Cinder Slopes

Rolling hills of barren ash and gravel, rising up into twin cratered peaks, the Cinder Slopes are simultaneously revered and despised for their turbulent history. The region fills the interior of the second of the three @Guatsuka Islands, making it difficult for life and agriculture to thrive save for along the humid coasts. Of course, even the coasts struggle when either of the two cinder cone volcanoes in the very heart of the island erupts, spitting fresh ash and smoke. Though the cones have remained dormant for the last few decades, save for small spurts of fire that never get any more violent than causing a faint light show at night, they have been known to awake at unpredictable times, wreaking havoc to the landscape and to the agriculture of the region. However, despite the region’s harsh impact to life on the island, the Cinder Slopes are revered by the native Mizuri villages. For generations, the slopes were already held in legend as a center point of the world, as the nesting place of the powerful Phoenix Myth-spirit, but this reverence has only increased within the last hundred years, thanks to its role in one of the biggest battles of The Firebird War, the battle that freed the island and its people from being overrun by both opposing sides.

Geography

The Cinder Slopes are just that—slopes and hills coated in cinders and ash. The hills closer to the coasts are gentle and shallow, but they get steeper the further inland one goes, until soon enough the hills merge into the steeply sloping twin cinder cone volcanoes. The volcanoes themselves are topped by large crater-like structured formed from ages of eruptions. Meanwhile, the slopes are dotted with a number of smaller craters formed from the landing of numerous Mythril-bearing meteorites, which for some reason seem to land proportionally more commonly on the Guatsuka Islands.

Natural Resources

For whatever reason, Mythril is more common here than most of the rest of Central Mezia. The locals claim that it’s because mythril is a metal closely tied to the spirits, and the Cinder Slopes are a resting place for one of the most legendary of spirits, but experts are dubious. Whatever the reason, the relative abundance of mythril ore makes the region highly sought after by prospectors.

History

The island the Cinder Slopes occupies was the site of a climactic battle during The Firebird War. During that battle, hundreds of Ekhmeni soldiers had flooded onto the island to fight against opposing forces. But then the soldiers and the field were ignited by a Mythborn, known to the Ekhmeni as “the Firebird,” but known to the native people of the island as “the Phoenix,” their savior. After the fields ignited, both of the cones erupted in a spectacular display of fire and smoke, and the troops left still alive on both sides fled. The Mythborn and her followers reportedly perished in the battle and the eruption—it’s said by native Mizuri storytellers that the Phoenix ignited herself as bright as a third volcanic eruption, bright as the sun—but their victory and their legacy as the saviors of the Mizuri people lives on to this day, and is celebrated annually in the various Phoenix Festivals across the island.

Type

Wasteland

Location under

Guatsuka Islands

Owning Organization

Mizuri Nation