Acheron

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Contrary to most realms of Hell, Acheron remains largely untamed by demons. The inhabited portion of the realm, where stands the capital Semdion, forms only a tiny region, circled on all sides by an extremely hostile icy wasteland, battered by relentless chilly winds. Fire magic is very weak and muted in Acheron and any heat seem to be instantly sucked away by the frosty air of the realm. Only creatures with natural resistance to extreme cold can hope to survive outside of Semdion. As a grim reminder, countless ice statues of frozen solid creatures and frozen body part fragments can be seen littering that merciless and ghastly landscape.

The frozen wastelands are largely unknown and unexplored, a seemingly endless desert of ice, spreading as far as the eyes can see in every directions, populated by titanic and formidable creatures that could easily attack, and devour, even an arch devil lord. It is said that Acheron borders another dimension leading out of Hell to legendary realms, far beyond that ice desert. Eons ago, a powerful demon king, his lieutenants and his entire army once attempted to cross the wastelands to reach and conquer the other side. They were never heard of ever again.

Sea of Crezal

It's, of course, difficult to make sense of such a perilous plane as Acheron but careful observations concluded that the realm is made of what appear to be a large and thick sheet of ice on top of an immense sea of crezal. That material, found only in a few spiritual worlds, possesses many strange properties. First it's almost impossibly cold in its liquid form and for most creatures, a mere contact with it is likely to be lethal. Crezal is found in liquid form when the environment is cold enough. The warmer it gets, the more solid crezal becomes. Because Acheron's atmosphere is much warmer than its depths, Whenever crezal emerges above the surface, in most cases it almost instantly solidify, not unlike frozen water would but for opposite reasons.

When temperatures fall in some regions of Acheron and it gets colder than usual, solidified crezal start to revert to liquid, fissures and weaknesses in the ice appear, exposing briefly the sea to the atmosphere, and creating multiple dangerous phenomenons. For instance the relentless and violent winds battering the frozen desert most likely originate from liquid Crezal meeting the -comparably- warmer air of the surface. Sometimes geysers of sort will shoot out streams of liquid crezal into the air of Acheron, that turn into a solid form a few seconds later -usually while still airborne unless the cold is especially extreme- creating a deadly hail of sharp, solidified crezal fragments falling to the ground. The colder it gets in Acheron, the more dangerous the place becomes. However those phenomenons represent only a small part of the danger; The real peril come from a particular life form that sometimes get expelled along liquid crezal into the surface.

Crezalyds infestation

The Crezal sea house many strange and bizarre life-forms that sometimes get expelled through geysers onto the surface of Acheron. One of them is the Crezalyd. That creature has the appearance of a thin-legged crystalline spider. they are frail and fragile creatures, very vulnerable when they're scuttling about on land. They are very dangerous parasites however, entering and burrowing into the body of some of the behemoths prowling the icy wastelands.They infest their host in order to devour them slowly from the inside and slowly crystallizing their organism. The crezalyd eventually takes partial control of its host using it both as a protection and sustenance. infested creatures display a very erratic, aggressive and violent behavior, with their physical limitations seemingly being removed. infested creatures are prone to blind rage and a propension to harm themselves, turning already massive, formidable monsters into forces of pure destruction and chaos.

At the terminal stage of infestation, crystals start to emerge from the body of the host, piercing its skin, replacing its bones and invading its organs. At this point, death is but inevitable and only a matter of time. When the crezalyd has finally killed its host it will leave a mostly empty, crystallized husk behind and a pack of larvas, ready to find new hosts to infest.

The threat crezalyds represent is immense, but thankfully tempered by the fact that a crezayld without a host will often try to escape back to the Crezal sea when it can. They become frenzied on the surface due to the uncomfortably warm atmosphere for them but once they come back to the crezal sea they revert to a much less aggressive life forms. When gathered in large numbers in the same area it seems they are capable of a very primitive form of intelligence.

Semdion

The capital Semdion is situated in what is believed to be the warmer region of Acheron. The ice layer is very thick in this area and the Crezal sea remain far underneath. Most of Semdion inhabitants never saw liquid crezal in their entire life and many never will. The farther you get from Semdion, the colder it progressively gets.

