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in: The Four Kingdoms, The Four Legendary Kingdoms, The Three Secret Cities, The One Impossible Labyrinth

Kingdom of Underworld

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"Ad Majora Natus; born for greater things"
—The Kingdom of Underworld's motto

The Kingdom of Underworld is one of the long-lasting kingdoms of royalty that have existed in secret since the earliest ages of mankind.

History[]

Early History[]

Though the formation of the Four Legendary Kingdoms is largely unknown, the primary cause of their forming came from the super-ancient beings who once existed on Earth, who revealed great knowledge of the world such as medicines or technological innovations to a small selection of people. One of these groups were the original members of the Kingdom of Underworld.

Among the things the Four Legendary Kingdoms learned was the coming of five trials which would determine for the super-ancient beings if intelligent life still existed on Earth and were worthy to continue living. Along with the other kingdoms, the Kingdom of Underworld vowed to maintain the necessary knowledge for completing the trials so that their descendants would be considered worthy, and be able to overcome the greatest trial of all; the Omega Event.

Each of the original Kings were given territories befitting their title, and while the other Kingdoms' territories expanded over the centuries, the Kingdom of Underworld held the smallest so that it was scarcely more than India. However, early on in their formation, the Kingdom of Underworld was given the Underworld as part of their territory, and that it would be their duty to maintain it for the third trial, the Diverting of the Hydra Galaxy. In addition, the Kingdom of Underworld also managed the Legendary Kingdom's minotaur slaves.

While information and components relating to the first two trials would largely become lost over the years, the Kingdom of Underworld maintained the necessary knowledge for the Hydra galaxy trial. As the third trial was the completion of a series of ritualistic challenges to activate a signal to alert the super-ancients that intelligent life still existed on Earth, the Four Kingdoms would hold practice challenges during passing-bys of the Hydra galaxy, which they would come to call the Great Games of the Hydra. The Kingdom of Underworld would host the Games and provide their own four champions during each of the three Great Games in the earlier millennia of their rule.

One of the Three Immortal Weapons of the Trial of the Cities, the Helmet of Hades, named for the Kingdom's traditional title for their King, came to be held by the Underworld Kingdom for generations.

Before The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]

During the late 20th century, Anthony DeSaxe inherited the title as the King of the Kingdom of Underworld, as well as the King's additional title of Hades.

Towards the 21st century, both the Kingdom of Land and Kingdom of Sea used their agents to undergo missions to complete the first two of the five trials, the restoration of the Golden Capstone and the rebuilding of the Machine. Since information and components relating to the first two trials had become lost over the centuries, Hades made no effort to use his Kingdom's resources to take part in either mission, believing that if humanity had lost the knowledge for completing the trials and failed as a result, then they did not deserve to exist.

Knowing that the time for the third trial, and thus the fourth Great Games of the Hydra, would occur in the next few years, Hades assigned one of his Kingdom's servants, Vacheron, the task of Games Master, in which he would prepare and modify some of the arenas to modern standards for the Challenges the Champions would face. Unbeknownst to Hades, his sons Dion and Zaitan began plans to use the Great Games as an opportunity to kill and usurp him so that the former could become the new ruler of the Kingdom of Underworld, whilst Zaitan would secure Dion the title of King of Kings by winning the Games.

In 2016, eight years after the completion of the second trial, the Star Chamber within the Underworld opened, allowing the nine Golden Spheres to be retrieved. As this heralded the third trial, the Diverting of the Hydra Galaxy, Hades alerted the other Kingdoms of the development, with the fourth Great Games of the Hydra set to begin within the next month. Having been anticipating that the Chamber would open for nearly twenty years, Hades finalised the selection of his Kindgom's four champions (most of whom had been preparing for the Games for years) to participate on their behalf in the Games; his son Zaitan, Sachin Singh, Ravi Mano and Wasim Nasiruzzin.

The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]

Many notable members of each of the Kingdom of Underworld journeyed to the realm that bore their name (assuming they were not all already gathered at the Underworld) with a few of their trusted servants to watch the fourth Great Games of the Hydra; among the the Kingdom of Underworld's representatives were King Hades, Vacheron, Dion and George Khalil. While Hades hosted the Games, the other representatives of the Kingdom of Underworld watched nonchalantly as the Champions struggled through the Challenges and the some of them, and their support teams, died.

