The Realm of Alteria
Locations of Alteria
The Ashlands
The Ashlands are a desolate landscape where none but the most foul and inhumane of beings reside, horrible in their depravity. These beings are the ash creatures, and with their evil they bring the promise of destruction wherever they tread. These horrible wastes are complete with volcanoes, which spew forth from their flaming maw a torrent of fire, which burns as strong as the hate this blighted land seems to have for all who dare to enter it. This infernal place was the result of the Gods’ battle against the Dead God, and surrounds the Gorge of the Dead God.
The ashen rain comes over nearby lands every year as a natural result of the shifting winds. Sometimes however, the flakes of grey come with a promise of disaster. It is then when the ash storms race across the land. Lightning splits the sky in the colours of blood and bruises. The air tastes stale with a hint of rusted iron. Nobody in their right mind leaves their house when the ash storms come. The city guards are on edge. The farmers pray that their crops will remain unscathed and that their cows won't give sour milk for the rest of the year. Sometimes an ashen storm passes and no one knows of which horror it spoke for a long time. Only much later do they find that a group of young girls has been sacrificed to the spirits of Draal in the deep of the forest. Other times the horror is obvious. The fields have been devastated, the prince was stillborn, the temple of Zaltha is in ruins. All the people can do is pray or try and stop the disaster from happening when they see a chance to do so, in a futile endeavor to save themselves and their communities.
The Gorge of the Dead God
When the unnamed god perished, his corpse is said to have breached the middle realm and created a massive ravine. The Gorge of the Dead God, also known as Plamen-Ra (the underworld’s maw) is the only physical link between The Realm of Alteria and The Realm of Draal, making it the most haunted and cursed place known to mortal men. A plethora of horror stories regarding this region have spread like wildfire; their topics ranging from dream-haunting spirits to undead cultists to ghastly wraiths and horsemen, and though the credibility of individual tales is greatly disputed, it is unanimously agreed that no man should approach the Gorge of the Dead God under any condition.
The Church of the Black Feather
In the darkest forests, untouched by civilisation and still home to mythical creatures that have been killed in other areas are the cultic sites of the church of the black feather. The members of the church can be recognised by their red robes with the symbol of the black feather on the back. To them there is nothing clearer in life than the eventual return of the dead god. They worship the powers of Draal that spawned from the titanic body of the deceased deity. What this prophesied return means to them is unclear to non-members. Some say that the Church shares the belief of the dead god, that humanity should be gone from the world. They say that the Black Feathers conduct horrible rituals in their forests, that they kidnap children to throw them into the Ashlands and similar awful things. Other so-called experts proclaim that they know so much more about this secret organisation. A black feather, they say, is actually a protector of the world. They prolong the time it takes for the dead god to return and try to sway its opinion by convincing all the spirits that spawned from it to see the races of the world in a new light.