions who work or slumber in the district. As one gets closer to the shoreline and valleys, the proportion belonging to the district's Legion can fall to half or less of the total.

Lower Bay

The Lower Bay is the area of Stygia's shoreline closest to the Weeping Bay. As it is less steep than the Upper Bay area, it is officially reserved for businesses; wraiths who slumber there must avoid the police patrols. It is evenly comprised of relic buildings, dating back to any era between ancient Crete and World War II, and soulforged structures with much greater uniformity. While the harbormasters prefer the regularity of soulforged buildings, reflecting the regularity of bureaucracy itself, the conflicting interests of the Legions and other wraiths with stakes in the docks contributes to the Lower Bay's architectural and commercial diversity.

Other than the many docks and warehouses, there is also an administrative library on the waterfront which tracks Hierarchy transactions across the various Necropoli. It is managed by Lizabette Julan of the Penitent Legion.

Upper Bay

The Upper Bay spans the higher, steeper area towards the crest of the Isle of Sorrows, where numerous cliffs and caves are located. Because of its sloping terrain, the Upper Bay has far fewer warehouses and commercial enterprises than the Lower Bay; most structures are near the flatter land around the Road of Lords.

Fallen Rome

Fallen Rome was created after the First Great Maelstrom, when a landslide on the cliffs near the Road of Lords resulted in a section of Roman buildings sliding closer to the water's edge. The buildings, which crossed the Shroud during a fire in the Nero era, now list at a 70-degree angle, suspended halfway to the Sea of Souls. Fallen Rome is a popular meeting place for practitioners of Argos and a great challenge for daredevils. One of its most famous (and respected) features is the Dominus Ex Anima – a statue, perhaps of Charon or some prophesied successor, cast in bronze and marble.

The Hermitage

The Hermitage is a particularly notable cave in Upper Bay – managed by the Penitent and Silent Legions – where wraiths tired of Stygian society can abide in isolation. Pardoners frequently visit the Hermitage to tend to those at risk from their Shadows. It is the largest cave on Stygia.

Riverside

Legion control doesn't always run as far as the shore. Riverside describes all the areas along the eastern side of the island in which Legion oversight is minimal or even nonexistent. It covers the various rocky outcroppings, derelicts and wrecks where desperate and marginalized wraiths seek shelter or turf. By tradition, it also includes the Great Library, which has been declared neutral ground by all. Riverside is also home to the Fountain of Caroline, which serves as a sort of speaker's corner. At Caroline's, the crowds can hear even the most radical or dangerous ideas (and at least some poetry), while the speakers are free to voice such sentiments without reprisal.

The Great Library of Stygia

From the no-man's-land on the eastern edge of Stygia, the Great Library of Stygia extends a mile inland, bounded on one side by Hangtown, and across multiple piers erected over the River of Death. Topped with two half-mile towers and reaching many stories underground, the Library is as vast as it is valued. Its designation as neutral ground exists only because no one is willing to cede control to anyone else, and yet no one wants to see the Library destroyed either. Originally built from the ruins of the Library of Alexandria, the Great Library was expanded with relic libraries from places such as Constantinople and Pompeii, among others. The oldest structures are buried beneath the Road of Steel. The entire history of Stygia (and much of Western history) is recorded in the Library, making the location a target for thieves from all links of the food chain.

Onyx Point

The first settlement on the Isle of Sorrows, Onyx Point is the district that grew around Charon's lighthouse. The light from Charon's lantern still illuminates the city. Charon himself lived in the adjoining Onyx Tower; the Deathlords often held their ceremonial meetings in the level below his throneroom. The tower, once the heart of the Empire, has remained locked and abandoned following Charon's disappearance.

The buildings at the base of the tower – comprising the rest of the Onyx Citadel and its Hierarchy administrative offices – are still used by the Stygian government, but the area around the citadel no longer draws crowds like it once did. Where previously all manner of bureaucrats, gawkers and petitioners came to Onyx Point via the Road of Lords, most visitors now come to sit on its park benches or look out across the dark waters. The soulfire crystal atop Charon's lighthouse is maintained by the Artificers, while the rest of the Onyx Tower is cleaned and repaired by rotating crews of volunteers from across the Legions. According to local legend, wraiths who slumber here see prophetic visions.

