A thousand feet below, at the heart of the chasm, a seething carpet of nightmare shapes crawl and slither amid rivers of molten rock. They appear to your horrified eyes to be writhing in perpetual agony, and your psychic senses confirm that this is the case: it is their pain, not their bodies, that feeds this raging sea of supernatural flame.
— The Nengud-kor-Adez[1]
The Nengud-kor-Adez (Giak; English: Lake of Blood), sometimes colloquially-called the Adez,[2] is a lake of supernatural fire that once surrounded Helgedad, but now resides in the depths of the Maakengorge that makes up part of the resurrected Archlord Vashna's being.[3]
Appearance[]
Initially, the Nengud-kor-Adez was a thousand-foot deep chasm that surrounded Helgedad. In its depths, nightmarish shapes crawled and slithered in a river of molten rock, and their eyes exuded pain. It is their pain, not their bodies, that fuels the Nengud-kor-Adez.[1] The heat of the Nengud-kor-Adez is so intense, bodies are ignited before they hit the molten rock.[4]
Closer to the fire, the souls can be heard screaming in agony, and waves of malevolence wash over the area, psychically-damaging anyone not of Evil.[5]
The Nengud-kor-Adez eventually migrated underground, to the Maakengorge.[6] The addition of the Dagger of Vashna to it caused the Nengud-kor-Adez to swell and almost overfill the Maakengorge, enough to consume and destroy the city of Emolyria for good.
Powers[]
The supernatural heat of the Nengud-kor-Adez is used as an energy source in Darklord cities such as Helgedad and Zekgazad, to power Spawning Pits, forges and other devices.[5]
After moving to the Maakengorge, it gained even more power, and Vashna's followers have learnt how to harness its power even further. The Nengud-kor-Adez now has the ability to reanimate its victims as Kaggazutaagon, who to attempt to drag others into suffering the same fate.[7][8] Weapons imbued with the raw power of the Nengud-kor-Adez, such as the Moggador-kor-Kaggaz, were also created.[9][10]
The Nengud-kor-Adez is responsible for the corruption that makes the Darklands an inhospitable wasteland. It is able to spread through faults and tributaries deep under Magnamund, and is only held at bay by the power of nature. As such, the forces of Darkness needed to spoil the land, such as destroying the trees on it, before the Nengud-kor-Adez could flow beneath it, allowing it to become part of the Darklands. By MS 5102, the Herbalish had devised a way to counteract this corruption, using knowledge gleaned from an enhanced Lajakeka created by Darklord Shebnar, but its reversal process was very slow.[11]
History[]
Helgedad[]
The Nengud-kor-Adez was a chasm that once surrounded Helgedad. Its depths were a thousand feet below the city, and was a mixture of molten rock and supernatural fire. Victims were thrown into the flames, and which kept their souls alive, as their pain fed the flames further. The power of the Nengud-kor-Adez also turned the surrounding lands into inhospitable wastelands.[5]
Archlord Vashna's original plan was for the Nengud-kor-Adez to flow through tributaries underground, eventually into the Freelands such as Sommerlund. In MS 3433, Vashna guided a dark ritual that caused a massive earthquake in north-eastern Magnamund, opening new faults underground in the Durncrag Mountains, parallel to the Maakengorge, which would have allowed the Nengud-kor-Adez to enter and transform Sommerlund into a Darklords province.[12]
In MS 5070, during the events of The Masters of Darkness, Lone Wolf infiltrated Helgedad and killed Archlord Gnaag. He then used the Crystal Explosive to destroy the Transfusor and Helgedad, removing the ability of the Darklords to operate outside of the Darklands, ending the threat to Northern Magnamund for decades to come.[13] However, it is suspected that this left the Nengud-kor-Adez to run riot, consuming all of those left in Helgedad, making it even more powerful but possibly also giving it a form of sentience.[14]
Migration to the Maakengorge[]
In MS 5100, the Nengud-kor-Adez self-extinguished, and in MS 5102, the Maakengorge expanded 25 miles to the east, destroying the ruins of Maaken and flattening most of Casiorn. During the events of Dead in the Deep, it was discovered by Kai Grand Masters Steel Hand and Grand Master that the two events were linked — the Nengud-kor-Adez had somehow migrated to the Maakengorge, and the supernatural fire was being used to power Zekgazad, in an attempt to resurrect Archlord Vashna and build up a new army to conquer Magnamund.[5]
The Acolytes of Vashna attempted to perform a ritual to resurrect Vashna: They would sacrifice Steel Hand, discovered to be a descendant of King Ulnar I (who slew Vashna with the Sommerswerd), using the Dagger of Vashna. However, Grand Master had donated his Nyxator Mail to Steel Hand, and the ancient power of this mail checked the Dagger of Vashna, allowing Steel Hand to throw its wielder, Luthos Vorgada, and the Dagger of Vashna, into the Nengud-kor-Adez, where the Dagger was destroyed.
However, a part of Vashna lived in the Dagger, and this spirit was released into the Nengud-kor-Adez, combining Vashna with it. A spiritual form of Vashna attempted to attack the Comet ship as it rescued Grand Master and Steel Hand, but was foiled by the dying Gwynian the Sage, who used his last moments to harness the power of the stars to repel the spirit.[14]
Merging with Archlord Vashna[]
Vashna revealed himself in full in MS 5103, during the events of The Dusk of Eternal Night. During the Battle of the Ruanon Homelands, Vashna used the faults he created in MS 3433 (see Helgedad), causing the Nengud-kor-Adez to flow through them and into the battlefield itself, turning it into a fiery nightmare. Vashna himself also rose from its depths.[3] Grey Star was able to hold back his power for a while, until his shield failed; however, Lone Wolf attacked with the Sommerswerd, forcing Vashna to retreat. Vashna then threatened to extend the Nengud-kor-Adez to Sommerlund and Durenor unless he was challenged in Zekgazad, deep under the ground where the Sommerswerd was ineffective. Despite it being a trap, the Kai had no other way of preventing this threat. Lone Wolf and Steel Hand infiltrated Zekgazad (again, in the case of Steel Hand), and Lone Wolf, having mastered the power of the Sommerswerd without the power of the sun, fought and slew Vashna. However, Lone Wolf had not comprehended the bond between Vashna and the Nengud-kor-Adez: Every time Vashna died, he was reborn from the Nengud-kor-Adez, again and again. Lone Wolf was forced to flee, with Steel Hand's help, but not before Vashna was able to brand Lone Wolf's chest with a mysterious flame, which tormented his mind.[15]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Masters of Darkness: §150
- ↑ Dead in the Deep: §161/§290
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Dusk of Eternal Night: §175
- ↑ Dead in the Deep: §90
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Dead in the Deep: §200
- ↑ Dead in the Deep: §250
- ↑ The Dusk of Eternal Night: §216
- ↑ The Dusk of Eternal Night: §338
- ↑ Dead in the Deep: §72
- ↑ Dead in the Deep: §6
- ↑ Dead in the Deep: §32 > §63
- ↑ Dever, Joe [2017]. The Realm of Sommerlund. Cubicle 7, p. 8.
- ↑ The Masters of Darkness: §350
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Dead in the Deep: §350
- ↑ The Dusk of Eternal Night: §2