Lands

In a rarely traversed corner of the Parched Canyonwalks, there is a region that locals of the surrounding areas warn all to stay far away from. They say that if you see a canyon with frozen black soil and paths leading into the chasm, the only safe option is to turn away and find another path.

Then again, there are those who say from the moment you see those paths, you are already cursed.

This is, of course, an exaggeration; it takes a few months of exposure to fall to the clan's curse if you never enter the chasm. By that point your best hope of survival is to join the Clan of the Cursed Chasm, but nobody has accidentally fallen to the curse since the fall of the original clan. The new clan has guards stationed at the entrance to the chasm, who explain the situation and warn away travelers and merchants. The merchants of the clan itself regularly come up to the surface to barter and trade, so that merchants who do not want to risk the chasm do not have to. There are some shelters set up around that entrance, and there is a single building: a barn that houses the food for not just the clan that lives directly inside the chasm, but also the two clans that share the region with them.

If you travel further into the region but away from the chasm, the ground goes from a frigid black to a crimson red, and then a bright orange. Within a few minutes, you will see a large oasis, with a larger clan building their homes in the area around the oasis. This clan, which originated from plague's territory, builds houses out of sun-dried brick and wood they harvest from the palm trees around them. While they are a separate clan, with a separate culture, they share their items and treasure with the clan of the cursed chasm. After all, they all live in the cursed region; though the clan of the Red Lake chose to do so, and the clan of the cursed chasm was forced to.

But what of the cause of the curse, the origin it sprung from?

The final clan is the smallest: made up of two skydancer dragons, who came upon a being of molten ice, which marked both of them as its disciples, and told them of the cursed chasm. The skydancers, both curious and excited to have an experience no other dragons did, went to the chasm. They found their own path into the chasm, one which they closed behind them to prevent other dragons from following them, and went far deeper than anyone would dare, carrying their master the entire way.

The day they reached the bottom of the chasm is the day the curse began to set its roots in the region.

But don't mistake the glacial abomination's effects for malice; the being had no idea that dragons were dying and magic was fading as a result of its presence. Upon learning this through the eyes and ears of its disciples, it gave them another task: aid the clans afflicted by the curse, even if they refuse to become followers of the being themselves. The skydancers regularly fly in and out of the chasm, and are the only beings willing to fly inside the chasm. They offer aid to the other clans, whether in the form of helping with their resource gathering, or even giving them gifts of treasure that the skydancers know they no longer have any use for. The glacial eldritch being is believed by those who know of its existence to be neutral at worst in terms of morality, and the skydancers fully believe it is benevolent. While no dragon can fully comprehend the being's motivations, the leaders of both of the other clans at the very least recognize that the curse was something it did not intend to happen. And the being does not seem to care if dragons despise it and wish it dead; they cannot do more damage to it than an ant can do to an elephant.

It simply exists, and as long as its disciples and followers are aiding the other clans in the region, the other clans are willing to let it be, and count the skydancers among their allies.