The location of the Crater of the Waking Dead, near the city of Rasetra in the south of Nehekhara.
The Crater of the Waking Dead, also known as Crater of the Dead formerly a huge lake located to the northeast of Rasetra in eastern Nehekhara,[1a] is nowadays an arid bowl[1b][2a] where two armies of Undead fight daily.[2b]
History[]
Such was the rivalry between King Imanotep of Mahrak and King Ushtep of Rasetra that they drove their Undead legions across the desert to end a feud that mortal death had not settled.[2b]
The two armies clashed in a giant crater situated between the two cities, and the mummified rulers met in personal combat beside a half-buried Hierotitan. The Tomb Kings dueled for hours, but their immortal bodies never grew weary and the thrill of battle soon ebbed to be replaced with a joyless bitterness. In frustration, the warring Tomb Kings vented their anger upon the gods, blaming them for their cursed existence and uttering a string of insults. These words did not go by unheard, for the Hierotitan in whose shadow the monarchs were fighting was literally a conduit between the mortal plane and the Realm of Souls. The deities heard the profanities as clearly as if they had been uttered to their faces, and their anger was great.[2b]
The gods cursed the rival Tomb Kings to wage an endless war. Countless thousands of skeletal warriors now battle across the vast crater, chariots smashing into each other and crushing their foes into the dust. However, the crater is saturated with magical energy, and the instant a Skeleton is cut down its broken bones mend anew and the warrior staggers to its feet, ready to continue the fight. The battle has now raged for over three millennia, and in the centre of the crater are the two ancient kings -- locked in a perpetual duel. It is said that a hundred Hierotitans now line the crater's edge and the gods themselves watch the eternal war unfold through their eyes.[2b]