Blighted Waste
Long ago this was the elven realm of Syndrallen one of the first regions to be settled after the fall of Aloria. Almost overnight Syndrallen was destroyed by a cataclysmic storm of eldritch lightning. Now a barren wasteland it stretches south of the Crystal Peak Mountains for close to 500 miles into the plains between Lake Amara and Garrison. It is a bleak, storm-wracked place filled with strange flora and fauna that has become a magnet for adventurers seeking the lost wealth of the once mighty Syndrallen.
Ecosystem
The surge of eldritch power that created this wasteland still has an impact on the land to this day. The sky here is often filled with roiling, black clouds and thunder and lightning will strike frequently without warning. Even when it is not raining or storming, the sky is gray and overcast.
Crops will not grow here and the vegetation that does is slimy and dark growing only in patches. Mushrooms and fungi are abundant and are used as food for the creatures that do live here. Most of the trees are dead and without leaves, but strangely they have not decayed and remain standing as if they are awaiting the coming of spring.
Ecosystem Cycles
The seasons do not occur here as they do in the rest of Valoria. Here is it perpetually autumn with chill weather, rainy storms and an overall gloomy atmosphere. What has happened here has altered the normal flow of the seasons as if the whole area is under a curse.
Localized Phenomena
Lightning storms and lightning strikes are a frequent phenomenon here striking often and without warning. Stories are also told of the lighting causing the dead to rise from their graves, but many believe that this is only a legend.
History
Centuries ago this now barren wasteland was the heartland of the elven realm of Syndrallen. It was founded by three elves who survived the Fall of Aloria. General Menaldin, archmage LLyndral and the sage Dolendarian. They were very young when the empire fell having only reached their second century. In the beginning it took all of their efforts just to survive as they gathered others of their kind around them and slowly moved north away from the devastation surrounding the capital. Their original settlement was in a secluded vale just south of the Crystal Peak Mountains. It was sheltered from much of the devastation and provided enough food and water for them to survive. They named it Syndrallen which is the elven word for sanctuary.
For the first two centuries, the Syndrallen elves labored to stay alive doing what they could to tame the torn land around them all the while drawing more of their people to them. As the land began to heal from the cataclysm, the realm of the Syndrallen spread south into the plains bringing order and civilization with it. By the time the three founders had passed on to their rest the realm they had worked so hard to forge had grown to encompass all the lands between the mountains and the sea.
The founders left the leadership of their realm to their descendants who served the elves well for many centuries afterward. The land of Valoria is a place where chaos and order are constantly at war. The Syndrallen had forged order once again from chaos, but chaos was soon to strike back. Within their ranks and insidious cult dedicate to the Aurus who called themselves the Stormlords was growing. They rejected the magics that the Syndrallen had used to control the weather and calm the storms that had been caused by the fall of Aloria. The cult unleashed the raw power of Aurus upon the realm and a storm of eldritch lightning destroyed the elven settlements and created the blighted waste leaving behind the no-mans land that still remains to this day.
Alternative Name(s)
Lost Syndrallen
Type
Badlands
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