Valley of Ashes

Valley of Ashes is a magical anomaly located in the decimated no-man's land between territories of the Nikopolan Hegemony, Vhessan Empire and the Seskaran Republic. It is the largest magical anomaly recorded to the date, large enough to develop a number of subanomalies, each of them mixing some elements of the greater Valley with their own unique qualities. The wide variety of goods possible to extract from it wouldn't be enough to warrant imperial interest' due to its remote location and warlike mountain elf tribes inhabiting surrounding areas. However the discovery of massive deposits of antegnite [and of some other, less valuable minerals and metals] changed that, with the Grand Empire of Karadia opening a penal colony inside the Valley.

Geography

Valley of Ashes

Introduction

Valley of Ashes is one of the most complex [and certainly the largest] known anomaly, large enough to develop a number of subanomalies with more expected to develop in the future. The reality itself is deeply disturbed by magical energies flooding through numerous reality breaches, returning long forgotten things to life. Geography itself is peturbed here. Road connecting the fortress of Nazrok and the mines changes its route every day, with the only permanent feature being its end points. River can change its riverbed few times a day. The major regions of the anomaly remain relatively stable, but only in their general nature, with the details perpetually shifting from one form to another. These major regions will be described here.
The lands surrounding the Valley as a whole is under one of two main climates. To the north lies the cold, semi-arid climate with cold, snowy winters and hot, dry summers with cool nights due to high elevation. Rainfall occurs mostly during the spring, early summer and late autumn. The result is a mountainous area with very scarce trees, a bit like slightly more forested mountainous steppe. To the south is the mediterrenean climate, with forests, wet and cold winters and warm and dry summers. The situation gets even more complicated with more peturbed zones which can have their own, decidedly supernatural microclimate.

Material Realm

Western Approach

Western Approach is a stable and undeveloped staging ground for expeditions into deeper part of the Valley. Despite being in the west rather than north, the peculiar alteration of winds caused by the influence of numerous local microclimates makes it a prime example of the semi-arid cold climate, changing the area into a barely forested steppe - or at least it would be a steppe if the ground wasn't uneven, changing the Approach into a realm of ravines, caves and holes in the ground. The only larger forest patches in the area can be found alongside the river Tragic, which is considered the eastern border of the Western Approach.
It is the center of imperial operations in the area. Fortress was erected here in the early Second Era, a bastion fort that remains impervious and unconquered to this day. It was named Nazrok after the original proposer of the development effort. Its walls made from magic-resistant Second Era concrete were reinforced with powerful defensive magicks, each outcropping bastion holding a shrine to which a powerful daemon is anchored. The walls and shrines are merely the most obvious elements of the fortress' defense, the power of the daemons covering the entire Nazrok in an invisible dome warding off magical attacks, flight-capable threats and suppressing various negative effects [such as more extreme weather] while passively strengthening everyone within it.
Underneath the Nazrok is a massive prison complex, partially carved in a naturally preexisting caverns. This is where the prisoners of the penal colony spend half of their miserable lives - unlike the mines, the insides of Nazrok are shielded from mind-deteriorating effects of the Valley, allowing them to somewhat recuperate. Half of the prisoners can be found here, while the other half is toiling in the mines deeper in the Valley.
The Western Approach is considered an undeveloped zone. There are no radically unique climate elements, environmental threats and so on. Instead the danger of this areas hails primarily from two sources. First are the reality breaches letting parts of Volar impose themselves on the very fabric of reality. Western Approach seems to be among the most afflicted places, as while it lacks major breaches it possess numerous minuscule ones. Their proximity is typically announced by a silvery ash falling from the skies. Soon remnants of otherworldly buildings can be seen... typically guarded by corrupted warriors of the Everlasting Kingdom of Volar or [rarely] servants of the Destroyer. These breaches would have eventually grow stronger and wider due to lack of powerful supernatural presence to counter their spread, but they are periodically closed by adventurers and soldiers from Nazrok.
The other threat are the Consumed. No security measures are perfect. During the past millenia of exploitation many mortals lost themselves in the Valley. Their souls might be gone now, but their bodies remain behind. The unpredictable currents of foreign magic power [or malignant influences of the Destroyer] resurrect them and drive them into the wastes of the Valley with an overbearing instinct to kill all uncorrupted beings and stop them from getting too deep into the Valley. Former prisoners and former guards. Mountain elven warriors of the nearby tribes that failed their coming-of-age rituals. Ancient imperial soldiers of the Second Era. They all prowl the wastes of the Western Approach, their death only a momentary respite.

