Ashlands

Welcome to the Ashlands, an inhospitable land ruled by the Verona family.

History
Once known an Kilnorel, this was an ancient Elvish kingdom ruled over by the four great Elven families. Shortly after the Celestial war disaster struck Kilnorel, the Demon Lord known as Tarrasque erupted out of the earth spawning fire and chaos into the lands. The land was split by a large crack, opening up into the centre of the earth, bleeding lava as if it were an open wound. Many Elves fled the destroyed kingdom, but there are a few that remained. The Verona family stood firm and sought assistance to end the destruction.

Over time the Elves of that land changed, their skin grew darker and they became somewhat resistance of the heat emanating from the Bleeding Wound.

Verona Family
The Verona family is one of the four oldest and traditional families of Elvenkind. When all others fled, the Verona family stood firm against the Tarrasque and survived the devastation it brought upon them. Due to this, many called for the Verona family to become the ruling organisation in Mirras-Vares, the last city in the newly formed Ashlands.

Mirras-Vares
The underground city and also the only civilised city within the Ashlands, it maintains a hhelthy population of races including Dark Elves, Humans and Dwarves with a scattering of other races. Mirras-Vares is built into the cliff of the Bleeding Wound itself, using the magma from the depths of the Wound as a source of energy for the city. The city itself is broken into five main levels that can be generally described as a single category.

The first two layers are residential areas, places for people too live, being further away from the heat and fumes of the depths. The third layer is made up of markets, governmental and and military building as well as being the most defensible level in order to protect the majority of the city. Level Four is the food manufacturing centre for the entire city in order for the city to not starve. They grow a wide variety of edible mushrooms and large insects used as food in the city. Level five is the industrial level for the city, closest to the depths of the Wound, this is where the main source of energy is created and funnelled up into the rest of the city.

Cinder woods
Once a lush Elven forest now a deselect forest of stone trees, this forest looms in the Ashlands and is a silent reminder of what once was. A home to shadows and dark creatures, this forest is bigger than what it appears as is descends a fair way below the surface.

Way-Sanctuary
Way-sanctuaries are doted over the wastes of the Ashlands that provide shelter to travellers of the Ashlands; almost all are made from natural caves with natural water springs and they are marked a petrified tree. A typical Way-sanctuary can house enough for 12 to a few hundred travellers with mounts depending on space and the water spring. Lighting in the Way-sanctuary is normally not much of a consideration but in same place luminescent fungus can be found decorating small sections which can range from amusing pictures to information about the local area.

= Creatures =

Mounts
The nautch of the Ashlands makes horses unsuitable as mounts and pack animals so the use of Giant lizards and Beetles in place.

Those expense Several different breeds of lizards are used as moust for both their like of the heat of the ashlands and that they can climb up walls those this comes at the cost of speed.

Beetles are used as pack animals which is a role they excel in as they can carry as much as a heavily load wagon with a full team of horse on their own without the wagon, most see them as untrainable but the dark elves have found was to circumvent  this.

Ash storms
One of the many dangers that resides with the Ashlands are the infamous "Ash Storms", a very dangerous and potentially life threatening events that takes place far too often. Ash Storms occur as embers from the Bleeding Wound is picked up by the wind and circle around similar to a tornado. This can burn skin and the dark burning embers can blot out the sun. One of the scarier things about Ashland's Ash Storms is that it can last for a long period of time and is not limited to the Ashland's themselves; there has been a number of Ash Storms recorded in the Tribelands, The Kingdom of Authuris and (insert country name here).