Paineel's entrance lies in the southern edge of Toxxulia Forest. To get to the main continent of Antonica, one must pass through the city of Erudin, a prospect that is dangerous to many of the inhabitants of Paineel, since they are actively hunted by the citizens of Erud. You will need a Bone Crafted Key to enter the city of Paineel. It controls the rock elevator that takes you into the city.

Surrounding Areas

Toxxulia Forest lies just outside the doors of the city, and across the darkness of the woods lies Erudin, home of the members of the Council. Old Paineel itself lies beneath the city, and many who enter its remains never return.

The exit to The Hole door can be found at the southeast.

The exit to The Warrens can be found near the newbie area, on the left before The Hole.

History

The history of Paineel begins with the warped and obsessed man known as Miragul, an Erudite who grew discontented with the rules that the Erudin High Council enforced to control magical study. Gradually amassing a group of followers who shared his distorted ideas, he began to hold secret meetings to study forbidden tomes and dark magics. Some of his followers traveled to faraway Neriak and returned with knowledge of necromancy and the dark gods-- knowledge that instantly captured Miragul's imagination above all else. He and his group came to believe that Cazic-Thule, god of fear, was the most powerful of all gods, and that the practice of necromancy was the best way to serve him.

In time, the Erudin High Council began to uncover the secret workings of Miragul's followers, and declared them Heretics for turning to the dark gods. Miragul was enraged by what he saw as the Council's weakness and fear, and began a civil war. His followers set up camps to the south and practiced guerilla warfare against their former brethren. The High Council fought back with the combined might of their arcane schools, and drove the Heretics further and further south, until the war culminated in one disastrous outpouring of hostile magic.

The Erudites - some say with the help of a double agent - tried to end the war with one concentrated blast of magical force. This single devastating explosion of power was enough to expel a large chunk of Odus out into space. The blow was too great for the Heretics, and their forces scattered. The Erudites, thinking they had won, returned northward... but meanwhile Miragul and his followers had begun building a great city deep within the chasm created by the blast - the chasm that came to be known as the Hole.

Unfortunately, during their building projects, the Heretics unwittingly opened a portal to the plane of the Underfoot. Elementals flooded into the city of Old Paineel and nearly wiped out the Heretics before they were able to close off the portal and begin building over again, closer to the surface. If one looks down deeply into the Hole, however, one can still see remnants of what was once the vile city of Old Paineel.

Local Color

Places

The city has an interesting design, with separate areas connected by portals that instantaneously teleport anyone between them. Other areas of interest are the Pit and the nearby Observatory. It is unclear what purpose this observatory might have once served where it is.

People

The citizens walk casually among the many skeletons that they have animated to protect the city from without and within. Although ever hunted, the inhabitants are comfortable in their city of the dead.