But, sadly, it's not all pleasure. Ever since the Dreikathi instituted cordons on the southern and eastern borders of the Vakimal Wastes, presumably to stop the marauding bands of deformed wyrms that tend to spill out of Basrai's depths and fall hissing on the nearest township, banditry and cut-throat bargaining have been rife. No longer can the prospective tourist stop for a refreshing glass of filtered vakmut urine in one of the many Vierkathi souqs, at least not without presenting a hunter's warrant card or a loaded crossbow.

What of Basrai, the fabulous Maw of Urokt, home to not one but five yearly cull-and-capture raids by stout-hearted and heavily armed hunting bands? Tongues have been waggling, at least in those whose tongues have not been eaten and replaced (along with their spinal column) by hissing insectile horrors, and rumour has it that a string of hospitality violations have really driven down the Maw of Urokt's tourist retention rate. Reports include screaming in the night, the dry shift of scales and quills on leathery hide, the crumbling, vacant eyes of ancient citadels, and a recent spike in the peron melon trading market. The once-popular Caentoi city is now no longer an ideal vacation spot, even less so than the period immediately after it was bombed into barren wasteland from above.

The underground gateway, though - the one permanently shrouded in shifting darkness and the wailing of the endlessly tormented - well. Everyone says it's to die for.

Come again soon and read about the desolate, horrifying, and wondrous city known as Basrai, the Maw of Urokt! Korvok will be awaiting you all.

Death.

But, in all honesty, the Ironspine Highlands are a dangerous expanse of land that will reward the most intrepid adventurers. The passes into the Highlands are very treacherous and going over the Cloud Peaks would be akin to casually walking up Mount Everest or scaling the Eiger. It's unheard of and everyone who has tried has ultimately failed. Flying over the mountains themselves is also incredibly treacherous, due to the winds and sudden changes in weather. Due to the passes closing with the heavy snowpack each winter, for four to five months, those who remain in the Ironspine Highlands during the winter will find themselves fighting for survival. The winter months are a harsh season, but to some the spring is much worse.

Great wyrms, known as the Ironspine wyrms, dwell within the Highlands and their mating season begins with the melting of the snows. Rousing from their torpor, the males contest each other in fearsome shows of strength and power to claim their own mates among the females. They are monstrous creatures that even the Dreikathi riders prize as mounts for their ferocity and strength, but they are a rarity in the far south. It is said that several Vierkathi tribes, having little love for their cousins, broke away from the Drakkenmont forces and now dwell in the Highlands for the great sport of hunting and breaking these wyrms.

It is said that one small clan of Ursal still remains in the Highlands, keeping to the tundral snows and remaining hidden from the prying eyes of the Dreikathi for many decades now. The players won't be the only ones searching for this settlement, though, and to cross the Whitetooth clan in their hunt would be a poor choice. Not all Ursal care for their racial history, as indeed, it has done little to make their lives easier on Albedos.

Death. (seriously)

And that's all for this brief preview of the Ironspine Highlands. Next up? The lush and fertile Asamad Basin. Because not everything is hell. Mostly. Ask your questions in that lovely Q&A thread!

If you have an interest in the Utari, I would highly suggest traveling to the Wards of Delve to see a western perspective on these wayward clans. 

On the untamed frontier of the Jalaja, the outposts shall be the lifeline for all who wish to venture into the Rainforest. Wyrmkin are the least of your worries in that hellhole, some claim, for sickness and disease spread like wildfire in the Jalaja. I won't go into a great detail concerning the personalities you'll find along the border, but they're quite a hardy lot.

And that's it for this Regions of Albedos! Work is still continuing on Albedos (it's never stopped!), but I might as well tantalize everyone with things to come. If you have questions concerning this post, please ask them in the Q&A thread. 

Next up: Beartalk, or, 'why is Korvok so handsome'?

The Bonro is home to the town known as Hatshero, several vast oases (the Bayezin and Tal'viar), a Dreikathi mining facility known as the Aerok Quarry, and the ancient temple of Sunwash Ascent. To the far south, lies the fortress known as Dramlai Watch which oversees all passage into the Bonro to the Tavroi Plains of Albedos.

