The Warring Heartland & Uneasy Peace
The largest of the eight continents of Aenthara, Varaenthia is a land of formerly warring kingdoms and fragile alliances, where peace is often fleeting and conflict a way of life. A ruined land known as the Ashen Expanse sits at the continent’s centre, the site of a magical cataclysm that destroyed what came before. Varaenthia stands at the heart of the known world, acting as the central hub for trade, diplomacy, and war.
Varaenthia has always felt too large to grasp in a single thought. It spreads from storm-lashed coasts to fertile inland plains, then rises into old mountains where the wind seems to carry stories from long before anyone wrote them down. Ancient roads still cross the land in clean stone lines, built by engineers who trusted their work would outlast any kingdom. They were almost right. Even after the Fall, the continent keeps a sense of deep age, as if it remembers the weight of the empire that once ruled it. You can still walk through places where the world feels half shaped by human hands and half shaped by something older, something patient.
The empire that carried Varaenthia’s name was once the great spine holding the continent together. Its legions marched beneath banners recognised everywhere. Its scholars debated in marble halls. Its governors managed distant provinces with tidy confidence. Trade moved like blood through the land, and most believed the peace would last forever. Yet the empire had grown so vast that no one noticed the cracks until they widened. When the Fall struck a hundred and seventy-eight years ago, the continent splintered. Provinces became kingdoms, governors became kings, and old loyalties were traded for survival.
At the centre of the collapse lay Vaelora, the old imperial capital. Its destruction came in a single night of roaring magic that tore the heart out of the continent. The lands around it have never recovered. They call the region the Ashen Expanse, a silent grey wasteland where the soil turns brittle underfoot and the air carries a faint shimmer that makes travellers uneasy. Strange shapes move across the horizon, and folk swear that time behaves oddly there, as if the world still shudders from what happened. No kingdom claims it. None dare, or want to deal with anomolies.
Roads skirt the edges of the expanse, none daring to venture too far into the expanse itself. small fortified holdings dot the roadways offering refge to travellers roughly a day apart. Usually no bigger than a few dwellings an in and minor services offered to travellers. Known as steadholds they usually have a collection of flat roofed buildings joined by walls giving a defensive perimiter.
Varaenthia today is a patchwork. Some regions cling to memory, still planting their crops in the pattern set by imperial edicts. Others chase power with fresh ambition, driven by the hope that someone might one day reunite the land. Travellers speak of shifting borders and long ruins where vines have grown over broken arches. They also speak of the stubborn spark that runs through the continent: the belief that a place shaped by such history can rise again, even if no one agrees on what shape that rise should take.
The Fall of Varaenthia
The cataclysm that reshaped Varaenthia took place 178 years ago and is remembered simply as The Fall — the day the empire that spanned the continent broke apart.
The Fall wasn’t just a war of blood; it was a war of ruin.
When the last High Emperor, Aurelian the Magnificent, died 178 years ago, he left behind seven heirs, each born of different mothers and each burdened with their own ambitions, armies, and scheming advisors. What began as a tense struggle for succession soon became the War of the Seven Thrones, a generation-long conflict that tore the empire apart.
The war’s darkest moment came with the Destruction of Vaelora, once the radiant heart of the empire. Vaelora had been the jewel of civilisation — a capital of marble spires and mirrored canals where magic and learning flourished. During the height of the war, it was destroyed in a single night of fire and unmaking. Witnesses spoke of the sky tearing open, rivers boiling, and the earth itself recoiling in agony.
The cause, so far as anyone can tell, was the work of the Obsidian Circle, a secretive guild of magisters allied with one of Aurelian’s children. Their spell was meant to end the war with a single, decisive strike, but instead it broke the world.
The lands that once surrounded Vaelora are now known as the Ashen Expanse — a grey, silent wasteland where almost nothing grows and the boundaries of reality twist and blur. Strange lights drift across its horizon. Travellers speak of time slipping, of voices calling from empty air, and of beasts that shouldn’t exist. No realm dares to claim it, though all fear what still stirs there. A handful of small towns and fortified waystations survive around the Expanse’s outer rim, offering refuge to those forced to cross its haunted breadth.
In the one hundred and seventy-eight years since, the seven surviving realms have clung to a fragile peace. Borders are drawn in blood, trade routes cautiously reopen, and treaties are signed with hands that once held daggers. Yet the scars of the Cataclysm, and the question of which heir unleashed it, linger like a curse.
Some believe the Obsidian Circle still survives in the shadows, waiting for a chance to finish what they began. Others whisper that The Fall itself isn’t truly over — that the heart of Vaelora still burns, and that one day it will awaken.
Varaenthia’s Political Situation
Several city states and intependant cities as well as 6 Kingdoms dominate the majority of the continent. Grown out of the succession wars following the death of the last emperor, Aurelion.
Erdath
Erdath is a triangular kingdom lying on the western edge of Varaenthia. It borders the Tharros Ocean to the west and the Sea of Mists to the southeast. Its northern and eastern flanks are shielded by the formidable Spine of Varaenthia mountains. Other than by sea, entry into the kingdom is limited to two routes: through the Free City of Averis, where the borders of Erdath, Valmorria, and Threyss meet, and across the River Veyr at Kaelen’s Crossing to the east.