Ankhwugaht

Ankhwugaht was the divine realm of Set, the Pharaonic^[5]^[3] and Mulhorandi god of evil.^[6]^[1]

“

May the Jackal Feast on the Souls of the Infidels Who Invaded the Unholy Places.

”

— The message written in Mulhorandi script on the entrance to a temple in Ankhwugaht^[3]

Description[]

Set actually maintained more than one version of Ankhwugaht. His home realm was the version in Stygia, but there was also the relatively smaller "Ankhwugaht Prime" or "Little Ankhwugaht" in Avernus, and others like it.^[7]

Ankhwugaht was a desert realm of poisoned sands, a place of the scorpion's sting and the viper's kiss. Many things might differ between its specific incarnations, but a constant was the prostration before the power of almighty Set.^[3]

Ankhwugaht empowered and extended all necromancy spells,^[3]^[1] although in the Great Wheel cosmology this effect only applied to those used for evil purposes.^[3]

Geography[]

“

What's a desert doing in the land of snow and ice?

”

— Berthran Varin, a clueless sage, upon finding Ankhwugaht in Stygia^[3]

The Ankhwugaht desert was one of sighing sands and winds, of harsh, hot breezes and desert air.^[3] Thus, it stood in sharp contrast to the surrounding environment when it was based in Stygia, the juxtaposition of shuddering cold against sudden heat practically palpable upon crossing into the realm.^[3] It was a burning desert^[5] with running rivers^[3] amidst a plane of ice and snow.^[5] It sat upon an expanse of earth scoured of fertile soil by millenia of glaciation but,^[8] with some difficulty due to the dryness, the land could still be irrigated.^[3]

Ankhwugaht's atypical climate was made all the more perplexing by its cycle of day and night, or rather its lack of one. While not totally absent from the realm (there was still noon for example) the actual sky of Ankhwugaht (interestingly like the rest of Stygia) was in a state of perpetual twilight. In this realm of eternal dusk, the sky was always sooty black and steaked with bloody reds and oranges that changed position and visibility with the time of day, being brightest at noon and nearly invisible at midnight.^[3]

Ankhwugaht Prime was reported as having a blazing sun by Set's command,^[9] or no sun at all with the atmosphere producing daylight illumination (although it's possible these were two different Ankhwugahts).^[10] In Heliopolis, Ankhwugaht's state of permanent midnight was explained by it being complete closed off to the light and goodness provided by Horus-Re and Matet.^[1]

Ankhwugaht's infertile earth was almost entirely obscured by the vast complex of palaces and monuments occupying the entire realm. Beneath and inside the structures was a series catacombs and passageways crowded with statues and sarcophagi, all carved with emblems and hieroglyphics celebrating the ultimate mastery of death over life and Set over all other gods.^[8]

Flora & Fauna[]

There were both civilized and wild areas within Ankhwugaht, and trespassers in the latter might encounter dangerous wildlife and evil creatures of the desert. The realm was home to animals such as crocodiles, hyenas, scorpions, and all kinds of serpents, and all these beasts had greater than normal intelligence and could innately detect good in other creatures at will. Unless one escaped the dark wilderness or was accompanied by a priest or proxy of Set, these beasts would attack any good-aligned creature they detected and signal to others of their kind that Ankhwugaht had an intruder.^[3] Other monsters were known to haunt the realm in the World Tree cosmology, including fiendish monstrous scorpions that devoured trespassers, chaos beasts, howlers and yeth hounds, as well as nishruu and fire snakes.^[1]^{[note 1]}

In terms of flora, Ankhwugaht was known to host palm trees, but its truly interesting plant, the very existence of which was a little-known secret, was the intoxicating flower blossom known as desert's night.^[3]^[11] This tiny red flower^[4] was known for many things,^[12] but it sold for the exorbitant price of a 1,000 gold pieces, due to being the only known remedy for memory loss induced by the River Styx outside of outright magic,^[3]^[11] of which even the most powerful only succeeded half the time to save the minds of those truly lost to the Styx.^[13] The blossom could only grow in Ankhwugaht due to Set's strict desire and attention,^[4] and there was only one known garden where it could be cultivated, and only by a gardener with intimate knowledge of the flower.^[11]

The plant was deadly despite its nature as a sedative since it was technically poisonous, and those not strong enough to handle its effects would be driven into a raging paranoia that only ended three days later in a mindless berserker state. Otherwise the inhaler (or imbiber for those who knew to turn it into an herbal drink) would spend a pleasant and profound day exploring their own mind, recovering memories and healing from mental damages.^[3]^[4]

Cosmology[]

Ankhwugaht was located in the Nine Hells of Baator in the Great Wheel cosmology^[5]^[6]^[8] and part of the neutral, pantheon-shared plane of Heliopolis in the World Tree cosmology.^[1]

