The Underworld is the name of the ancient realm controlled by the Kingdom of Underworld, and the setting for the Great Games of the Hydra and the third trial of the Super-Ancients.
History[]
Early History[]
At some point in Earth's past, a meteor struck a section of land would would later become a part of the Gujarat Province in India, creating a large crater. Later, when the Super-Ancient Beings began creating a series of trials for a later race of sentient people, they decided to set one of them within the meteor crater. As such, they constructed a mountain-like structure out of a mysterious material, which was used like an antenna to divert the course of the Hydra galaxy, a series of arenas, an observatory to track the movements of the Hydra galaxy, a palace, and a temple at the top of the antenna-mountain. This temple would also be given a vault referred to as the Star Chamber, in order to lock the Golden Spheres away until they were needed to activate the antenna.
The Super-Ancients also placed hundreds of silver "coffins" into the recesses of one of the structures within the crater. Inside each coffin was a bronze automaton, which upon the completion of the third trial would be set to awaken and obey the orders of whomever received the Mysteries.
Eventually, the Super-Ancients would pass on some of their knowledge to the group of humans that would become known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms; among the things they shared was the location of the meteor crater and its importance in the ritual for the third trial for humanity, the diverting of the Hydra galaxy.
The Four Kingdoms came to refer to the crater as the Underworld, and would leave one of their kingdoms, the Kingdom of Underworld, to maintain the crater and the components of the third trial there. Later, the Four Kingdoms brought their population of minotaur slaves to the Underworld, who were settled into an old city in the western side of the crater.
Over the next several thousand years, the Four Legendary Kingdoms hosted three of the rituals for diverting the Hydra galaxy (during passing-bys of the ever-moving galaxy), which they would come to call the Great Games of the Hydra. Many tales would be told of the events that went on within the Underworld during the Games, and how it was ruled by the King of the Underworld, Hades (a title passed down to each Underworld's King). However, the stories would become unintentionally embellished and fanciful, and legends would comes to misinterpret the Underworld as a place of damnation for human souls after they died.
Before The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]
At some point, most likely around the 20th century, the Hades of the time arranged for a camouflage netting to be spread over the top of the Underworld in order to keep the site out of view (later this would help to hide the area hidden from passing satellites).
While the Kingdom of Underworld had likely already made claims to purchase the area surrounding the Underworld, in order to make it off-limits to the general population, Anthony DeSaxe established both a shipping and mining company which would run operations in the area. The DeSaxe Shipping Corporation used the nearby beaches for the deconstruction and stripping of ships, while Anthony's mining company opened a mining operation nearby to source the mysterious greystone powder from the deposit within the Underworld.
In September 2016, the Star Chamber unlocked, allowing the Golden Spheres to be retrieved and signalling that it was time to begin the Great Games in order to divert the Hydra galaxy. As the Four Kingdoms began their final preparations for the ritual of the third trial, Anthony told the minotaur king Minotus that he would allow his people their freedom within the Underworld once the Games were completed.
The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]
Two months after the Star Chamber opened, the fourth Great Games of the Hydra began, observed by the Royals of the Four Kingdoms. As Anthony gave his opening speech and welcomed the 16 Champions to the Underworld, Jack West Jr was dubious about actually being in the realm of the dead from Greek mythology, but in the interim between the Second and Third Challenges Iolanthe Compton-Jones clarified the truth of the Underworld for him, but refused to divulge its exact location within India.
When daylight broke the next day, enough light filtered through the camouflage netting for Jack to note the Underworld did look to be set in an old meteor crater.
Over the course of the Games, the Champions fought to obtain the Golden Spheres and secure their continued running through the Challenges, and the Underworld's arenas for the first four Challenges became littered with the various dead bodies of Champions and minotaurs.
At the end of the Fifth Challenge (which had resulted in tons of wrecked vehicles and dead minotaurs being strewn along the course), Jack caused further damage to the Underworld as he initiated a plan to free his and Schofield's hostages after learning they would all be executed. After firing an RPG at the base of the hostage train, the train crashed down the staircase, Jack grabbed the hostages and began driving through the minotaur city of Dis to escape. Soon Jack was brought back to the Underworld before the Royals after sending his friends on without him.
Meanwhile, Mabel Merriweather, Stretch and Pooh Bear were able to determine the Underworld's location after reading a tablet that contained instructions on how to reach it from the entirety of the ninth poem of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Following the Fifth Challenge, the Royals and remaining Champions adjourned to the Summit Temples to set the first five Golden Spheres place, raising the obelisk and completing the first phase of the trial set in the Underworld. The procession then moved on to the observatory for the combat Challenges, which ended with Jack victorious.
