Scavileh

For as long as the Ta-Den have told stories, there have been stories about the evil mountain Scavileh - source of all evil in the world. Some later legends even hold that the Scourge originated not from the magical destruction of Aksum, but from the smoking caldera of this forbidden volcano.

Place in Ta-Den Lore
Ta-Den cosmology is similar to the models maintained by western scholars. In the Empire, it is believed that one must pass through a transitive plane (Astral or Ethereal) in order to arrive at one of the elemental or divine planes. Ta-Den planar mechanics holds that all elements and combinations of elements derive directly from the elemental plans, and therefore that those planes must have a direct connection to the prime material. It is believed that Scavlieh is one such connection point, linking the natural world to the elemental plane of fire.

As such, there is a certain amount of reverence among the Ta-Den for the volcano, since in their worldview it must have contributed in some ways to the actual creation of the world. It is believed that the cursed volcano is one of the few permanent fixtures on the planet, along with the oceans and the sky.

In some Ta-Den creation myths, Scavileh is the source of the sun at the beginning of the world. This explanation for the origin of the sun is disputed by many western scholars, however, who argue that the sun currently in place must be different from the one in place during the Age of Mysteries. Else, how could the god Pelor lay claim to it, had he not created it? To this, most Ta-Den would shrug and say that was a question that must be asked of Ha-Helob (the Ta-Den name for Pelor).

The same origin myth that posits Scavileh as the birthplace of the sun also explains its transformaiton into a place of evil. In Ta-Den myth, there were once two forces in the multiverse - Oublia, or "Night", and Wehlia, or "Light." For a long time, Oublia ruled and Wehlia fought against him. Wehlia sought comproomise and balance, but Oublia was greedy, and refused. Eventually, Wehlia built Scavileh in secret out of the primal elements, and used it to place the sun in the sky, acheving balance at last. Enraged, but unable to do anything about it, Oublia took his revenge by cursing Scavlieh, rooting it in place and condemning it to be a place of evil forever.

But Oublia's curse was incomplete. When he rooted Scavileh in place, he did not realize that the molten stone and metal is spewed out would pool around its base, rolling outward forever and ever to create the world. Enraging Oublia further, Wehlia used the new land around Scavileh to form bowls for the great oceans, and rolled the edges up so that she could place the dome of the sky atop it.

After this, Scavileh features in Ta-Den legends mostly as a source of monsters, curses and madness. Tricksters and villains throughout the Ta-Den myth complex use Scavileh as a base or a trap, and legendary heroes often find themselves fighting on its slopes or at its base. Naughty children are often threatened with boogeymen from Scavileh. It looms large in the minds of most who grew up in the east as the source of all of the evil in the world, spewed from its smoking caldera thanks to Oublia's ancient curse.

One critical legend holds that the great Heroes condemned several of their opponents either to imprisonment or death within the volcano at the end of the Age of Mysteries. Another holds that it was not made a prison for these ancient villains, but a refuge where they might await an opportunity to emerge and do great evil once again.

Geography
Practicaly speaking, Scavileh is a fantastically impressive feature of the landscape. It it the largest, most active volcano in the world, having been in a more or less constant state of violent eruption sine at least the end of the Age of Mysteries, and probably before. As a result of the constant activity, the landscape for hundreds of miles around is covered in a dense, gray-black ash. The sky is  as dark as night wherever the ash plume falls - usually in a line laying due west from the mountain as a result of prevailing winds.

Closer in, the jungle is choked and stunted by the heavy ash, and animals become less common the closer one comes to the mountain itself. Finally, there is a solid terminator to the jungle about forty miles from the actual base of the mountain. From there to the very top is an unbroken plane of jagged, knife-edged obsidian, rife with deadly crevasses, and devoid of all life. Covering the ground near the terminator are the bones of animals that have wandered beyond the jungle into the instantly poisonous air over the black magma. Cyanide gas and sulfuric acid hang in the air, instantly killing most who enter the alienation zone around the mountain. Even if the air wasn't poisonous in this area, it would still be impossible to breath due to the thickness of the ash that constantly rains down from above. The sun is blotted out, but one can still see the veins of red magma flowing down the flanks of the volcano ahead.

The mountain itself is a perfect black cone, surrounded by a rolling cloud of ash. It grows taller by about an eighth of an inch every year as a result of the magma piling up around the top.