Shendilavri

Breathtaking Shendilavri, the seat of the Succubus Queen Malcanthet, looks, feels, and smells like a heavenly paradise. Situated on a verdant sliver of land balanced between sweeping panoramic mountains and a lush ocean cast red under a heart-stirring permanent sunset, Shendilavri looks more like a romantic painting than a layer of the Abyss, but the magnificent vistas conceal a deadly truth: Shendilavri is paradise to Malcanthet alone, and its every charming feature exists only to lull its visitors into a false sense of safety and relaxation.

Beyond the manicured hanging gardens and the gleaming marble facades, Shendilavri hides endless torture chambers, laboratories, and murderous political schemes. Most mortal residents of the layer, drawn unwittingly into the Abyss by succubi or incubi posing as vivacious lovers, never experience the darker side of the layer, instead living out a life of utter luxury and decadence until they have become utterly corrupted. Then, their demonic lovers murder them—often slowly and with great precision—and their souls are utterly consumed to fuel Malcanthet's arcane power and command over the layer.

The queen's palace in the coastal city of Rivenheart caps a series of subterranean chambers and tunnels that lead throughout the layer, a haven for demonic rivals seeking to betray her and claim her title for their own. Despite endless attempts, Malcanthet has never been overthrown, and coup attempts seldom gain much traction thanks to the efforts of the Radiant Sisters, a cadre of 13 unswervingly loyal lilitu bards, but Malcanthet prefers to allow would-be betrayers to work their angles as long as possible before personally torturing them, almost as if she makes it easy to plot against her only because she enjoys little more than meticulously murdering her rivals. Those dissidents deemed unworthy of torture and elimination are instead shackled to slave galleons bound for Miomanta and the Fields of Harmony.