An eternal state needs it's eternal entertainment. For when the Dominion had lost to the OSN, Adytum had been gifted territory expanding itself effectively twofold. Whilst unable to commit to all of it's plans, it has gained just about everything it wanted from this endeavor: Territory, Space to improvise it's reality warping further, and an idea. Adytum itself was effectively a miniature singularity since it breached into mainline reality. Masquerading it's non-euclidean innards as a state, a realm it was all-seeing for, including all the spiritual spies that hide amongst the plains. With it's greatest threat now gone, the Parasite was interested in what it taken; Thousands of Dominionlings unable to securely blow themselves up now had their souls in stasis, hundreds of years of technological superintelligences and logistics crammed into individual bodyplans and components. The main thing holding Adytum back from apotheosis and it's upbringing into godhood was it's lack of territory. For its kind, the conquering of a planet with extreme levels of competition was enough to reach into the deific realms as a forevermore. The Rapture was proof that it's extremes were not enough for this world to simply be steamrolled over. So, it found itself a loophole. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FUNCTION: The Katabasis, otherwise referred to as the 'Underworld', is a secondary hyperdimension overlapping both Reality and Negative Space (https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1180624025/) encompassing approximately 384 thousand kilometers. It is assumed that this the remainder of Kalmaktama's Corpse forcefully ejected from it's hyperdimensional body into physical reality, thought it's status of partial intersection into Negative Space appears to be an attempt at finding something. The Secondary Purpose of the Katabasis is through it's position as a funnel for agony. Hell had created the Katabasis first specifically as a form of 'training', to create a species so adept at adaptation and warfare that it could go out and achieve Apotheosis on it's own with perfection achieved. Without this anchor, 9 billion souls and way, way more to be born have effectively been put into a hell across a land the distance of tens of dozens of earthmasses. While mostly localized and contained within the Underworld, Dominionling expeditions have been conducted into the very outermost breaches to save whatever they can, with mixed results. They've already been witness to agonies they didn't even realize were possible. The Katabasis itself is divided into two realms: The Worldlands, those exercised within the PU proper (covering the territory shown on the map, basically, so its actually a REALLY small chunk of the Katabasis itself) and the Farlands, the true Underworld and the intermediary between the PU and Negative Space. The further out the Farlands is from baseline reality, the more 'Irreal' it becomes until it reaches the Great Leap, officially marking the entrance into Negative Space and nonexistence itself. The Worldlands contains organized warlords of various sophoncy that continuously evolve, both literally and figuratively, in warfare to one-up eachother, and are currently on the path to a deadlock between the most 'adept' of them. The Images are more aesthetic and representative of their area than actually being there.
