LOCATIONS
(Nations are underlined. Locations within them are not.)
GREAT PLAINS
The Great Plains are a gentle homeland to many of the species of dragonkind. Central to all other regions of Ephaegis, the plains harbor the great cities of Athendol, Light’s Rest, Wulcroft, Skyreach, and Ebenthal. Luckily, the wildlife and landscape of the region has been mostly unharmed in the Blight and the Great Splinter. However, there are enough Blight zombies and other invasive plagued beasts wandering the grasslands that it is no longer considered a very peaceful place to live.
THE SCAR
When the magical weapon that set off the events of the Great Splinter was detonated, it blasted a crater into the surrounding landscape. Local legend says stepping foot into the Scar brings on a sickness or curse, possibly the effect of residual contamination by the weapon. At the center of the Scar lies the ashes of Aquelion, the largest and most central of the Eight Cities where the weapon was built.
ARTHENDOL
Arthendol is a glittering city of magic with golden and purple towers. Part of the city was once held aloft by enchanted brickwork, dividing it into the Upper and Lower city. It is home to libraries, schools, vendors specializing in enchanted goods and spell reagents, a menagerie of fantastic creatures, and the oldest mage academy in Ephaegis. The city was managed by the various magician’s guilds, each having some input toward decisions made by the primary mage’s circle. Having so many wizards in one place made life here luxurious, with infinite clean water, a sewer system, enchanted trolley rides to the Upper City, and fountains, statues, and paving stones that glow, illuminating the streets at night.
Arthendol’s fate hangs in a precarious balance. After Skyreach was infected, many scholars assumed the Blightrot’s continued spread would place Arthendol next in its path. When the first few dragons took ill in Arthendol, the mage’s circle officially disbanded and urged citizens to leave the city and take shelter somewhere more remote. Many obeyed, but not all. Led by a handful of lesser mages of the circle, a group of scholars remained to try to find a magical antidote to the Blight. A second, more devastating blow was dealt to the mage’s circle during the Great Splinter, which crumbled the Upper City and left even the most powerful mages with only a fraction of their power. The small group of magicians who chose not to flee, now named the Second Oculus, found an even more pressing reason to stay and continue their research. The citizens of Arthendol now have two goals: to restore dragonkind’s magic ability, and to halt the Blight. The Blightrot remains in Arthendol, though the mages strive to keep it contained, and only a few in the Second Oculus know how much of a risk it poses to the city if just a few barriers were to weaken, or if a dragon in the quarantine zone fell ill.
LIGHT’S REST
The largest center of faith and spirituality in Ephaegis was struck a devastating blow when the Blight ripped through this city. What hope did dragonkind have if the gods saw fit to extinguish the most thoughtful and devout place of worship in the world? Even the least spiritual dragons would agree that Light’s Rest is a haunting sight today, with Blight zombies wandering mindlessly through beautiful and historic places of worship. Though the faith of the Eleven is the most widespread, there are many smaller religions that were welcome to share Light’s Rest and worship in peace here before its fall. Light’s Rest used to be a very modern and charming place to live, with street lanterns fueled by magic fire, a public market with free food for those in need, and colorful banners and flags hung on every building, vibrant against the gleaming white stone. Now it can only be admired from the outside, for the walls that used to welcome and protect dragonkind now contain only torment and death.
WULCROFT
Even before the Blight came to Wulcroft, stories of its strangeness travelled far and wide. Warnings about its dangers ranged from the understandable to the far-fetched, from criminal rings to skinchanging monsters to eldritch horrors and everything in between. Though the Blight wiped out over half of its population, and zombies still wander mostly unrestrained, a small population of survivors carries on in Wulcroft to this day, taking the deadly plague in stride. Most outsiders agree these survivors are just dragons trying to carry on with their normal lives, but some theorize that anything that has resisted the plague this long in infected Wulcroft must be some sort of supernatural being.
SKYREACH
Envisioned and built by a group of passionate innovators, Skyreach's architecture was carefully planned to be both useful and aesthetically pleasing, with the motif of circles as a unifying theme. The thoughtfulness of its founders paid off, and its white spires rise stunningly above the flat of the plain, meant to be a beacon of hope and unity to dragonkind. Sadly, the architects’ optimism was not enough to propel Skyreach toward their vision of the future, and it never became the utopia of progress and equality that they'd hoped. Repeated problems with corruption by its governors made citizens particularly disillusioned with Skyreach's supposed promises. Skyreach was quickly abandoned when news of the Blight reached it, since it has no outer walls "to block dragons from reaching their dreams." Or to block invading zombies.