Hall of the Counselors

The Hall of the Counselors, also called the Great Council Hall or just "the Senate", is the official meeting place for Stygia's Senate, resembling the Roman building of the same name. This is where the Deathlords' Ruling Council of Stygia makes decisions in Charon's stead. Beneath the Senate, it is said there are vaults storing the most important Relic treasures from the mortal world — including the Spear of Longinus.

Agora

The Agora, located near the Onyx Tower, is a popular meeting place for the citizens of Stygia. Styled after classical Greece and Rome, it is a meeting place as well as a market. While many things can be purchased here, the sale of thralls is reserved for less conspicuous locations – although slave traders will occasionally hang around the Agora hoping to find new customers. The Agora is also the site of a famous rebellion by the Agora Dozen during the Great War. Legend has it that the Renegades who rebelled against the Smiling Lord's Insurgency in the Twilight Era all attained Transcendence as a result of their act. The rebellion also sparked other acts of resistance against the New Stygians, including the defection of the Emerald Legion to the Loyalist side, and a raid on the Paper Cage – a prison for Japanese wraiths kept in the Iron Hills – led by Hirobumi Ito and his Bushido Clan. The Legion of the Onyx Tear maintains a common presence in the Agora, recognizable as groups of up to six soldiers wearing long black masks.

Ironville

The Ashen Lady's citadel, the Seat of Shadows, is based here, near the Road of Lords. At the northernmost of the seven (visible) hills, Ironville is a district dominated by spires of dark soulsteel and stone quarried from the Veinous Stair itself. The Iron Legion's emotional resonance changes the area over the course of a "day": the district is gleaming and majestic in the morning, but slowly crumbles to ruins by night. This effect is most pronounced at the Ashen Lady's palace, but other buildings reflect similar transfigurations. Despite this, the district's inhabitants prefer to conserve whatever they can, including ancient buildings, meaning construction is relatively slow and cautious compared to other districts. The district also houses more than its fair share of engineers and restoration experts, many of whom are engaged in preservation and construction across the Dark Kingdom of Iron.

Notable locations in Ironville include the so-called "Angela Agony Avenue", named for a Pardoner whose ministrations caused Shadow-ridden wraiths to cry out in pain – their suffering audible to passersby on the street. Traders in rare and antique relics also visit the House of Julio and Livia, which has a vast collection of goods in its sprawling underground storerooms.

The Spine

The Skeletal Legion is based in the Spine, a place where soulforged construction is notably more common than relic buildings. The Seat of Dust sits on one of Stygia's lowest hills on the eastern shore of the Isle of Sorrows. It is decorated with delicate white patterns and skeletal sculptures on its walls, apparently made with relic bones. The Skeletal Legion therefore pays better than anywhere else in Stygia for relic bones. The baroque style of the Skeletal Lord's palace is reflected in the other buildings in the Spine as well. While the Seat offers little support for those concerned about Passions or Fetters, there are a few Pardoners located here. Generally, though, the Skeletal Lord prefers to focus on business, and this attitude is common across the Spine. Merchants ply their wares in exotic materials – especially if they come from the Veinous Stair or Tempest. The Legion officially discourages wraiths from helldiving without the proper training, preferring to rely on the many highly proficient Argos practitioners based in the Spine. The arts, as far as such can be said to exist in the Spine, tend to focus on being informative rather than moving.

The Skeletal Lord openly declares loyalty to Charon, including forbidding heretical beliefs, but he interprets them through his own religiously-inspired delusions of grandeur. That gives heretics a certain leeway in the Spine that they would not have elsewhere. Heretics who practice in private may be ignored, but those engaging in such practices publicly are often punished if they go too far. The result of this is that many heretics and iconoclasts live in the Spine, regardless of their deathmarks, and this dilutes the proportion of those belonging to the Legion.

