Chapter: In the Underworld

The first diagram shows a cross-section (north-east—south-west) with the Plain of Thrones on the left and the Halls of Rebirth and the colonnade of the Labyrinth off to the right. Note the slope that the sarcophagus columns of the Labyrinth climb—this is the outer slope of the volcanic cone of the Plain of Thrones. The triangular concavity in the crater wall—facing out over the Plain—is the Umbilicus and behind it, cut into the rock, are the strata of the Halls of Rebirth

The second diagram shows a close up of the Umbilicus with the arched voids that lie behind it

The Halls of Rebirth are the equivalent on earth of the Halls of Thunder in the sky—the residence of the God Emperor and his court in the Labyrinth

Lying within the Yden, the Labyrinth covers the ridge connecting the Plain of Thrones to the Pillar of Heaven. It consists of an immense, hypostyle hall in which each column is a mausoleum for a past God Emperor, Empress or other important personage from the House of the Masks; there are over one thousand of these column mausolea. Originally they were free standing; it was only later that they were spanned by arches, and the whole structure roofed over. The Halls of Rebirth are partially built into the south-western wall of the Plain of Thrones but they also spill into the Labyrinth

The two depressions that ‘nip’ the cross-section of the Pillar of Heaven contain the only ways by which it can be climbed. The north-western depression contains the Rainbow Stair

This shows a view into the Umbilicus from its open end, that looks out over the Plain of Thrones below. This cavern—hollowed into the inner cliff face of the wall of the Plain of Thrones—is backed with tiers on which are located the ‘thrones’ that the Masters sit on as they gaze down upon their subjects on the plain below. A stairway runs up the middle of the tiers. Some tiny figures have been included for scale

torsion device

This is a sketch of one of the torsion devices—that initially I termed “blood squeezers”—that Ykoriana describes and that flank the stair ascending between the tiers in the Pyramid Hollow. The sketch shows a victim within the device. The device consists of a number of strips dangling from a head—like a flaccid squid—that are gathered together and twisted into a single rope that is torsioned by a capstan. On their interior surface, these strips are lined with obsidian hooks. As the device is torsioned, the strips weave tighter and tighter around the victim’s body, so that the hooks dig into his flesh—with the result that, when the device is released, the victim is torn apart. Hideous, but there it is

constructing the Umbilicus