Hello there! First of all, sorry first of all for the long time no art, but something came up (Hades 2). But I did do art alright, quite unusual for me fan art and fan fiction. You see, the abrupt change from Erebus to Oceanus does bother me a little. So I wrote and sketched a suggestion for a little additional transition area between the two, some sort of floodable airlock built by Daedalus. Now, here it is and now, that I have it off of my heart, I can probably return to my regular work. Anyway, this is an overview, I will post closeups of the single segments and extra information on each part, as well as a schematic on how you move through the titular "Broken Erebus Chambers". Here, on this overview, you can see the hub level of the region, similar to Ephyra or the temple of Styx. In the following I want to give you an insight of the lore behind this transition region I had in mind.

The underworld of Hades and the underwater world of Poseidon had always been bordering at some points, not limited to Erebus and Oceanus or Oceanus and the Fields of Mourning. However, shorty after Hades cut all his connections to the Olympian Gods, sea water started to seep into Erebus. Not only seep, it suddenly started to freely flow into Erebus, flooding countless chambers. It never reached the „surface“ of Erebus, the gloomy forests, though. While not all of Erebus was affected, there was massive damage in those areas flooded.

Hades wanted to stop the flood, but refused to turn to Poseidon, asking him to keep the waters of Oceanus in check, because, as said before, he had cut all connections. The God of the dead also suspected Poseidon of sendind the flood out of spite, when in fact, it was not Poseidon's doings. Atleast not a voluntary consequence of his action, he was merely not taking care of that specific part of Oceanus. It was too deep for his likings and so it literally slipped from his grasp.

Besides the obvious damage caused the flooding and especially the coming and going of water caused by the tides, there was another, more grave problem: The seawater of Oceanus is literally Oceanus, and any room filled with seawater from Oceanus falls to Oceanus. That means that the flooded Erebus chambers were no longer part of the underworld, and the underworld rules, like „There is no escape“, did no longer take effect there. As soon as the shades learnt of this, they ventured to the affected parts of Erebus. They couldn't dive into Oceanus right away, as the „There is no escape“-rule still applied to them and the surface of the water was a hard, impassable border to them in that sense. But they could linger in any chamber there, hoping that it would get flooded. For if the water rose around them and the chamber fell to Oceanus, they did not really actively escape and still wound up outside of the underworld. A considerable number of shades escaped that way, some of which now oppose Melinoë in Oceanus of the present time.

In order to stop this exodus Hades tasked Daedalus to find a technical solution. Hades especially asked Daedalus to make the water level return to its previous state, as he didn't want to start a conflict with Poseidon, making it look like the God of the underworld was trying to steal „land“ from the God of the Sea. The shade of one of the greatest mortal minds of his time was given vast ressources and liberties to complete the job. And indeed, Daedalus built a huge machine, a pump, that could evacuate the sea water from the flooded chambers and fix the surface of the seawater to the level it used to be on, also compensating the effects of the tides.

But Daedalus's machine could do more than that: He had built in the function to control the water level, making it rise and fall at will. In combination with the doors of the hall the device was located in sealing shut the chamber each time the water level would rise, Daedalus had put together a floodable airlock between the underworld and the underwater world. While he knew that Hades had turned his back on Olympus for good reasons, Daedalus had high hopes for a future in which the relations between Hades and the other Gods, including Poseidon, would be much better again. While he didn't built the airlock for simple shades of mortals, Daedalus had plans of travel and exchange between the realms, of aquatic and cthonic Gods crossing the border between the worlds using his device. And if it was only used for providing Charon convenient access to the souls of those who drowned in shipwrecks... or to the previously escaped shades to bring them back.

When Hades learnt of this double function, he was not certain which level of anger was appropriate. On the one hand, Daedalus did get the job done. On the other hand, he had basically wasted ressorces by adding in features that Hades would have never approved. Then again, it had been Hades himself who had given Daedalus so much liberties in the first place to fix the problem as soon as possible. Hades ended up rebuking Daedalus verbally, without any further punishment. However, the God of the dead locked the room with the machine and put not one, not two but three powerful seals on it. He went even so far as to seal off all adjacent chambers from the rest of the underworld, stopping all renovation works, so that the word of such a convenient way of escaping the underworld would never get around. Naturally, he made Daedalus and all the worker shades keep their mouth shut, too, by promising them eternal torment if they didn't.What Hades did not was to make Daedalus remove the function of an airlock from the machine.

In fact, Daedalus had been quite sly and protected his invention by richly decorating the Machine, both the pump and the control unit, as well as the hall it was constructed in, hoping that Hades, who indeed was vain and a friend of riches, would think twice before having such treasures dismantled.

At any rate, Hades succesfully suppressed any information about the airlock and the adjacent Erebus chambers. They were already damaged by repeated floodings anyway, so abandoning them did not hurt him all too badly. And even after Persephone returned to the underworld and the good relations with Olympus were restored, Hades kept the airlock secret. So Chronos, when taking over the underworld after his return, did never learn about the Broken Erebus Chambers.

Hecate, however, knew about them. For during the renovation work in more than one place the ceilings of the chambers closest to surface of Erebus, the gloomy woods, collapsed. And Hecate knows of all that is going on in her woods. She came to an agreement with Daedalus, who had planned to have connections from the airlock chamber to all parts of the underworld, including the forests of Erebus. The stairway built onto a pile of rubble and debris below one such holes in the ceiling was of course just makeshift, but Hades stopped the work before a proper passage could be constructed. While not knowing how it might come in handy, Hecate saved this specific passageway by never mentioning it to Hades, who was unaware of it.

This concludes how in the present time Melinoë can use the secret passage and bypass Chronos' army in the underworld by taking a detour through Oceanus and the Fields of Mourning. But there is a little more to the airlock:

Melinoë basically is forced to use it. For the border between the underworld and the underwater world is the surface of seawater and the underwater world is literally under water. If she would just dive into it, she would have to swim all the way to her target. And while not being a mortal being, she still has to breathe and would drown before getting anywhere, which would force her to return to shadows. However, if she uses the airlock, making the water level rise around her and making the room around her fall to Oceanus, she, too, falls to Oceanus without ever crossing the border in the traditional sense. She basically does the same the shades who escaped to Oceanus once did. That way the rules of Oceanus do apply to Melinoë, who suddenly became part of it. That includes the ability to breathe and walk around underwater normally as if she was an aquatic nymph.

The airlock however is not the only way to enter Oceanus without drowning. As a matter of fact, it is a way as complicated as it is technically advanced. Other gods, like Nemesis, Artemis or Charon all have their own, more traditional ways. If it wasn't for the airlock, Melinoë would have to use such another way but certainly wouldn't find a more secretive one.

The following submissions concerning the Broken Erebus Chambers will focus on how Melinoë reacts to and interacts with the place.