The divided nature of devilkind had allowed Set to control a large swath of Avernus, where his realm was initially reported to be located. From a palace of white stone there, he put captives to work erecting a massive pyramid he hoped would not only fill his layer, but create an entirely new set of planes between the Nine Hells and the more lawful plane of Acheron (an insane idea by most accounts).^[9] Eventually his realm was noted to be present in both Avernus and Stygia,^[7] and it was rumored he was receiving help from the devil Agares in spreading his dominion to the lower layer of Malbolge.^[14]

Notable Locations[]

Khas-tep and Tukhamen: Two settlements of note within Stygia's Ankhwugaht. Both had a population of about 20,000 and a small pyramid at their center. Petitioners, priests, and proxies went to these pyramids each day to worship Set and draw power from him. These pyramids were also where justice, harsh and swift but to the letter, was administered.^[3]

The Lemure Pits: A muddy depression in Ankhwugaht Prime fed by a polluted spring, creating dozens of wallows inhabited by thousands of lemures. Located on the edge of a canyon ten times bigger than even the greatest on some worlds, the pits overlooked an outcropping of rock which formed a bluff. The lemures within were barely cognizant of anything that occured beyond their hole.^[7]

Mount Hellspeak: A mountain of jagged red rocks within Ankhwugaht Prime bigger than any of Faerûn. It was very steep and narrow, and would take weeks to climb directly. A single winding road wrapped around it many times from the base to the summit.^[7]

The Pit of Pestilence: A pit on the side of a red-block pyramid about a half day's walk from Mount Hellspeak. Its foul stench only grew stronger the deeper one descended into the miles-long passage, at the end of which was a pit of corpses and bones likely to give diseases to anyone who stayed there. Several passages led away from the pit, including one leading directly to a Temple of Set.^[7]

Pyramid of Set: In both cosmologies, the center of Ankhwugaht held a massive black pyramid, that reached to the highest point in the sky and whose shadow seemed to be cast all across the land,^[5]^[1] save for underground or indoors. It was visible no matter where one stood in Ankhwugaht, the sky streaks moved around it, and directions in the domain were even told in relation to it-"toward the dark" meant moving closer to it, while "into the shadow" meant moving away from it. Within a room at the base of the pyramid lived Set himself, who could see through the pyramid's walls at everything in his domain, even the interiors of structures and minds. From here he spied on his competition, kept himself informed on possible leverage to use against his enemies, sent forth his minions, and plotted for dominance over all the multiverse.^[3]

Inhabitants[]

In the World Tree cosmology at least, the petitioners of Ankhwugaht were solely of Mulhorandi origin.^[1] They took on a variety of forms depending upon the will of Set^[15] and the judgement of his lich-like chancellors upon their arrival.^[8] The most common form was that ordinary humans^[15] but those found most wanting (the vast majority) became dull-eyed slaves with a tormented, mummy-like aspect. These were set to toil away for their god by altering, constructing, and polishing the vast structures of the plane.^[8]

Even many of Ankhwugaht's human petitioners lived and worked in the fields, tilled the lacking soil, and built fences to protect against the wildlife^[3] (although interestingly Set might cast his petitioners in animal forms themselves, including crocodiles, hyenas and scorpions).^[15] The most elite petitioners lived as skilled artisans, craftsmen, and functionaries.^[8] Sometimes groups of slaves were bound by Set to the service of high-ranking devils in return for goods, favors, or magic.^[8]

The petitioners of Ankhwugaht were untrustworthy individuals, yet maintained a strange sense of honor that prevented them from going back on their sworn word, even if getting that word was difficult.^[5] The evil creatures found it hard to show gratitude, but did all they could to ensure debts were quickly paid off, having seen infernal politics long enough to anticipate the ruse of long-term repayment even where none was intended.^[11]

All petitioners, even the mummified ones, had the potential to one day be promoted by Set into his elite host of fiendish jackal-headed warriors or even a divine minion (his best known proxies), though only the most ambitiously sinister ever became even the former and few ever achieved the latter. Set delighted in tormenting his petitioners with this, which spurred them to legally undercut their neighbors and work harder.^[8]^[15]^[3] Unless Set had need of them or they were being promoted, every petitioner would be stuck in their form.^[15]

There were other evil entities in Ankhwugaht; those with an affinity for the desert had a unique affinity of the realm. Mummies were the most obvious and extreme example of this phenomenon.^[3] Both mummies and liches sometimes traveled out of Ankhwugaht to trade with the devils of Stygia's ruler Levistus.^[2] According to some reports, any visitor unable to disguise their status as one of the living would be swarmed by these undead, as well as Set's jackal-headed warriors.^[8] Night hags lurked in the uncivilized parts of the realm, and marrashi were also present.^[1]^{[note 2]} Lastly, the Lord of Crocodiles Sebek, lowest of the Mulhorandi pantheon, had no realm in Heliopolis and lurked in Ankhwugaht when not on Toril.^[1]

Appendix[]

Notes[]

↑ The last two of these are not explicitly stated as being in Set's realm exclusively, but would make rather little sense elsewhere.
↑ Again, the latter is unstated, but logically assumed.