The Sapphire Deep

The Sapphire Deep, once a beautiful canyon filled with animals and plants not seen anywhere else, now a deep warped hole that brings madness to anything that enters it. As it is with most oversaturated lands, its old name isn't really used anymore.

Before the oversaturation

The canyon is located in the northern part of the continent, close to the vast lands that have been oversaturated during the Age of War. It stretches for over 7 km and it can be 1 km deep in its deepest parts (not counting the cave systems that sprawl underneath its surface). The canyon itself isn't a straight line and instead creates a maze of cliffs and slopes. Amongst those cliffs, there is a river slowly flowing through them and a lake that formed thousands of years ago. The walls of the canyon are mostly made out of red sandstone.

Flora and fauna

The canyon was home to at least 40 endemic species of animals and at least thrice of that of plants. The most well-known animal of the forest are Tall Wayfarers, giant beings that have been tamed by people and now serve as both the beasts of burden and means of transport.
Of the most notable species, there was a species of yellow flowers that could be made into a tea, which slowed down the symptoms of Oversaturation (condition) from getting worse.
Today, out of all of the 160 species living there in the past, only tall wayfarers survived thanks to them being domesticated.
Most of the plants of the canyon grew on one of the sides of the walls of the canyon that got sunlight during the day although a few of the species managed to evolve to be able to grow in the places where the two suns almost never reached.

Cave Bridges

One of the most amazing sights in the canyon were so-called cave bridges. In some places where the cave entrances showed high above the ground level, vines formed bridges between the two or more of such openings letting anyone cross them and connecting the cave systems into even longer pathways.

Wayfarer Cave Nests

Because of the varying composition of the rocks forming the canyon, and water eroding them after heavy rains, many rock shelves were formed. To protect their children from possible predators, wayfarers picked the shelves high above the ground for the places where they created their nests.

After Blue warped everything

Most of the lands oversaturated by Blue are hard to discern from the distance as they tend to hide their true, deadly nature. But if they do, as it is in case of the Sapphire Deep, they tend to form mazes and labyrinths. As the canyon already was a maze by itself, not much changed in its look besides the strong blue hue affecting both sky, waters and land. What was really affected is the sight and minds of anyone who dares to enter the oversaturated land. For them, the canyon constantly shifts, the distances and roads change and sometimes walls reflect everything like mirrors. Being there without additional protection from the effects of the Blue can quickly lead to complete sensory overload and, shortly after, to madness.

Type

Canyon

The day it got oversaturated

The canyon was still in its normal state a little over 300 years ago, during the Age of War. The rising demand for the beasts of burden capable to transport soldiers, siege machines, and supplies was one of the main reasons why more and more countries considered this place a very tempting target. More and more battles happened in the area. And one day, the canyon itself became the battlefield. The stakes got so high that even one of the Witches got interested in this place.
Someone managed to kill her, becoming the Witchkiller in the process and warping the entire area with the Blue Color that was inside of her body. That day, bodies of everything and everyone that was still in the canyon got the high enough dose of Blue that most of them died, while the rest got oversaturated and turned into monsters.

Fate of the witchkiller.

The whole situation with the canyon was a mess. Even the person who killed the Witch did it completely by accident.
Once they got oversaturated, his and his friends' bodies turned into a blue mass that mixed together and formed the Beast of No/Many Eyes. The witchkiller beast then went down to the cave systems underneath the canyon. The weapon the poor guy killed Witch with turned into a Blue staff that isn't and is still somewhere in that canyon.