EBENTHAL
Historians say that Ebenthal has fallen and been rebuilt seven times. Each time Ebenthal rose again, it was with a different architecture under a different ruler. Taking a stroll down any street, or a close look at any building’s foundation, will reveal hidden stories about the inhabitants of centuries past. In modern times, Ebenthal has been a haven for historians, mathematicians, and students of natural sciences. Its culture was tied firmly to long-standing traditions, as most of its citizens’ ancestry had been here for longer than recorded memory. During the Blight, much of the population abandoned the city center (in a move that was widely presumed to be temporary) for more isolated pastures, and the few dragons that remain are high scholars descended from the proud and ancient families of the first or second city. They are unwilling to leave their beautiful home to slowly crumble. Ebenthal has risen from countless other crises, and surely will outlast this latest one, too.
NIGHTMARSH
SUMMERGLADE
Summerglade was a place of relaxation, of respite, of celebration and song. Some of dragonkind’s most widespread songs and stories were invented here. Nestled into the golden forests at the edge of Nightmarsh, this was a city praised by famous artists and poets for its breathtaking beauty, and loved by residents for its slow, peaceful culture. Summerglade was made of pale stone and native wood artfully rendered into graceful structures; even the buildings and walkways were designed to allow dragons to take their time and enjoy the sights. The city was supervised by six great houses, four of which survived its fall.
The infection of Summerglade was quick and unexpected. One of its major food stores became silently tainted with Blightrot, and caused many dragons to become infected before the contamination was discovered. Since Blightrot can lay silently for a while even when a dragon is sick, it spread to a huge number of residents and led to disaster. Nearly all the unwell turned to zombies or died within a single day of fire and ruin, and anyone who couldn’t evacuate the city fast enough or stayed behind to help was lost.
ARDENVISTE
The town of Ardenviste started as little more than a few watchtowers in the Old Age, meant to protect the only road into Nightmarsh. To bypass the Strait of Ardenviste by land, it might take a dragon months of wading through chest-high muck and dodging giant swimming millipedes. After the fall of Summerglade, the young survivors of House Whiteleaf remained here and oversaw the village’s construction, as it was considered a vital location to hold against the Blight but also an easy one to defend due to its geography. However, years later, Oberon of Whiteleaf stood as the village’s last remaining guardian. Predicting Ardenviste’s total infection after an outbreak of unknown scale, Oberon acted with swift and ruthless judgement, permanently quarantining the town from the outside world. A magical, golden dome now covers Ardenviste and the only road into Nightmarsh, preventing any Blight zombies from passing through the Strait— and preventing the town’s residents, infected or not, from ever escaping.
DREADVINE FEN
Eventually, the former noble houses of Summerglade and their allies, though they’d originally scattered across the Nightmarsh after the fall of the city and founded their own settlements, all wound up by some tragic means sheltering at Dreadvine Fen. Built by the house of Goldenclaw, it has been luckily spared from the worse dangers of the Nightmarsh.
VENGURNA SWAMP
CRIMSON STRAND
A variety of eye-catching foliage thrives here, but most impressive among them are the Crimson trees. They are a memorable sight, taller than the hills themselves and wider across than five imperials, with bronze bark and coppery to bright red leaves. Though Crimson Strand lies wholly within Nightmarsh, it rains far less often here than anywhere else within the marsh. However, when it does rain, the whole floor of the Crimson forest becomes flooded and resembles a bloodied mangrove forest. Because the ground is so flat and uniform, it is best to retreat into the trees when a storm arrives, as dry ground is rare and the flooding can take weeks to dissipate. A dragon can spend many minutes flying from the Crimson forest floor to the canopy. Since the branches of the Crimson trees are so high above the forest floor, the little sunlight that makes it down to the ground is diffuse and dusty. High noon appears to be sunset, filtered golden orange through the Crimson trees, and nearly all of the day is spent in low enough light to resemble nighttime. The light returns as you ascend the trees. Up in the canopy, the cycle of day and night is more clear, which many dragons find more comfortable to live in— especially since the highest branches are safe from Crimson Strand's megafauna.
It is best to tread cautiously in Crimson Strand, since it is home to massive beasts of all descriptions, some long thought to be extinct. These creatures seem to have sprung straight from a hatchling’s imagination: grey-skinned trampling beasts, shaggy antlered herds of dire goats, brilliantly plumed sprinting birds, and tortoises large enough for a dragon to ride on. These are only a sample of what treads beneath the mighty boughs of Crimson Strand. Most native creatures smaller than a dragon have learned to fly or climb to stay out of reach of these giants. Small land-bound creatures survive on a diet of fungus and insects, as little else can grow on the shadowed ground, nestled among the feet of giant trees and giant fauna.
