Remote Locales

Wild spoils

Like volcanic soil, the volatile elements invigorate the land. The inner wards are tamed and meek by comparison to the great beasts that make their homes in the outer!

This makes the outer wards bountiful for cultivators. You may journey to the outer wards in search of rare reagents, herbs, plants, minerals, and animal specimens for use in your alchemy.

Similarly, the inner wards generally frown upon harvesting a crystal for its spoils. In the outer wards, if you can find an unoccupied crystal, you can harvest to your heart’s content with none of the drama!

Free cities

The outer wards are outside the royal dispensations that control (and choke) the Kingdom’s economy. Your clan matters less; your strength of arms a great deal more.

Thus, the free cities pepper the wilderness. The name “city” is perhaps an exaggeration; most are large camps of hunters, gatherers, wanderers, thieves, miscreants, beggars, drifters, arsonists, and archaeologists. These hives of scum and villainy exist outside the stifling rules of society. Consequently, many strange and dangerous items are for sale – if you can complete the purchase without being mugged in turn.

Traveler beware. Another force whispers through the streets of the free cities, far from the Crown’s sight.

Here men whisper of powers from before the Kingdom; of bargains that might be struck in the name of the Grand Fae.

Ridiculous, right?

Monasteries and secret schools

If you want your own crystal, you likely need to head to the outer wards. Many monasteries and secret schools migrate to this area to claim a crystal and practice their arts in peace. Secret Paths, outlawed martial arts, and ancient temples lay nestled among the slowly shifting landscape.

They rarely welcome visitors.

Such settlements absolutely require the crystal to anchor their private wards, but the ley lines are fickle things. As the rivers of power drift, crystals fade, and the settlements must be abandoned.

The empty remains become the rough-hewn homes of wild creatures.

On occasion, the ley lines drift back into alignment, and a rare prize coalesces: a monastery with no folk and a budding crystal den. If you find such a prize, seize it quickly!

Shrines and Spirit Realms

The spirits existed before the Kingdom, and their shrines dot all of Seln.

Where the spirits exist, their Realms sit astride the land, a dimension apart.

These shrines are usually built to both honor the spirit and to contemplate nature. You might come to such a shrine to clear your soul of burdens, meditate on the land and the elements, and restore your soul.

Assuming the spirit grants you permission, of course.

Burial grounds

Within the inner wards, most dead are cremated. Instead of graveyards, the clans maintain ancestor shrines dedicated to their forefathers.

In the outer wards, older traditions remain. Ancient graveyards, tombs, and crypts dot the landscape, marking the lords and heroes of a lost age. The people of that age carved the gravestones with primitive geomancy, and these burial grounds have endured beyond their makers.

Many are home to the mysterious Shades, forming kingdoms of the dead in the underworld just beyond mortal sight.