Volume V: The Realms

The Known Lands

"Maps lie. They show lines where none exist, boundaries that shift with each season, territories claimed by the dead. But we draw them anyway, because the alternative is admitting we understand nothing of the world we inhabit." — Cartographer Miren Voss, introduction to the Atlas of Lies

I. The Shape of Vaelthur

Vaelthur is not a world in the traditional sense—it is a fragment, a shard of what was once infinite possibility, bounded by the Void on all sides. Its geography reflects this broken nature: coastlines that end in walls of impenetrable mist, mountain ranges that simply stop at borders of un-reality, plains that extend toward horizons that never arrive.

The known lands comprise approximately what would be, in a conventional world, a continental mass slightly larger than Europe. Beyond these lands lies the Boundary—the edge where Vaelthur's reality gives way to the Void. None who have entered the Boundary have returned.

Within this limited space, the three races have divided territory according to their natures, their philosophies, and centuries of bloody conflict.

II. The Radiant Dominion

The Aethyn control Vaelthur's most stable and fertile territories—the heartlands where the Sundering's damage was least severe.

Solmaran Heartland

The core of the Dominion, a vast plain of rolling hills and productive farmland centered on the city of Solmara. This region has remained under unbroken Aethyn control since the False Dawn, its borders unchanged for millennia.

Characteristics:

• Temperate climate with reliable seasons
• Rich soil producing surplus crops that feed the entire Dominion
• Minimal Rift activity—the few that exist are heavily guarded and barely exploited
• Dense population in well-planned cities connected by maintained roads

Key Locations:

• Solmara — The City of the Eternal Dawn, seat of the High Luminar Council
• Aurath — The Great Temple complex, pilgrimage site for the Church of the Fading Light
• The Archive of Light — Repository of Aethyn knowledge, reputedly containing fragments of the Aetherium Texts

The Ordered Reaches

Northern territories claimed during the Triumvirate era and held through the Breaking. Less fertile than the heartland but strategically vital, controlling mountain passes and trade routes.

Characteristics:

• Cooler climate, shorter growing seasons
• Extensive mining operations extracting mundane metals and gems
• Heavily fortified, with garrison towns every fifty miles
• Population sparse but militarized

Key Locations:

• Brennholdt — Fortress city controlling the northern passes
• The Watchwall — Massive defensive fortification marking the Dominion's northern border
• Vessen Mines — Primary source of iron and copper for Dominion industry

The Sunward Coast

Western coastal territories, important for fishing and limited naval operations. The coast ends at the Boundary approximately two hundred miles offshore, limiting maritime expansion.

Characteristics:

• Maritime climate with frequent fog
• Fishing communities providing protein to inland populations
• Minor Rift activity in coastal waters, producing occasional void-spawn incursions
• Naval bases preparing for conflicts that rarely materialize

Key Locations:

• Port Aurelian — Primary naval base and trading hub
• The Luminous Fleet — Dominion's modest navy, used primarily for coastal defense
• Fogwatch Islands — Chain of fortified islands monitoring the Boundary

III. The Morphic Confederation

The Velorath occupy territories where change is constant—regions affected by heavy Rift activity, where ambient Veth saturates the environment.

The Verdant Riftlands

The Confederation's heartland, a region where Rifts are so numerous that the boundary between Vaelthur and echo-realms becomes perpetually thin. The land itself changes constantly, shaped by leaking potential from destroyed worlds.

Characteristics:

• No reliable seasons—weather patterns shift unpredictably
• Extraordinary biodiversity, with new species emerging regularly
• Dense Veth saturation enabling casual magic use
• Population concentrated in adaptive Holds that relocate as conditions change

Key Locations:

• Kyrveth — The largest Hold, population exceeding fifty thousand
• The Confluence — Region where multiple Rifts overlap, producing especially unstable reality
• The Spawning Grounds — Area where void-spawn emerge with unusual frequency, used as training territory

The Shifting Frontier

Eastern territories where Confederation influence gradually gives way to the Threshold Compact's borderlands. The region is contested, with neither faction maintaining firm control.

Characteristics:

• Transitional environment between Riftland and stable territory
• Numerous small Holds competing for resources and Rift access
• Frequent skirmishes with Kethran settlements
• High turnover of settlements as conditions favor or punish different locations

Key Locations:

• Thornwatch — Fortified Hold marking the traditional border with Kethran territory
• The Broken Chain — Series of partially stabilized Rifts, valuable but dangerous
• Exile's Rest — Unofficial settlement accepting outcasts from all three races

The Transformed Wastes

Southern territories where Rift activity reached catastrophic levels during the Veth Wars. The land itself has been transformed beyond recognition, creating an environment hostile to all but the most adapted Velorath.

Characteristics:

• Blighted landscape where normal life cannot survive
• Extreme Veth concentration—valuable but deadly
• Minimal permanent population; resource extraction by specialized teams
• Spawns the most powerful and dangerous void-spawn

Key Locations:

• The Scarlands — Region where a Veth bomb was detonated during the Wars, creating permanent reality damage
• Deep Rift Alpha — Largest known Rift, penetrating deeper into echo-reality than any other
• The Void Cult Ruins — Remains of a failed attempt to intentionally trigger the Second Sundering

IV. The Threshold Compact

The Kethran occupy Vaelthur's margins—territories that other factions consider not worth fighting over, but which the Hollow-Touched have made their own.

The Borderlands

The primary Kethran territory, a vast stretch of semi-arid land between the Dominion and Confederation. Neither fertile enough for Aethyn interests nor Rift-rich enough for Velorath, the Borderlands have become the Kethran homeland by default.