There is also a great arena, known as the Grazzin Arena, that lies close to the borders of Hatshero. If you wished to see gladiators fight great beasts from every corner of Albedos in weekly bouts, this would be a prime place. Sadly, Magister Faiz Grazzin has been unable to capture or trade in these great beasts as of late and thus the arena remains in disuse.

Hatshero is the closest township to Delve, aside from that of Helba (which has largely been seen as a glorified outpost). Under the rule of the Dreikathi, Hatshero has been a trade center for the Dreikathi enterprising in the dangerous substance known as 'mezlah'. An alternative to ylem, mezlah has been used to low-power devices such as drills for excavation work for the Dreikathi. When used in the past for airships and other machinery, it caused catastrophic failures in the devices that normally led in the loss of the airship and all hands aboard.  (Mezlah, in recent years, has been deemed far too dangerous to continue refinement work on and Hatshero has been reduced to a den of iniquity, sport, and the meeting grounds for mercenaries.) The guards loyal to the overseer of Hatshero keep the peace, but they themselves linger in squalor. 

The town of Hatshero is comprised, mostly, of Caentoi families and clans that have given up the wanderer's life. It was initially under the control of the great Domoraek clan, leading them to build a great mausoleum that is now known as the Vault of Domor. More clans wander the sands still, traveling from oasis to oasis as they partake in trade across the vast desert. All these tradesmen tend to avoid the lofty reaches of the Sunwash Ascent, now a thrice-cursed shrine overrun by the vrukh.

Vrukh should be thought of as kin to the harpies of myth (not so much Ulangi), but they are fatefully unable to speak the common tongues and are bestial in nature. Beaked maws, six orb-like eyes, and humanoid hands which they walk upon are some of their more defining features. They hunt the skies and prey upon travelers that stray too close to the Sunwash Ascent. The vrukh are well-known for swooping down upon both trader and mount and dispatching them from the air by dropping them some hundred feet to their death. Or, they simply disembowel them with their odd hands and eat their fill -before- dropping them.

The goddess Dejaani's shrine of Sunwash Ascent was constructed for the people of Hatshero to flock to, but with the coming of the vruk, the pilgrimages have since stopped and the shrine is little more than a fetid roost.

Delve is a vast port city that overlooks the Maestral Shoals and the Maestral Barrier Reef which I am sure some of you are familiar with from the initial first steps you took into Delve following the defeat of the Dreikathi. Akin to London in its coldest months, Delve is a very damp city and snow is a regular occurrence. Situated on the northwestern tip of the Dramedo Penninsula, it is greatly protected by the twisting reef and the hard backs of the Dramedo Crags.

The city is currently broken into districts or quarters. The Academic Quarter houses Delve's learning and research centers and is overseen by the Delve Research Society. You may also find members of the Parxian Order (a rival group to the DRS) within the less lauded corners of the city or doing menial work. The Exchange is the heart of the city and is a hub for all tradesmen that travel to Delve. Likewise, there are the Military Yards that house Delve's small, yet standing army of footsoldiers and cavalry and the Docklands which have been in ill-repair for near twenty years now.

And, beneath the streets, it is rumored that the Underbelly of Delve seethes with a life all its own. Shanty towns line the sewers with gangs of refugees and roustabouts that had no place in the Docklands. More than just the dispossessed live in the underground tunnels of Delve. Dark things linger in the deepest dregs, but they might just be the tales of children. The Underbelly is Delve's shameful secret.

Finally, at the northern end of the city, lies the Pious Wards. Shrouded in mystery for some decades now, the people of Delve have been fiercely loyal and vigilant to their long silent gods. Protective of their ways and customs, the veil has begun to lift with the loyalty of Sapience's citizens to their causes. Thus, I am proud to announce the Celebration of the Stars!

The Celebration of the Stars, a festival to celebrate the coming decades and joy of their cultures, will begin in just a few short weeks. With the opening of the Wards to the people of Sapience, the Celebration of the Stars will be a year long celebration with food, entertainment, games, gambling, and sport! All of Delve will be caught in revelry in a way that rivals the excitement of the Arionic Tournaments or the Year 300 celebration!