Temple of Fishers

The Temple of Fishers is located on the eastern edge of Stygia, not far from the Seat of Dust, where it faces towards the Tempest. For 1600 years, the Fishers and their adherents openly gathered at this amalgam of relic churches, eventually forming the Knights of the Fishers (or "Crusader-Knights") to rebel against Charon's tithes. After the Crusaders' attempted sacking of the Onyx Tower, Charon discovered stolen relics at the Temple, in defiance of the Treaty of Paradise and the Lux Veritatis. When Charon later learned of the mockery made of the Far Shores by fallen Shining Ones, he enacted the Proclamation of Reason, labeling the Fishers as Heretics. While the pious and curious alike can visit the many temples in the Spine, including the Temple of Fishers itself, actual worship at such sites is forbidden; the local patrols will harry anyone seen to be practising openly.

Mog's

One infamous location in the Spine is a boarded-up house called Mog's, after its most notable inhabitant. The house is the site of strange happenings – with rumors suggesting it houses plasmic monsters or a nihil – and those who enter the house don't come out.

Hangtown

In the shadow of the Seat of Burning Waters, Hangtown is stained by the violence which brings wraiths into the Grim Legion – criminals dwell beside their victims, and tensions always simmer. The Grim Legion's patrols enforce a strict adherence to the rules of etiquette, hauling off unlucky wraiths to avoid escalation. For this reason, Hangtown is always tense. One way the locals attempt to release some of this tension is through recreation of various kinds – violence is permitted within such pursuits, so long as it remains contained. Bloodlust informs much of the entertainment in Hangtown, but afterwards, everyone goes back to pretending they all get along. Anyone who finds the fake politeness intolerable quickly moves to another district instead.

Hangtown sprawls close to the Great Library, and the Smiling Lord would love to annexe the latter to his territory, if only he could hold it against the opposition. Unfortunately, the Library patrols are independent of the Grim Legion and have their own, conflicting protocols to follow. Hangtown patrols which tread on Library turf are quickly chased out. But Hangtown does have a few attractions of its own (besides bloody sports and gruesome theatre). Named for a local hero who held back hordes of spectres during the Fifth Great Maelstrom, Michael V. Roberts' Passage leads onto Malavis Square, a cobbled outdoor market that attracts romantics and war buffs. The Seat of Burning Waters is a less pleasant sight – its burning moat, scorched iron walls and emanating screams tend to put most wraiths off.

Colosseum

The amphitheater of Stygia serves as a place for bloodthirsty entertainment, beloved by the Smiling Legion. For those outside the Legion, it also serves as a place of Hierarchy justice – where criminals meet their just deserts. Moliated thralls may fight each other or face plasmic beasts, drawing large crowds.

Sanctuary

The Laughing Lady's palace dominates Sanctuary. Canyons have been carved into the island by the wear of years and Maelstroms, accentuating the Seat of Succor where it rises among the other buildings. It resembles something clinical – more asylum than palace – and lacks the ostentation of the other citadels. Unhappy laughter echoes around the Penitent Legion's stronghold, which can quickly turn into weeping, screaming, or glossolalia – deterring even the most sanguine of wraiths. But those who work around the Seat of Succor claim to find some kind of peace in time.

Unlike Hangtown, the people of Sanctuary are encouraged to confront each other. Victims and perpetrators face each other in public or private to address their grievances. This gives Sanctuary a certain "liveliness", but the Legion swears by the value of getting recriminations out in the open. To its credit, many anguished wraiths have come to Sanctuary looking for support, and claim to have found it, whether they were Penitents or not. Then again, there's also an unusually large community of helldivers in the area, who tend to secret large quantities of Angst in Sanctuary's hidden cellars and dark corners. For those who don't seek spiritual enlightenment, the district also boasts multiple contiguous parcels of land once beloved by bacchanalian cults, which together form the largest plot of undeveloped real estate in all of Stygia.

Newtown

In Newtown, quietness and mist surround the hill bearing the Seat of Silence. According to the Quiet Lord, this palling ambience persists – even when the weather is fine elsewhere – to provide space for contemplation. There are specialists in Castigate within the citadel to help those who struggle with their grief, though the sounds of mourning replace silence inside its walls.

Architecturally, Newtown is far more ambitious than other districts. Though the Spine has more Underworld-constructed buildings, Newtown is more forward-thinking. In leaving behind the past, its residents tend to seek new attachments, and the result is that many of the things made here are vastly different from their Skinlands equivalents. Newtown also sees renewal in its local populace; wraiths tend to come here and then move on. Its airfields and dockyards make it the first landing point for many new arrivals in Stygia.

