Conceptualizing the 'Gods & Monsters' Sandbox, Part 4

All things die. That is their fate. For birth to exist their must death. I could go on with the faux-poetic stuff but I won't so lets state the obvious: the Underworld is where dead things go. In Gods & Monsters it is not described in the Region section but rather fleshed out in the premade adventure. Its so iconic to all mythologies that I just had to make it a major feature of the world.

Underworld by jbrown67

The Underworld of the G&M Sandbox is enormous and may as well be a world on its own. It exist under the earth and is a real, physical and tangible place which mortal and gods alike can simply travel to by going down openings in the earth or down dark, haunted caves. It also function as what we'd call the Underdark in D&D, a concept I can hardly claim to have invented as many, many others have used a similar concept. The levels of the underworld closest to the surface are relatively normal places, being underground caves where corpses are left. Going deeper lead to enormous (and freaky) caves with rivers of lava, feces or tears. Deeper still are massive fractal tombs made from the fossilized bones of the oldest gods. There are domains here, where gods who have died (or become gods of the dead) rule over spirit courts. Earth elementals and similar creatures live inside the earth, too.

So who or what 'lives' down there? To recap:

• Dead humans, who exist as both corporeal and incorporeal undead. These are less soul-sucking monsters and more ancestral spirits who retain (some of) their skills and memories.
• The Gods of the Dead. Think Osiris-like figures. These are gods who have become so associated with death that their mantle made them 'dead'. Alternatively they willingly became Gods of the Dead.
• Shapeless things and shadow monsters which are allergic to the light. They come out to the surface to feed during eclipses.
• Living shadows which are the opposite of all living things. They may be 'demons' but the word has not been invented yet. The shadows are functionally similar to the Uncreated of the Godbound core book and have similar abilities, such as The Black Consumption and The Cold Breath.

Why would anyone go there? Well...

• Raising a mortal from the dead is not an easy task, especially once the window of miracles and gifts afforded by the Death Word have experienced.
• Alternatively, the Word of Death may only be available to Gods who have journey to the Underworld and become part of it. One may only claim dominion over death by becoming one with it.
• Sometimes you just want to slay some monster.
• Alternatively, the Underworld is the perfect place if one wish to forcibly imprison enemy gods and vicious monsters.

Finally, while in the Underworld, a God may use miracles to forcibly disgorge a Size 1 Faction of undead to perform a task, one which can even take place outside of the Underworld. The task must be related to the Word used, so using Sword or Bow would summon an army while a less combat-oriented Word could summon a whole community of workers with skills loosely related to the Word. However, once raised in such way, these beings remain active and outside the control of the God unless they are forcibly bound through some other mean.