Red Forest

One of the most dangerous locations in the Valley, deceptively bordering the least dangerous one. Red Forest lies to the north of the Western Approach. It was once a significantly less malignant region known as Gray Forest, a place known for greyish mists covering it all year long and for numerous corrupted Fae inhabiting it. To this day a small part of the Gray Forest persists in the southwestern part of the Red Forest, the remaining corrupted Fae falling to a corruption a thousand times more potent. The rest fell and became a place from which nobody returns.
The tragedy began when an imperial archmagician known under a name of Redwing secluded himself in the depths of the Mist Forest, his investigation focusing on the mysterious stone alter found deep inside it by some adventurers. it wasn't long after that the disappearances started. Soon one of the victims managed to escape the attempted kidnapping. The testimony left no doubts, and soon the Redwing was cornered and slain by the adventurers right next to the ancient altar, now dotted with fresh blood stains. This was only the beginning of the tragedy. All adventurers soon vanished from Nazrok, some witnesses seeing them marching north, eyes like in a trance. And soon the disappearances began anew, this time decimating adventurers and patrols heading into the Gray Forest.
Soon it become apparent that some terrible curse is devouring the Forest from within, quickly spreading from the location of the stone altar. Three attempts to contain the threat ended with disaster and total wipe out of deployed forces, the curse devouring the adventurers before they could reach the altar despite the increasingly complicated supernatural defensive measures employed. The fourth attempt was made by a Chosen One of Sol and her personal retinue. Only the Chosen One returned, though she perished of her wounds few days later. Her feverish gibberings are the only source of knowledge on the nature of the Red Forest.
The stone altar was an ancient sacrifical shrine of an unnamed elder species which inhabited the surrounding lands before the rise of the Xylian Dominion. Their civilization fell to the machine legions and thaumaturgic prowess of the Xyls, but not without a fight - their mortal sacrifices, blood magic and enigmatic summoning held the Xyls at bay for decades. The victorious Xyls wiped all remains of the civilization, even their name lost to the ages. But the Valley of Ashes likes to ressurect long dead things and long gone places - and through a supernatural lottery it was the altar that was brought back.
Redwing was in fact a Chosen One of Odius, one of the mad gods of the Pentagram. The magician was brought to this very place by the orders of his demented god, and through blood sacrifices he managed to awaken one of the long dead gods of the altar creators. Even his eventual death was a part of the plan, as through numerous pacts signed with the entity he returned to life as a powerful aberrant.
The Chosen One of Sol managed to defeat him and partially damage the altar, temporarily delaying the Redwing's plans of bringing the ancient deity to the Material Realm. The Red Forest spread was massively slowed down. However the corruption persists. The Red Forest is nightmarous realm of perpetual night prowled by numerous mutated beasts and mortals mutated by the curse. Here blood rains from the skies and trees bleed, every drop or vapour of blood a vessel for the curse slowly corrupting and mutating everything it touches. Only blessings of a Chosen One can prevent one from falling... though Protectors' Guild mechanisms can offer similar, if time limited, protection.

The Rocks

The rocks are a location placed directly to the south from the Western Approach. Similarly to its neighbour, it's a location that is considered an undeveloped region. Unlike the Western Approach, the Rocks are in the process of developing their own uniqueness, a growing difficulty level of the area being one of the symptoms of this process. At least on the climate level, however, it is still rather typical, a semi-arid cold area. Though unlike the Western Approach, its also much more mountainous and uneven, the terrain swiftly rising the further south you go. What's more, it's a much more barren land, with only a very limited patches of vegetations somehow surviving on the infertile and rocky soil.
Its numerous cliff faces, boulders and other natural surfaces are often covered by carvings and letters in unknown languages. Local adventurers often whisper that the letters become readable when fresh mortal blood is splattered on them, but its remains one of many unconfirmed myths circulating about the Valley. There is also one rather unique location in the Rocks, the so-called Spire. It is a hundred meters tall pillar of stone projecting an aura that causes every living being to instantly die when entering a hundred meter wide death zone surrounding it. Spirits instead are banished, and combat machines of the Legio Mechanica shut down mysteriously.
The Rocks are inhabited by a number of surprisingly well-organized groups of Consumed, each of them dug in various well-defensible locations, typically close to better established routes going through the area. There are two more, much larger problems however. The first - and admittedly lesser one - are numerous monsters scouring the location of all worthy life and being one of the reasons for how dead the Rocks are. The much larger problem are legions of rampaging earth elementals and the truly insane ammounts of golems prowling the area, crushing to death everything they come across.

