Haedras - The Domain of Anatheras

In the midst of the six domains of the Hexad spans the realm of Haedras, with the colossal citadel of Anatheras rising as its crowning jewel.

The city’s steel-blue walls of ancient, ferrous concrete, circle around gigantic structures that house more than twenty million souls, all of them floating upon the ancient lake that gave the city its name.

Towering in the midst of the giant habitats, lies the titanic palace-temple of Nalatoth, god of the Hexad, ruler of the seas, master of strategy and god of Blades.

The city also hosts a magnificent port, whence the gleaming vessels of the realm spread across the turbulent North Sea and beyond, to trade and barter goods with all the other realms, and lift levies and taxes from all the lands that remain in awe of Anatheras' mighty naval forces.

It is also home to the titanic Stadium of Swords, where millions of souls gather to witness spectacles of slaughter and carnage – a necessary daily sacrifice that will appease the great God, but also the primary means for ordinary mortals to walk the gladiator’s path, and hope to gain the God’s favor and advance among the ranks of his favored Chosen – the Haedrassian Blademasters, each of them a seasoned champion of the arenas, and member of the God’s personal bodyguard.

Haedras is the name of the land that has become the domain of Anatheras, under the dominion of Nalatoth. Seven great rivers span across the lands of Haedras, and along their banks rise twelve outposts, ensuring that all the water of the land goes only to those faithful of the great god Nalatoth, but also acting as staging grounds for deploying the mighty armies of the realm against any and all who would dare defy the God’s word, but also to protect the precious lives of many civilians, lives necessary to the survival of the growing number of Chosen, and the sustenance of the mighty god.

Many such blue-garbed, armed patrols wander the lands, to ensure all homage and respect to their god is payed, or that the savages of the wilds are kept in check. People in Haedras know the bitter truth of the Age of the Fall. Where there are no walls, gods, or armed men, lies the illusion of freedom.

But the price of this freedom is too steep to pay. Men of the wilderness call themselves free in their dark, guttural tongue, but the truth is that they are redhanded savages and cannibals, either roaming the desolate wastelands, or, if they dare, the Lands Unremembered, hunting flesh of beast or man, or lurking in the dense forests of Baldrakor or the wilderness of Haedras, antagonizing the other dark and brutal predators of these lands, including the plants and trees.

And yet often people traveling from the realm of Haedras to Balkorra or Kaldrassa are forced to dare the dark Mordrassean Pass, knowing full well that each time a soul sets foot into the dense woodlands, they’re unlikely to emerge on the other side.

The eastern part of the realm is a particularly arid rocky wasteland, where nothing dares to grow, and few souls dare to wander. Deeper through the eastern desert, lies an even darker and more perilous realm. Scores of god-forsaken ruins dot the barren, craggy, red landscape, eaten away by the winds and duststorms of many ages, and yet enduring with a measure of ancient defiance. None approach the place, for all know these lands have been cursed with unspeakable evil since times unknown.

None recall or remember the tale of these places, for to know the tale, is to invite evil within oneself. Thus, the only name that suits the realm, is that of Lands Unremembered. Not forsaken, or forlorn, neither abandoned, but simply a thing, one is forced to forget, lest the existence of its very idea, would wake unspoken horrors. The only stories of these lands, are about the fools that dared to walk upon their cursed ground, and their grisly, untimely demise. The stories speak of ghosts, revenants, and hideous fiends of shadow, gathering their strength before they rise in union to wipe out the remnants of mankind.

Beyond the Lands Unremembered, lies the Golden Bay, and the small pocket of land called the Midlands. Officially these places have no individual ruler, paying heavy levies in gold and people to the Anatheras, Balkorra and Ben Alar. At first, one would’ve thought these people share a better lot, than those ruled by the tyrannous gods. But their auspicious position and prosperity, has made the Midlanders a thoroughly corrupt lot. The Midlanders maintain the worst kind of mercenaries, raiding other settlements and encampments or even their own neighbours, capturing men as slaves to be sold for the sacrificial dagger of the gods, or gold and other precious items. The Midlands are a land of golden promises, intrigue and backstabbing, when one can rise as a satrap of a small city in a single day, only to find themselves imprisoned and sent to work the quarries and mines of one of the merchant lords. Nonetheless the Midlanders remain very rich, and thus influential, transforming this grim, dark era into an age of opportunity.

To the North, towering menacingly, above the Unremembered Lands, stand the mountains of the Crimson Ridge, home to some of the most savage and brutal predators of Arandor, as well as countless savage tribes of abhumans that frequently raid all surrounding settlements, when they’re not busy fighting one another.

Further North spreads Drahakon, domain of another god of the Hexad. To the South of Anatheras spreads the dark Baldrakor Forest, home to a host of predatory beasts that frequently roam beyond its confines, at night, terrible enough to sow fear into the hearts of all Haedrassians. They say that deep within Baldrakor live the Drakhalen. Spindly, shady, fey demons that feast upon the fear and blood of the living.

West of Baldrakor Forest, the woodlands recede before craggy red, barren highlands, that stand riddled with mesas and canyons. The greatest of these canyons leads to a patch of forestland that spans for several miles, and is known as the Mordrassean pass. This patch of green connects Baldrakor Forest with the Aedrak Wilds – another verdant land that spreads directly west of the forest.

The Aedrak wilds, are home to at least three known tribes of abhumans, all of them fiercely territorial, and notorious cannibals. Near the edges of the forestlands, carved upon the face of the red rock, and barely distinguishable even from a short distance, spread five of the seven Kaldossean Settlements of Haedras. For more than a thousand years, the armies of Nalatoth culled all resistance in the realm of their god. Of those who would defy the God of Blades, only the legend of the ancient Kaldossi remains, following their warlord, Kalras the Unbowed into endless war with Anatheras and Balkorra.

According to the annals of the scholars of Anatheras the unruly Kaldossi were either annihilated, or enslaved and made to work the deep mines of Balkorra. And yet rumors speak of abhuman tribes who survive on Kaldossi customs, still defying the reign of Anatheras on their ancestral lands.

The western natural border of Anatheras is the hellish land of the Ember Crags. Dark jutting rocks, some of them of mountainous size, stand riddled with infernal cracks that spew magma, fire, and, as the stories say, demons of flame. From afar they resemble embers of a hellish flame, hence the name.

The Frozen Highlands are forbidden places were none venture. Conditions there are impossible for human travelers to survive, make these places mostly inaccessible. Rumors, of course, speak of the rise of the Forlorn. But there are also other, darker tales.