Hkata

Well, at least it's bright.

— Sodai, Kaia

Even by Far Deep standards, the region of Hkata is particularly inhospitable and dangerous. It is a land dominated by acrid smoke and flowing fire. Magma flows in rivers and gathers in lakes, pooling around islands of half-molten stone. It cascades down from vents in the ceiling or wall. Everywhere is touched by fire and the heat is oppressive.
Hkata is not a place for the faint of heart and the things that live here have adapted to survive in what may be the most hostile place in Araea outside the Shrouded Lands.

Geography

Hkata's caverns consist primarily out of hard black stone native to the area, mixed with basalt and granite. Most of the floor and wall are uneven in form, with most stone having been at some point melted and then solidified. The central caverns of Hkata are tall, with cliffs and overhangs over the cave floor. Some of the largest caverns stretch for untold miles, with most assuming the steady erosion from the magma has hollowed out an enormous expanse of the subterranean world.
The region is most easily reached by traveling through dried out lava tubes, though only a few ends in places that can be considered safe. Other paths require explorers to pass through other parts of the Far Deep, with all the dangers they hold.

Many Kaia believe that Hkata is the most dangerous and difficult place to explore. Those who have done so are afforded great honor and such accolades prove an irresistible lure for those hungry for glory.
Such explorers are seen off with a traditional blessing:
"Go through the fire and become iron."

Hkata Proper

With all the difficulties of mapping Hkata, explorers have resorted to a pragmatic classification: if it is not one of the other places, it is Hkata Proper. It is the name given to the terrain most commonly found, of jagged and misshapen caverns, rivers of magma and choking smoke. Hkata Proper is split between several different places, separated by vast lakes of fire. Ancient magma tubes tie some of these regions together and make for the safest (or, least dangerous) way to travel when they aren't occupied by wildlife.

Hkata is difficult to traverse, with few continuous connections between caves and occasional insurmountable flow of magma. The stone here is sharp and hard, making digging difficult even without the exhausting heat. Dizzying heights, geothermal vents and dehydration conspire against explorers well before they ever have to worry about falling into lava.

Obsidian Shores

The Obsidian Shores are formed around the edges of the oceans of magma. Some are smooth sheets of thick volcanic glass while other misshapen, jagged mazes. Some shores stretch on far beyond any current magma lake, remnants of ancient volcanoes.
Crystalline-stalks sprout from between cracks in the obsidian, feeding on the drifting clouds of Hkata smoke and are devoured in turn by giant, armored mites that roam the shores. The Shores are splattered with vivid colors where metal ores have melted then cooled in streaks across the obsidian or seeped into fissures. A few rare shores seem more metal than obsidian, with great gleaming stretches of metal coating the glass.

Many of the Obsidian Shore become more and more fractured with time as tremors and beasts both shatter the volcanic glass. These fissures crisscross the shores like poorly healed scars, sometimes containing pools of liquid metal or the nest of beasts.

For explorers, the Shores are a mixed blessing. The jagged obsidian makes even a minor slip a potentially fatal mistake, but most of Hkata have much more active dangers.

The Abyssal Plain

Don't drop that. You won't find it again.

— Sodai, Kaia

This is where all the ash and debris of Hkata eventually accumulate. The Abyssal Plains are several expansive caverns with the floor covered in a thick layer of ash, piled high enough to swallow the unwary. The cave floor is uneven and the ash hides treacherous fissures and pitfalls. There is little here, save for the occasional scavengers that dig through the debris and the lurking predators that feed on them.

Few find a reason to come to this desolate place. Those that do must contend with the constant ash-fall and toxic air. Travelers find themselves sinking into the ash with every step.

The Sea of Fire

The Sea of Fire is a vast ocean of magma, deep inside the Hkata region. No one knows just the true scope of the Sea, or its depth. Only the occasional island of stone break up the expanse of liquid fire. It is the most active part of Hkata, with eruptions sending great waves of molten stone into the cliffs that surround and onto the Obsidian Shores. The creatures here are rarely ever completely made out of flesh and have become something more or less than another living beast to be able to survive in the Sea.
Whatever lies beyond the Sea, mankind might never know.

Flora & Fauna

You might think that at least here, there won't be anything that'll try and eat you. It's that spirit of optimism I really admire!

