Lost Lands of Mystery and Myth

>>50709943
That's some sweet flooded world art, do you have anymore?
also, bump

>The great merchant princes and their trade cities dominate the land, and foreign traders by their thousands come to partake in their markets, even the leaders of the wild nomads
>Yet there is one city, greater than all the others, whose name is spoken of only in whispers
>Khojara
>There are many tales of how to reach Khojara. I cannot tell you which are true.
>Some say you must head east, deep into the Desert of Ruins, where the sand is fine as dust and where cities go to die
>In the desert you must find a bronze horseman. Rub his steed’s raised hoof, and he will point you towards Khojara
>Some say you must head north, into the steppe, braving nomad raiders and the madness of an endless sky until you come to a river across which there is only darkness. You must walk in that darkness for four months, and on the other side you will find Khojara
>Some say you must head west, into the mountains, past the dry valley full of madmen destroying idols, until you find the Pillar of Ghilan, which marks the entrance to one of the few underground tunnels know to reach back to the fathers of all mountains, the chrysolite range known as Ulaq, which encircles the world. In the plains beneath Ulaq, you will find Khojara.
>In Khojara, all things are for sale, and the merchants of not just this world, but every world come to buy and sell.

>>50711107
>In Khojara you will see the giant, onyx-skinned divs striding through the market, carrying great poles from which hang cages containing women with feathered wings that glitter like jewels as they sing sorrowfully
>You will see the Lotus Aspirants floating through the streets, each seeking merchants selling new movements of the infinite Trigram
>You will see the many armed and many faced rakshasas, selling silks and garments woven from the blood of the Vidyadhara
>you will see the dignitaries of Xi, each a member of the Ten Thousand Immortals, riding to the city on clouds
>You will find unscrupulous Shem-priests selling bricks from the Wall of Palcyon, each engraved with a word in the True Speech, from before the breaking of tongues
>In stalls you will see men selling the horned icon of great Helicandros who founded all five of the great trade-empires before building his great iron wall between the lands of man and the lands of demons
>Lead jars of captive djinn begging to be released, promising to show you the ancient vaults beneath the earth where they hid their treasure, each sold by a greater djinn who captured his weaker brothers
>Jewelry made from the red Tears of the Karkadaan, each collected from a lord of the desert as he quenched his great thirst
>Roasted flesh of rukhs that will make an old man young, clockwork peaches that emit the most soothing of odors, telescopes that can see for leagues, apples that can cure any known disease if eaten, the waters of life, the waters of death, and so much more.

>>50711171
>You will see the Sons of Aehak preaching the manifest inversion of god, demonstrating as they tear open the air and show the dark meaning behind matter
>You will see the Solar Hierophants arguing with them in the streets, shaking their staffs, from which hang glass globes of captive fire
>Shem-priests walk silently to and from their temples, accompanied by servants made from clay, each carved with a thousand words, some meaningless, but a few the True Words that animate lifeless forms
>You will see alchemists of the Winding Path selling pills that will grant you unbreakable skin, or let you change shape, or show you the hungry ghosts that swirl around us all invisibly. If the dignitaries of Xi pass in the street, the alchemists will fall to their knees in prostration, for they worship naught but immortality.
>Great bearded men from the western forests, beyond the Thrice Ninth Kingdom, who give roaring sermons about the how the Iron Crone sent her only daughter (who is the same as herself), to be boiled alive in a cauldron
>In crowded coffee bars they will engage in endless philosophical debates with the priests of Gnosistom, who claim it was not a crone but a divine ram, who sent the Vadius, the perfect man, who is the paragon of all things, but not divine
>Arguing with no one are the Tingril masters, riding their grey wolves and stroking their long mustaches, confidant in the dominion of the storm over the limitless steppe
>Anything is for sale in Khojara. All gods are worshipped in Khojara. All roads lead to Khojara.

>>50711215
10/10 read, anon.

>>50709943
Old ruins and uncharted lands are great for providing players with places to explore, find loot, and get killed by monsters. So I have a lot of such places in my homebrew setting.

When the Empire fell, many remote cities were cut off, and subsequently abandoned. While most have been picked clean by raiders long ago, there are always stories of somebody exploring the ruins and uncovering some hidden treasures.
Explorers searching from truly valuable things should head to the northern wastes, though, where among the snow and ice stand ruins so old, no livign race can recall them ever being anything but ruins. Due to their remoteness and hostile environment, few expeditions there have succeeded, but ones who have returned have brought back many strange things, including relics with strange magical properties many wizard would pay hansomely for.

If one, on the other hand, heads south, braving pirates and storms to cross the southern sea, one will arrive on the continent of Woril, where lies the land of Din'eth, ruled by powerful priest-kings. Din'eth itself is not a "lost" land; ships regularly sail there, bringing a cargo of gold and exotic goods, assuming they make the dangerous journey there and back. But the interior of the continent is largely unexplored. Even the inhabitants of Din'eth can tell little of what lies beyond the mountain range separating interior of the continent from the coast, but legends speak of untamed jungles full of strange beasts and hostile creatures, and of ruins of great golden cities built in the dawn of time.

The dwarves of the western mountains speak, although very rarely to outsiders, of their lost homeland beyond the western sea. They never speak of the events that drove them from their lands in detail, other that there was a war against a great and terrible enemy, which the dwarves lost and were forced to flee across the sea.

>>50711817
Every now and then, some particularly zealous dwarf launches an expedition to explore, and possibly retake, their former homeland, or some entreprising explorer launches an expedition after hearing tales of the wealth and power of old dwarven kings (according to the legends their halls held uncounted riches, and their armies were composed of legions of golem-soldiers, each a priceless relic in its own right. To the dwarves, no less valuable would be the records of their former empire, carved on great tablets of stone and precious metal, most of which was forced to be left behind when they fled).
Most never return. Of the ones that do, most come back half-mad, telling tales of haunted battlegrounds still tainted by terrible powers unleashed in ancient battles, of empty mountain-holds where shadows writhe unnaturally and strange voices echo in the darkness, and of ominous cities clearly not of dwarven make, seen only at distance for none who has ventured near them has returned. Few, however, return with enough gold and riches to ensure there are always fools willing to journey to that cursed land in search of fortune.

Well, I've actually just started writing things down, but in my homebrew setting for D&D I've got Old Iziria, which was once the heartlands of the ancient Izirian Empire, until the culmination of a war between Iziria and an as-yet unnamed rival nation ended with the rival nation calling down the first Rain of Colourless Fire (I just love the name and the imagery it invokes, nothing else to do with Greyhawk). Now the Capital of Izir and the major city of Uvv, along with a two hundred mile radius region of what used to be scraglands are uninhabitable wastes.

The cities themselves are in utter ruin, with only underground portions still recognizable after the Rain burned through even the stone as if it were merely kindling. Undead spirits roam the cities and occasionally wander into the Dust Wastes, endlessly seeking vengeance upon the ancient empire that destroyed them. Nothing living grows in the Dust Wastes themselves, and the only living things are mortals that scavenge through the wastes, looking for lost treasures and relics of ancient Iziria.

I've got plans to introduce Old Iziria as a place of vast potential wealth, but immense danger, as savage giant-kin live along its edges while incorporeal undead and other incredibly powerful undead beings haunt the inner deserts.

>>50711817
>a war against a great and terrible enemy
humans

>>50713080
Elves, actually. Elves that worship horrible eldritch gods and summoned hordes of gribblies to fight the dwarves' golems.
Humans are mostly found on the continent dwarves fled to. The people of Din'eth are human as well, but the interior of the continent is actually populated by yuan-ti (although since it's not really explored, nobody knows that).