| Category | Prisons |
| Location | Deaths Kindle |
| Alias | The Black Hold |
| Owner | Lenassu Dras'ee |
| Built | Dawn Era |
On the moon, Deaths Kindle is an ancient, near-airless citadel known as Ink Hold. Constructed during the Dawn Era, it functioned as a gathering point for purloined Soul Energy.
The Black Hold was built to hold excess soul energy stolen by Maen Grirngrim and his minions. For Maen Grirngrim, he considered it a repurposing of energy, crushing one's soul to serve the Creation-Undoing goal of the Primordial Mandate and using the captured energy to delve deeper into his necromancy and the workings of the energy types. This work at The Black Hold led to the combining of soul energy and unholy energy, and eventually they created perhaps the most pernicious energy of them all, Necrotic Energy.
When the conflict with the demons has concluded, we will need to purify this sacrilegious location.
Bahamut, from a Scroll of Dawn - "The Black Hold"
Undead are drawn to Ink Hold. When they come within one hundred miles of it, they head for the center. On this journey, they begin engaging in the same activities they did during their lifetimes. Some attempt to farm the barren land, cast fishing lines into empty ravines, or travel to places of work to create goods for themselves and for sale. Some believe this to be the Curse of Ink Hold, attracting undead and then putting them to work for whoever controls this dark city. Its current ruler, Lenassu Dras'ee, Queen of Ink Hold, refutes this claim, asserting that it is the magic of Maen Grirngrim that keeps the undead occupied, preventing them from running amok and bothering visitors, and deterring the more cunning and intelligent undead from becoming satraps or attempting to seize the throne.
The Ink Hold is home to countless tireless undead. These undead minions, of every variety, remain ever industrious, tirelessly expanding an enormous citadel that rivals the grandeur of Bal-Kriav's larger metropolises.
From other realms, the knowledge to reach Ink Hold is discovered in a variety of necromantic tomes. These divulge the techniques for crafting teleportation runes. These runes are exceptionally costly and frequently perilous. The creator of the rune must precisely attune it; otherwise, those employing it may find themselves arriving in an oxygen-deprived locale.
Ink Hold is located in the vacuum of the moon Deaths Kindle. Inside the citadel are pockets of breathable air. The presence of these air pockets did not occur until the Second Epoch. Prior to that, the inhabitants of Ink Hold required magical protections to survive the airless environment. This began to change after 1519, when Ink Hold received a new prisoner, the usurper Lenassu Dras'ee. She was charged with attempting to overthrow the Khazarkar Empire's theocratic government, and was sentenced to three centuries in one of Ink Hold's cells.
Lenassu did not remain long in her cell. In 1521, she escaped, freed her cohort Crick, then went on to overthrow the undead lord holding sway over the prison complex, and then the other masters of Ink Hold. She transformed her new domain into a more captivating and vibrant place. She welcomed the living, established trade with the outside, and opened Ink Hold's renowned necromancy libraries to paying customers. Before this could come to fruition, she began expanding the areas with air. Air motes were procured, and once traders learned they could obtain finished goods cheaply, all produced by unpaid undead, they started bringing in raw materials and leaving with the finished products. Among all the trade that flows through Ink Hold, air motes are one of the most sought-after items. They are utilized for creating tight air pockets, trading spaces with the living, practicing spells requiring air, and by those interested in Ink Hold's extensive libraries of necromantic lore.
The Ink Hold prison complex is a highly secure facility, designed to house the most dangerous criminals from Bal-Kriav, Death Kindle's parent world, and other worlds of the Quara'tun System. Established around the Year 1600, this prison is tasked with maintaining the prisoners' well-being throughout their sentences, though the resident vampires often feed on them. Even if an inmate manages to escape, the lack of breathable air in the complex poses an immediate threat to their survival.
When Lenassu's sentence concluded on 1 Temporal 1819, she became free to depart Ink Hold. She elected to remain, devising the restoration of Khazarkar dominion by the Malbazân. On the Cinazan Front, she assisted the western Khazarkars, a people also desiring rule by the families of the Minâth-Nôrî. She dispatched ten undead legions to Bal-Kriav where they battled the chaos hordes of the Flux Pact.
In the dark and shadowy halls of Ink Hold, nestled deep within a fortress fashioned like an inverted ziggurat, stands a lone, rough, pitted tower. Battered and chipped by arcs of negative energy sweeping over the ziggurat like a shield, the tower's presence supercharges a garrison of undead numbering in the tens of thousands. They have no true enemy left; their mistress, the Queen of Ink Hold, vanquished her rivals long ago. Ink Hold is an ancient place, constructed during the Dawn Era by those who served Maen Grirngrim. This primordial was dispatched to what was then known as Orb 396, tasked with recruiting soldiers for the primordial war machine. When progress proved slow, he sought alternative means of recruitment, leading to experiments with negative energy and the creation of the first undead - thus earning him the title of Father of Necromancy. His continued use of this fell energy gradually corrupted him, shifting his alignment from chaotic to evil, and ultimately causing him to abandon the primordials' cause in favor of pursuing his own interests. After the archangels of the Golden Seven defeated him, the undead of Ink Hold were left to wander aimlessly. The more intelligent among them rallied these forces, while others, now without purpose, continued the tasks their deceased master had set them upon. One such example is the Bone Brine, a "stream" of undead "refilling" a fountain, despite its lack of true flowing water.
from the Godspawn Saga