The Three Rivers

The Three Rivers are the central part of the Valley, placed between the Western and Eastern Approach. To the north of it lies the Sinkhole, the 1000 Steps and the Descent. To the south lies the Hangman's Forest and Black Swamp. It's a long strip of mostly level plains in a roughly rectangular shape, with three major rivers passing through it. With the whole plains being a desolate wasteland [save for few small forests inhabited by completely insane Fae], its no wonder they receive grim names of Tragic, Broken and Ruined.
Three Rivers are the second most spatially peturbed part of the Valley of Ashes. Numerous major reality breaches are scattered throughout the area, many of them large enough to allow someone to cross onto the other side. Coincidentally, this is also the place where most of the currently exploited mines are located. They are regularly sealed by the adventurers and imperial patrols, however it works only for a while. The reality itself is in decline here, and no ammount of mortal maintenance can stop that.
Each river has at least a single maintained bridge, used by the garrison to transport ore and prisoners to and from the mines. It's a necessity, due to the water of the local rivers being poisonous [with even its vapours being enough to incapacitate smaller animals]. and inhabited by some mean creatures [mainly corrupted Fae and beasts].
Due to numerous reality breaches, the most common threat in the area are volarians and servants of the Destroyer, though it's not unheard of to encounter Thunderborn raiding parties or the Consumed.

Hangman's Forest

Hangman's Forest is a large forest patch located directly to the south of the Three Rivers section, east of the Rocks and west of the Black Swamp. It's the second youngest zone after the Red Forest, being born around fifty years ago. Its creation threw a significant wrench into the imperial operations in the Valley of Ashes. What's more, the collapse of imperial grip over the Forest have caused a prolong battle over the control of it, which lasts to this day. Numerous groups attempted to seize this strategic position. Whenever one competitor falls, another arrives.
The central feature of the Forest is the Gallow's Rock, a tall rocky protrusion used as execution site by the imperial' garrison of the area. Gallows at the top of the Rock send many 'pardoned' prisoners to their early retirement. Their bodies were thrown off the rock, straight into mass graves at the base of the rock. Despite grim prospects of a mass graveyard in the magical anomaly, the ancient wards remain unbroken since their placement one thousand and five hundred years ago. It was a total surprise when they were mysteriously broken fifty years ago. The grave spirits protecting the graveyard were either corrupted or banished, and now an archdaemon known only as the Strangled Lady reigns over her court of daemons from the top of the Rock.
The forest turned dark. The sunlight manages to reach the surface only for few minutes during each noon. Armies of undead prowl the forest, attacking everyone and everything that moves. New and new competitors arrive to challenge the might of the Strangled Lady. Thus far nobody managed to break her grip on the Hangman's Forest. Currently she has two challenges. The fiurst one is Erhard Tarvarik, a former imperial magister primus, is attempting to secure the land for the Thunderborn in order to change it into a well-fortified base camp for raids onto the Three Rivers area. The second one is Bernhard Thierre, a mighty yet totally insane warlock in thrall to the Breathless Tide, who seeks to tie the power of the undead of the Forest to the Tide's omnicidal cause.

