Another week, another lore post - this time we return with the third part of our ongoing series of articles about perilous ruins of the Riven Realms (more specifically, the northern regions called terra supra). We will look at three more very dangerous places that used to be centers of civilization in the fabled past, before the Calamity ruined most of Xeryn. This time, on the chopping block are Urad, the city lost in the fog, once-mighty Quathos of the Dwarves, and ominous and all too quiet Valley of Sleepers. Let’s dive in!

The Lost City of Urad

With so many cities from before the Calamity being lost, one would not be blamed for wondering why or how Urad earned that specific moniker. The truth is that the ancient city was lost in the literal sense - people of the current age cannot find it despite knowing where to look. Originally built on one of the great rivers of the Province that ran down to the ocean in the east, Urad was a huge metropolis in the midst of a region very rich in natural resources. The site was holy, where according to legend, the god Agaortus descended from Mount Xyn to heal three hundred lepers who walked to the city to petition for sanctuary. That, of course, made Urad a destination of countless pilgrimages for the rest of the Third Age. When the Calamity struck, the ocean washed over the sinking riverlands and created the Karginath Sea. Most of the lands belonging to Urad were covered by the waters and they remain there even today. But not the city itself…

Whatever happened to Urad, its ruins can not be found underwater where they should be, somewhere along the coast of swampy Maar Gorad. Although courageous explorers can find overgrown statues and wall segments sticking out of the moors in the general area, nobody has found the fallen city’s exact location yet. However, sailors of the foggy coast have kept reporting catching glimpses of the fabled city ever since people started traversing those waters. They were too afraid or too busy to explore further, so it might be no more than a tall tale but the description of the domes and towers the sailors saw across the fog astonished scholars with their accuracy. Is Urad somewhere in the nigh-impenetrable fog? Perhaps. Some claim that Agaortus himself protected his city in the same manner the Emperor did the capital and that once Imperials are worthy of it again, Urad shall be revealed and return the wonders of the ancient world to heal the Empire. Others claim that the place is accursed, an evil mirage trapped in perpetual twilight, drawing sailors to their death. With the Constrictor prowling the swamps and the unnatural fog obscuring the coast, it is unlikely that a definitive answer will ever manifest about the fate of Urad.

Quathos

The great city of Quathos was the largest settlement of the ancient Dwarven kingdom of Dvendar Tharr, built at the foot of what became the Mountains of Fire. Today it is a vast, smoldering ruin surrounded by broken mountains and rivers of lava due to the devastation brought on by the Calamity. Few souls linger here except for the foolhardy seekers of ancient Dwarven treasures or the mad mutants that prey on them.

Quathos was built during the Third Age when cooperation between the budding Empire and the kingdom of Dvendar Tharr became closer. The need for a Dwarven settlement that was easily accessible for other races rose quickly with the alliance and so the small town of Quathos was expanded over the next centuries to eventually become a major surface city - in fact, the only Dwarvish city above ground. Quathos never lost its importance during the Third Age, and historical records indicate it has even been the capital city of Dvendar Tharr for a short while during the rule of a series of more open-minded Inventor Kings.

Then the Calamity struck and decimated the Dwarven kingdom. Quathos was mostly spared the volcanic apocalypse that was to be the fate of the other cities but the emerging earthquakes and the lava river of Fury's Whip made it so that the population fled the city and perished in the arcane storms that covered most of the newly formed wasteland. Those that stayed mutated into horrible, twisted beings. Quathos became a place of living nightmare from a sanctuary in a matter of months and was soon completely abandoned. Looters came to the city in the following centuries and made sure that by the present day, most treasures have already been taken from the crumbling halls and dwellings.

The Valley of Sleepers

Several days of travel east of Deven lies an ancient valley that crisscrosses the Jagged Waste for miles and miles. This is the Valley of Sleepers, a haunted place that houses the magnificent tombs of the Varotians, an ancient people who died out with the Calamity. Even before Imperial times, this tribe built tombs and temples into the rockface of the valleys here. After joining the Empire as a small province, they still kept their sacred funeral site in good order and their nobility used the tombs still to bury their esteemed dead. The imposing structures are carved directly out of the valley’s walls, which is an impressive sight to behold.

The Calamity destroyed most of the region and slaughtered its people to the last, yet the Valley seemed to escape the destruction somehow. And thus, understandably, the tombs and temples attracted many survivors during and after the cataclysmic events - at least until the refugees figured out that no one survived who stayed after sunset. It is unclear what happens to those that spend the night there, but apparently, they fall asleep and disappear. It is either this rumor or the fact that the Varotians have been at rest here for millennia that gives the place its ominous name. Imperial authorities do not wish to spend the resources to find out what goes on there, so they advise travelers to avoid the place altogether. Nowadays, scavengers and tomb robbers sometimes sneak in but usually leave before sundown - if they are lucky. For something lurks in those tombs, something ancient and malevolent with no name but ire in endless supply.

And so we have reached the end of our third post on dangerous ruins. Would you be interested in another installment? There are a great many ruins on Xeryn that could show up in this type of post for certain. Let us know, and until next time, stay tuned, stay safe, and conquer the wasteland!

- The Lost Pilgrims Team

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