— Sodai, Kaia

The creatures that live in Hkata have adapted to survive the most terrible environment in Araea. They thrive in heat that could kill lesser beings and feed on fire and metal. Bulbous stone-fleshed plants grow on the lip of calderas and are fed on by armored bug-things, who in turn become the meal of predators with jagged claws sharp enough to cut through metal.

Few things in Hkata have an actual taste for human flesh, requiring a very different diet to survive. By the time the creatures have figured it out, it's usually too late for the unfortunate explorer.

Becoming Iron

There's not enough money in the world to convince me to go back to- wait, how much did you say?

— Sodai, Kaia

Visitors to Hkata are few. Only the most veteran Kaia know how to survive in Hkata and they know to be paid accordingly. It is a dangerous, hostile place without food and water, without air to breathe or any sanctuary from the ever-present heat.
Despite all that, Hkata is a place where fortunes can be made. Pools of metal are there for the taking while the corpse of a single creature pay for the entire expedition. There are things in Hkata that can be found nowhere else, stone that burn forever and amalgamations of metals forged by volcanic fire. Others see the Steps and the Throne as evidence of other civilizations, past or present, as something they cannot simply ignore.
No matter the danger, people find reason to come to Hkata even with the knowledge that few return.

Well, I guess one more trip couldn't hurt.

— Sodai, Kaia

The Far Deep
Endless miles beneath the Surface of the world lie the Far Deep. The caverns of the Far Deep are enormous and the life there alien. From titanic wandering mushroom to spirits of stone and shadows, the Far Deep is a place of wonder and terror in equal degrees. Hkata is no different and those few who have visited are rarely ever the same after.
Read More About The Far Deep

Smoke and Fire

Almost every corner of Hkata has a gloomy haze of smoke, all stemming from the rivers and oceans of fire. Everything is a film of soot over it and nothing in Hkata stays clean for very long. At best, the smoke drifts across the ceiling like clouds or hangs over the head of travelers like an oppressive shroud, but in some chambers it is more akin to a thick fog without escape.
The smoke of Hkata is dangerous to breathe. Prolonged exposure can burn the throat and lungs, causing a disease known as Scar-lung. Travelers to Hkata do well to fashion heavy masks or stay far from where the smoke is thick.

The Steps

In some places, the basalt has eroded into almost perfect columns along the wall or even the cave floor after the magma has withdrawn and the stone cooled. These paths are relatively safe in that there isn't any lava near and they won't shift underfoot.
Some insist that erosion could not create such shapes and that somewhere in the Far Deep, there are more than just wild beasts and alien terrors.

Hkata frequently experiences tremors as lava vents close and reopen or melting stone collapsing cavern walls. Earthquakes are rare, but when they do occur, they can dramatically alter the landscape. Small eruptions from the lakes and pools of magma are more common and are serious hazards as droplets of super-heated molten stone is sprayed in all directions.

The Throne
At the heart of the Abyssal Plain, ash has piled high enough to nearly reach the ceiling and those who have seen it say it is damnably unlike what any hill of ash ought to look like. With a tall back and lower front, it has come to be known as the Throne.
Certain apocalyptic cults hold that it was once the throne of a god, now slain. The god and his throne have turned to ash, as Araea inevitably will... Or so they say.

The Emperor

Something lives in the heart of the Sea: something big. Almost every explorer who has laid eyes on the Sea has seen something look back at them from the fire. Description of the events differ, but certain elements repeat. The most prominent is the wind, a that shifts back and forth steadily.
So far, no one has cared to linger to closer look - or at least no one who has returned.

There are few parasites in Hkata that can afflict explorers, a rare thing for Araea. The closest to it are flying motes that feast on metal they dissolve by generating intense heat and sometimes swarm metal carried by explorers.

Phyrium

Not quite stone, not quite metal, Phyrium is an exotic material that can only be found deep within Hkata. It has a reddish-orange hue and gleams like metal after being polished, but crumbled like hard stone when broken. Phyrium has the ability retain heat without melting - not even dipping it into magma will melt a bar of Phyrium.
This makes it equally difficult to forge or even hold without danger, as Phyrium does nothing to protect others. Rare and valuable, there exist perhaps no more than a handful of finished works made out of Phyrium.

by Roberto Robert