The Ruins of Carathenga

The ruins of Carathenga is the currrent name given to the land once known as the carathen peninsula, which is situated in southern Arros, just north of the Carathen Strait and north of the Island of Velcaan. The largest city in the region, Carathenga, was once the capital of the powerful Carathengian Empire until it collapsed. It was then left abandoned abandoned 4 centuries ago, after an outbreak of The Blight Blight during a seige of the city. Since then, the land and cities in the region is plagued by a large amount of highly infections blight mass that covers parts of the land.

Monster invasion

The blighted monsters that spawned inside the city began to spread throughout the peninsula and then proceaded to try and invade the rest of the continent during the period known as The Fall. The population of the continent fought back with all its might, with the most famous warrior of the period being Eremir the Great, who gave his life while fighting the strongest among them. Eventualy, the combined force of multiple allied armies and nearly all mage guilds managed to push them and the blight itself back to the peninsula.

The Wall

Inspired by what the Taonese had done on the other side of the world to protect their western frontier, A large wall was then erected by the Stonemages Guild of Vrahlis which cut off the peninsula from the rest of the continent as the land behind the wall was left abandoned. Large watch towers, occupied by skilled archers spent the next years picking off any blighted monsters who tried skalling it. A single gate allows travel back and forth through the wall, but it has been closed for hundreds of years.

Avoid at all cost...

Very few people have since ventured inside the peninsula as the environement is extremly hostile to nearly all life. Most of the ground is covered by the hightly infectious substance known as the Blight. Trees, grass, plants and even some buildings have been converted to the same black opaque substance. The few animals that are still alive behind the wall are all highly agressive and will try to infect anything they see. This makes travel by foot or horse back nearly impossible without getting infected. Fly-overs by Winged ships are avoided as much as possible, as crashing down there would mean certain doom for all passengers.

...Unless you're a Soulmage adventurer

However, the very few that go exploring the region are soulmages, as they cannot get infected. They are payed, usualy by scholars of the nearby University of Vrahlis, to go into the city to takes back some objects from the tresury or records from the archives. But even if they can't get infected, they can still get attacked and killed by the Blighted monsters. But that doesnt stop some from going in, especialy as rumours of large tresures still hidden in the city still persist to this day. Indeed, the city was very rich, even by capital city standards, and was known that vast amounts of wealth were held inside. But, while the rural land surrounding the city is known to be dangerous, the city itself is very deadly.

Inside The city

The city's walls are crumbling as the blight seem to overflow out of the gates and spread themselves beyond the walls, while attaching itself onto the exterior stone like shadowy vines. The only way inside the city is by climbing one of the rare clean section of the wall, then drop down onto the streets below as silently as possible. Inside the walls, the city's streets are lined with burned building and litered with rotted trash and patrolled by rolling blobs of Blight, believed to be blighted monsters that have been finaly consumed by the blight and aglomerated together, forming a sort of super-organism. The port, once one of the greatest in Arros, now lays dormant, choked with dozens of rotten, half sunken war and merchant ships. Nearly all of them covered in Blight. During the day, the monsters hide inside the crumbling buildings, while during the night, they prowl the streets, looking for any potential victims to infect. Most of the city itself is left in ruin, slowly rotting away as the very stone that make up its impressive buildings and monuments are consumed by the blight and wethered by time.

Fun Fact: A mission involving the exploration and/or retrieval of an item in the city or region are the ones with the highest pay. this is because only some soulmages can do it, and even if they CAN, most dont WANT to do it.