Avernus Catacombs

"As the handsome coffin hides the putrefying corpse within, the great Cathedral of Avernus seemed to hold its own secrets, hidden in the catacombs beneath its vaulted chambers. Was this the source of the corruption that infected Nosgoth? Vorador had hinted at something more."

- Raziel

The Avernus Catacombs were a set of underground tunnels and burial chambers in the city of Avernus beneath Avernus Cathedral. Often associated with the worship of the Hash'ak'gik cult and demonic forces, the tunnels were hidden from the ordinary citizens of the city and were visited by Kain and Raziel in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Legacy of Kain: Defiance respectively.

Role
In the course of his quest in Blood Omen Kain visited Avernus and its Cathedral in the chapter Defeat Azimuth seeking to challenge the Guardian of Dimension - Azimuth the Planar. Beforehand he was advised before by Ariel that he would have to "rise and fall and find [his] salvation in between" When Kain arrived in Avernus Cathedral he found it was apparently split into several 'realms', with teleporters linking them. The regular Cathedral was mirrored in a shadowy alternate realm. In addition Kain breached a bright white 'heavenly' realm, a dark and gory underground 'hellish' realm, and a secret chamber underground dedicated to the worship of the 'god' 'Hash'ak'gik'.

In the Catacombs and the other chambers beneath Avernus the young Kain was able to find the Wraith Armor and several other interesting areas including one that resembled a scene in the opening FMV and appeared to contain Malek's corpse, as well as the hidden Hash'ak'gik's altar, which showed a secondary religion that was active in Avernus which demanded blood sacrifices.

Some time later Kain woke in the Demon Realm and found himself in Hash'ak'gik's pit. Attacked by a 'demon horde' Kain was able to fight them off and make his way back to the Material Realm through the portal. Shortly afterward he left the Catacombs and Avernus itself and returned to the Vampire Citadel -apparently feeling the pull of the Spirit Forge.

Hash'ak'gik's altar
Hash'ak'gik's altar was a secret area within Avernus Cathedral, visited by Kain during the Blood Omen era. It was a perverse, occult shrine to the god Hash'ak'gik, and contained battle artifacts and a tome recounting his commands to human worshippers. The altar could be visited in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.

In the first timeline, while exploring Avernus Cathedral in his search for Azimuth, Kain discovered the Soul Reaver and the Wraith Armor, but these were not the only curiosities he could uncover within its nooks and crannies before confronting the Dimension Guardian. At the north-east end of the Cathedral's main hall, near the public altar, a well-hidden door led to the uppermost balcony of the Hell realm. The balcony led to one adjacent passage - a stone corridor containing many battle artifacts, which, when followed, culminated in a second, much darker shrine.

The shrine room was gory and chaotic, and it contained a blood-stained tome which read as follows:

"And Hash'ak'gik spoke to the world, and all who heard trembled. "Bring me your first born, and shed their blood on the altar of the world, so I might take nourishment from them. Do this without question, or suffer my wrath for eternity." And its will was done."

- Hash'ak'gik's altar

The floor of this altar room was decorated with a demon-like image, but Kain had yet to recognize its significance. When he confronted Mortanius at the end of his quest, he realized that the Death Guardian had been possessed by a malevolent entity - an entity which, through him, had orchestrated the death of Ariel and the corruption of the Pillars. As he died, Mortanius's body was transformed by the entity, taking on the shape of the monster depicted in the shrine's image. It was the "Unspoken" which Ariel had warned him to be wary of; he defeated it handily.

When Raziel later visited the Avernus Catacombs in the fourth timeline, he discovered the truth behind Hash'ak'gik and his worship. Hash'ak'gik was a pseudonym forcibly used by Turel, his vampire brother from the Soul Reaver era: Azimuth, a devout worshipper of the Hylden, had summoned Turel back through time using a time-streaming device stolen from Moebius. The Hylden were an ancient race whose banishment in the Demon Realm was sustained by the Pillars of Nosgoth; they and the Unspoken were one and the same, and they were capable of possessing creatures in the Material Realm to do their bidding.

The entity behind Hash'ak'gik and the possession of Mortanius was the Hylden Lord, a leader among the banished militants. Turel, in his devolved state, was trapped, and utilized as the mouthpiece for the Hash'ak'gik cult; periodically possessed by various Hylden, he was used to command the cenobites of Avernus, thus facilitating the downfall of the Pillars, which would eventually give rise to Kain's empire. The words in the tome which Kain had discovered implied that it was all a cyclic phenomenon; Turel had taken part in Raziel's execution under Kain's command, and his order to his disciples that they "shed their [first born's] blood on the altar of the world" to sustain him appeared to emulate the fate which would befall his brother in the distant future.

The passageway leading to the altar area was very dimly-lit, and was wrought from stone spattered with blood. The altar area itself was a grim sight, shaped to resemble a jaw (with teeth for walls), and decorated with skull imagery. Innumerable real skeletons filled pits on either side of the trail towards the altar itself, with a few skulls, ribcages spilling over onto the walkway. Nine toppled marble pillars were also strewn around the rubble-laden room, possibly lending suggestion to the ultimate intent behind the Dark Entity's plan.

Before Crystal Dynamics obtained the Legacy of Kain intellectual property, Silicon Knights had different plans for what they described as the "Blood Omen series". Although these plans would not come to fruition, their next game, 2002's Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, focused very heavily upon a grimoire dedicated to a dark god and found in a secret room - the Tome of Eternal Darkness. It seems possible that Hash'ak'gik's altar was originally intended to serve as a "teaser" for a potential sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, and that this concept was absorbed into Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem when Silicon Knights lost control of the Legacy of Kain IP.

It is unclear whether the tome on Hash'ak'gik's altar was supposed to relate to the Dark Scripture in Legacy of Kain: Defiance. The maroon, leathery covers of the tome and the Scripture greatly resemble each other, but they were discovered in what seemed to be very different areas of the Cathedral.

Turel's Pit and Mortanius's chamber
Turel's Pit was perhaps the most significant area of the Catacombs visited in the Blood Omen era seen in Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Similar to Hash'ak'gik's altar in Blood Omen the pit was an area dedicated to the worship of dark god Hash'ak'gik.

The chamber was a wide open cavernous area dominated by a large circular pit filled with murky smoke.

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Cattedrale e Catacombe di Avernus