Sites of Ages past

The sands of Tashirat blow through the abandoned buildings of a once mighty metropolis and have covered large parts of the city, even if they have not managed to hide it completely. For centuries, Amulaktra has guarded its secrets - and its treasures.

The reliefs on the walls tell of a landscape full of life and plants, which one looks for in vain in Tashirat today. But the true power of the city today lies hidden beneath the sand, for before the Privemals, Amulaktra was one of the greater cities of The First People, who possessed the power to bring life to the desert.

But today Amulaktra is a place of death, for not only does the merciless Tashirat roam the ruins, but the Chulids also dwell there and worship the terrible Sinth under the great dome in the centre of the city.

Set in the steamy rainforests of southern Noronteia lie the overgrown ruins of a city that the Canotian Scriptures tell us was the place where the First People first came into contact with the Ancients, though some passages suggest the city is much older than the First People:

"Ages before the First Days, in the dark twilight of the world, strange were the kings and gruesome the deeds that beheld the twin suns, when black cities split the stars and strange powers broke the waves, and smoke rose from gruesome shrines where writhing victims died".

The dimensions of the City of the Old ones defy human dimensions and seem to have been created by giants, but the centuries have covered and overgrown them. The great overgrown temple pyramids that can still be found in the jungles are nothing more than the roofs of insanely tall buildings that now burrow deep into the earth.

On the island of Zaphyre are massive crystal domes said to contain the ruins of cities now inhabited by depraved beasts that prevented daring adventurers from plundering the treasures of The First People who built these domes.

But the real wonder is the city of Fodsh, built into a mountain and said to have been the forge of The First People - and it is said that the fire-breathing towers of Fodsh are still guarded by a strange man who is half man and half machine.

Rising from the waves of the sea, the spray-drenched ruins of the island city of K'huljar are the reason why Arbarian fishermen stay close to the shore. For in the ruins of this cyclopean city the Bhatazids still worship dark Bhathaza, the sinister Kjahullir, who is said to sleep there in his temple.

Located in the highlands of Sember, Ksheen is a strange place - a still intact city, situated in a strange, bowl-shaped valley, abandoned by its inhabitants for reasons unknown.

The Sembites recall in their sagas that the inhabitants of this city they shunned and cursed were light-skinned (while the Sembites tend to be dark-skinned), but no one remembers where they came from or where they went.

The construction of the stone buildings of Ksheen resembles nothing the ancient Sembites could build, but also do not seem as artificial as buildings of The First People or as depraved as the legacies of the Primevals.

Nevertheless, rumours of hidden treasures - and terrible Corrupted Beasts - now lurk in the abandoned houses and temples of Ksheen.

In the Charyan mountains is a strange structure with an octagonal floor plan and a dome from the centre of which rises a tower. The Charyans call the place "Heaven's Peak" and worship their sky god here, but they superstitiously avoid entering this structure, which is called M'Ory in various ancient writings.

What unbelievable treasures the wild Charyans miss out on, since M'Ory is supposed to be an archive of the knowledge of The First People!

Built at the foot of a volcano, the city of Phyta in northern Arroia is a pilgrimage centre for Echyreans, Eneatheans and Erseves, for here resides the Phyton, the sacred oracle of the god Phabis.

Although the city and temple are new, the Phyton is one of the legacies, for its divination comes from an old piece of technology, a receiver that still picks up signals from The First People, but whose AI is no longer able to interpret them meaningfully ...