Come and join Delve in the coming weeks with a celebration that will hopefully delight all of our players!

The less religious citizens of Delve will certainly consider the gods to have long faded from the realm, but the priests of the Wards maintain that the gods merely slumber. There are hundreds of cults throughout Albedos, and Delve is merely one facet.

Something has certainly happened to the gods of Albedos; perhaps fallen or sealed with great magic. A seal was shattered in recent times and now, it moves.

Many of our players have ventured upwards into the Dramedo Crags and visited the outpost of Helba, but there is more to the Dramedo Penninsula than the lofty crags. Burial tunnels known as the Ia'shal Barrows for the hallowed dead of Helba have been recently excavated, but the Golbans seem to be ill at ease with their findings in the depths.

To the southwest of Delve lies the Pharos at Delve, an ancient lighthouse that was abandonded in years past due to "movements in technology", but it remains to be seen how those "movements" have benefited the whole of Delve.

Players should keep an eye open for these developments following the Celebration of the Stars!

I figured for the first post I'd overall address what makes Albedos, well, Albedos. There will be a second thread shortly to address Delve and the surrounding region of the Dramedo Penninsula. I'm going to try to keep this on the edge of plotlines you will encounter, but I might tease a few things. If you ask specific questions, I may just shrug at you and tell you to wait. It will come.

Albedos is a land of danger. There's no doubt about that, as the Dreikathi Empire extends its proverbial reach throughout the southern lands with an iron-clad rule over villages and townships. The slave races no longer seek rebellion in the far south; they've seen what has come of that. Entire races have been eradicated, cultures crushed, and histories wiped clean. Rebellion is met with the full crushing force of the Dreikathi and the last thing you might want is a wyrm strafing your village with a Vierkathi overseer sitting atop it. 

Thus, each township serves a purpose to the Dreikathi and they are a cog in the great warmachine. Meravi is a center of fishing, whaling, and hunting for the vast leviathans that patrol the depths. Charnagol mines for dangerous alternatives to ylem, Materport works on ships for the Dreikathi's navy as they search the far north, and Uego is a trading center that is overlooked by the great shadow of Drakkenmont. For their services, the people of these towns are granted protection, caches of food, and a stay from being drafted into the army.

Protection, though, from what? The Dreikathi have grown long in the tooth and recent conflicts have only unsettled their weakening infrastructure across the continent (such as a bloody civil war that dethroned their once glorified leadership and left their bodies in the darkest dregs of the Drakkenvar). Savage things lurk in the wilds of Albedos; vast, untamed, and unexplored for centuries. Cults, mercenaries, bandits, monstrous creatures that have seemingly awoken from myth and legend. 

Great mountains rise from the landscape to scrape the heavens, deep lakes reach outwards across the lowlands, verdant river basins and fertile plains, deep jungles, and dead cities. Venturing into the wilds of Albedos will be no light task and players will experience that in all its glory. There is safety in the cities for they are bastions in a world that is out to kill you. (WELCOME TO RAVENLOFT/DARK SUN/WARHAMMERS, ENJOY YOUR STAY--really, look these things up. While the setting may not be relevant to us, the theme of "the world is out to destroy you and spit you out like a toothpick" is quite accurate)

No, Albedos is not the fantasy version of Fallout with Delve being the proverbial Vault 13. The people of Delve are riddled with fear from a historical event that was blown into their memories some centuries ago and is now a very distant thing of the past. You will see the hand of the Dreikathi across the landscape of Albedos, most notably in the great Vakimal Wasteland which, mind you, was not always a wasteland. 

Well, there's them too. Basrai was once a city that rivaled Delve and then the Dreikathi took the hammer to them. A very big, elemental-like hammer. More like a hammer with a bomb attached to it. A really, really big one. Basrai will be one that you encounter quite soon and you may even meet some people from it in the coming weeks. Nor is Basrai the only city that was blown away by the Dreikathi. Delve considers itself the last free city and that could very well be true.

You should read about Delve in my next riveting post which will show up either tonight or tomorrow. Adventure!