The Taurzehin, Land of Witches *

#1

Every RPG and setting needs a good LAND OF ULTIMATE EVIL DARKNESS and Stuff. Of course, most have them already. But I needed a good festering pit of evil for Ageratos, and came up with...
The Taurzehin!
Having looked at what I have created, I decided that the Taurzehin was so good that I might as well share it. I will intentionally leave borders hazy and not fleshed out so that it can be yanked and plunked down in any setting who wants to use it. Hopefully, you all like it.

The Taurzehin, North to South

#2

The Taurzehin itself is a great valley, surrounded on four sides by rugged mountain ranges.

The Hindril Range
Curving around the Taurzehin on the north is the towering Hindril Range, like a snowy wall against the sky. It is widely regarded as impassable- steep, icy, slopes which drop precipitously into chasmic valleys filled with dark pine forests.
The major peaks of the Hindril Range number four- Thunder Summit (famous for storms), Milkwater (origin of the Milkwater River which flows north away from the Taurzehin), Winterclad (a table-like slab of mountain coated in ice year-round), and Great Hindril (greatest of all the Range's mountains, clothed constantly in winter).

The Sablock Mountains
These craggy black peaks form the southern barrier hemming in the Taurzehin. Their northern faces are rarely, if ever, snowy, while their southern faces are constantly clad in winter. Vegetation grows sparsely on these rocky, igneous faces.
The peaks of the Sablock are not named, save one, Sablock's Peak, a low, squatting mountain on the western side of the range named for the explorer who first surmounted it.

The Tessiandir Range
On the west, the Tessiandir Range rises ominously, a dreadful wild of shattered canyons and twisted pines, frequently wracked by heavy earthshakers. The Tessiandirs have an evil reputation as a place haunted by hungry ghosts and the restless dead, and the dusty, broken tombs which lie among these peaks are given wide berth by the extremely-few travelers who pass through.
Two peaks in the Tessiandir Range stand out above the others- Shattered Tooth, a twisted fang of rock which rips the clouds like a talon, and Tomb Peak, whose slopes are coated in a ruinous city which is devoid of life.

The Hills of Harawn
The eastern border of the Taurzehin is formed by the Hills of Harawn, low and seemingly unimpressive mountains which sit square and blocky between the Hindril and the Sablock ranges. Compared to the jagged arc which circles the rest of the Taurzehin, the Hills of Harawn seem low, unthreatening, even gentle. But it is when one tries to pass through these hills that one sees their true colors; the Hills of Harawn are some of the most brutal badlands in all the world. Home to rattling hillsides of talus, poisonous alkaline streams, crumbling earth-pits, and infested with the vicious wild beasts, it is a hideous challenge to any passing through.

(More to come...)

The Taurzehin, North to South, Continued...

#3

Azbahta, the Shattered Peak
Unquestionably, there is one thing which all visitors to the Taurzehin (and all Taurzehine natives, every day) notice, from first to last, and that is the incredible black bulk of Azbahta, the Shattered Peak, holy mountain of the Taurzehines.
Azbahta is larger than any other mountain in any of the surrounding ranges of the Taurzehin. It's great flanks spread out among the hills, vast, impregnable, a fortress of sharp shards of stone. It's very presence, it's largeness, alter the weather of the Taurzehin itself.
The mountain is huge, composed of black and dark grey stone. It's outline is irregular and uneven, punctuated by huge slabs, shards, and square pillars of rock. The mountain's sides are tracked by great chasms and twisted canyons, rocky, talus-filled tracks and chutes.
Azbahta is never snowy. It is sometimes surrounded by great sheets of rain, and frequently is played upon by a dancing crown of lightning. The weather which blows from the slopes of the Shattered Peak is strange, sometimes carrying rains of blood and strange organs, or foul smells, bitterly cold winds or infernally-hot ones.
Among the Taurzehines, and among their masters, the Tirhlon Sembloch (the Mages of the Taurzehin), there is told a legend of Azbahta, the basis for all other teachings of the Taurzehine beliefs. The Serpent (also called the Dragon, the Sevenfold One, the Blood God), deity of the Taurzehines, fell into the world onto the slopes of Azbahta, and the force of his landing is that which has shattered it. It's broken sides, they say, show the force of the Serpent's elemental power, and the strange storms as well.
No Taurzehine, not even the Tirhlon Sembloch, are allowed to set foot on the slopes of Azbahta. This is not just a spiritual commandment- only a very, very few who have every gone upon Azbahta have ever returned. There are evils and dangers there that not even the witch-lords of Dimrond can understand. The punishment for stepping upon the Shattered Peak is death, in the most gruesome of possible ways- the Tirhlon Sembloch take the accused and flay him alive, then suspending him by his own entrails from the walls of the Canyon of Shrieks.

The Taurzehin, Land of Witches

#4

Should this not be in the settings section?

or what do you need help on doing?

We can help or spectate.

