Information
Undercroft
The
Nightmare NoktoaOwner:
TabAge: 3 years, 2 months, 3 weeks
Born: March 2nd, 2021
Adopted: 3 years, 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Adopted: March 2nd, 2021
Statistics
- Level: 1
- Strength: 10
- Defense: 10
- Speed: 10
- Health: 10
- HP: 10/10
- Intelligence: 0
- Books Read: 0
- Food Eaten: 1
- Job: Beach Comber
When we all fall asleep, where do we go?The name Undercroft was coined by famed Conjuration Necromancer Enoch Ephgrave in the mid 1800's as he found success in experimentation with ritualistic looking glass seances. He claimed to have made contact with a realm apart from the land of the living. His journals state this realm was described to him by one its inhabitants as an endless, lawless labyrinth of souls. It wasn't until he encountered a soul who spoke his own mother tongue of Helanic that it was named to him as 'Undalus ri Mora' which translated to Theoden meant, 'The Grave Below'. On October 31st of 1864 Ephgrave notated the shorthand name of 'Undercroft' for the first time while attempting to use the power of a Samhain ritual to physically pass from one world to the next.Though the only copies of his original journals that remain are hand-copied excerpts from the cult-like followers Ephgrave had garnered the attention of near to his death, there are certain repeated theories we can surmize as coming directly from the man. His first success with opening a window into the Undercroft was in 1856, alone in his study conjuring with a looking glass. Upon the ritual's success, Ephgrave found his reflection replaced with the image of a single great pitch eye peering back at him. It seemed to regard him, then was replaced with a gnarled ebony beak. He describes the tip of the beak pushing through the surface of the looking glass and seeming to rip a hole between its world and his. The glass froze in his hands but he dared not drop it. Then the great beast reared back so as to show him its whole form, described as a roiling mass of shadow with the head of an owl floating amidst the billowing clouds as a mask of a face. It roared at him with the sound of a thousand voices and then disappeared into the mist beyond it. In later entries, written after he made contact with the souls that populate the Undercroft, Ephgrave came to note these beasts as Gaolers. Despite the name they were not inherently influential over the passing of souls between the two worlds. Rather, the gaolers were there to feed upon inhuman souls that came to the Undercroft by way of death. A way to keep the realm pure. Their origin remained a mystery however, though Ephgrave theorized they were far older than the oldest human soul to have passed from this life to the next. By 1889 Ephgrave had perfected the act of travelling to the Undercroft and returning unscathed. Performances of this feat were done before audiences of his followers who could then witness his soul's appearance in the Undercroft through a looking glass set up beside his lifeless body. From these exercises Ephgrave was able to describe what the Undercroft looked like, and what it felt like."Akin to walking in another man's dreams. The energy of the soul finds a place in the Undercroft and expands to fill it. Memories become objects physical to touch. Sights, smells, sounds of children running, all born from the soul who lived them and recreated for their pleasure." - E. E. Sept. 2nd 1889 (6 months before his death.)He describes these 'areas' as pressed into one another, ever expanding and pushing one another further into the infinite reaches of the realm. Souls roiling and churning, living and reliving the lives they had up above, protecting them from the reality of death eternal. The last entry remarks on his having pulled back the wool from his own eyes and those of others as an act of cruelty. That ignorance would have us all living peacefully within ourselves, and his intervention can only cause suffering. This page was widely published by his followers after his death, with the exclusion of his final words."It was all a lie."Less than three months after his death the Kinghood of Theod announced the Obscural Laws written into effect by the newly formed Wightwittan that would oversee the practice of Conjuration. Many of Ephgrave's devout followers were executed for their insistence that free knowledge be lawful above all else. Like all documentation and practice of Conjuration, Enoch Ephgrave quickly faded into obscurity.