From the Other Side

In the First Titan War, the Gods triumphed and imprisoned the Titans by locking their Avatars into Tartarus. Some Titans remained free by various means; declaring their neutrality in the War, siding with the Gods or by simply being impossible to bind. The Titan of Death, Mortis, required special handling. It could not be allowed to remain unfettered, but it was within the Realm of Mortis that the other Titans were bound. Even the Gods could not bind the Avatars of Mortis in a prison forged from their own Realm. A different solution was required.

Each of the Avatars save one, Thanatos, was imprisoned deep in the substance of the World itself. In exchange for his freedom, Thanatos taught the Gods how to bind his fellow Avatars. The most powerful Avatar of Death, Kur, was bound the deepest, locked inside a tomb hidden within a prison built under a great mountain.

The escape of the other Titans sent shockwaves of power rippling through the very fabric of all three Worlds, cracked the seals binding the Avatars of Death. Reaching out, one of them contacted Coatlicue. The Avatar promised Coatlicue that in exchange for her help freeing Kur, she would be given the forces necessary to tip the balance and take the place of Iapetus as the ruler of Terra. Only Kur, among all the Avatars of Mortis, was so powerful that it would be able to free the Greater Titan itself from bondage and restore all the Avatars to their full strength.

Coatlicue rallied Titanspawn forces, concentrating their sinister designs in the city of Atlanta. The sprawling metropolis was only miles from the mountain that contained Kur's prison-tomb and she hoped the lure the Gods into action. She succeeded. Heroes and Demigods flocked to Atlanta to stop the spread of Titanspawn and halt their evil. One of these Demigods was Ellie Stephenson, daughter of Poseidon. She attempted to tame the undead merfolk dwelling in a quarry outside the city and was drowned by their arts. Ymir's greatest servant raised her as an ice-hearted undead and she became the prime mover of Death's plans in Atlanta.

The machinations of Coatlicue and the Avatar reached a critical point when Nemesis, the Greek Goddess of Vengeance, was sent to Atlanta to bestow upon the Heroes there a cache of powerful Relics. Using Ellie as their pawn, they tricked Nemesis and trapped her within the prison-tomb of Kur. Only through the efforts of a heroic Band of Scions was the dark ritual that would have slain Nemesis and cracked Kur's prison-tomb with her dying screams averted. However, Nemesis remains trapped and the plans of Death were not halted, merely delayed.

Specters in service to Mortis lured a Scion of the Loa to Roanoke Island where he was captured. Though the same Band that had defeated Ellie attempted to save him, one of their number was possessed by the last of the specters and the Loa Scion was killed. His death shattered the seal that held Camazotz in the World, setting the beastly Avatar free. Roanoke was permeated with the power of Mortis and a gaping pit, a permanent wound in the World was formed where Camazotz escaped. Now only zombies and ghosts linger on Roanoke Island.

The Band was pulled to safety by Persephone and Hecate, having risen to the status of Demigods. They were able to travel to Mexico City and prevent the minions of Camazotz from completing another ritual in the Templo Mayor that would have unleashed yet another Avatar. The Band never learned which of Mortis' aspects is imprisoned under Mexico, but the defeat of the High Priest of Camazotz and his vampiric minions has resealed that Avatar's prison. For the time being, Mexico City is at no greater risk than any other place.

After the setback in Mexico City, the Worldly activities of Mortis were severely curtailed. In the Underworlds, however, the War raged. The forces of Death assault all the Underworlds and the Gods of Death are besieged in their sepulchral fortresses. The same Band of meddling busybodies that had defeated the High Priest of Camazotz made their way into the Slavic Underworld, Irij, and slew the Deathless Tsar. Without Koschei terrorizing the Russian dead, more troops were available and the invasion of Irij became a stalemate instead of the easy victory that the Dead had hoped for. Under the guidance of Veles and Marzanna, a ghostly Scion now leads the Russians against the armies of Mortis and pushes them back into the Endless Sea each dawn.

It was another servant of Mortis who aided the dark spirit of the Mad Empress of Lemuria, Haral-et, in her scheme to return Lemuria to the World. Again, the meddlesome Band interfered and Haral-et was defeated before she raised her army of Mu Monsters to reap the lives of millions. Such an influx of dead into the Underworlds would have given the Avatars of Mortis a tremendous boost.

Despite their many defeats and set-backs, the forces of Mortis are undaunted. They have, after all, nothing but time. The continued struggles of the War have opened more cracks in the seals binding the Avatars of Death. Their power seeps out into the world, encouraging rot, decay, reanimation, disease and death. In a bid to rid themselves of the troublesome Band from Atlanta, the free Avatars have unleashed Kur's greatest servants: Erra and the Seven.