Across the Clenched Passage, a channel often completely frozen over, lie barren—but usually warmer— wastes called the Aimless Lands. This area is a rocky expanse where little to nothing grows. Few animals larger than insects or grubs dwell here. Other than a handful of fishing villages along the waterway, few humans call this place home, either. Even ancient ruins seem few and far between in the Aimless Lands, as if the folk of the prior worlds had no use for this region.
If anyone has crossed more than 200 miles (322 km) east across the Aimless Lands, they never returned to tell of the journey. What lies to the east, no one in the Frozen South, the Steadfast, or the Beyond seems to know.
MOIRD
On the edge of the Lucid Sea, the city of Moird is home to fisherfolk and hunters who ply the often-frozen waters in razorboats.
Most people characterize the folk of Moird as quiet. More unkindly, some would say “sullen” or “secretive.” Neither term is particularly accurate. If Moird folk are quiet, it is because so many of them make their living cutting across the ice in razorboats, maintaining utter silence as they hunt or fish in an environment where everything is stacked against them. They do not take well to idle chatter. This attitude, however, also means that they have little in the way of storytelling or musical traditions, which contributes to making Moird seem like a dour place.
Moird has no full-time leader or peacekeeping force. Instead, when decisions or judgments must be made, a council of the most respected individuals in town at the time
In the Frozen South, the phrase “I’ll speak when I’m dead” is a common saying.
“The Aimless Lands” may be a misheard or misappropriated version of “The Nameless Lands,”
due to the fact that the region is a relatively uninhabited waste without residents to give it a real name. Regardless, the name stuck.
FROZEN SOUTH HEARSAY
Ice Worms: Blue-white versions of the cragworm tunnel through the permafrost and have long been threats in the region. For unknown reasons, they have recently become far more active around the city of Arxil, appearing in large groups of terrifying power.
The Queen of Knives: A bandit leader calling herself the Queen of Knives threatens the few trade routes through the region. Her brigands focus most of their raids around Nus, and some of them are Nusmen. Rumor has it that the queen is actually a gigantic, intelligent automaton bristling with weapons. The Lost Musician: Eoric, a great and beloved musician in Antre, left that city and tried to travel to Cyanachor, but he never arrived. His fans and patrons would like to know what happened to him. They are willing to pay for information about Eoric, but only if there’s clear proof of its veracity. The Art Robbery: Thieves stole highly valued works of art from a gallery in Cyanachor, but they couldn’t get past the shield that surrounds the Invisible Vale. Now they’re hiding out somewhere in the valley. A great reward has been offered for their capture and the return of the artwork. Conversely, the thieves will gladly give a substantial cut of the profits from selling the art in Arxil if anyone helps them get out of the vale.
THE WEIRD OF THE FROZEN SOUTH
The Immobile God: Just off the coast to the south—in the Lucid Sea—a humanoid figure is frozen in the ice. It crouches, slumped, yet still rises 50 feet (15 m) into the air. If standing upright on solid ground, it would likely be twice that height. Investigations have shown that it was a living being, not a statue or construct. Stranger still, it might yet be alive, preserved in the ice.
The Unfrozen Wind: A cloud of nanoparticles that once scoured the Earth as the Iron Wind was rendered inert (but not dead) by the extremely low temperatures of Suruliath. Trapped in a mass of ice, these particles are beginning to stir, slowly transforming the icy hill around them into . . . other things. Now the hill is an ever-changing patchwork mass of metal, glass, synth, liquid, gas, flesh, hair, sound, light, and more.
The Empty Tower: A tall tower of metal rises above the Urulivan Plain, a slender spire coated in frost. The door is not difficult to open, but anyone who passes through it immediately ends up at the top of the tower. This offers a spectacular view of the plain; one can see for miles. Using the door at the top of the tower returns one to the spire’s base. Entering the tower itself appears to be impossible.
Harbinger of Heat: A woman sheathed in flames wanders the eastern coast along the Clenched Passage, melting all the snow and ice she comes upon. If engaged in conversation (from a safe distance, since her flames burn anything that comes too close), she speaks of fire gods from ancient times who are once again stirring and will walk the Earth, bringing doom to all who do not surrender to their fiery majesty.
Cragworm, page 236
Iron Wind, page 135
The first time I entered Lostrei, I took two giant brutes with me, a pair of aneen I bought from a farmer west of the Cloudcrystal Skyfields. I brought half a dozen weapons (most of which I was uncertain how to use, but I liked the way they looked hung from the side of the beasts; their appearance made me feel safe). I was, you see, afraid of the fierce armies of the north, which were ever-preparing to wage war upon my childhood. Every year when they did not come, it was because they were building fiercer weapons or gathering more men. How silly I was, to listen to childish tales of slaughter and eternal war.
~Naind Oreni, journal entry, titled only “upon returning to Lostrei for the third time”