KOPIKI VILLAGE
Kopiki Village is a treehouse village of mostly fae residents built into the trunks of the Crimson trees. It is a fairly peaceful place to live if a dragon can manage to fit inside, filled with scavengers and gardeners and artists. However, hatchlings are sternly warned about the dangers of straying too far from the safety of the houses and connecting bridges, and are told grim tales of other children who never made it back when they fell from their nest.
VIPERFLAME JUNGLE
Tropical, exotic, and beautiful, the Viperflame Jungle is by far the most deadly region between the Spinecrack Mountains and the Serros Desert. This is a primal, noisy, untamed land of beasts and fire, wrapped in a radiant and suffocating heat. Its breathtaking sights of natural splendor could seem almost intentional, designed to conceal a noxious, savage malice toward the weak or the witless. Only the most stalwart dragons have the heart— or possibly, the stupidity— to chart its wild shores.
Courageous explorers can report flora and fauna that would seem like legends to a dragon born in the Great Plains. The jungle contains fire-breathing amphipteres, dragonflies so large they sound like rolling thunder, giant coral millipedes, and basilisks of unknown description that can freeze a dragon to stone. It also has a dense collection of carnivorous plants that come in all shapes and sizes, and any dragon without enough caution is likely to end up ensnared by colorful flowery predators. Other exotic plants include flowers that glow like embers day and night, sweet but dangerous swordfruit, burred vines that catch prey like spiders, and trees that drip flowing honey. Hills and cliffs and valleys tangle the landscape into a puzzle of elevations that confound pathfinding but make for towering, scenic vistas filled with life. At sunset, the drooping trees and vaulted cliffs look like they’ve been lit on fire by a misty sky that blazes gold.
A few accounts of more dubious reputation describe landscapes that seem to have appeared straight from myth: Rivers of liquid quicksilver. Trees that walk and whisper. Stone cities that vanish in the light of day. Cave systems that descend so deep, the downward pull of the earth reverses and water flows upward. Living caverns that breathe. Floating boulders hovering like stepping stones between cliff edges.
Viperflame Jungle’s serpentine rivers empty into the Sea of Icorcus, where the crooked treeline meets tranquil white sand. Just off the coast, shimmering turquoise currents shelter boiling sulfur vents that contaminate all the water in the tropics. Adding to the fire, sun, and humidity, the scalding water only makes the jungle more mercilessly hot. Once in a while, the winds shift enough to pick up the deeper waters of the sea, and then can drop boiling acid rain into the jungle, transforming its sluggish rivers into seething torrents.
BROKEN ISLES
Where Nightmarsh meets the Black Ocean, the land dissolves into a delta of winding eddies separating the Broken Isles— stable patches of land above the river muck. Travel by boat or raft is fastest here, since the foliage is still thick enough to hinder flight, and every step might become an unsuspecting plunge into the river.
BLOODIED BOG
There lies a low area of the Nightmarsh where no trees or plants grow. Here there are only stinking pools of brown muck, creeping red moss, and rust-red dirt. It offers little resources to dragonkind, and in return they leave it alone.
BLACK OCEAN
ISLE OF MIST
Tales of a strange mist-shrouded island are popular among sailors who brave the rough waters of the Black Ocean. Other navigators say this island is only a myth. Only a handful claim to have stepped foot on this isle, and the circumstances of their stories are dubious at best. But the dragons who claim to have witnessed Phantom Island report hearing the bellowing of unknown creatures, and seeing giant scaled beasts that look peculiar enough to have been displaced from another world, or another time...
OSSAG
RAVENHEIM
SKULL OVERLOOK
WINTERHALL
CELESTIAL MOUNTAINS
ICECROWN
ETERNAI
PLAGUED WASTELAND
The Plagued Wasteland, true to its name, is mostly desert, rock, and scrubland. It is an arid region that gets very little rain in any season. Though far sparser than in the Great Plains, dragon settlements have existed here for centuries, partially supported by a trade route to Undergulch. The main path through the Wasteland is very well-traveled and easy to find. However, traveling it is also an easy way to be found by gangs of bandits that survive off of scavenging and looting. Any large villages along the road now lie abandoned, chased out of the region by bandits or destroyed by the Blight.
