Cantarbria Wiki/IceHaven

The Fallen City
A once proud and great metropolis, the Fallen City is a testament of how the mighty can fall. It is a shadow and a byword now. The land round about is cursed, bringing undead in various shapes and forms. Roaming the lands, waiting and watching is the most renown figure to all refugees, the once mighty king of IceHaven. His form, a shadow of itself, has only grown in power over the years, but he stands as a symbol of what the city currently is, a festering sesspool of undeath.

The Black Wastes
The world has shrunk indeed with the city fallen and the lands round about breeding undead from the fallen in the Last Battle. Monsters unnamed have been seen and a new world created in the ashes of the dead round about the ruins of IceHaven and its surrounding cities. Ash falls nearly incesantly in the Wastes and there are few living that dare to venture the lands ruled by the dead. It is well known that the only souls brave enough to venture into the lands and live there are the Wardens of the Black Wastes. They forsake all to protect the surrounding lands from the threat of undead that continually seeks to invade and overpower.

The trees twist and turn, the land cries ash, the rivers run from the land known as the Wastes or the Black. In the eve, images of the dead battling the Last Battle floods the land producing a disconcerting montage of what was.

Nothing lives within the Wastes, nor near the borders. There is no one that could withstand the onslaught of undead. The only creatures brave enough to withstand the lands of the dead are those that measure their time in days instead of winters. The Wardens are they. Those who measure their time in minutes survived, rather than winters braved. Few could compare to their bravery and their desire to serve the various races of Contarbria as a whole. Their dedication is seen simply by the fact that few know their names as they give up all worldly possessions to pursue this course of action, after all, who would want to live in a land ruled by undead?

Environment
Little could be said about the harsh lands that comprise the evershifting lands of the Black. The one thing that can be seen in towers high and at a distance is the swirling mass of ash that falls like rain to blanket the Wastelands. The world is bleak indeed as the armies of undead mass and disperse according to the designs of the Wardens and their abilities to keep them in check. Few would wish to venture into such a climate, where perpetual night seems to consume any light during Ashfall. Ashfall, a term circulating the higher educated circles within NewHaven, a word given to the odd storms that persist for days and weeks within the Wastes, covering everything in black ash. Assumptions have been made that the ash is in actuality the remains of the dead fertilizing the ground, making it ready to bear the fruits that only the dead could reap.



The beauty of the Ash, so much like snow could perhaps deceive the naive. It is, quiet, to say the least, but within the silence the echo of long past footfalls can be heard. The eerie noises of crunching ash beneath the feet can be heard should you remain still long enough to pay attention. The serene beauty of the landscape can be seen soon after Ashfall, forgetting briefly what it is you are standing in.