Characteristics:

• Harsh climate with extreme temperature variation
• Limited agriculture; economy based on herding and trade
• Scattered population in independent Thanedoms
• Strategic position between major factions makes neutrality valuable

Key Locations:

• Morteth — The largest Hollow City, informal capital of the Compact
• The Hall of Names — Sacred site recording every Kethran who has lived and died
• Threshold Pass — Mountain crossing controlling overland trade between Dominion and Confederation

The Ashen Reaches

Northern borderlands extending toward the Boundary. These territories are technically Kethran, but population is extremely sparse—the environment is too harsh even for Hollow-Touched endurance.

Characteristics:

• Arctic conditions with minimal sunlight in winter
• Nearly lifeless; even void-spawn rarely venture here
• Unexplored Rifts may exist but are inaccessible
• Serves as buffer between settled lands and the Boundary

Key Locations:

• Coldhold — Northernmost permanent settlement, population approximately three hundred
• The Silence — Region where sound does not carry normally, possibly Boundary effect
• Last Light Fort — Abandoned Aethyn outpost from the Triumvirate era

The Grey Marches

Southern borderlands flanking the Transformed Wastes. The Kethran maintain small settlements here, monitoring Waste expansion and providing warnings to other factions when major void-spawn emergences occur.

Characteristics:

• Deteriorating environment as Waste influence spreads
• Population declining as conditions worsen
• Important intelligence-gathering function for all factions
• Occasional archaeological discoveries from pre-Breaking civilizations

Key Locations:

• Ashwatch — Monitoring station tracking Waste expansion
• The Veil Tombs — Burial complex from the False Dawn era, containing artifacts of historical significance
• Dusthollow — Dying settlement, population evacuating as Waste encroaches

V. Contested and Neutral Territories

Some regions belong to no faction—either because they are too valuable to concede or too dangerous to claim.

Vaerath Ruins

The former Triumvirate capital, destroyed during the Breaking and never rebuilt. Both the Dominion and Confederation claim the ruins; neither controls them. Vaerath has become a no-man's-land where skirmishes are constant and any settlement attempt draws immediate attack from the opposing faction.

Characteristics:

• Urban ruins covering approximately forty square miles
• Active Rift in the former city center, producing valuable Veth
• Dangerous—void-spawn, faction patrols, and independent operators all present
• Archaeological significance: contains records from the Triumvirate era

Key Locations:

• The Compact Hall — Ruins of the building where the Triumvirate Compact was signed
• The Central Rift — Vaerath Rift, object of constant faction competition
• The Archive Vaults — Buried repository, contents unknown, believed to contain Aetherium fragments

The Neutral Rifts

Several Rifts are designated neutral under the Ash Accords, accessible to all factions without military conflict. In practice, competition for resources within these Rifts is intense, and the "peace" is maintained only because open warfare would be more costly than the current cold conflict.

Key Neutral Rifts:

• The Merchant Rift — Most commercially active, with established trading posts inside
• The Contested Depth — Deepest neutral Rift, producing highest-quality Veth
• The Scholars' Gate — Rift designated for research purposes, with shared academic facilities

The Boundary Approaches

Regions near the edge of Vaelthur's reality, where the Void begins to intrude. No faction claims these territories, but all monitor them for signs of Boundary expansion or contraction.

Characteristics:

• Reality becomes increasingly unstable approaching the Boundary
• Strange phenomena: time distortions, gravity anomalies, sensory disruptions
• Occasionally produce unique resources found nowhere else in Vaelthur
• Extremely dangerous—fatality rates for expeditions exceed fifty percent

VI. Expanding the Realms

The geography of Vaelthur is not fixed. New territories emerge as the world continues to settle from the Sundering's disruption.

Rift Stabilization

When a Rift "stabilizes"—its connection to echo-reality becoming permanent rather than fluctuating—the area around it undergoes significant change. New resources may appear. The local environment may transform. In rare cases, portions of the echo-world may physically manifest in Vaelthur.

Each stabilization event creates new contested territory, as factions scramble to claim the resources before their rivals.

Boundary Fluctuation

The Boundary is not perfectly stable. It expands and contracts unpredictably, sometimes consuming settled territory, sometimes retreating to reveal lands that had been lost to the Void.

Recovered Boundary lands are peculiar—touched by the Void's absence, they exhibit properties found nowhere else in Vaelthur. Factions monitor Boundary movements carefully, prepared to claim valuable recovery zones.

The Deep Rifts

Expeditions into Rifts continue to push further, mapping echo-realms and seeking resources deeper than any have gone before. Each major expedition potentially adds to Vaelthur's known geography—or reveals threats that had been safely isolated in unreality.

VII. A Note on Scale

Vaelthur is small. The entire known world could fit within a mid-sized continent. This compression intensifies conflicts—there is nowhere to expand except into territory already claimed by rivals.

Travel times between major locations:

• Solmara to Kyrveth: Approximately three weeks overland through contested territory
• Morteth to either major city: Two weeks through relatively safe Kethran lands
• Any major settlement to the nearest Boundary: Five to seven weeks through increasingly dangerous territory

This compressed geography means that military operations, trade caravans, and diplomatic missions can traverse the entire world within months. Nothing is truly isolated. News travels. Conflicts escalate. And the pressure of limited space drives competition that might, in a larger world, find peaceful resolution through expansion.

"Other worlds may have room for everyone. Vaelthur does not. We fight because there is nowhere else to go—and no one willing to share what little remains." — Strategic Assessment, Dominion War College

Previous: Volume IV: The Schism | Index: The Codex

Future Expansions

This volume is designed for extension. As the world develops, additional documents may be added:

• Individual kingdom/Thanedom detailed profiles
• Specific Rift documentation with unique characteristics
• Boundary exploration records
• Archaeological site catalogs
• Trade route and economic analyses

New documents should be placed in this directory (vol5_realms/) and linked from this overview.