Underworld

From MTG Wiki
(Redirected from Tizerus)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Underworld
Information
Plane Theros
Scryfall Statistics

The Underworld of Theros is a subterranean realm where the dead end up and dwell, located beneath the mortal plane and ruled by Erebos. Those who escape the Underworld become the undead Returned.[1] It is the equivalent of ancient Greek Hades.

Description

As it lacks the night as much as it lacks the Sun, the Underworld is speculated not to be connected to Nyx. Its landscape is characterized by huge columns, giant chains, and poplar trees.[2] Like Nyx, the Underworld cannot be planeswalked to directly.[3] Necromancy magic can resurrect mortals as normal, however Erebos can block certain uses of those spells.[1]

History

At the dawn of humanity, Klothys and Kruphix waged war against their predecessors, the titans. Victorious, the twin gods sealed the Titans in the Underworld with Klothys to keep watch.

Some myths claim that when Heliod first came into being, his shadow became Erebos which he banished into the Underworld.[4] However, other myths claim that Erebos came first and that he was banished following the birth of Heliod.[1] Given the nature of Nyx, neither story is true, though Kruphix implies that a god of death (Erebos or otherwise) preceded the original sun god (stated not to be Heliod).[5]

Locations

Different sections (or wards) of the Underworld are aligned with the five colors of mana.[6] Mortals believe these wards to be directly underneath Theros, but they are separate planes of existence (each infinite in scale) connected by the Tartyx River.[1]

Entrances

Entering the Underworld is an endeavor requiring physical travel to material locations, which lampads guide the dead toward. These areas are where the barrier between the two realms is at its weakest, such as deep caves and foggy bodies of water. Most are guarded by monsters placed there by a god or drawn to its energy. The following locations on the mortal plane are rumored to lead to the Underworld (with varying degrees of validity):[1]

  • Athreos's Shrine, the Temple of Silence in the Despair Lands. Daxos lost his mother Lidia here.[7]
  • The Blood Tree near Asphodel bleeds into the surrounding mire, turning the waters red.
  • Cronemouth Cove in the Dakra Isles is guarded by a trio of sea hags.
  • The Empty Eye in the Oraniad Mountains is a dormant volcano with a shadowy caldera.
  • The Enorasi in the Nessian Wood is the lair of Arasta, some of whose webs lead to the Underworld.
  • The Bothros is a bottomless pit in Odunos into which the Returned dump stolen loot.
  • The Pharagax Bridge in Akros is built over a large chasm that monsters occasionally emerge from.
  • Stolsluko's Lair Black mana - the lair of the wolf-toothed hag Stolsluko has an entrance to the Underworld.[1]
  • The Winter Nexus in Setessa lies in a rocky cave that serves as a burial ground.

