The Truth of Erruuth
Erruuth was not a god, not a demon, and not an otherworldly entity. He was a mortal. Born in the village of Threndor in the Iron Mountains, the son of a blacksmith and a weaver, Erruuth was gifted with an intellect and magical aptitude that exceeded anything his village could nurture. His parents sent him to study in Runewick, where he quickly surpassed his peers and tutors alike. His hunger for knowledge was insatiable, and his ambition—at first indistinguishable from scholarly passion—grew without limit.
The Arcanum Divinorum recruited Erruuth for his exceptional talent. Within the order, he was exposed to the deepest mysteries of magic and the divine—including knowledge of the Divine Veil and the nature of the gods themselves. During a rite of meditation, Erruuth experienced a vision of the Veil and perceived a destiny beyond mortality: to breach the barrier and ascend to godhood. What began as scholarly ambition became obsession. He left the Arcanum, traveled Voxana gathering followers, and presented himself as a prophet. He was drawing on their collective belief to fuel his transformation.
Erruuth’s attempt to physically breach the Divine Veil tore the Loom itself. The resulting catastrophe—the Split—destroyed Etherea, created the Sea of Lament, and plunged the world into chaos. The gods, forced to break the Divine Concord, re-emerged to fight him in the Divine War—a conflict that lasted five hundred years.
The Banishment and the Five Gates
The gods, channeling their combined power through the Arcane Stones forged by the Arcanum Divinorum, banished Erruuth to a realm of non-existence—a dimension crafted from the essence of banishment itself, beyond the reach of mortals and gods alike. This prison was not a single seal but a system of five gates, each anchoring one aspect of the banishment. The gates were placed at locations of metaphysical significance across Voxana, their positions chosen to distribute the strain of holding an entity of Erruuth’s power.
The five gates are the locks on Erruuth’s prison. As long as all five hold, Erruuth remains imprisoned in absolute non-existence. If a gate is opened, the prison weakens. If multiple gates are opened, Erruuth’s influence can begin bleeding into the Material Weave. If all five are opened, Erruuth is freed.
| Gate | Location | Status | DM Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| The First Gate | Beneath Wyndmoore, Osan | The cult discovered and opened this gate. Its opening triggered the worldwide Glowstone reactivation. | DM choice whether this is campaign canon or world canon. |
| The Second Gate | Unknown | The Cult of the Veiled One is actively searching. Location may be on Volaxia, Osan, or the Sea of Lament. | DM determines location. |
| The Third Gate | Unknown | As above. | DM determines location. |
| The Fourth Gate | Unknown | As above. | DM determines location. |
| The Fifth Gate | Unknown | As above. The final gate is likely the most heavily warded and most difficult to locate. | DM determines location. |
Designing the Remaining Gates
The locations of gates two through five are deliberately undefined. This gives DMs the freedom to place them wherever serves their campaign. Some natural candidates based on world geography: the Sunstone Temple (Grand Desert, Osan), the Deep Ruins beneath the Sea of Lament, the Iron Drift, the Blistering Swamp, or a location in the Frostbourne Wilds near the original village of Threndor. Each gate should feel like a significant destination—remote, dangerous, and guarded by challenges that scale to the party’s level.
The five-gate structure provides a natural campaign arc: discovering that the gates exist, understanding what they do, racing the Cult of the Veiled One to secure them, and—ultimately—deciding what to do about Erruuth’s prison. The gates do not need to be opened or closed in any particular order, and the cult does not need to succeed at all of them for the campaign to feel urgent.
Erruuth’s Current State
Erruuth exists in a state of non-existence. He is not dead. He is not sleeping. He is imprisoned in a dimension that was specifically designed to contain a being of his power—a void where consciousness persists but action is impossible. The realm of banishment was crafted from the essence of banishment itself, a concept made manifest and sealed with divine power channeled through the Arcane Stones.
With the First Gate opened, Erruuth’s prison has weakened. He cannot act directly in the Material Weave, but his influence can bleed through the cracks. Maelisar the Hidden claims to communicate with Erruuth—receiving visions, directives, and fragments of will that shape the cult’s actions. Whether this communication is genuine, a product of Maelisar’s own delusion, or something else entirely is a question individual DMs should answer for their own campaigns.
What is certain is that the Glowstone reactivation—triggered by the First Gate’s opening—proves that the prison system responds to interference. The Arcane Stone fragments remember their purpose. The question is whether anyone alive can learn to read the warning.