That night, members of the Kingdom of Underworld joined the other Royals in attending a banquet hosted by Hades, mingling and discussing the Games thus far. When Lily West took note of the coats of arms that each Kingdom had represented, Hades explained the meaning of the Kingdom of Underworld's coat of arms and its motto to her. During the dinner, Dion suggested to his father that the heiress of the Oracle of Siwa would make a fine queen for him, especially since it would merge Lily's lineage with the Kingdom of Underworld's, a suggestion Anthony took into consideration.

After all of the members of the Four Kingdoms once again watched with interest the outcome of the Fourth Challenge, Hades decided to hold a luncheon so that all four of the Kings could dine with their remaining Champions before the Fifth Challenge began, though at this stage Zaitan was the only one left representing his father's Kingdom and thus the only Champion Hades and Dion dined with.

After the Fifth Challenge, the members of the Four Kingdoms and the remaining Champions proceeded to the Summit Temple to watch as the first five Golden Spheres were set into place within the mountain's obelisk. Before proceeding on to the second phase of the Great Games, Hades, as the Underworld's host, made several announcements regarding the ascension of several of the member of the Four Kingdoms, including his and Orlando Compton-Jones's agreement to bring their Kingdoms closer together by organising a love match between Iolanthe Compton-Jones and Vacheron, and granting Dion his request to give Lily to him to marry upon the completion of the Great Games.

The gathered Royals watched the final Challenges as they took place in the observatory, but soon the Underworld Kingdom's last Champion, Zaitan, perished in the last of the series of one-on-one fights against Jack West Jr of the Kingdom of Land (also costing Dion his plans to usurp Hades). Despite this, the older members of the Kingdom of Underworld were among those nodding in approval when he requested Hades allow him to bring Cerberus to him, knowing that the final Challenge was about humility, thus winning the Kingdom of Land victory in the Games.

Hades and the rest of the Royals in the Kingdom of Underworld soon went back to the Summit Temple in order to watch Orlando receive the Mysteries while the Hydra galaxy was diverted. However, when the minotaurs suddenly turned against the Four Kingdoms and began assaulting the mountain, Jack took the opportunity to prevent Orlando from entering the recess, believing that the world would be better off dead than living under the rule of someone as self-serving as him. Doing this also cost the Underworld its primary duty to ensure that there would be a King of Kings to lead them all through the remaining two trials.

While Hades was convinced to join Jack in his future attempts to complete the remaining trials, the rest of the Royals from the Kingdom of Underworld, their servants, and the members of the other Kingdoms began fleeing down to the helipad in order to try and escape from the Underworld. Though the minotaurs had only wanted Dion and Zaitan, when the other Kings' guards opened fire on them, the minotaurs began attacking all the Royals indiscriminately. In the carnage, many Royals from the Kingdom of Underworld were killed, though a few members may have been able to get about the one helicopter that managed to get away.

Meanwhile, when Jack, Hades and the rest of their group came across Dion, Hades questioned how his son could have turned against him, and Dion responded that Hades was a person who should inspire fear in others. Before Dion could kill them, he was shot first by Alby, leaving only Hades. Hades relayed his gratitude to Minotus and agreed to uphold his promise to give Minotus and his people their freedom, promising that no other person from his Kingdom would come back to the Underworld before leaving the Kingdom's primary domain to its former minions.

The Three Secret Cities[]

Though the Kingdom of Underworld's King remained after the events of the Underworld, the rest of the Kingdom's member were annoyed at the disarray Jack had caused to their Kingdom, as well as the others. As such, with Hades having failed their overall duty of securing a King of Kings and decision to align with Jack, they and the other Kingdoms soon agreed to have the Governor of the Royal Prison of Erebus, Yago DeSaxe, hunt down Jack and the rest of his friends in retaliation, while the defected Hades would have all of his titles, wealth and properties stripped from him.

Dion, who had not perished as first thought in the Underworld, was thus set to be granted all of his father's assets and title of King of Underworld. However, outraged by the upsetting of his plans and the injuries he had received, Dion had the Trismagi Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster help him hire the Knights of the Golden Eight to exact his own revenge on Jack, Lily and Alby Calvin.

