The Midnight Road is “a ring with a sigel inserted” behind the western gates at the bottom of the Ardis Vala Mega-Dungeon: a barrier, a route toward the first Sigil, and the gateway to the negative plane and to what existed before duality.
| Guarded by | Knights of the Scar of the Sun |
| Spanish entry | La Ruta de Medianoche (Ardis Vala) |
Description
In its corridor, summoned demons and toad-like batrachians once devoured a fallen companion’s head. Some call it magic; others liken it to a particle accelerator. It is the same complex as the Obsidian Gates and Midnight Road.
The obsidian gates, made for giant hands, have two keyholes, for a golden and a silver scepter. The knights held the silver key; the other was lost among the fifth level’s dead, and an elf died seeking it. Roderick suffered martyrdom before these gates.
Role
- Barrier. The knights set it against the demon princes and against what existed before the Castle of the Prism fell. Beyond lie knowledge, artifacts, charms and demons: Lo llamamos caminar la medianoche (“We call it walking the midnight”).
- Route. There are many Sigils, and the corridor was a route toward the first; hence Sogol’s origin is “surely” in this world (Genesis of Sogol in the Ucronos).
- Hourglass. Above, mirrors in the Halls of Thoth open onto the Positive Energy Plane, whose light undoes the undead in seconds; below, behind these gates, lies the negative plane. The world is in between.
Beyond the gates
The chronicles say the gates open onto the time before duality, the world egg, when neither gods nor humans existed and heaven and earth lay undivided in a darkness without time or space, “but something began there”: the waters of Nun and Kauket. Reports tell of a formless demon prince that devours living matter, probably the gatekeeper, and a cult older than dragons whose deformed tongue names the lie opposed to Maat, the feather of truth. All this predates the rule of Caladan.
The pits where the Varumani were created lie beyond, and a demon freed from a badly erased circle fled that way. The last Seekers swore to open the gates once they had both keys and the vampire was gone. That day never came.
Open questions
- Whether this ring is one of the Sigils, and whether the sigel is a seal, a key or a name.
- What the two keys unlock; the Dual Key raises the same question.