[ Planes of Cordance > Sheol ]
Azantul
Mercykiller burg
Location: Planes of Cordance / Sheol
CHARACTER: The headquarters of the Sodkillers, a fraction of the better-known Mercykillers faction, thrives in Sheol. It’s probably because the atmosphere here is as oppressive as in Acheron. Add to that, the strict Caste system of the plane virtually guarantees cutters fall in line readily. Like in other parts of the plane, crime is a fairly uncommon. It seems the sods know their place, believing true freedom comes when a cutter is enthusiastically following the law, rather than constantly looking over their shoulder.
RULER: Once Hakan Coldleaf (prime human cleric of Hoar [he/him] / LE) was sworn in as the Lord Warden of Azantul, the Sodkillers finally got themselves a base in the Outer Planes. Hakan is a stubborn man who believes that berks who argue against the philosophy of the Sodkillers are dangerous barmies who seek to return the multiverse to a state of primal chaos. He believed that all bodies should know the law first and foremost, for only then can they make an informed choice to turn away from chaos. He grew up on the prime world of Toril, and became a priest of Hoar the Faerûnian power of revenge from a young age. However, his time in the church was not easy. Even for a Hoarite he saw things in extreme black and white—breaking the law is an act of evil, while following the law was the only way to be good. For Hakan, no other context was needed. Because if his rigid interpretation of the faith he was kicked out before long. It wasn’t until he found kindred spirits amongst vigilantes on the rough streets of Sigil that opportunities started to opened up for him, with his new philosophical family, the Sodkillers.
BEHIND THE THRONE: Hakan is by no means one to mince his words, but neither does he keeps secrets: What he says is always exactly what he means, but there is something few cutters are brave enough to ask him, and that’s about his power, Hoar. Chant goes there are three aspects of Doombringer, and the clergy is fractured along religious lines. There’s the side of Hoar that relishes poetic justice being delivered to wrongdoers. There’s an aspect that seeks to balance the punishment to fit the crime. And there’s the final darker aspect, who thrives on the glorious taste of vengeance. Hakan is definitely one of the latter creed.
DESCRIPTION: The fortress of Azantul is carved from the rock of the cliff face. It’s one one the best-defended burgs on the plane. The black wall curves outwards to protect the burg from egress from below, ending in three tall, blade-like watch towers. If a body tries to get in from above they most likely fall into the courtyard that’s constantly patrolled by gaol golems, a creation of Long Lartin (planar gnome inventor [they/them] / LE), a cutter prone to elaborate conspiracy theories. His golems make use of a soporific gas that works on all breathing mortals, including elves. These lumbering brutes also have a human-sized cavity in their chest to hold prisoners in temporarily.
The courtyard itself is huge and kept largely empty, mainly to deny any rebellious berks the cover should they try to approach the fortress proper. Everything important to the faction is kept safe and secure in inside the fortress, which tunnels back several hundred feet into the cliff face. The entrance is guarded inside and out by a pair of gargoyles who look like a small adult dragon and a mole. Decorating the main entrance hall are rack after rack of armour. Before you get any ideas, they’re bristling with defensive runes and magical alarm traps, activated by any berk touching them without knowing the pass phrase.
Beyond the entrance hall are stables for a curious kind of mount found only on the slopes of Sheol. A cross-between a horse and a mountain goat, large enough for a human to ride and with the mountain climbing ability of a gecko—the Brutes call them a hoat or a gorse, but their proper name is agondun. The entrance hall is big enough to hold two agonduns side by side, with Sodkiller guards armed and mounted, just in case of trouble.
Get past that, and a cutter is finally in the fortress proper. There are a surprising number of rooms back there, dedicated to archery practice, magical practice, sparing, and of course, plenty of classes to teach the law to recruits new and old.
Azantul also serves as the largest prison on the plane—although there are no jail cells to be found in the fortress. Instead, deep inside the mountainside there’s a large natural cavern, there dozens of birdcages hang in the dark. It’s in these cages that the Sodkillers keep criminals who’ve been sentenced to death, while they are waiting their final execution. They have devised a particularly brutal method of finishing off their prisoners too. The cavern has a population of stirges which live in the darkness, and they slowly drain the blood of the prisoners over several days, since they’re too small to finish off a human in one go. The poor sods can’t see what it is that’s attacking them, and they are too restrained to do anything to fight back. This grisly death was the brainchild of Coldleaf, who finds it particularly amusing that such an easily defeated monster is responsible for the ignoble end of rebels and prisoners. What makes the fate even worse is stirges don’t care to eat dead meat, and they can’t consume an adult at once, so they’ll eat their fill for the day’s fill and leave to sleep off the blood meal.
MILITIA: Lady Mythran Garatoldi (planar garatoldi ruvok fighter [she/her] Sodkillers / LE) is from a ruvoka tribe that once lived near an efreeti palace. Mythran entered the services of the minor efreeti lord as an exotic guest, however lord soon realised she made a far better warrior. Seeking to nurture her fiery spirit with fresh challenges, the efreeti sent her to harrass his rivals and even assassinate the odd azer. The efreeti was so impressed, or maybe amused, that he granted her the title of Lady.
However, as happens with most ruvokas in the end, Mythran fell victim to wanderlust and eventually ended up in Sigil. The Mercykiller faction was a natural fit for her extreme views on crime and punishment. She doesn’t much like Hakan much because of his religious upbringing. Mythran believed that authority should derive from believing in it for logical reasons, not because they’ve been told to believe. However, he’s her higher-up in the faction—for now at least—so she spends her time training the Sodkillers as she’s been assigned to do.
SERVICES: Outsiders and especially planewalkers should not expect a warm welcome in Azantul. The locals laws reserve warm food, warm beds, warm drink, or in fact anything warm at all, for members of the sect. If an outsider asks nicely, follows the rules, and hands over their weapons to the Sodkillers—for safekeeping of course—they may be permitted to kip in the courtyard with some hay for bedding. How sodding generous, eh? The only exception is for cutters who’re able to teach the Sodkillers how to read and write new languages, especially legalese. These lucky berks can expect to be allowed to sleep in the fortress. Whether they can get any of their allies in too will depend on how persuasive they are.
LOCAL NEWS: Chant goes the high-ups of the Sodkillers fraction are making plans to move against the Sons of Mercy, and swing the philosophical needle of the Mercykillers faction to point in their favour. How this will be achieved is dark, but it might be linked to the religious prosletysing that Hakan has been leaning into recently. Perhaps he has a grudge to settle in the faction and is hoping with Hoar’s blessing he might be victorious.
Source: SGreen, Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: ‡ This location its characters, the Planes of Cordance and the concept of the Splinterlands are homebrew and non-canonical. Expanded from Greg Jensen’s original conception, more information on his Planes of Cordance can be found here.