The Maw of Oblivion

The following is a written record of the information gathered by Dr. Selby and Thalia Burdorn regarding the monster, known as The Maw, that attempted to eat Cinder in November of 1217, several months after his resurrection.



The creature depicted above (or more accurately the mouth depicted above, which was all we saw of the creature) is referred to as the Maw or the Maw of Oblivion. The Maw is a terrifying creature with a hunger for the souls of Light and Dark Paladins. As of this writing, it has already eaten all those Paladins of the Light and Dark that had been taking part in the Ascended War. And now it is coming for the Paladins on this plane and likely everyone else.

The Maw became known to us during Cinder’s resurrection in September of 1217. In the time that led up to the resurrection, it was revealed that the Paladins had received a vision of what the afterlife had held for him and it was this vision that spurred the urgency of his resurrection. Unfortunately, Cinder was only returned to his loved ones for several moments before he was literally pulled from them by forces unseen.

In November of 1217, Magnus, Aiki, Odette, Lumaneris (Cinder’s sister), Duncan, Jun, Jackdaw, Starling, Swyft, Zelretch,Thalia, Jed, Seth, Bob, Indigo, Amir, and others of all alignments when to attempt to rescue Cinder. Zelretch led the group to the weakest point between the veils and parted them, and there found Cinder held captive before the giant mouth of the creature depicted above. He was held in place by chains forged from the souls of both Light and Dark Paladins and it took all of us working together to get him free.

Upon setting foot back in Travance, the doorway we had used to travel to the Maw’s plane closed behind us. However, as we set foot through, it was clear that the Maw’s tendrils were attempting to cross over as well. While it did not succeed, it was clear that it would only be a matter of time before the Maw made its way from its current plane into ours.

It was then that the research. The question was how to kill, disable or otherwise delay a creature of this magnitude and power. From our understanding at that point, in November 1217, we only had a year. Thankfully we were granted more time to try and understand and gather information for the task.

Our research has led us to realize that the closest creature in similarity to the Maw is the monster that resides at the bottom of the inverted tower, also known as the Void Spider. The Void Spider is incredibly powerful, so powerful that Arawyn themself raised a champion to fight it. And when that champion failed, Arawyn used their own power to invert the tower so that the Void Spider was locked away. This is the level of threat that we can anticipate from the Maw.

During the five-year timeline created by Eden, further research was conducted. We discovered a name that was somehow related to how to defeat this creature; the name was Professor Algrave, an instructor who survived the fall of the Quartz Mountain Academy. The professor had been known for his then-controversial theories about power. Further research revealed that Professor Algrave was indeed alive and that he had found a series of “mysterious islands, each seeped in the power of gemstones” and it was his intention to travel there. Today, we call it Sevenlore.

Through a psionic ritual lead by Tari in October 1218, we were able to get coordinates that worked on the Gates of Passage to get to Sevenlore where the Professor has been living. After a brief interlude with a Sevenlore native, the Professor magically took us into his study. The magic he used was recognized by some more seasoned Travancians to be the type of magic used by the Advocates many years ago. For those who do not know, this is dream magic. After talking to the Professor, we found that he has the ability to teach this power to others and that it can be used to make the monster much easier to defeat. The Professor came back to Travance with us and has been training Travancians to use this power, what he deems the power of the Archons, to defeat this creature. He started training Travancians to use this power in January 1219.

In April of 1219, through the weakening of the False Prophet Anjira, it was discovered that the Maw was once Gamaliel who used to be a soul harvester. Gamaliel committed a genocide of Twilight Stars which led to him transcending being a soul harvester and becoming the Maw. He has the ability to cross realms at will and he will learn that he is capable of this within one to two months.

The Maw is coming. It is coming firstly for Paladins of all alignments. We believe that if it succeeds in eating all of the Paladins, it will move on to everyone else. To our knowledge, we have one way of stopping it. That is to use the powers of the Archons to will this creature into being much less powerful; into being something we can fight.

We have fought many creatures before and faced many perils. The one before us is one that we must defeat, for our future and the future of this world. No one person or group can fight this battle alone, we will only succeed if everyone works together to defeat this monstrosity.


If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here, send a missive, or speak to either of us at the May feast. Both of us will be in attendance and will keep ourselves available whenever possible.

These notes will be added to when more information is uncovered.

-Thalia Burdorn and Dr. Selby Wainwright

We have faced the void of obliteration before and we shall do so now resolute and firm.

In Service,

You have full access to my power to assist in this threat.
No one but me will ever have the right to rip apart my teacher's soul and it certainly will not be allowed to have mine.
I hope whatever consciousness the Maw has, is ready to accept the fate we will grant him.



Post Script For those who cannot sense my sarcasm, I have no intention of sundering Orophin's soul.

Aiki,
Both me and Selby appreciate the thanks. We have spent many years following this.

I just hope that our words do the Maw justice. A threat this insidious must not taken lightly.
-Thalia

Thank you for putting all of this together. Whatever you need to keep going with this, if I can provide it, I will.

Some questions, some of which will likely be better suited towards some group research next Feast:
-Has there ever been any known instance of a soul being re-formed after being consumed by a soul harvester?
-What happened to the soul-forged chains after you freed Cinder?
-What did you have to do to break the chains in the first place?
-How were you able to reach the spot beyond the veils in the first place? Was the Maw just omni-present, or was there some kind of... beacon?
-It sounds like the Maw (or one of its tendrils) needs to be within a certain distance of you to consume you. Does this track?
-Were you able to beat back/harm/destroy any of the tendrils, or was it more like a game of dodge rock where the best you could hope for was to avoid them?

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In Service,
Lady Lois Blair Heimdell of Albriar

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