The Dread Umbral Fortress was like a vast citadel, spread outward like a sprawling black lotus across a fractured, abyssal plateau, with its heart being the palace of the Dread Duchess herself.
From this heart radiated four massive divisions, each like a dark continent of its own, stretching into the gloom and tethered to the central palace by titanic obsidian bridges.
The northern division was the War Bastion, a militarized stronghold filled with legions of abyssal soldiers, war beasts, and the Dreadful Legion, all commanded by either the Duchess or one of her stalwart generals.
The eastern division was the Vault of Shadows, a place of research and the keeping of abyssal treasures. Great halls of runes and libraries stretched endlessly there, watched over by one of her most enigmatic lieutenants.
The southern division was the Abyss Court, where politics, diplomacy, and the Duchess's more subtle intrigues took shape.
