Western Approach
The Western Approach is a large, arid expanse in southwestern Orlais. Farther west lie the Hunterhorn Mountains and uninhabited steppes and forests.
These desolate badlands are as massive as they are barren. Bordered to the west by steppes and crawling with monsters, the Approach is a place from which few explorers return and most avoid. A long abandoned fortress lays deep in these deserts, straddling a canyon whose depths have never been fully exlpored.
Geography
The wastes in the Approach were once a land of plenty. The rain came north over the Gamordan Peaks, turning the plains green and verdant for several months of the year. However, tales would say that a handful of centuries ago that all changed. An earthquake shook the lands and created a massive rift that stretches deep into the subterranean layers of Thedas. Tales have been spun about the great chasm, many of which dub it the Abyssal Rift.
Two primary beliefs exist as to how this lead to the desolate state the Western Approach is in now. The first belief is that all manner of monsters spilled out of the Rift and corrupted the lands, turning it black and whose touch withered all life. The second belief is that there was a long, unexpected stretch of years with many droughts in which no storms passed over the Gamordan Peaks, leading to the quick death of much of the plants and animals whom lived in the region.
History
"Deep in these lands lay a crack that goes to the center of the world. Or at least one deep enough that you're never getting to the bottom of it. Deeper than any Deep Roads, that's for sure. One time, long ago, the earth up and snapped, tearing these lands in half. With all manner of corrupt that came from the dredges of that abyss, the land would never truly be right again. Those monsters were driven back under, eventually. Besides the abyss and the arid sands, one thing stands to remind those intrepid travelers of what may have happened here. Its inherited the name of Blackwatch Fortress due to the black abyss it stand over; the secrets thereabout have been kept quiet on the tight lips of those few who have been to see it. The fortress sits on the edge of the abyss: watching, waiting, but with no one home. Stories of major battles having been waged on the walls here inspire even those of us with the least of imaginations. What few people who eke out a living in that Maker-forsaken place do so knowing that any number of deaths await them: raiders, starvation, some even claim dragons. If they stay, it is because they know there are treasures buried in the bones of this place, ruins from when the Vints ruled and maybe even earlier. I have heard tales around their campfires of the things they have seen shrouded in dust storms. My favorites are the ones about relics that could restore the Western Approach once more. I don't believe them. Truth be told, on nights when the wind is calm, I can stand on a hilltop and see for miles in the moonlight over a stark beauty of which no other Orlesian can claim to know the equal. On those nights, I hope it will never change."
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