Black Swamp

The Black Swamp is believed to be a case of an ancient place resurrected by the spatial distortions brought by creation of the magical anomaly. It existed once, somewhere in the relative vicinity of the place where the Valley now lies. Architectural analysis of the ruined structures found in the swamp seem to resemble an early elven architecture, however this narrows the search to around five hundred years [and rather volatile ones] with little remaining historical sources.
The Black Swamp takes its name from the unnaturally black colour of its waters. Nobody is sure what brought such a coloration, and nobody seems interested in finding the truth out. The water is toxic, though only about as much as any other swamp water - if you boil it properly it will stop being so toxic, and will only remain strangely dark and disgusting in taste. There are numerous half-sunken structures scattered around the swamp, that are often suspected to be the source of the discolouration. Their surface parts were mostly picked clean [though sometimes new things show up, as the anomaly dictates], and attempting to dive to check the underwater parts is considered an interesting form of suicide.
The largest structure is a broken tower in the middle of a small, swampish lake. Its placement in the very center of the Black Swamp makes many suspect that truth about the Black Swamp can be found there. However, nothing was found thus far - surface part is empty, and those that try to dive disappear without a trace.
The whole area is also patrolled by an unknown [yet highly advanced] type of combat machines known as Cogs. Their source is unknown, but speculations connect them with the Kraad Technocracy [and maybe even the mysterious tower in the middle of this place]. Whoever they are, they are extremely dangerous and attack everything on sight. However, the Thunderborn seem to have deciphered the Cogs patrol pattern, and use their presence as a cheap [and successful] way of preventing the imperial garrison from reaching their central hub of operations in greater numbers.

Eastern Approach

The Descent

One Thousand Steps

The Plateau

The Sinkhole

The Caverns

The Everlasting Kingdom of Volar

The Outskirts of Volar

Lower Volar

Upper Volar

Palace of Eternity

Natural Resources

Anomalies offer a single, powerful boon - their resources are inexhaustible. As the anomalies are shaped by collective belief, all you really need is for a lot of people to know that anomaly A is rich in certain resource - and it will perpetually be rich in it. Centuries of mining antegnite [and a number of less valuable but still useful resources like levitite, mana crystals or much more mundane silver and gold] has left quite an impression on common population.
As a result, there are numerous mines scattered around the area. Most of them are abandoned, not because of ore shortages but because their underground part grew too much for ventilation and ore transport to be feasible prospects. Or because someone dug into the caverns underneath the Valley, making security an issue. There are also still active mines, exploited by some really well paid professional miners and large workforce of criminal slaves from nearby Nazrok fortress.
There are also other goods, even if significantly less important for the Grand Empire. It produces a lot of aether - the highly automatic 2nd Era aether refinery in the Three River area is one of the few such facilities outside of the Itavian Peninsula. On a smaller scale it's also a produce of various leather products and alchemical ingredients.

History

Golden Age of Volar

Long, long time ago [and in a completely different world, making the time comparisons rather troublesome] a kingdom of Volar existed. It was the most powerful and the most magnificent civilization in the history of its world. An empire strong not only with the strength of arms and industry, but also with the grace of their god - a mysterious being known in volarian language as The One That Is that established a covenant with the founders of the Everlasting Kingdom of Volar.
This covenant granted the inhabitants of Volar a number of almost outlandish magical powers that were to remain in their hands for as long as they didn't break their side of the covenant. There were some rules dictating the things that were allowed to be done with magic of the One, and some things that were forbidden. The first and foremost of the taboos was tampering with the soul - as according to the Covenant they were holy and belonged to The One Who Is exclusively.
The Kingdom of Volar expanded outwards, briging good will, scientific enlightment and moral teachings of the One to the barbaric realms beyond its borders. The Volar was undoubtedly a beacon of civilization in otherwise wild and savage world. Populations of entire coutries abandoned their lands and travelled far in order to kneel in front of the Throne of Eternity and be accepted as citizens of the Kingdom of Volar. For a thousand years this utopia lasted. But all things end..

The Fall of Volar

While majority of the inhabitants of the Volar delighted in the grace of The One Who Is, some hated Him. One of volarian archmagicians saw the taboos as constraints forced by the One Who Is onto the citizens of Volar. He seeked freedom, a new power that would allow the kingdom to thrive without the oppressive rule of the uncaring god. He began experimenting with souls... and discovered the way of binding them to the physical body, granting their owners power both physical and magical, and immortality.
The fury of The One Who Is was boundless. A high priest of Volar received a oracle demanding the archmagician to be executed for violating the covenant, and the archmagician's blasphemous research notes to be burned in His holy flames. The keing obeyed. The archmagician was imprisoned, but soon before the day of execution he managed to escape by persuading the prison guards to his vision of the new Volar. Soon a disastrous civil war torn the Volar apart.
The One Who Is observed the war patiently, the covenant forbidding him from directly influencing the Volarians. Numerous prophecies issued to the high priests were almost enough to squash the rebellion early on. In the end, however, the empowering soul magic of the archmagician triumphed - no ammount of precognition could counter the fact that a single rebel soldier could easily slay ten if not a hundred of loyalists. The king was slain, the high priests were massacred, the temples of The One Who Is were defiled. The Kingdom of Volar died - and the Everlasting Kingdom of Volar rose from the ashes, with the archmagician as its new god-king.

