56.
The Forsaken Depths of Diyu
Beneath the flooded caverns of
Diyu, beyond the catacombs where Undead Dragons wander and the purple vapors give birth to Ghastly Dragons, lies a forgotten abyss feared even by the High Drakens of Zangatu. Known simply as
The Forsaken Depths, this prison was reserved for those whose crimes transcended betrayal. Here were cast not only the greatest traitors of the Saurian Empire, but also the victims of Grayhaven's earliest biological experiments.
Centuries ago, during the first conflicts between Grayhaven and the lizard kingdoms, captured prisoners from
Zambe and noble Drakens from
Zangatu were secretly delivered to alchemists and warlocks seeking to understand the resilience of draconic blood. Flesh was fused with corrupted mana, emerald dust, unstable alchemical compounds, and fragments of undead tissue recovered from Diyu itself. Few survived. Those who did became something neither living nor dead.
Their scales blackened with necrosis, exposing glowing veins of violet mana beneath cracked flesh. Bones pierced through their bodies as if trying to escape, while the toxic vapors of Diyu slowly replaced their blood. Many lost their eyes, yet continued to perceive the world through currents of magical energy flowing beneath the earth. Others fused with the cavern walls, becoming living masses of stone, bone, and decayed muscle that whisper in forgotten Draken dialects.
The greatest irony is that these creatures are no longer prisoners of Grayhaven or of Zangatu. They are prisoners of
G.O.D.'s simulation itself.
The Bonelords of the Trinary Tower believe the Forsaken Depths are places where the equations governing reality begin to fail. The endless suffering, failed resurrections, and fractured identities generate anomalies within the world's mathematical framework. To the Bonelords, these abominations are not monsters—they are corrupted variables, evidence that the simulation cannot perfectly reconcile life, death, and memory.
Among the horrors still wandering these caverns are former generals of the Draken Empire, forgotten revolutionaries from Zambe who dreamed of equality, priests condemned for questioning the Dracomandaments, and nameless civilians whose only crime was surviving Grayhaven's experiments. None remember who they once were. Their minds were erased, just as Diyu decrees, yet fragments of instinct remain. Some still salute invisible emperors. Others endlessly dig through stone searching for homes that no longer exist.
Legends claim that somewhere within the deepest chamber sleeps the first experimental subject ever created by Grayhaven—a lizard whose body, soul, and fragmented consciousness refused to separate after death. Neither Undead Dragon nor Ghastly Dragon, it exists as an impossible being, a contradiction within Diyu's own laws. The Bonelords call it
The Constant Error, believing its existence proves that even G.O.D.'s perfect simulation contains flaws that cannot be corrected.
To the lizardfolk, entering the Forsaken Depths is worse than descending into hell. Diyu destroys identity as punishment; the Forsaken Depths preserve broken remnants of it forever. It is a place where justice ended, science lost all restraint, and the boundaries between biology, necromancy, and mathematics dissolved into an eternal nightmare.