Dion waited until the Knights had captured Lily and Alby before making his ascension, and the Kingdom of Underworld held the coronation at a royal estate in Naples, with the other three Kings attending via videolink in accordance with the Four Kingdoms' tradition that they be present for the ascension of a new King.

When the time for the ritual for the Trial of the Cities at the Altar of the Cosmos arrived, Dion represented the Kingdom of Underworld to witness Orlando complete the fourth trial. However, Dion watched casually as Sphinx stabbed Orlando and Caldwell and Xi were executed as part of the Trismagi's coup, leaving the Kingdom of Underworld the only one intact and with a King still standing.

The Two Lost Mountains[]

Following Sphinx's coup d'état, the assets of all of the Four Legendary Kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Underworld's, fell under his control. It is unknown if the royals of the Kingdom of Underworld beneath Dion supported Sphinx and his planned regime, but did not make any attempts to defy him as he began undertaking the Trial of the Mountains.

The former king of the Kingdom of Underworld met his end at Mont Saint-Michel, as Sphinx - following Dion and Yago's immediate suggestion - decided to execute Hades, whose head was torn off by a silverman and his remains thrown into the chasm of the first iron mountain.

As Jack prepared to go after Sphinx in the Supreme Labyrinth, he tasked Pooh Bear and Stretch with finding out what the Four Kingdoms had planned for after the Omega Event.

The One Impossible Labyrinth[]

As Sphinx worked his way through the Supreme Labyrinth, he had Sir John Marren begin organising the Four Kingdoms to take shelter under the Storm Cellar Protocol, with the royal families of the Kingdom of Underworld heading to either a bunker in Xian or the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Salzburg to wait out the period following the Omega Event as Sphinx began preparing the world for his regime.

The Kingdom of Underworld would lose its King during the mission to navigate the Supreme Labyrinth, as King Dion foolishly chose the wrong path and was forced to turn back, coming into a fatal confrontation with Lily.

After Marren was kidnapped by Jack's allies - and killed during an altercation at Raven Rock - Stretch and Pooh Bear's team were able to obtain the master list of the Four Kingdoms and their loyalists. As such, after the Omega Event had been averted and Sphinx's forces defeated, the world's governments began investigating the shadow royals and arresting the members of the Four Kingdoms, including their servants and sympathisers, ending the millennia-long reign of the Kingdom of Underworld.

Members of the Kingdom of Underworld[]

Note: the following lists all members of the Kingdom of Underworld since the Four Kingdoms' introduction, their current status within their ranks reflects the circumstances of the novel of their latest appearance.

Goals[]

Like the other Legendary Kingdoms, the Kingdom of Underworld is ostensibly dedicated to fulfilling the tasks and trials made by the Super-Ancient Beings to test the worthiness of intelligent life on Earth on behalf of all humanity. However, as time has moved on, they have became more obsessed with their maintaining their status and rule over the world from the shadows. Over the millennia, the Kingdom of Underworld has seen fit to raise and fell entire empires to suit their needs, and using their influence to control entire nations within their territory from behind the scenes.

While the Four Kingdoms do still see fit to have the trials successfully completed, the Kingdom of Underworld made no move to aid the successful completion of the first two trials. For them, maintaining the knowledge and tools for the third trial and the Great Games of the Hydra was their foremost duty, undergoing careful planning for the preparation of the fourth Great Games. For the Great Games of the Hydra, the Kingdom of Underworld had one of its heirs participate along with three proxies as Champions to fulfill the trial, with Hades impartially presiding over the entire event, though others in his Kingdom strongly desired victory. Ultimately, however, Zaitan and the other three failed.

After the Great Games concluded with several members of their royal families killed, the Kingdom of Underworld worked in unison with the other Kingdoms to organise the arrest of those they considered responsible, even going so far as to excommunicate Hades for his failure to see the Underworld Kingdom's responsibility to provide a King of Kings through. For them, this goal took precedence over the completion of the Trial of the Cities, leaving Orlando's team to do the work while they sought out an heir to replace Hades, ultimately finding one in Dion.

After Sphinx's coup d'état, the Four Kingdoms fell into line as the Trismagi took control of their resources, preferring to obey him or otherwise stay out of his way while he completed the last of the trials, out of concern for losing their positions. Even so, they still expected to maintain a fair amount of control and influence in the world once the Omega Event was averted.

Trivia[]

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