Cistern of Afflatus

The Cistern of Afflatus was the gateway that connected the afterlife to the realm of the living. Souls and mortals alike could interact and understand each other’s worlds. This created tensions between some groups. Naturally, some mortals found the dead to be frightening, and that their interaction was surely unnatural. Others protested this, proclaiming that the cooperation between the living and the dead was exactly what the Balance was all about. This debate spanned far until the destruction of the cistern.

There were some who, through the time it was around, utilized the gateway for personal gain. Path Hoppers are a subgroup of hunters who traverse into the plain of the dead to hunt and forage for hides, plants, and materials native to the afterlife realm. Those who already had an issue with the interactivity of the living and dead realms, like the Illumnia Mages, took issue with the Path Hoppers, due to the Mages' views that death does not belong in Cerulis, nor in the markets. The items fetched a fair price, which increased coin, but the detractors still held tight to their aversions.

Aside from them, while most groundfolk found friends in the people of the dead realm, there was always a stigma. Mortals always seemed to fear death and the realm that claimed it. Their fears were validated in the coming years. Caelia had destroyed the Cistern, snapping her sword in the process.

Later, Caelia, the ruler of Cerulis and a New God, traveled to the afterlife for a reason the groundfolk never learned. When the mortals saw her flee the underworld with a baby, the groundfolk thought she had entered the realm to save a child that they assumed was kidnapped. Ever since that day, the stigma against the people of the afterlife has festered into a cautionary hatred.