Semdion is a large and elegant city with large avenues, adorned by strange, majestic ice sculptures. The streets are bustling with activity and the air is markedly less cold and almost bearable for normal creatures. The city has been designed both for smaller races and the giant frost Succubi inhabiting it, although some size-altering areas exist, where succubi can walk at the same size as everyone else. In the center of Semdion stands the gigantic palace of the Succubus Queen Arsinoë, the powerful ruler of Acheron. Frost succubi see themselves as progressive, refined and civilized, and thus, contact with them is generally considered safer than with the rest of their kind. They are still dangerous however, and a lot of caution is needed when you deal with them. They adore formalities, complex protocols, and contracts full of subtle traps and tricky clauses written in small characters. Those who fall victim to their complex legal games either end up as a snack, or in the underground part of the city, where cruel and merciless punishment are inflicted on poor gullible fools. And maybe those ice sculptures are not made of ice only...

Fauna of Acheron

Obyos

Size: 30 feet to 500 feet
Threat: High

large grey and blue worms burrowing into the permafrost of the ice wastes. They consume ice and extract water from it, processing it and turning it into a new liquid with unique properties, that they can control to a certain extent. When it's time to feed, the obyos will emerge to the surface, and spit this unique liquid at a target. It will then control its flow for a few seconds, creating a very chaotic stream projection, able to change direction in the middle of its course in unpredictable ways, seemingly with a mind of its own, or even divide itself, making avoiding it extremely hard.

Once the target has been it by the stream, the liquid immediately freeze, either encasing the prey in solid ice or impairing it. The obyos then proceed to engulf the grotesque ice sculpture it just created along with its trapped victim into its large mouth and to swallow everything down. The liquid is then recycled and imbued again for future uses. Some smaller Obyos have been domesticated and tamed by the frost succubi in Semdion in order to build ice structures.

Optodonthe

Size: 400 feet to 1500 feet and probably more
Threat: Critical

Optodonthes resemble a sort of immense, blocky frost angler fish with a grotesquely wide mouth almost circling its titanic body. It will stay passive most of the time, looking like a large mound of ice, unless something come nearby. With its excellent capacity to detect vibrations in the ice, the creature can sense prey for very far away.

Once alerted of a large potential prey walking in the distance, the optodonthe will start to create a powerful blizzard on the entire region The creature will then create walls of wind in order to subtly guide the prey toward it. Once the prey is close enough, the optodonthe will open its enormous mouth wide and inhale its victim with the full force of its irresistible suction. Very few creatures can resist being swallowed and, once inside the stomach of the behemoth, the prey could be an arch-demon of the highest rank that it wouldn't change anything to its fate as optodonthes are near unkillable by brute force and their entire body is famous for being tough as diamond and completely impermeable to magic.

Cachiciel

Size: varied but most of them 45 feet
Threat: Minimal

It's unclear why, but large clusters of cachiciels lie in wait in some parts of Acheron. Those autonomous, semi-sentient weapons coming in various size are of heavenly origins and their arrival in Acheron most likely date back from the Tenebris War. Cachiciels look like solid, single-edged arrowhead-shaped constructs that bury themselves in the ice with their sharp edge upwards. When they feel the aura of a demon approaching, they surge explosively through the ice and attempt to embed themselves into its flesh. Dodging one cachiciel is not that hard for a seasoned warrior and they will generally attack only several times before falling dormant again, until they can recharge. However, they tend to lay in clusters, making it difficult to dodge one without activating several of them. Moreover cachiciels act with an instinct of their own, not unlike animals, circling around their target to find an opening once the surprise advantage has been lost, faking attacks or planning ambushes.

There used to be attempts by demons in Semdion to clear Acheron of cachiciels but the dangerous environment made all of them end in failure. Cachiciels are deadly and slew many demons in Acheron, including powerful ones, however they present little to no danger to non-demonic creatures as they just won't activate themselves in their presence.

• Credits to Stab for the Cachiciel idea.