Nachtwald

Nachtwald resides in the midst of a broad green valley, surrounded by wooded hills, where the Koblar and Alleg rivers meet. The hilltop castle stands watch over a walled city crowded with houses, shops, and winding lanes. Half-timbered houses with of wattle and daub lean toward one another, their upper stories sometimes bridging the narrow streets. Beyond the city walls, barley fields spread out to the west and south. Within the castle, towers and curtain walls enclose busy courtyards and a great hall. Within the castle tapestries, painted shields, and banners recall the castle’s history, hinting at time long ago when it was called Kalridon. Beneath the castle lie ancient dungeons, tombs, hidden passages, and forgotten catacombs, creating a sense of danger and enduring mystery, but known to only a few.

Arrom’s Rock

Arrom’s Rock rises above the wooded hills northeast of Nachtwald, a massive, flat-topped mountain crowned by the shattered remains of Aedon’s ancient stronghold. Its summit spans roughly three acres, bounded by sheer cliffs that plunge more than five hundred feet to the forest canopy below. Blackened walls and broken masonry stand amid tall grass and bracken, while the ruined gatehouse, collapsed entrance tunnel, and destroyed land bridge leave the castle seemingly inaccessible. Yet a secret, rune-protected doorway in the granite opens into a vast dwarven fortress within the mountain, where concentric passages connect cold, dust-laden chambers, pillared halls, and a great hall with its high arches and massive stone throne. At the heart of the ruins, the remnants of a shattered glass dome can be found, surround a deep shaft descending into a mysterious cavern, a place of dark purpose. Shunned as haunted by the surrounding people, The Rock stands as a forbidding relic of an age of dragons, powerful magic, and long-forgotten wars.

Karavella

Karavella is a sprawling coastal city in Dagallia, one of the largest in the world, where pale walls and red rooftops rise above a busy western harbor and a maze of cobbled streets, narrow alleys, and steep hillside paths. Founded by the Ashalonians around 300 AF, it traces its legendary beginnings to a general who discovered a sheltered cove fed by a freshwater stream and settled nearby. Its commercial heart, the Court of Baskets, teems with farmers, merchants, livestock, and wagons laden with seafood, grain, fruit, fine cloth, exotic spices, and fragrant oils, their abundance mingling with the noise and pungent smells of city life. Above the crowded neighborhoods, the weathered windmills of Anril’s Hill recall the sieges of the Dreamland Wars, while workshops, smithies, and welcoming inns fill the old Trade District. Karavella is also distinguished by an elven quarter where humans and elves live peacefully together, watched over by an imposing embassy of white stone and golden domes. Karavella is revered for her many pleasures and riches, but the city takes as much as she gives, and intrigue and danger are always waiting for those foolish enough to linger in the shadows.

Dereskai

Dereskai is an ancient temple city, a collection of crumbling buildings hidden in a broad green valley deep inside the steaming jungles of Eribiss, with rust-colored mountains standing watch in the distance. Built by a long-vanished culture, its orderly grid of flat-roofed, pillared halls and square courtyards has largely surrendered to the encroaching forest, leaving only the central plaza and immense stepped pyramid free of constraint. Constructed from layers of square-cut, lichen-covered stone, the pyramid towers above the trees, its broad staircase ascending to an altar and a summit sanctuary adorned with vivid historical murals and imposing statues. The slith, who claimed these ruins after fleeing south during the Dreamland Wars, have held this place for a thousand years. The orm gather here to worship from nearby jungle villages, while asatha warriors guard the temple and powerful priests of Ngennu preside over its ceremonies. Beneath the pyramid’s weathered exterior lies a labyrinth of chapels, hidden passages, scholarly archives, and treasuries filled with the riches and relics of conquered civilizations. Dereskai is a place of guarded knowledge and formidable magic, where the grandeur of a forgotten time endures amid the dense jungle.

Elddon

Elddon Castle sits on a hill of stratified limestone above a wide, fertile valley, its stone walls set against an imposing backdrop of distant mountains. Once known as Ayus Shen, the fae hill, the site was the royal seat of Elddon’s kings, but that time is now long past and her ancient glories barely remembered. The curtain wall, gatehouse, and drawbridge guard a courtyard and keep containing a bright, candlelit great hall, while the west tower houses soldiers’ barracks and a deep, stone-lined dungeon. Beneath the castle lies the village of Elddon, a community of streets and alleys gathered around a central market square, with shops standing in the shadow of a wall and farms, wheat fields, and cottages scattered across the surrounding countryside. To the west of the castle hill stretches a broad lake, beyond which the stone buildings of Santhebury Abbey wait, partly hidden among trees. As kingdoms go, Elddon is rather small, but she still has her secrets and can be a danger to the unwary.

Holston

Holston is a bustling, rough and tumble port city in Arkirius, a powerful center of commerce whose densely populated hinterland and proximity to Elathia, Enbrook, and Birr draw ships from all across Ninavar. Ruled by influential merchants and noblemen, the city maintains its dominance over the shipping industry in the Elathian Sea through war and coercion. Along its stone quays, laborers load and unload cargo amid the smells of tar and seawater, while dockside taverns, fishmongers’ stalls, narrow alleys, and hidden stairs offer places for business both honest and illicit. Armored guards in sea-green cloaks patrol the waterfront where thieves and brigands mingle freely with sailors and travelers. For all its wealth and connections, Holston can be a dangerous and unwelcoming place. With piracy rising on the Tragosian Sea beyond the straits of Haddea, there are few willing to risk the journey west, but the rewards can be great for those bold enough to try.