Even before Nex forged his own empire south of Katapesh, he was working magics unlike any the world had yet seen. The hidden realm of Kakishon is credited to him as one of his greatest works, but in truth, Nex did not build this realm from scratch—he merely sought out and enslaved those who could.
Between the Outer Planes lies the Maelstrom, an eternal entropy of limbo and chaos that represents what would exist without existence. This is the realm of the proteans, an ancient race (perhaps even the first race) of creatures who understand the nature of reality by dint of their dwelling in reality’s unmaking. When Nex seized upon the concept of creating his own world, he traveled to the Maelstrom and captured a small army of proteans. And in truth, that he was able to capture so many, contain them, and bend them to his will is a feat not much less impressive than creating a world.
Nex forced his enslaved proteans to take the smallest portion of the Maelstrom and to fold it in upon itself. They created a bubble of unreality, and under Nex’s direction, sealed this bubble away from the rest of creation. Nex brought into this bubble of creation four “seeds” of matter from the Elemental Planes: a sphere of air, a globe of water, a vortex of fire, and a block of stone—the fundamental building blocks of reality. And outside, Nex wove his own magic to transform this bubble into something that could exist in reality—a parchment scroll.
His protean slaves set to the task of working against their very natures to organize the chaos and create a world within that corresponded to Nex’s demands, building from the four elemental seeds. From the sphere of air they created an atmosphere that could be breathed. From the globe of water they created the oceans. From the vortex of fire they created a false sun in the heavens above.
And from the block of earth they grew dozens of islands great and small. When the proteans were done, and Nex entered Kakishon for the first time, what he found far exceeded his wildest hopes. He could see how the proteans lingered at the edge of reality within Kakishon, how they watched their creation with shame and wrath, their need to unmake what had been made held barely in check. And so Nex finalized the world by banishing the proteans beyond the end of eternity, sealing them forever within the unformed nothing that lies beyond the map’s edge.
The proteans safely bound, Nex had his paradise, one filled with exhibitions of flora both exotic and mundane. Islands of ice and deserts and jungles and more stood in convenient proximity to each other, giving the realm a wide range of possibilities. Nex populated his islands with all manner of creatures big and small, as well as a variety of constructs and bound elemental creatures, each suited to the particular island upon which it resided. He even created a network of animated Nexian galleys to ferry visitors from one island to the next in comfort and luxury, and for a few blissful years the archipelago of Kakishon served its purpose well. Honored guests of the archwizard were escorted to its edenic shores, some to simply luxuriate in his manicured pleasure palace, some to observe the marvels of its diversity and variety, and some to test their mettle in battle or in the hunt, daring devious challenges conceived and constructed by Nex and his minions. Yet not all of Kakishon’s islands were for visitors and willing guests; in some cases, Nex sought to imprison enemies as well. Nex even began construction of what would have been a sizable tomb for himself on one island, yet before he could get far on this final construction, reality once again intruded.
Nex’s war with Geb drew his attention away from Kakishon, and eventually the wonder, as happened to so many other incredible creations, lay forgotten in his stronghold. Sometime after Nex vanished from Golarion, the Scroll of Kakishon fell into the hands of a looter, and from there passed through countless owners. A few discovered the secret of entering the realm within, but most did not. Cut off from the world, Kakishon continued to exist as it always had—until it came into the possession of a brilliant wizard named Andrathi.
Yet Andrathi did not wish to use Kakishon as a place to relax—for the first time, all of Kakishon would be used as a prison. Andrathi spent months working at deciphering the map’s keys, and had not yet fully mastered the magic when the time to strike came. His target was the efreeti warlord Jhavhul, a terror that Andrathi’s lover, the djinni Nefeshti, had long warred against. Andrathi’s hope was to steal into Jhavhul’s camp and tear open Kakishon, to create a vortex that would draw in and imprison Jhavhul and his army of genies. Yet Andrathi did not fully understand how Kakishon worked and he underestimated its power; when he tore open the portal, he was pulled in as well, and when the portal closed, he was trapped in Kakishon as surely as his enemy. In the outer world, a craven gnoll stole away with the Scroll of Kakishon and hid it, and for the centuries to follow, it remained lost—Nefeshti went mad with grief over the loss of her lover, and the name of Jhavhul receded into that of obscure legend.
Yet within Kakishon, things have been anything but stable. Jhavhul and his army quickly laid claim to several of the world’s islands, and for a time they were united with the drive to find Andrathi and draw from him the secret to escape. Yet when Jhavhul finally cornered Andrathi on the Isle of the Dead, the efreeti’s rage took hold and he killed the wizard, forever denying him access to Andrathi’s lore.
This event fractured Jhavhul’s command, and the genies fell into a terrible civil war split between those of fire and those of earth. And such remains the state of things when the Scroll of Kakishon is found again, this time by a band of heroes. Yet one more thing has changed—when Andrathi tore open reality, he damaged it. The proteans, once bound into the outer dark beyond the end of eternity, can now use pools of raw entropy to temporarily project themselves into Kakishon for short periods of time, and although their ability to reshape and destroy Kakishon has continued to be held in check, those wards are fading too. Soon, the proteans will be able to travel without limitation from beyond the map’s edge, adding a terrible new element to the genie wars within as they attempt to see to the final destruction of what has been both their greatest creation and their prison for untold centuries.