Kai'lar

Athera is a land of immense geographical variety. A vast continent lying between the uttermost West and East of Kai'lar. Its terrain is defined by monumental contrasts: high mountain chains, deep forests, rolling plains, and shadowed wastelands, each bound to the history and peoples who inhabit them. The Skyreach Mountains, running north to south across the continent's heart, form its great dividing spine, separating the western lands of Aelendor from the eastern region of Lorsarium. From their roots in the icy north to their southern marches above Atlaren, these peaks - Tharionath, Ilarethil, and Vaenoril among them - shelter dwarven halls, goblin tunnels, and the hidden realms of Elves and Men alike.

 

To the west of the Skyreach Mountains lies Aelendor, a land of quiet hills and ancient elven ruins. Here stretch Brindle's green fields and hedgerows, the mist-veiled hills of Tharethin, and the ruins of lost Vardane - once the proud northern kingdom of Men. The cool northern winds sweep across the Stormheath and the Crescent Vale, while the Starwatch Hills mark the farthest western horizon before the lands fall away to the Westdeep - a vast and perilous sea whose farthest shores no sailor has ever seen. Upon its coast stands Orryndel, the ancient haven of the Sea Elves, where azure ships lie moored beneath the fading light.

 

Eastward beyond the mountains lies Lorsarium, the "Badlands," vast and untamed. Its heart is dominated by the great River Aeon, flowing from the icy north down to the Belathis Gulf. On its western banks lie the elven woodlands of Ilthariel, golden beneath mallorn boughs; to the east stretches the shadowy and ancient forest of Darkenwood - home to Wood Elves, spiders, and darker things. The Glittering Gem, Grakklnor, rises in the far northeast, a solitary giant above the desolate plains of Rein and the River Bahr. To its south lie the brown, broken lands of Solgorra and Thalenmar - scars of long-forgotten wars.

 

Farther south lies the wide grassland of Atlaren, rolling like a sea beneath the golden peaks of the Sunreach Mountains. The River Skald and its tributaries carve fertile valleys where the horse-lords dwell, while to the south the land climbs toward Solamir - the greatest realm of Men in the waning years of the Age of Kings. Solamir's lands are divided by the mighty Aeon: from the fair fields of Solvalore to the port city of Perelgon, and westward to the shining citadel of Solanith beneath Vaelion's snowy crown. The Sunreach Mountains run like a barrier from the coasts of Belathis eastward, their passes and valleys dotted with ancient keeps, tombs, and hidden ways.

 

Beyond the Blackreach lies Umbramor - a land shattered by the cataclysm, where the earth itself has split open into a vast gorge of shadow and ruin. Once the heart of Everon's empire, it is now a scar upon the world, its walls blackened and veined with molten stone. The chasm descends for miles, filled with choking fumes and rivers of fire that twist through the darkness like veins of living flame. At its center yawns the Ashmaw, a crater vast enough to swallow a city, said to mark the place where the heavens broke and the earth was unmade. The air above it burns red by day and glows faintly by night, as if the world still remembers its own death. Few dare to approach Umbramor, for even now the land shifts and groans as though alive. Yet the jagged ridges and molten rivers that frame its edges are reminders that Athera itself still stirs - a world shaped not only by life and creation, but by ruin and remembrance.

 

To the distant north, the frozen wastes of Icelorn and the Frostreach hold the remnants of dragon lairs and forgotten dwarf-holds. In the far south, the warm lands of Malterra and the deserts beyond the River Luir stretch toward unknown realms, while to the east lie Torgal and the Sea of Torgal, a vast inland expanse bordered by mysterious peoples and kingdoms seldom seen by those of the West. Together, these lands make up Athera - a world not only of geography and borders, but of myth and memory, where every mountain, forest, and shore bears the mark of ages long past.