The Great Western Mountains
Few speak credibly of the splendors of the West in this Age of the Nexus. It is a distant place to most, one of rugged hills leading to impassable cliffs seemingly set to bar the way of unfit travelers. Those who so cleverly sought to pass them by the waters of the Great Divide, to move against its currents and seek its source, are crushed beneath falls at least a thousand meters high. Only mighty heroes, powerful magics, or recent advances in aviation technology permit exploration of anything more than the foothills of these tremendous peaks and the wonders they hide within. Even they find limits to what they may reach before the great mists of the mountains, known as the Mountains’ Mantle, consume all sense of space and time.
Tales that have been spun from the memories of the ancient and adventuresome speak of forgotten magics, terrible monsters, and lost artifacts dating back to the earliest histories of the Nexus. It contains places of power long sought after by countless expeditions from the Citadel of Sorcery and other various figures of wealth and influence: the Black Forge within whose fires any item might be wrought; the Temple of Ages, where one can witness the truth of times before and after; or the World’s End, where the restless shades of the First Chief’s companions are said to stand vigil against horrors left over from the Third Age.
What is spoken less by the wise are stories of the people who live in these hills and valleys: the glory of their lands, and the hardships that have endured since their migration to the Great Western Mountains long ago. Below is listed but a fragment of their struggles.
Some Notable Areas
The Land of Forever Fall, Endien, is a magical kingdom inhabited by the long-lived elven Highborne, their half-blooded commoner children, and a small minority of humans lurking at the fringes. Their Great Houses practice traditions of craftsmanship, martial arts, and musical magic built over thousands of years in isolation. They are the inheritors of a long exile from earliest form of the Citadel of Sorcery, the descendants those who refused to abide slavery and dark magic and were willing to fight to free those who were victims of those very things. Unfortunately they have spent the last several thousand years in a state of conflict with the descendants of the very beings they rescued from bondage, refusing to allow them entry to the rest of the Nexus to finish their vengeance.
The Land of Neverending Night, Vinyë, is a land of choking ash and fiery rain. Separated from the wondrous hills of Endien by a range of volcanoes and a series of fortress gates, the monstrous inhabitants crave vengeance for ancient sins. The Highborne, their children, the sorcerers of the Citadel, anyone and everything that supports their power - all of it must satiate the hatred that dwells in their hearts. Orcs, goblins, and other savage creatures compete with one another for scarce resources and hone their fury for every war to follow. And yet now they have grown quiet, still, for in their bones they can feel the weakening of the seal preventing their great ancestor, the
Dark Lord Yaru, from rising again. Their time is near once more.
