Tovag Baragu

ripvanwormer's picture

Tovag Baragu means Navel of the Oerth in
Ancient Baklunish (a
language of Oerth); Tovag Baragu is a place on the shore of the salt lake Udrukankar in
the Dry
Steppes, on the world of Oerth.

It's an artifact, of sorts. The whole thing's more than a mile across. Physically, it's a series of five concentric stone circles made of smooth, white pillars of an unknown rock durable enough to withstand almost any force - even the Invoked Devastation that utterly eradicated all the cities of the Baklunish Empire a thousand years past. Not just withstand, but remain completely unscathed by the passage of time - no scars, no weathering, no tool marks, even. The greatest spellcasters of the Bakluni took shelter there during the Devastation, and used the power of the artifact to send back a counter-curse that created the Sea of Dust where once stood the fertile empire of the Suel - a curse that remains in force to this day, and which Tovag Baragu somehow maintains.

The most important thing about Tovag Baragu from a planar perspective is that it's a series of portals. Many of these portals lead to half-worlds, alternate Oerths of finite extent. Some of the portals also seem to lead to other planes and times, from the Outer Planes to millions of years in the past. Just which portals lead where and when depends on the conjunctions of the stars and planets, and the circles are also supposed to be tied somehow to the Cup and Talisman of Al'Akbar.

Vecna tried to use Tovag Baragu to make himself Oerth's sole god. He failed, fortunately, and shortly thereafter he was claimed by the mists of the Demiplane+of+Dread. His treacherous servant Kas, also claimed by the Mists, called his new domain there Tovag.

Sources:

Greyhawk Adventures
Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
Vecna Lives!
Die, Vecna, Die!

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