Forgotten Land

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Little is known of the Forgotten Land, third of the layers of the Abyss as recorded by the Guvners, as few have managed to keep their wits long enough to explore the place and report back safely. Even its first official report was obtained only via a gestalt undead crafted by the Dustmen, the only being to return from that early cross-faction expedition a thousand years hence. Even the latest records predating that expedition mention the layer only as a well-populated stop of the Styx' winding path, dotted with mortal cities exemplifying the peaks of Abyssal architecture. At some point before that expedition, though, the nature of the layer had drastically changed by means unrecorded; today, even simply entering the layer begins to eat at a person's memories and identity, leaving them an empty shell.

For those that can manage to hold themselves here, no sign of the Styx can be found today; all that can be found are the long-abandoned cities of those that once dwelt here, their occupants having long starved to death, having simply forgotten the need to eat. The realm isn't entirely dead, though, with a slight few occupants having managed to adapt to its newer nature. Reason stealers, precipitated out of the former bed of the Styx, wander the land seeking loose memories to feed upon, and any number of vicious undead wander about, some the last remnants of those that once lived and others those that have come to the plane for any number of reasons.

Indeed, many undead come to this plane for a bit of respite, as do some examples of construct life; while it may lack for food for most of their kind, the effects of the plane seem to have no hold over their kind, despite its effects touching all others, even wearing at the minds of the tanar'ri themselves. This doesn't dissuade all other sorts of guests, of course, as rumors circle of ancient relics left upon the plane dating back even from before the Upheaval, some even speaking of a fragment of the Rod of Seven Parts or one of the ancient Barbatos Devices tucked away in some ruins. By far the only significant native, though, is the ancient tanar'ri known as Zzyczesiya the Ungrasped, a figure that claims dominion over confused and malevolent ignorance and holds reign over an empty city from one of its few standing towers. It is said that an ancient secret lies in the demon's mind, one that many would kill to gain, and that Zzyczesiya wishes only to be wiped from his mind one day by the layer's psychic corrosion; whether it's worked or not none can say, as none have successfully encountered him and returned in centuries.

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