Lake Hali

The Shattered Folk of The Haunted Steppes regard Lake Hali with deep (and fully justified) superstitious dread. Not only is its very material substance cursed so that those who even view the place are said to go mad, but the lake was also central to the two great incursions of shadow that ravaged the steppes over the past millennia. Something dwells there, the priests and seers say — something utterly inimical to humanity and all other mortal creatures. Exactly who, or what, dwells in the lake is not known, and is certainly never spoken of save in the darkest of whispers.
The lake’s proximity is blamed for the birth of the Fallen Ones — Hundaei clans that were corrupted by its strange energies and drawn into the terrible Shadow Horde. None of this mattered to the Foerdewaith settlers who ventured into the region during the Great Colonization, and their subsequent construction and exploration around the lake and in the Lost Mountains beyond disturbed something that responded with a wave of madness and horror. The second coming of the Shadow Horde is believed to be directly related to the colonists’ settlement of the Lake Hali region, but some believe that whatever lives there was entirely distinct from the Scaedugenga. The shadows, they suggest, were merely a side effect and the real danger remains hidden, lurking and biding its time.
Few records exist of the Foerdewaith exploration, but several accounts claim that the ruins of at least three cities of some apparent advancement lie near the shores of these dark lake waters that cast no reflections. Who or what built them is a mystery, if they in fact exist. Even darker rumors claim that strange artifacts have been discovered in these settlements, and that some of them may actually have been brought south to Reme or nearby kingdoms, but so far there has been little evidence of this.

Type

Lake