Returning to the Summit Temples, the remaining four Spheres were set into place, and though Orlando Compton-Jones attempted to enter the recess that would allow him to receive the Mysteries, the minotaurs (informed by Alby Calvin of Dion and Zaitan's plans to usurp Anthony and thus deny them their freedom) began assaulting the Underworld's mountain. As the minotaurs began their climb, Sky Monster released the camouflage netting concealing the Underworld, and Jack took advantage of the distraction to prevent Orlando from recieving the Mysteries. As this was going on, the Underworld's obelisk powered up and sent out its signal to the Hydra galaxy, completing the third trial.
The Royals of the Four Kingdoms began fleeing for the helicopter hanger in an attempt to escape the Underworld, but inadvertently incurred the minotaurs' wrath, and only one chopper managed to fly to safety. Having learned of his sons' treachery, Anthony agreed to uphold his promise to give the minotaurs their freedom, promising Minotus that his people could live in the Underworld in peace while he would ensure no other person ever came to disturb them. With that, Minotus secured the remaining chopper for Jack, Anthony and the other to depart the Underworld in, and soon only the minotaurs remained in the ancient realm.
Soon afterwards, however, one of the silver coffins by the Great Bend began to open.
The Three Secret Cities[]
A few days after the Great Games ended, Minotus decided that it was time for him and his people to begin clearing away the carnage left behind during the course of the Games. However, one of the cleaning crews sent to the Great Bend encountered a Bronze Guardian, which had awakened unnoticed following the completion of the third trial. Whenever it asked one of the minotaurs a question in the Word of Thoth, the Guardian killed them when they failed to answer, sending the Underworld into turmoil.
When Pooh Bear and Stretch arrived at the Underworld in response to Minotus's call to Anthony for aid, it was just as the Guardian had finally been cornered and trapped. As they conversed with Jack and the others over the phone, Jack instructed his friends and Minotus to do what they could to prevent the rest of the silver coffins in the Underworld from opening. Upon finishing the task, Stretch and Pooh Bear left the Underworld while the minotaurs apparently opted to stay in the realm Anthony had promised them despite the danger.
A few days later, Jack realised that the deposit of greystone powder in the Underworld was one of six such deposits around the world, and that if the fourth trial wasn't completed, the deposit would be exposed to the oceans, and in turn begin drying them up. Luckily, the danger was averted with the trial's completion, and the Underworld's greystone deposit was left as it was.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
After Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster completed the Trial of the Cities and was awarded the Rings of Command, he handed one of the lesser rings to Jaeger Eins, instructing him to use it to gather the numerous bronzemen from the Underworld.
In spite of whatever actions Stretch, Pooh Bear and the minotaurs took to try and keep the silver coffins from opening, Eins soon managed to successfully gain command of the battalion of Bronzemen from the Underworld, and had them transported away.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
After Jack prevented the Omega Event, Easton returned to the minotaur kingdom within the Underworld to spread the tale. Later Jack and his family would determine that they needed to ensure that the tools and shrines for the trials, including the Underworld, were not lost again since they would be needed for when the trials and Omega Event next occurred in the future.
Features[]
The 'Antenna' Mountain[]
Constructed largely out of the mysterious Gorgon Stone by the Super-Ancients, the entire mountain was built to serve as an antenna through which the Ancients would control the path of the Hydra galaxy. The mountain's entire makeup is full of highly advanced mechanisms powered by an unknown energy, and analysis in the modern era has been unable to uncover the secrets of how the antenna works.
Situated on the mountain's flanks are various other structures, including Hades's Palace, the Observatory, and at the peak are the Summit Temples. Later additions to the mountain by the Four Kingdoms include the gantry elevator, helicopter hangers, viewing balconies, dining hall and quest quarters, and the hostage train.
When the first five Golden Spheres are set into place in the Lower Temple, the strange vibrational energy they contain activates some of the mountain's mechanisms, an obelisk is raised to height at the Upper Temple, completing the mountain's peak. Setting the remaining four Spheres activates the entire mechanism of the antenna in order to send out a signal powerful enough to reach the Hydra galaxy and somehow command it to divert its course.