UNDERGULCH
The seventh Great City suffered the worst fate of them all until the Splinter. Its destruction started before most scholars recognized the significance of the Blight as a threat, and its fall sparked the realization that this plague was dangerous on a scale unimagined before. Therefore Undergulch’s downfall was the quickest and most brutal of all the cities, as the plague and subsequent zombie attack was completely unexpected and impossible to warn or guard against. Undergulch, positioned near the edge of the plains and wasteland, was once a center of trade between the cities of the Great Plains and the more distant frontiers, and it coordinated the mail service to the Eight Cities. This allowed the plague to pass quickly and quietly to each of the other cities, with Aquelion raising the alarm first. Undergulch is now completely overrun with Blight zombies, and no one has even seen the city itself since the fall. The surrounding area is crawling with Blightrot.
SCOUNDREL'S PASS
At one point, the only way to pass farther into the Plagued Wasteland is a valley between rocky plateaus. This passage has been named Scoundrel’s Pass. A group of bandits has set up camp here, ready to ambush unlucky travelers. If a dragon can manage to evade the bandits, there are also the nearby nests of roc and giant fanged hainus to contend with.
BURNED KEEP
CHURCH OF SPARROWS
Among dragons who rejected the Eleven, the Church of Sparrows was one of the largest religions in Ephaegis. Teachings which once focused on personal responsibility and community growth have been warped from the Old age to the New, incorporating the Splinter as the first knell of a doomsday clock. The Church site itself now lies mostly abandoned, though that may be its more fortunate state. To call its disciples back would create a great assembly of doomsday-minded zealots, where dangerous, frightful ideas may redouble into coordinated action— toward an end that could only be anything but good.
PUTRID ROTLAND
Travelling farther into the Plagued Wasteland to the north and west, the landscape slowly changes from craggy rock and arid desert into gentle rolling hills and blue conifer forests. Prior to the Blight, this may have been an idyllic and quaint countryside. Today, the landscape itself is scarred with disease, becoming more tumorous and grotesque with each day’s flight toward its center. The wildlife here is mutated or diseased, with some even resembling the mindless Blightrot zombies. Stagnant pools of rancid filth and ooze collect on the ground, and even clear-looking water has a putrid taste. Trees grow with lesions and malformities, half-rotted where they stand. The only organisms that thrive naturally here are Irongut Vultures, and forests of countless vibrant fungi cheerfully decomposing the rot and decay. Perhaps it is better to not imagine the horrors that lurk deepest within the Rotland.
WEEPING MOUNTAIN
ROT-HEART
Nestled deep within the Putrid Rotland, Rotheart is a trove of disturbing, vile mysteries. It seems as if the land itself here oozes and bleeds. Rumors say that Rotheart is a full city of plagued Dragonkind built around something called the Flesh Pit, but few dragons are very keen to verify this for themselves. Is Rotheart the origin of the diseases creeping toward the rest of Ephaegis, or was it just the first spot infected by some other source?
LEYLANA PLATEAU
Leylana Plateau rises starkly above the Plagued Wasteland. It is a pastoral land filled with hills and valleys and tall grasses. Protected by its elevation and shielded by the Celestial Mountains to the south, residents of Leylana Plateau haven’t had to deal much with the blight, content to continue with their traditions of food, community, and adventure.
HOWLHORN
WHISPERING MEADOW
The Whispering Meadow is a peaceful area of farms, windmills, and rolling hills, known in the Old Age as the “Sister of the Great Plains.” The community here is a friendly one, with a culture of games, celebration, and culinary expertise.
“THE END OF THE WORLD”
Leylana Plateau is the farthest west that dragons can easily travel and map. Those that continue their journey westward are in for quite a shock: the whole west edge of Leylana Plateau appears to be shattered, floating in the heavens. The mainland ends in a dizzying cliff where there is only sky below, above, and beyond. Floating chunks of land are scattered past the cliffs like just-broken ice floes, appearing less and less frequently as one flies west. Erratic wind patterns here make exploration past the mainland a formidable task. The famed balloon journey launched seven decades prior to the Splinter ended with tragic enough losses to subdue most dragons’ curiosity.
SERROS DESERT
The shifting sands of the Serros Desert mark the farthest that dragons have traveled toward the copper sunrise. Little life can be found in its vast, pale sand dunes. The scorching sun, freezing night, and frequent sandstorms made survival here a tall order. But this may make it the perfect place to hide treasure, knowledge, or even oneself...
S’DEKE MINES
There are a few resources in the Serros Desert that make travel across it worth the journey for newcomers. Salt and copper are nice, but what really drives dragons into the desert are gemstones. The S’deke Mines have unearthed gems of all kinds. highly prized by mages and artisans. A steady stream of courageous workers looking to take a few samples for themselves has kept these mines open.
