Withered Expanse
The Withered Expanse is really anything but; it is in fact a vibrant wilderness with untapped natural resources. The Withered Expanse actually has many names: “Creepy”; “Don’t go there”; “No seriously, don’t”. “Cursed” is a favorite, as entering it gives people an unsettling feeling. Travelers avoid it and builders won’t build on it, so the roads through it have fallen into disrepair. None of its sovereign neighbors want it, so shifters or other people with a desire to hide might eke out a living. Even the bravest of adventurers are wary of the Withered Expanse.
For good reason.
Here, there be monsters. It is a favorite playground of the god Alere, who delights in abominations both large and small. Horned wyrms, a particularly brutal breed of dragonkin, make their nests in the Expanse. In general, creatures dwelling in the Expanse are smarter, meaner, and more monstrous than their counterparts living elsewhere. Occasional breakouts of undead and fiends from the Expanse plague its bordering nations.
Few have entered the Expanse and returned to report their observations, but at the center of the Expanse is an enormous walled city. Everything about the city, from its architecture to its size, points to a community of giants. Though it has been there forever (as far as anyone knows), and giants still walk the earth, nothing lives there now. The handful of people who’ve seen the city up close report that everything is perfectly intact. Dusty, outdated, and old, but pristine. It just looks like one day, everyone dropped what they were doing and left. No animals will go inside the city walls, not even Alere’s mutated beasts. Eerie haunts - cries and screams with no source, the feeling of an oppressive, malevolent force - keep people from wanting to enter the city, too.
No one knows exactly what happened in the city to corrupt it so. The gods are silent on the issue, and Veleda’s historical archives provide barely enough information for speculation. Some say that the Withered Expanse fell prey to an ancient curse, others say Lagahashra destroyed it or that Adar forsook it. Maybe the inhabitants left because their country became terrifying. Whatever the case, the answers lie in the center of an unearthly, sinister place.
Type
Magical Realm
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