The Decline of Volar

Volar changed into abomination. A caste of immortals reigned supreme. While initially the great ideals of the rebellion governed their actions, after few decades the flames of idealism died out. After all, power corrupts - and the absolute power corrupts absolutely. Everlasting Kingdom of Volar became a tyranny. The immortals became gods worshipped by the volarian population, with rites and rituals purposefully made to parody the rites of the 'overthrowned' god of Volar.
The One Who Is was patient. Seventy seven times he appeared to mortals yet to fall to the god-king 'worship'. Seventy seven times the resulting prophets arrived in Volar, carrying prophecies of death and destruction if the blasphemous reign of the god-king won't end and the old covenant will not be restored. Seventy seven times the prophets were captured, ridiculed, tortured and executed in various creative ways, their deaths changed into public entertainments. Seventy seven times new temples to the god-king and his gods were erected, each of them memorizing one more humiliation of the false god by the true one, now residing on the top of the Palace of Eternity.
There was no seventy eighth prophet. Instead, the doom came to Volar.

The Doom of Volar

For those who remained faithful to The One Who Is, the Doom was instant and painless. In a span of single heartbeat, everything died. Humans tumbled to the ground and cease moving as their souls - uncontaminated by the blasphemous touch of the god-king - were ripped from their bodies. Birds fell from the sky. Plants wilted and turned to dust. Surface of the ocean was covered with dead fishes and other sealife. Only the 'gods' of Volar remained behind, and even in their case only those that genuinely worshipped the god-king - the few gods [typically those born as gods due to their parents being gods too] that secretly worshipped The One Who Is perished as well.
Then came the natural disasters. For centuries held at bay by The One Who Is according to the covenant, they could finally unleash their anger upon the world. Volcanoes erupted covering the skies in ash. Ground trembled, leveling now abandoned cities and causing a hundred tsunamis that together with unchecked fury of a hundred rivers covered big part of the world in water.
And all of that was barely a beginning of the nightmare. As the remaining gods - and hundreds of thousands of their godblooded descendants - seeked refuge in the capital of Volar, the true disaster struck. Old religion of Volar sometimes spoke of the Destroyer - a destruction and hatred to The One Who Is' creation and love. An entity that was to enter the world at its end, wiping the slate clean. According to original myth, Destroyer was to remain chained in its abyss until the day where all mortal life perishes on its own. But with the covenant broken, things changed. As The One Who Is turned his back towards the Creation, Destroyer entered it ahead of schedule.
Stars, sun and the world's twin moons - barely visible through the choking layer of volcanic ashes - disappeared first, snuffed out by Destroyer in the very second of its arrival. Those of the gods and godblooded that decided to commit suicided soon discovered than even death itself abandoned the world. Untold billions of bodies - of mortals and animals alike - covering the world were possessed by the infernal progeny of the Destroyer. Armies of the dead marched at the last holdouts of the Everlasting Kingdom of Volar, crushing them with their sheer numbers. Volarians that fell in that battle soon found themselves raising from the ground but not longer of their bodies, with evil spirits of Destroyer controlling their bodies and sending them against their comrades.
The Volar has fallen. There were no other option. The last desperate effort of its gods collapsed when two hundred thousand warriors faced the Destroyer in front of the capital of Volar- and were swatted away like flies, dying and joining the Destroyer's ranks after hearing a single word of his. The blasphemous god-king found himself chained to his throne at the top of the Palace of Eternity, his eyelids cut away to force him to gaze at the ruin of his kingdom for eternity.

After The End

To surprise of all, the world didn't end. The ruined wreck of it was preserved, and the Destroyer hide himself in the catacombs of the Palace of Eternity. And then, through some unknown interdimensional process, the realm was connected with [or 'crashlanded in'] the slightly different world, imposing itself on a small part of it and creating the Valley of Ashes anomaly...

Type

Territory

Owning Organization

Grand Empire of Karadia