Summit Temples[]
At the very peak of the Underworld's antenna-mountain resides the Summit Temples. Roughly two stories tall, made of a shiny black material and shaped with pointed corners, the Temple is divided into two sections; the Upper Major Temple and the Lower Minor Temple. With the Summit Temples is also the Star Chamber, a vault which keeps the Golden Spheres locked away until mechanisms in the Observatory notes a certain celestial date and instruct it to unlock.
In the Lower Temple, the walls are adorned with several carvings relevant to many of the trials of the Super-Ancients and similarly-related images, including the Great Pyramid, the Three Secret Cities, star and planetary maps, magnificent trees and the prophetic image of five warriors behind four kings. Also in the Lower Temple are five podiums which the first five Golden Spheres earned in accordance to the ritual for the third trial are placed; doing so activates some of the mountain's mechanisms, and raises an obelisk at the Upper Temple.
The Upper Temple, while less ornate than the Lower Temple, is far more important as the final location for the ceremony to complete the third trial, and in its very center is the obelisk. At it's base, the obelisk has a carved recess in the shape of the ankh symbol, large enough for an individual to stand within. Around the ankh recess are four receptacles where the remaining Golden Spheres are to be set; one above the "head", one on the end of each "arm" and the last by the "foot" of the recess. Once the remaining four Spheres are placed, their vibrational energy activates the entire mechanism of the antenna in order to send out a signal powerful enough to reach the Hydra galaxy and somehow command it to divert its course.
Built into the bottom of the Temples' platform are several brackets which the Kingdom of Underworld had made to latch a gigantic camouflage net over the entire Underworld.
Hades's Palace[]
Set roughly one third of the way down the mountain, the ancient palace has been used throughout the millennia by the King of Underworld as their personal castle. From it, ancient staircases lead down to the Observatory and helicopter hangers.
From the Palace, a gantry elevator has been added in modern times which reaches up to the Summit Temples.
Observatory[]
Built by the Super-Ancients, the Observatory is an enormous apparatus used to keep track of the Hydra galaxy as it moves around the universe. At certain celestial dates set by the Ancients, the mechanisms in the Observatory send instructions to the Star Chamber in the Summit Temples to instruct it to unlock. The Observatory contains an open balcony that looks outwards, and holds a throne that can rotate on its axis to change the seated viewer's direction.
Jutting out from the three sides of the Observatory away from the mountain are the combat platforms that are the stages for the final four Challenges. Each stage contains a podium that locks a Golden Sphere in place until the ritualistic Challenge has been completed in accordance with how the Sphere must be earned, and a hole in the center which is carved smooth so that any who fall through and fail to reach for the ledge in time will fall away to the bottom of the Underworld. While the first combat stage is bare, the second contains a statue carved into the shape of three cows, and the third combat stage features a 30 foot tall replica of the Underworld's mountain, from which flows a small stream of water leading to the stage's edge, and another set of cow statues beneath a small hut.
Within the Observatory itself are a few cells which lead outward on different paths to all of the combat platforms.
Arena and Water Pit[]
On the floor of the crater resides the arena, which is styled after the Roman Colosseum. Within the walls of the Arena are several cells, which all lead to the inner rim.
The Arena floor is retractable, and upon being pulled back reveals the Pit situated below, which is shaped as an upside-down pyramid. Within the Pit there are three ledges lending to the shape, and all around the Pit's ledges are long narrow pipes which water is fed through from an unknown source. At the very bottom is a pyramidal structure which stands at the same height as the Pit's edge.
In the modern era, the Four Kingdoms added a crane to the edge of the pit which can stretch out to the pyramidal structure and a wire-mesh net.
Towers and Abyss Arena[]
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The Wall Maze[]
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The Minotaur City of Dis[]
An ancient castle-like structure on the floor of the Underworld crater, Dis serves as the "city" in which the minotaurs live. For the thousands of years they have been forced to work in the Underworld, the minotaurs have been living in shanty-town styled homes around Dis, using tin sheet roofing and other disused materials that the Kingdom of Underworld has no apparent use for.
While the purpose of the original castle is unknown, the main roadway that runs through Dis serves as the primary road into the Underworld through which supplies are brought in via the supply dock, all the way to the antenna-mountain. Though apparently closed off most of the time, the roadway also diverges in the middle of the city towards the chasm and Great Bend.
Trivia[]
- In Greek mythology, the Underworld is an otherworld where souls go after death. The original Greek idea of afterlife is that, at the moment of death, the soul is separated from the corpse, taking on the shape of the former person, which is then transported to the Underworld.