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The Taurzehin, Land of Witches

#5

Yeah, I kinda' forgot about this. Thanks for the bump.

If you want to move it to Settings, do so, but I'm fine with where it is.

North to South, Continued

#6

The Canyon of Shrieks
Like a great wound in the feet of Azbahta, the Canyon of Shrieks, jagged, torn, and jumbled, wends it's way through the uplands of the Taurzehin, funneling the great River Pirz-em-Hloch southward through the black pine forests.
The Canyon is a vast and deep chasm, composed of shattered falls and slopes of broken rock, cascades of sharp-edged platforms of stone, and hanging stone fangs and horns, giving the Canyon the appearance of a horrible natural chamber of tortures.
And, of course, the Taurzehine do nothing to diminish this appearance. Embedded in the walls of the Canyon are vast steel hooks and pins; across the top of the Canyon and between it's sides are ramshackle arches of iron and wood; suspended from overhangs are spiked chains; and from all of these wail and scream the sacraficed, those whom the Taurzehine have given as offerings to their god, the Serpent, and to Azbahta itself. This is the provenance of the Canyon's frightful name- it is said that every moment in the Canyon of Shrieks is witness to a new and more hideous scream. The corpses which are hung there are allowed to rot- some drop and fall to the bottom of the canyon into the Pirz-em-Hloch to be born away into the south, while others remain hanging with their more animated (still-dying) compatriots. The Taurzehine take many of their sacrafices from the ranks of the faithful in Dimrond, but the vast majority are those who have committed any manner of crime- even petty street-thieves may be subject to this torture at the whim of one of their masters, the Tirhlon Sembloch, if they are unfortunate enough to be caught filching in the foul City of the Witches.
Those who wish to travel in the Canyon of Shrieks would be well-advised to remain on the cliffs above rather than to traverse in the midst of the Canyon itself- the slopes and paths of it's walls are almost supernaturally treacherous, and darker things than the screaming sacrafices dwell in the darkness at the bottom of the Canyon, where the River Pirz-em-Hloch steams and festers it's way down into the land below.

The River Pirz-em-Hloch
The River Pirz-em-Hloch is the primary river of the Taurzehin, and even outside of that land it's warm and murky waters are known and whispered of. Pirz-em-Hloch (who's name means "Warm-as-Blood") flows from it's source on the slopes of the Shattered Peak (a fabled location that the Taurzehine call "Bahndrul-dit-Hloch", the Font of Blood) downward through the hideous Canyon of Shrieks. When it breaks free of that terrible place, it's waters are steaming, a murky grey-red hue, and sometimes it's surface gutters with foul-smelling flame. It frequently bears with it the collapsing corpses of the victims of the Canyon of Shrieks, and the detritus of things which live in the deep gash of the Canyon, which are better not spoken of. Entering the black and primordial pine forests which cover most of the Taurzehin, it widens and it's color lightens to a muddy grey-brown. Weaving through those dark and fearful forests, it sheds trickling tributaries and small streams, which spread off like foul-smelling tentacles into the eternal twilight of the wood. As it passes onward, one of it's smaller arms flows into the center of the Taurzehin's evil, Sembloch Dair, the Pit, the unholy crowing place of the Tirhlon Sembloch.
Meanwhilst, the Pirz-em-Hloch flows southward out of the dark forests, and on the western side bleeds like a wounded serpent into the vast swamps and fens of the Pools of Nerzihach and the Naurhla Fens. Finally, leaving behind a snaky tributary in the Stone Hills on the east, it flows into the deep and foul Lake Pirz-em-Hloch, with black-swamped shores upon which rests the dark city of Dimrond, capitol of the Taurzehin.
The Pirz-em-Hloch's waters are murky-grey in color and are uniformly (as you may suspect) not quite as warm as blood. In times of cold, steam and vapour rise thickly from it's surface, polluting the area around it with the foul scent of it's waters. These waters are often used to brew terrible poisons and witch's brews.
Snakes are spawned from the river at all times of the year, born from the waters like mosquitoes from standing water. Serpents surround it, and fills it's waters. Many a Taurzehine has met it's death at the "blessing" of a serpent which crawled forth from the shore of the Pirz-em-Hloch.

The Taurzehin, Land of Witches

#7

And... what do the Taurzehine drink?

edit: I'd like to help too :)

The Taurzehin, Land of Witches

#8

May I add something to this Cap'n?

The Taurzehin, Land of Witches

#9

G'head, g'head!
(I'll try and find a place for it on the map when you add it)

The Taurzehin, Land of Witches

#10

How do the Agera view the Tauerzhien?

The Taurzehin, Land of Witches

#11

The Agera know very little about them, but what they do know is that the Taurzehin is a horrible place, and the Taurzehine are horrible people, and that the whole place is a nightmare.
The Taurzehin is something of a legend, the shadowy bogeyman where all the villains in the stories come from.