Whilestown

While the Emerald Legion's Seat of Thorns is particularly exquisite to look at – decorated with ghostly emeralds – the Emerald Lord has drowned the citadel in briars cultivated from the riverside trees, hiding it from onlookers. Visitors to the palace have to navigate a maze of thorns to get to their destination, all because the Emerald Lord deems it necessary to protect himself and his Legion. The Emerald Legion has a relatively small presence in the empire's capital; it is far more active outside of Stygia. As such, Whilestown has become a place for an odd assortment of wraiths of all kinds, and the Emerald Lord is happy for it to stay that way. Whilestown is known for individuals (and businesses) that fulfil unusual niches and cater to all kinds of misfits. It's also very common to find those individuals with a side hustle or two, or two different buildings fused together to create something indicative of the locals.

South End

The Legion of Paupers claims South End as its own. The Seat of Golden Tears rears over the southeastern edge of Stygia, where its ever-shifting structure sees its constituent parts moving around, above and behind each other, each time creating new configurations for the observer. As befits the Legion of Paupers' membership, South End takes in those wraiths who don't fit anywhere else, and this extends to the modest assortment of relics, buildings and businesses that one finds here too. The inhabitants of South End like to repurpose lost and discarded things, but they don't appreciate tourists or those who throw things away.

Like all the other institutions in South End, the local "prison" is fashioned from something else. In this case, a building with a blank front in a depressing neighborhood, known by all as Antonius Giovanni's House. Anyone the Beggar Lord particularly dislikes might end up here, though what diabolical punishments occur inside remains a matter of urban legend.

Iron Hills

Once a place for the wealthy classes of Stygia, as well as those who wanted to remain out of view of the Hierarchy's ever watchful eye, that all changed on 1 January 1915 (310 Anno Stygiae Post Tertium). By imperial proclamation, the Onyx Tower announced the building of several barracks-like towers on these eight islands, declaring them part of the ever-growing Stygian metropolis. Thronging with the massive numbers of dead created by the wars in the Skinlands in the early 20th century, Stygia needed extra space for its new residents, so the previous locals of the Iron Hills were resettled and paid off. Thralls from Stygia and the Yellow Springs constructed at least eight new towers on the island, under the supervision of the Bleak Legion. The nearest of the eight islands, in the south, is a mile from the Isle of Sorrows, and connected via massive bridges and causeways. Routes now stretch between the islands and the Onyx Tower in the south and Riverside in the north, passing through openings in the seawall that require hours to open and close properly. Although snapping the portals shut takes only minutes, it requires repairs to reopen the passageways when rushed in this fashion.

Now half a million wraiths occupy the Iron Hills, with the number slowly but surely increasing. Gone are the villas and communes of the former occupants, with most residents living in squalor using whatever they can dredge from the River of Death. The precariousness of their situation means most inhabitants of the Iron Hills have become resilient and exhibit great solidarity. It's also a place where rebellion, heresy and intrigues can flourish, away from the Legions. A bunch of Renegades and rascals have taken up residence in the burned out relic of the Brian Quinn Estates, which arrived in its entirety in the Iron Hills in 1987. Though the Legions organize semi-regular raids, they never succeed in eradicating the idealists and troublemakers – they just clear the way for new gangs to settle in. The House Aludian Thex Built is another place of ill-repute. As a former villa, it is now the home of Nicholas Vandemaele-Couchy, who trades in thralls reaped by his lackeys and killed by an elder Lasombra. A slightly more esteemed establishment is Nikink's Pathos bar, where members of the Hierarchy, Guilds and Heretics mix – of all ranks – with rumors suggesting even the Deathlords sometimes visit to discuss their plans. The Iron Hills was also the historic location of the Paper Cage: a prison for the more than 600 enthralled Japanese wraiths who helped build the Hills' huge towers during the Twilight Era.

