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The South is a land of endless waste, sand and rock stretched out endlessly under the beating sun. The Savants know that if you travel far enough South, the land gives away to the madness of the Wild and the raw fury of the Elemental Pole of Fire. The Deep South, they say, is inhospitable and devoid of any possibility of life.
Yet they are wrong.
Deep in the South, far past where the last caravan travels, there is Andalus. Nestled up between two potent threads of the Wyld on the very edge of the South, Andalus is a rich jewel nestled in the middle of a hellish land. It has rolling green hills, sufficient if not abundant sources of water, and occasional leavings of the First Age. It is a land where herds of horses roam across the hill, along with cattle and other animals that live here in the midst of this plenty.
The prosperity of Andalus is not recent; ever since the First Age, this small valley deep within the South has been a place of plenty in the midst of the Sun's Sea. Once the home to the great city-state of Dala Varia, a firm ally of the Old Realm and a people with roots stretching back to the time of the Primordial War. The people of Dala Varia and of the Old Realm had always been close, with much trade and travel between them. The Quicksilver Falcons used the independent city as a relief valve for their economy, dispersing energy from the patterned economies of the Old Realm and keeping the overall structure sound. So strong were the ties between the two that the third time the city of Dala Varia expanded their walls, they did so with stone mined from the Imperial Mountain and the aid of engineers from among the Mountain Folk.
The ancient city was built on the ruins of an even older settlement, a human city that had been destroyed in the course of the War of the Gods. The people of Dala Varia incorporated much of the old architecture into their style, however, and the city was a popular destination to those travellers from the Old Realm who appreciated its "quaint charm and historical significance." Some 600 or more years prior to the Usurpation, the history of Dala Varia came to an abrupt end. One of the Twilight Caste, a copper spider known as Jorush, had always taken an interest in the ancient city and the ruins upon which it was built. A scholar and sorcerer, Jorush had often visited the city and poured over its mysteries. He was well-known to the rulers of the city, and many of them held fond memories of the Solar from their childhood.
One day, Jorush simply quietly went rogue. It was nearly 3 years later when the leader of the neighboring Five Mountains district, Aeas the White, discovered that the Descending Sun had deposed of the rulers of the city and taken up the title of "Sorcerer King of Dala Varia". When the Lady of White visited the city to investigate this news, she found the city functioning quietly and yet efficiently under the rule of its new leader. While Aeas was treated with nothing but courtesy and respect by her fellow chosen, she could not shake her horror over what the Twilight had done to the Realm's old ally. Nor did the Descending Sun seem to feel any remorse, nor have any reasonable understanding for why he had acted as she did.
When she eventually left the city, reporting to the Deliberative, Aeas expressed concern that that Twilight had vastly oversteeped himself and that "something ought to be done." Even so, it is likely that this would all have been swept under the rug and the city quietly integrated into the Realm if the "Sorcerer King" had not insisted on "maintaining the cities historic independence."
The unavoidable confrontation took 11 years, during which the city was watched closely by agents of the Solar Deliberative. There were numerous attempts to resolve things peacefully, but slowly the Crowned Suns noted that the Sorcerer King was becoming less and less forthcoming and that they suspected he had been hiding something. The Night Castes initial reports suggested that the city was slowly moving toward a more martial footing, that Jorush perhaps held ambitions toward armed rebellion. Follow-up investigations were blocked by Jorush, as the doors of the city slammed shut and Dala Varia was isolated from the rest of the world for the first time in its existance. Once the Deliberative decided the time was right to act decisively, it was too late. The first Iron Wolf dispatched to deal with Jorush never returned.
So it was that the liberation of Dala Varia fell into the hands of the Dawn Caste. The armies of the Deliberative were led by such notables as Myras the Spear and Ashan lo'Fruah, while Aeas herself was chosen to stand against the magics of Jorush. Once the decision was made, the war itself came swiftly and only a few scant months passed before it was all over. The walls of Dala Varia were torn down with Celestial magics, and the Dawn Caste led their armies into a city full of sorcerous traps and ensorcelled warriors. The Deliberative stood triumphant, and the "Sorcerer King's" reign was put to an end, but Jorush had seen to it that the city did not survive the battle.
The region was placed under the care of Aeas, whose task was to ensure that the ruins of the city were not disturbed and posed no threat to the South. Thus was the legend of Dala Varia ended.
Andalus lay fallow and largely forgotten until some years after the Great Contagion, when the nomadic people known throughout the South as the Obsidian Horde discovered this green land and settled it themselves -- coming to call themselves the Andalusi. They had not happened across it by happenstance, instead directed to it by the lost lore of their people, which claimed they had once lived upon this land in the distant past.
In many was Andalus was a promised land; the soil was rich, water was abundant (for the deep South), and there was both plentiful game to hunt and bountiful cattle to herd. The Clans of the Andalusi only had need to leave their land when they desired trade, when their souls grew restless to travel across the dunes, or when their hot blood led them to raid the Southlands. Yet always the travels of the clans of the Andalusi led them back to Andalus, for it was there home.
...until recently.
As recently as a year ago, a dark presence awoke in the heart of the Forbidden Lands. The Andalusi known it as Lalune, the Waters that Swallow the World, and say that it has dwelled in the lands of Andalusi longer than any other -- killed in the dim reaches of the past, but now returned to the land of its birth once again. With the coming of Lalune, the dangers of the Forbidden Lands unfolded out over all of Andalus. Plagues, dark monsters, fell undead, and demons slowly seeped into the lands of the Andalusi. One by one, the clans of the Obsidian Horde left their lands, knowing that they would never be able to return.
A massive Shadowland deep within the South, the "Forbidden Lands" of the Andalusi date back all the way to the siege of Dala Varia and the slaughter that it brought in the quest to liberate the city from the rule of its mad Sorcerer King. After the battle was over, the lands passed into the rule of Aeas the White who was pledged to guard over them. For a time, thus, the dark lands at the heart of Andalus lay fallow and contained.
Yet the wardship of the Lady of White was not always one that was heeded, and now one who steps into these cursed lands finds them far from untouched. Massive constructs of black iron and steel dot the shadowland, ancient constructions designed to leech the power of the Shadowland and harness the energies of the Underworld. Nor is it simply a few such devices; the shadowland is simply filled with these ancient ruined and somewhat unsettling devices. There are arrays of massive black pylons that reach 50 feet into the air, large claw-like centrifuges welded securely on obsidian bases, bizarre matrices of black steel threaded through the very ground, numerous coils of ruined iron cable scattered throughout as well as even more disturbing things.
While once these things filled the shadowland entire, the touch of death spread greatly after the coming of the Great Contagion. Now the "industrial center" is relegated to the rough center of the shadowland, an oblong circle around the ruins of the ancient city.
More to come after game on Saturday.
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