The Last Matarta
The last of the trials that awaits Mandaean petitioners.
Location: Bytopia / Dothion and Shurrock
When you go far enough on pretty much any of the Outer Planes, you’ll notice that things start getting really weird. On the far reaches of Bytopia the mountains of Shurrock and the hills of Dothion rise higher and higher, until some of them join together, forming strange hole-riddled walls of stone. Among these spectacular mountain ranges sits the Last Matarta.
While outsiders use the word to refer to the Bytopian realm, the uthras and their followers describe seven matartas as different realms that their souls must pass through after their deaths. It starts the normal way—the souls of the dead must traverse the River of Souls to the Underlands, where psychopomps or powers of the dead sort them out to their destined afterlife. Those who are found to have followed Hayyi Rabbi are dropped off onto a ship called Shahrat. This glowing self-propelling ship sails, without captain or pilot along own planar pathway called Hitfun. This is a river that first crosses the boundary of the World of Darkness, where the creatures who dwell there try to entice petitioners to join their side. After passing seven matartas of this realm, Hitfun berths at the Last Matarta, the domain of Abatur on Bytopia.
This realm is a place of secrets, shrouded in thick cloudbanks. Uthras constantly stalk the borders of the Last Matarta, looking for signs of intrusion. Beyond the clouds is a marvellous sight. Gufnas rise up, stretching between Bytopia’s two layers, while glowing rivers and glittering streams run across the hills. By far the largest of these rivers is Hitfun itself. It enters the realm on the Dothion side, and then rises up as a giant waterfall that disappears into a sinkhole in Shurrock’s side. It’s said that down there Hitfun passes into the World of Light and joins with Piriawis, a heavenly river by which Hayyi Rabbi resides. Suspended in the air by the sturdy stems of gufnas are giant featureless polygonal structures of white and gold. These are shkinas, the homes of the uthras. They have no doors or windows—uthras just pass into them as if they were incorporeal. A number of petitioners who didn’t end up in the World of Light dwell here in small houses. They live a simple and pious life, disavowing any violence, refusing to eat animal flesh or even harm insects. Petitioners here are willing to help strangers, but they don’t have much to give. It is likely that when they eventually merge with their realm, these petitioners go on to sustain Abatur of the Scales.
Chant goes that long, winding cave systems exist beneath the last Matarta on both layers. Those brave few, who dared to explore the Wormholes of the Upper Planes have all sorts of stories about these places. Some say that hideous giants (likely uthras) are buried there in impressive numbers. Others claim to have seen enormous portals between many different planes, including ones they could not identify. These explorers claim that this cave system actually extends below all of Bytopia and can even somehow connect two layers without going through spires. How much of this is true is questionable, but gnome miners do agree that the deep Bytopian caves are largely unexplored.
Source: Margarita. Mythwatch: The Last Martata is homebrew, but are based on the mythology of the ancient Gnostic religion Mandaeism. Influences from Abrahamic religions and mysticism aren’t unheard of in D&D and Pathfinder (archons, qlippoths, peri, divs and devas, azatas—basically the entire spectrum of Near Eastern religions is already canonically present), but my version references living religions much more, so if you are Mandaean or know more about this religion than me and have any kind of opinion, please do share it...