Locations inside the Underworld

Agonas
  • Agonas Red mana - the final destination of those who lived and died by the sword without honor — cowards, mercenaries, and glory-seekers who fell short of valor. The cries of endless combat echo across its rocky canyons, stirring bloodlust in all who hear them. The landscape bristles with colossal stadiums and suspended arenas built from shattered ruins and rusted chains. These damned souls are met by oreads, cyclopes, and the spirits of dead champions, all drawn to the ceaseless war.[1]
    • The Stadium of Dishonor Red mana - a looming arena at the center of Agonas where disgraced warriors battle one another and savage beasts in an eternal trial of violence, like a twisted eternal version of the Iroan Games.[1]
    • The Wall of Anikthea White manaBlack manaGreen mana - a trail of fallen monsters left by the demigod Anikthea, leading from Agonas to the gate to the surface.[8]
Ilysia
  • Ilysia Green mana - offers peace to heroic souls and to those who died unjustly, untouched by Erebos’s dominion. This radiant paradise is adorned with flowering groves, marble temples, and vine-draped palaces, a realm of beauty and serenity. Here, the worthy are greeted by dryads, chimeras, and legends of old, who welcome them into a life eternal in honor and harmony. Erebos is believed to have no authority over this realm, and it is the only ward in the Underworld that Heliod's sun can reach.[1] It is equivalent to the Elysian Fields.
    • Citadel of Destiny Green mana - a castle in the heart of Ilysia where noble spirits feast, share tales, and compete in contests of skill and strength.[1]
Nerono
  • Nerono Blue mana - a haunted, oceanic realm where the souls of lost mariners and the deeply mournful drift in solitude. The ward is a quiet sea broken by misty islands, algae-covered ruins, and ghostly shipwrecks. Though often still, the waters can erupt into sudden storms that claim wandering spirits by the dozens. Sirens, naiads, and sphinxes sometimes guide new souls into this watery sorrow.[1]
    • The Labyrinth of Memories Blue mana - a maze of waterways trapping travelers by sending them in circles for eternity. Sirens torment lost souls by whispering true directions - words that fade immediately from the listener's mind.[1]
  • Path of Phenax Blue manaBlack mana - the path Phenax took to escape the Underworld. Once a mortal soul, Phenax became the first to escape the Underworld by journeying through the Tartyx River. Its waters stripped him of his identity, rendering him invisible to Athreos and beyond Erebos's reach. This act allowed Phenax to ascend to godhood, his route believed to end at the Crypts of the Lost in Phoberos, though the exact path remains a mystery. Since then, others have followed what became known as the Path of Phenax. Those who survive the crossing emerge on the mortal side of the river as the Returned: soulless echoes, faceless and forgetful of who they once were. To claim a new identity, each Returned bears a golden mask that serves as both symbol and substitute self. Yet their true identities are not destroyed — only severed. These lost selves take shape as eidolons, spectral remnants of memory and emotion, which wander the mortal realm unbound from their former bodies. Phenax was able to ascend to godhood after escaping the Underworld by traveling through the Tartyx River and shedding his identity, making him undetectable by the gods. While the exact path he took is unknown, it is speculated to have ended at the Crypts of the Lost in Phoberos. Many mortals have replicated this feat, manifesting on the mortal plane as the Returned.[1]
Phylias
  • Phylias White mana - a bleak, joyless realm generally thought to be the highest layer of the Underworld, inhabited by those who passed through life without purpose or ambition — souls who left no legacy and made no mark. They now dwell in monotonous routine, shuffling through drab communities in a parody of mortal life. Towering blocks of gray stone crowd the ward in chaotic, lifeless arrangements, their sheer scale doing little to hide their emptiness. No guides welcome the newly arrived; instead, they drift into the gray masses and disappear.[1]
Tizerus
  • Tizerus Black mana - a black realm equivalent to Tartarus, where all hope crumbles to dust.[9] The deepest and most feared ward, which holds the souls of murderers and those who defied the gods with unforgivable acts. It is a realm of black stone, desolation, and ruin where demons and nightmares torture the damned for all eternity. New arrivals are swiftly claimed by horrors eager to inflict their forms of justice.[1]
    • The Mire of Punishment Black mana - a festering swamp beyond the palace where those caught attempting to escape the Underworld spend the rest of their existence. Night hag huts riddle the the towering pillars of basalt and granite within the mire. Amid the cries of the damned, the hags inhale the toxic smoke of balefires and follow the invoked visions to the dreams of vulnerable mortals where they can sow the seeds of folly.[1]
    • The Palace of Erebos Black mana - the shadowed gold and crimson home of the god of the Underworld. Within, the god of death watches and waits, occasionally seizing souls with his lash and dragging them into deeper torment.[1]
      • Lathos - a hidden portal buried deep within the heart of Erebos's palace, said to lead back to the mortal world. Unlike other means of resurrection, legends claim that passing through Lathos restores a soul to life without any cost — no sacrifice, no fading of memories or sense of self. Yet despite this promise, the path to Lathos is anything but simple. Erebos stations his most fearsome servants to guard it, and no soul is known to have successfully escaped through the portal. Even if one were to reach it, the portal's exit in the mortal realm remains a mystery.[1]
Tartyx
  • Tartyx, the Rivers That Ring the World White manaBlack mana - a river that marks the boundary between the mortal realm and the Underworld. It is formed by the confluence of five tributaries, each flowing from one of the Underworld's five wards, creating a vast river so wide that the opposite shore is often lost to sight. Along its winding course drift countless islands — some cloaked in leafless forests, others scattered with crumbling ruins, and many ruled by powerful demons or strange entities beyond death’s reach. Athreos ferries souls across the Tartyx, demanding a single gold coin as payment, whether the traveler is truly deceased or not. Yet the river is far from safe: its waters conceal mysterious creatures lurking beneath the surface, and its currents are said to erode memories and dissolve identity, making passage perilous for both the living and the dead. None of the islands offers refuge, standing as hostile realms in this liminal space between life and the afterlife. In many ways, the Tartyx is the Therosian counterpart to the River Styx, a mystical and fearsome barrier that encircles the world, separating existence from what lies beyond.[1]
    • Oneirrakthys White manaBlack mana - a library on an island in Tartyx and a treasury where Athreos stores his earnings.[1]

