The Moirae's Mirror - October

Hey all!

Because I've been writing a lot about Tartarus anyway this month, I figured it would be a good time to do a bit of a writeup on it, which is now the subject of this month's Mirror! I hope you find it interesting. :)

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Tartarus

Within the Underworld, no place is quite so mysterious nor so reviled as Tartarus, the Tower of the Damned. From the outside, it is mostly an unremarkable location, at least physically: a rope bridge suspended between the jut of a natural cliff and what seems almost to be an “island” of solid ground a short distance away from that cliff. Upon the island, a small cave mouth.

Perhaps the first hint that not all is as it appears is what lingers beneath the bridge: to all appearances, what separates the rest of the Underworld from Tartarus is a featureless darkness, a kind of inky shadow so deep as to resemble the void itself. What is more, there is a presence to the place, an aura that can be felt even from the far side of the bridge.

Fear.

The effect is largely magical, but it is both powerful and thorough, and in most ways resembles natural fear. So much so in fact that many first-time visitors do not realize that this fright comes from somewhere outside of themselves—the place’s reputation combines with what is likely their own anxiety and makes the creeping-cold sensation of dread seem like a reaction they are having quite unassisted. Even for those with some experience being there, it is sometimes hard to tell where the line is, for the magic is subtle in a way, its feel masked by the general ‘feel’ of Tartarus itself.

Like Erebus, Tartarus is something between living entity and inanimate location. A deific domain, this one malignant enough to retain something almost like a fragment of will, repurposed to the role of containing those who must not be let out. For this reason, the place can often seem to act of its own accord, and the primordial chaos with which all of the Underworld is infused behaves especially erratically here. As such, the interior layout of Tartatus changes often, a small number of points remaining constant while others move, the passages between them shifting even more often.

Accordingly, those who regularly visit Tartarus must be those with exceedingly good magical senses for navigation. The three in charge—the Erinyes—are all magical trackers of the highest caliber, and so are able to navigate this inconstant architecture without too much trouble. The Special Guard, a force of chthonically-aligned harpies, work under the Erinyes as prison wardens, of a sort, though their primary jobs are to watch out for and tend to the human spirits contained within, to make sure that once a punishment has reached the necessary duration, the spirit is promptly released, as spending longer than appointed in Tartarus can have a deleterious effect on mortal souls.

The Special Guard is in fact also responsible for taking care of these spirits in the sense that, other than their particular punishments and their inability to move around freely, the souls are afforded the same standard of living as elsewhere in the Underworld.

Though the exact layout of Tartarus is subject to change, some things remain constant, or else operate within a smaller set of possible variations. The entrance and deepest cells never move, though getting to and from them can vary in complexity. It is, however, impossible to reach the Depths, where the remaining Titans are imprisoned, without passing through several layers of security of increasing danger.

Shaped roughly like a column, Tartarus houses human spirits only in its upper areas. Everything below that is used, if it is used at all, to hold longer-term immortal prisoners. Due to its security and location, it is the only prison capable of containing multiple beings of deific power, and at any given time, it does.

In addition to the Titans, held on the lowest levels, imprisoned there for various terms are also the Giants, the god-pretenders Typhon and Echidna, and many monsters and creatures of varying levels of intelligence and self-awareness, deemed too dangerous to walk freely among mortals or deities. Not all who lie within are subject to eternal imprisonment, but many do have sentences of that duration, usually handed down by Zeus or Demeter, in their capacities as deities of law.

Needless to say, any walk into Tartarus comes with inherent danger; as well-contained as these entities are, magic fails at times, and chaos is inevitable. Very rarely, this can lead to the wards on the prison malfunctioning, and of course there are mechanisms by which any of the creatures within may be released. These are usually secret, but that does not always stop particularly enterprising minds from devising them independently. Furthermore, it does occasionally happen that mortal or demigod heroes invade the Underworld for one purpose or another, and occasionally one finds their way into Tartarus proper.

Still, for the most part, the work of the Erinyes and the Special Guard keeps the place secure, and about as hospitable as the world’s most terrifying prison can be.