CRYSTAL TRAIL
Little more than a series of towers built and rebuilt above the shifting sand, the Crystal Trail was created to make passage to and from the S’deke Mines less deadly for workers. The towers come in handy when a sandstorm hits, as a dragon on their own can easily be buried by the moving sand.
MAKSABE CITY
Serros Desert’s other hidden gem is Maksabe City, virtually unknown to outsiders. The wood and sandstone city is built into the walls of a cavern at the foot of a mountain, shielded from sandstorms. These buildings are clever hybrids, half hanging over open air and half dug into the cliff face for support, with wooden balconies and rope bridges connecting them. Unless flying directly above the ravine, the only sign of civilization here is a few outpost buildings constructed above ground. An oasis in the earth, Maksabe City provides all the luxury of a Great Plains city, with a farm and an underground lake to support the populace of scholars and highly skilled artisans, and Maksabe’s library and bazaar are the pride of the city. The art and technology produced here, including mosaic and stained glass work, poetry, jewelry, armor, clockwork, fine clothes, preserved food, and more, sold for a lot of money in Undergulch through traders with vague sources. Caverns dug at the foot of the ravine by ancient dragons are called the old city, with many still in use today. Some of the deeper caves have been untouched for ages, with many secrets for those cunning enough to uncover them. But there are also groups here that would seek to find or keep them for themselves.
CARRION OUTPOST
STARMYST
SILVERSONG CITY
LILY FALLS
SNOWSPIRE
ICEPLAINS
A land of eternal chill sits at one edge of the mapped world. Much of the Iceplains are a frozen sea, though the ground has been encased in ice for so long that it is difficult to tell where the land stops and the sea begins. These are extreme lowlands, a shallow bowl of stiff-packed shining snow. Flying along the northern edge of the basin, one can trace the precipitous, shifting edge of the Thunder Barrens, cracking and falling and re-freezing with bellowing claps; and the Celestial Mountains, with the spire of Icecrown just visible at the peak of its jagged maw.
GRIM ASHWASTE
FIRESPEECH VOLCANO
SEA OF ICORCUS
PORT VELRISK
DROWNED CITY
Some say ghosts of the past haunt this city that collapsed into the waves centuries before the Great Splinter. However, water-breathing creatures of the present definitely haunt this place today. A few expeditions have been led to its pressure-preserved spires to recover legendary treasures lost in the fall. Among the aquatic beasts big and small, there exists a people who still reside in the Drowned City, breathing through gills and communicating through bioluminescent scale patterns. Whether this species should be classified as “true” dragonkind is contested among scholars. Communication between these water-dragons and dragonkind has been impossible so far, with physical language barriers on both sides.
INDIGO DESCENT
PHANTOM ISLAND
It is common knowledge among sailors to stay far from any unexpected land they might encounter in the Sea of Icorcus. Nobody has been able to pin down the exact location of Phantom Island, and some legends say it can move on its own. This fog-veiled isle seems unassuming from the safety of a ship, but many unlucky explorers have disappeared after they stepped onto its shore. Its treeline is dark and eerily silent, absent of any wildlife. The few sailors that have made it back from searching Phantom Island tell of its maddening trance. The island invents mumbling whispers of not-quite-words, sudden screams that seem to come from every direction at once, dark shapes moving just out of sight, strange dragons seen far off in a ghostly haze, and a feeling of being watched at all times. Sailors have thought these encounters were of dragons known to them, or unknown to them, or worst of all: of loved ones long passed on. Therefore, it may be for the best that Phantom Island cannot be found.
THUNDER BARRENS
SHIMMERING FRACTURE
STORMJUNCTION CITY
The only stable ground in the Thunder Barrens is at the edge of the Shimmering Fracture, so Stormjunction was built nearly vertically. It sits within the Fracture, hammered into the solid rock face, and climbs straight into the stormclouds above. Because of the constant lightning, the city buildings and walkways were designed so a dragon could climb from the base of the city to the top of its tallest spire without venturing outside. Low visibility and electrical storms make it unwise to attempt flight here. On the few occasions that leaving the buildings is necessary, the safest way to travel is by zeppelin, which are specifically designed to reroute any errant lightning away from the passenger cabin.
SPINECRACK MOUNTAINS
In Ephaegis, only the sun passes over the Spinecrack Mountains. It sets behind their craggy maw, casting shadows like serrated fangs growing to devour the last light of day. Others who try to fly over these deadly, unpredictable mountains inevitably meet with a gruesome fate.
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Others yet to be found…
The ink is not yet dry...