Inhabitants

Gods

The Underworld is governed by the god Erebos,[4] who rules it with an iron whip. He is jealous, tyrannical, and paranoid.[10]

The River Guide Athreos ferries souls across the Tartyx River and maintains the barrier between life and death. Klothys has lived in the Underworld ever since the binding of the Titans, but she left following the apotheosis of Xenagos to untangle the threads of fate in the mortal world.

After the fall of the Archon empires of the Age of Trax, some of the celestial archons took refuge in the Underworld. There, their minds, souls, and bodies were twisted, turning them into sadistic monsters known as the Ashen Riders.[1]

Following the events of Theros Beyond Death, Heliod became trapped in the Underworld by Klothys as punishment for his hubris.[11][12]

Mortals

Every mortal is destined to pass into the Underworld upon death. The souls of the dead are generally divided into three categories:[1]

  • Neoli have recently arrived in the Underworld, still vibrant and lively.
  • Glazers have spent more time dead than alive, becoming vacant.
  • Misera have been petrified after countless deaths in the Underworld.[13] These eventually erode into dust.

Economy

Denizens of the Underworld don't value gold as currency due it its abundance. Instead, they use ostraka, or clay shards from their funerary masks, as a tool for barter.[1]

Monsters

Just like humanoid mortals, many Monsters are also able to pass into the Underworld, sometimes becoming guides or wardens for mortal souls. These include chimera, cyclopes, harpies, and sphinxes, among others. Other monsters (typically Nyxborn) are said to be native to the Underworld, such as hags, lamia, Nightmares, and nymphs (especially lampads).

Erebos creates a multitude of monsters to guard his realm.[10] Athreos and Klothys also employ these same monsters for their purposes. Cerberi are used to guard the Tartyx River, with two-headed cerberi on the mortal side to keep the living out and three-headed cerberi on the other side to keep the dead in. The most famous Cerberus is Kunoros, the Hound of Athreos. Skeleton soldiers called phylaskia (from phylaxis meaning "guarding" or "watching") guard the borders of each ward, ensuring no souls leave their final resting place.[14]

Some souls in the Underworld become twisted and hateful throughout their afterlife, the most evil and malicious of them also transforming into demons or typhons. Woe Striders are also said to dwell in the Underworld,[15] the result of mortals attempting to untether themselves from fate.[1]

In-game references

Associated cards:
Depicted in:
Referred to:

References

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Wizards RPG Team (2020), D&D Mythic Odysseys of Theros, Wizards of the Coast
  2. ↑ Donny Caltrider (January 23, 2020). "Sam Burley Talks About His Theros Beyond Death Lands". Hipsters of the Coast.
  3. ↑ Doug Beyer (June 01, 2014). "So is Elspeth less dead on Theros than she would be on any other plane?". A Voice for Vorthos. Tumblr.
  4. ↑ a b The Magic Creative Team (August 21, 2013). "Planeswalker's Guide to Theros". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. ↑ Kelly Digges (June 11, 2014). "Kruphix's Insight". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. ↑ The Vorthos Cast (February 10, 2020). "This week we have special guest James Wyatt from Wizards of the Coast on to talk about Theros: Beyond Death.". The Vorthos Cast.
  7. ↑ Jenna Helland (2014) - Theros: Godsend, Part I, WotC.
  8. ↑ Enduring Enchantments deck insert
  9. ↑ Flavor text for Cling to Dust
  10. ↑ a b Erebos, Bleak-Hearted. Reddit (December 30, 2019).
  11. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (January 10, 2020). "Theros Beyond Death Story Summary". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  12. ↑ Represented in Heliod's Punishment
  13. ↑ Flavor text for Final Death
  14. ↑ Flavor text for Underworld Sentinel
  15. ↑ Woe Strider. Reddit (December 30, 2019).
Theros block
Theros sets
Storyline
Publications
Characters
Locations
Other
Retrieved from "https://mtg.wiki/index.php?title=Underworld&oldid=536321#Locations_inside_the_Underworld"