The Fabled Planes of Power Lore – Part 17 The Plane of Torment The Plane of Torment floats silently in the ether that lies between the planes. Resembling a large black cube, it has been manifested to reflect the cruelty of the goddess Saryrn who embodies endless pain and suffering in mind, body, and spirit. The material in this plane is bound together by the suffering of its inhabitants; as the plane tastes more suffering, it grows in power.
Many interconnected islands are suspended above a large lake of blood. Obsidian pillars and barbed chains connect to the inner regions of the massive cube to hold many of the islands aloft and support the suspension bridges that connect island to island. The entire plane is coated in a fine mist of blood.
The plane is littered with various implements of torture. Moans, screams, and the sounds of rattling chains echo off of the cold walls. The Mistress of Torment is often heard giggling or singing along to the tunes of her victims' pleas.
The Citadel of Pain looms as the largest structure in the plane, standing in the center of the network of ramps, bridges, and islands. The sound of rushing water leads the eyes to large streams of blood that pour from the sides of the citadel. Large glass windows at the top of the citadel allow Saryrn to view the entire plane from her private chambers.
The cube that Saryrn inhabits is as much a place of confinement for her as it is for victims. In the perverse manner of those who savor their own pain, she enjoys it. After all, it is her anger and pain that make up her very fabric of the astral plan, and her hate-filled insanity prevents her from yearning for anything more.
The creatures one may find in the cube are manifestations of Saryrn's pain and rage. In addition, she satiates her lust for misery by acquiring new victims from outside her cubed lair. One of her most recent victims is a young bard from the Plane of Tranquility. The pain that she inflicts on others fuels her constant suffering, forcing her to lash out again in a vicious cycle. This cycle of pain is emblematic of torment itself.
Background Story Born a woman of striking beauty, Saryrn had a laugh that would make the flowers bloom. She received a vision wherein Erollisi Marr blessed her and promised her a rare and special kind of love. She was promised that she would meet her soul mate and that should she master all the principles of love, together they would share a long and happy life together.
In the vision, she was shown the man of whom Erollisi Marr had spoken. He was a Paladin of Marr. They courted and in the fullness of time, married. Her husband served during the day but every night and morning they were together in their modest hillside home on the outskirts of Freeport. It seemed to her that Erollisi's prediction had come true.
Their life was idyllic and blissful at first but then she began to become very possessive and even distrustful of her husband. This fact became more readily apparent as the honeymoon wore off and her paladin, ever faithful, grew concerned by her comments, every day she asked if he really loved her or if he would ever leave her for another, more beautiful, woman. His great love for her blinded him to what he assumed were simply idiosyncratic musings. He assured her daily that she was the only one in his heart and the only one who would ever be able to fill that empty space in his soul he had suffered with before meeting her. Despite his daily affirmations of love and faithfulness, the nagging, painful blister of distrust grew and festered in her mind.
One morning they shared a nice breakfast in the morning sun. So long did they enjoy each other's company that the paladin found he was very late for patrol. He rushed off in a hurry. Saryrn became concerned when she noticed her husband had forgotten the lunch she had made for him. She grabbed the basket and set off to meet him on his patrol.
She walked the streets for hours, her mind filling with worry. The lunch she had made and lovingly wrapped in a cloth became a burdensome stone. With her growing frustration over the failure to locate her husband on his normal patrol route, suspicions began to rise like odious snakes in her mind, until the blister of her mistrust finally ruptured.
He truly was cheating on her and nothing could convince her otherwise. As the cruel afternoon sun blazed high in the arid sky, her mind twisted and the caustic acid of jealously quickly eroded and ate away at the love in her heart. Though she was not certain of the identity of the lover who she believed had managed to steal her soul mate, she began to plan her vengeance against them both. She became dizzy and staggered at the enormity of the effect these images had upon her.
As she marched through the streets, a contemptuous sneer confessed the terrible thoughts bubbling through the last pockets of sanity struggling to survive in her tormented mind. As she stumbled through the streets, she heard his laughter coming from an inn sometime shortly after the noon hour. The laughter seemed to mock her and this was the final proof she needed to convince her of his infidelity.
She peered through the window and saw her husband sitting at a table – a cooked bird, a small loaf of bread and a flagon of drink before him. It was obvious, to her at least, that he didn't like her cooking any more either. It was then that a serving wench, younger and prettier then she walked up to him. As she refilled his glass, she said something to him. They both laughed and then she touched him. It was only a light touch to the shoulder but the look the lass gave him as she walked away convinced Saryrn that both her husband and the serving wench needed to pay and pay dearly.