Other locations

Among the other locations in Stygia are:

• Nhudri's forge is located somewhere in Stygia.
• The Forum Charonis Minor, where you will find Phocian's Column.
• The Street of Extinguished Lanterns has many tall houses previously used by Pardoners, but has since been abandoned.
• The Via Furorum (Road of Furies), a broader street which joins the Street of Extinguished Lanterns.
• The Street of Empty Bottles, a cobbled street which is near the Commandery of the Martyr Knights and the Pardoners' Guildhouse. After the Angst Battery explodes, spectres held captive beneath the city are located here.
• The Street of the Lamplighters, which is near the Street of Empty Bottles.
• The Street of Amphorae, which is somewhere near the Street of the Lamplighters.
• Various honeycomb-like subterranean chambers, which contribute to the island's collapse during the Sixth Great Maelstrom.

Guildhouses

The Guildhouses of some of the Guilds are in Stygia:

• Lord Ember's mansion is located beneath the streets of Stygia. Many apprentices are trained in the hundreds of chambers comprising his home and guildhouse, and Ember has devised a complicated ventilation system to disperse the smoke across the city in such a way that no one can locate the site of the building.
• The Masquers' Guildhouse is located in a middle-class area of Stygia. It is a ziggurat on the surface, with sleeping quarters below.
• The Pantheon Temple is the main Guildhouse of the Oracles. Guarded by a Moliated Minotaur, it contains the Library of Ages, and features a statue garden, gilt marble bulls, and indigo and gold mosaics. It has vast catacombs beneath it, papered in hand-scrawled parchments that resemble marble.
• The Pardoners' Guildhouse is the main "chapter house" of the Guild in Stygia. It resembles a tall cathedral. The Guild also maintains several other chapter houses in Stygia, as well as in most of the major the Necropoli, which are typically church-like and feature an iron lantern hanging outside. By calling these "chapter houses", the Pardoners maintain the fiction that they are not a Guild (just as they call themselves the "Society" of Pardoners). The main chapter house has a printing press, and the Angst Battery is located in its basement. It's near the Commandery of the Martyr Knights, with its basement, at least, located beneath unremarkable buildings located halfway up the Road of Souls.

The Guildmasters are hinted to have previously occupied a location known as the Weeping Towers. Whether this was a single building, a street or a district is unclear.

Version differences

Stygia has been described in different ways between books. For example, in The Hierarchy and Wraith: The Oblivion Second Edition, Charon's Senate, including the Deathlords, meets in the Hall of the Counselors. In The Book of Legions and Ends of Empire, the Deathlords are described as using the Onyx Tower's meeting room, one story below Charon's apartments. In Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, only the buildings around the base of the tower are still used, with the tower itself locked.

First Edition

In the first and second editions of the game, the Onyx Tower is described as standing in the center of Stygia.

Second Edition

Until Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, the most detail on Stygia as a whole was provided in Ends of Empire. In Ends of Empire, the following details are different from prior or later descriptions:

• The citadels of the Deathlords are situated "in an arc just below the Onyx Tower", instead of being spread throughout the Isle of Sorrows. This contradicts other books, where the Deathlords' palaces are spread throughout Stygia.
• The Road of Lords runs between the Deathlords' palaces, encircling the hill on which rests the Onyx Tower. In Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, the Road of Lords runs along the crest of the island instead, with roads that branch off to meet the citadels.
• The edge of the Isle facing the Tempest is sheer cliff; the edge facing the bay has a gently rising shoreline. In Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, the eastern edge has a gently rising shoreline, while the bayside has more cliff edges.
• The Road of Souls runs from the bay to the Onyx Tower.
• The Sea of Souls is explicitly comprised of chained, moaning drones, and the Weeping Bay is a distinct part of it. This is the same in all prior books. In Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, the Sea of Souls is instead "the official name of the bay". While it is still soulforged, the nature of the Sea of Souls is left vague and neither the chained souls nor their cries are mentioned.
• The book briefly mentions the "Road of Thrones", but doesn't describe it or mention it again. This may have been a typo for the Road of Lords (where the Deathlords' palaces are) or the Road of Souls (which, in this book, leads to the Onyx Tower).

Orpheus

In Orpheus, which takes place after the onset of the Sixth Great Maelstrom, the fabled Nameless City located on the other side of the Stormwall is a ruined and abandoned Stygia.

References

Further reading

• WTO/cMET: Oblivion, p. 20, 25, 32
• WTO: Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 487-488