Searchers After Horror Haunt Strange, Far Places - TSE Netherworld Exploration

[Lark]

When Lark stepped through the gate, he experienced both familiar and anomalous phenomenons. There was an ever-present sense of disquietude and instability, as though something threatened to consume them at any moment if they weren't cautious. Enigmatic spirits drifted in front of the Sith expedition, as much as Lark wanted to observe them he knew a moment of distraction could inevitably lead to an agonizing fate or eternal suffering. The scenery was unlike anything he had ever seen, even in his more fantastical dreams. The Dark Side screamed, burrowing into his mind like a parasite. Some of the wails sounded like a mind-shattering song, but other shrieks Lark found that he could understand. Was that an effect of the Necronomicon?

Finally, Lark stepped out from the transitional plane and stepped foot into the Netherworld. Other than a few words between the Emperor and Voracitos, it was completely silent, which gave Lark a moment to study the lingering spirits of the dead. Were these specters their companions who had recently perished, or had they been consumed so entirely that not even their souls could drift here? He smiled, proud that he had managed to endure the pull of the Realm of the Dead. Knowledge had always been a passion of his, and there was no better opportunity than to study things beyond the comprehension of normal men than to go there yourself.

Moments later a radiant white light erupted in front of the surviving Sith, a blackened figure slowly emerged from the center of the rift. When the figure drew closer and banter began between the woman and Carnifex, Lark realized he was familiar with who this person was. Endless nights spent researching the histories of various orders taught him much. How odd, that I would find myself face to face with you, Lark thought, smiling softly. The light produced from the Jedi hurt more than the infernal screams of the Force did, as if Lark was some sort of stain the light was trying to purge. He was becoming one with the dark, and he hoped that by journeying to this primordial locus, he would attain even more insight into the machinations of the galaxy he found himself in.

[member="Darth Voracitos"] [member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Tabigarashu Madara"] [member="Aaralyn Rekali"] [member="Kaine O'Doran"] [member="Kor Vexen"] [member="Kyrel Ren"]

 

[Tehkyram]

Though there will always be many key differences between the Jedi and the Sith, perhaps this one moment explained the superiority of the Sith doctrine: the Jedi would undoubtedly send a considerable force of scholars to examine the netherworld, who then would emerge, debate how to convey the results of their expedition for ages, then finally conclude that they should have sent a poet before returning to petty academic bickering.

The Sith, on the other hand, simply sent along a poet right from the onset.

For Tehkyram, the infernal splendor of the Netherworld was not lost upon him. Certainly he had initially felt disappointed with how mundane his abyssal surroundings were. And yet as he continued to survey the area, he came to understand that the mundane nature of this realm gave it the profound beauty which he now bathed in. All the souls around him, the lost and the damned, these woeful condemned were dragged down by their own guilt, their souls unable to divorce themselves from their actions. Their failure to reckon with monstrosity was so clearly the source of their suffering, this failure producing an attachment to the material realm which manifested around them. Such magnificent suffering, magnified through coming out of self-inflicted wounds! The pain and agony of the condemned was indeed delightful to Tehkyram: this was the realm of failures, confronted by a perverse parody of their own failings and shortcomings. How amusingly wretched! How delightful!

And so as he looked out at the abyss, Tehkyram's wicked grin grew to cover his face. A profound truth of the universe had revealed itself to him much as the spirit of the Jedi revealed itself to the Emperor. And he would be the herald of this new truth. He would inform the world of what splendors awaited those who could strip themselves of guilt, remorse, and worldly concerns.