A Great Emptiness
The dry southern lands of Myrderos, the eastern continent of Arcana, are harsh beyond
imagining. Calling it the Seyerla, or land of a thousand hells, the great eastern
empires long since abandoned any ambitions of ruling it. The land has little value
for agriculture, and the distances that lie between its few cities are vast and
desolate. Entire armies have been lost in the swirling devil sands of the Seyerla.
Terrible monsters are known to live in this place. Dragons and Rocs rule its skies
while scavenging ghoul clans, feral Orc tribes, and the mysterious Djinn, formless
creatures of malevolence and shadow, plague the land. To survive in such a place,
the human tribes have learned to be strong, cunning and ruthless.
The few cities of this land are of mixed origin. Those along the Melisti coast were
built by the elves from the western land. Those further inland are relics of the
ancient conquests of the Darians. They are cities that grew from mere military outposts
of that distant northern empire. In their early history, the cities were isolated
from one another and ruled by petty despots, many of whom could barely defend their
people from the bandit tribes and Orc chieftains. Yet, each was valuable as a rest
stop upon the roads between the great civilizations of the north and south and a
link to the Elven city states across the sea. Goods of all kinds flowed upon these
roads; exotic food, bizarre animals, slaves and magical curiosities. Over the years,
the trade grew and allowed the petty ruling elite of these cities to live in opulence.
Umbrikand was the last city of Seyerla in the journey to the wealthy kingdoms of
Maharashtra and Harappa. Between Umbrikand and those lands lay many dangers, not
the least of which was the Ghoul's Waste, the realm of the Varish the Ghast King.
All caravans had to stop at Umbrikand to partake in rituals of warding before they
could continue. It was here, in a town where faith and lucre were curiously intertwined,
that Harun al-Miran, a local merchant's guard and purveyor of protective amulets,
first met the Daeva, a being of light and wisdom. She appeared to him in the form
of a pale-skinned woman with eyes as black as jet. With a voice that belonged to
another world, she commanded that he follow her into the desert.
The First Caliph >>>