And make them pay she did. Over the course of weeks, they paid in screams and tears. She tortured the two with metal skewers, hot irons and wood splinters. They paid with flayed skin over which she poured vinegar, a weak acid only strong enough to intensify the pain. The serving wench escaped to the peace of death long before the paladin, whose body was strong. Even as Saryrn administered her physical torments and brayed litany of harsh and evil words, her husband still professed his love for her unto his death.
Saryrn moved from her home in Freeport and used her amazing beauty to build a new life for herself. She followed a common pattern for many years. She would meet a young man, marry, and eventually torture him and some unsuspecting female relation to death. Each instance allowed the insanity that lived within her to grow stronger and more tangible. As the years passed and her list of victims grew, she began to notice that she was not alone.
A voice spoke to her. The voice was an unintended result of her visit from Erollisi Marr. Gods often speak to mortals, but these interactions do not always produce the effect that the god intended. Saryrn is an example of such a case. The words that Erollisi spoke to Saryrn produced a resonating echo in the mind of the young girl. This echo eventually took the form of Baraguj Szuul.
It was his voice that spoke to Saryrn and informed her of her husband's infidelities. After she resolved the issue with the Paladin and his lover, the voice grew louder. He spoke to her of unfathomable possibilities and the weakness of man. Soon another voice began to speak to her as well. It was the voice of Maareq the Prophet. He foretold of her ascension into the pantheon of the gods. She prepared for the fulfillment of his prophecy and began to practice the dark arts under his tutelage.
As the years passed and her power grew, her vision of another place began to grow as well. Each year and each victim fed her imagination. She crafted a place of perfect pain in her mind. A citadel of obsidian rose from the depths of world's suffering and she found shelter in its walls.
Eventually, all memories of the mortal world escaped her. She was alone in perfection with the only people she loved and the minions she created for amusement. She found that she had the ability to move through the minds of mortals. She used this ability to find new victims and return their spirits to her lair. As they suffered, her power grew and her reach expanded.
Maareq's prophecy was true. Saryrn ascended beyond the realm of man. She was transformed into the Goddess of Pain. This transformation sent ripples through the fabric of the Planes. Many of the Elder gods regarded the occurrence as another example of why they should not meddle in the affairs of mortal, while, several other gods seized the opportunity to use this newcomer to extend their power in the mortal realm. Saryrn soon found herself in a pact with the dark triad: Innoruuk, Cazic-Thule, and Bertoxxulous.
Saryrn's abode, the Demi-Plane of Pain, is hot, damp and uncomfortable. There are no flat surfaces on which to walk. Instead the ground is cluttered with small, closely placed, stalagmites of smooth obsidian. Even one dexterous enough to walk between the small dagger-like extrusions would be hard pressed not to stumble and fall on the slippery ground.
The air is filled with a sharp, acrid odor that burns and irritates the nose and throat. Often, the dreary yellow sky rains saltwater that when dried, becomes corrosive to everything it covers and causes painful ulcers to form on exposed skin. It is never day nor is it ever night. There is only a sickly twilight that makes both the normal activities of the day and the peace of the night a concept beyond reach for inhabitants of the plane.
Muffled cries and moans of despair are carried far and wide on hot, cruel winds that blow endlessly, bearing stinging sand and grit. Nothing lives in this place of its own accord save the mistress herself. To simply exist in her domain is torment.
Saryrn busies herself by spending personal time with those cursed enough to live in her realm. She captures and torments her subjects mentally and physically and completely at random. The length of their torment before she releases them again is also completely random - based mainly upon her whims. Those who fall into her hands may suffer but a few moments or for months at a time. All live with the fear that at any time, she may choose them as a partner.
The Fabled Saryrn, Mistress of Torment In her mortal life she was a truly devout follower of Erollisi, Marr, the Goddess of Love. Her love fueled her existence, and she gave the fullest of her being to the indulgence of this emotion; a love of art, music, food, and drink, and eventually, the love of another. With the discovery of what she was supposed was her soul mate, Saryrn was overcome with a sense of the true meaning of her existence. Her husband was her life and purpose, as his love for her was to be his.
However, she was cursed; not be means of arcane or divine intervention, but through her own inability to control and moderate her indulgence of love. She gave herself entirely unto it, and it would be her downfall. Upon the knowledge that her husband's heart belonged to another, Saryrn was destroyed. She stewed from afar as her husband's affections grew further removed from her and slowly, her own love turned into writing envy, hate, and ultimately bloodlust.
Upon the brutal execution of her husband and is mistress, Saryrn went mad and set out to torture and ultimately destroy anything she saw as scared to Erollisi Marr. She strove to replicate her anguish in others, contorting and twisting love's blessings into a medium for pain, despair, and utter torment.
Keeper of Sorrows The Keeper of Sorrows is one of the many fiends that protects Saryrn and defends the Plane of Torment from intruders.
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