Lake+of+Shadows

Lying between the Fable Wood, Shadowhaunt, the Lamentation Rift, and the northeastern reach of the Empire of Shibboleth Nur is the vast inland lake known as the Lake of Shadows. Legend tells that it was formed by the fall from the heavens of a casualty of the Godswar, Malagru Vek, known before and since as the Shadow King. Others say that a time of calamity opened a great hole in the lands that was filled by waters pouring in from a dark, subterranean ocean, and that the catastrophe meant the doom of an ancient empire. Whatever its origins, the Sea of Shadows is legendary for the many ruin-dotted islands found within it, the shattered remnants of civilization clinging to its shores, and the necropolis said to lie on its bed far below the placid surface. It is also known for its strangeness, and its peril. The touch of each of the four dominions that form its borders are evident in many places. Elsewhere, locales have developed unique identities of their own. Difficult to reach, daunting to explore, its secrets and beauties are many for those who survive.

It is a place of names famous and infamous. The arena champion Jalek Fareye was born to the fierce Etoshi tribes that fish the Shadowbanks before his years in An'Gar's pits, and returned to make his legend among the southern isles of its dark waters, and then to vanish with all his companions while exploring the Clockwork Caverns. Four of the Brothers Stern, the youngest, tracked down the legendary Mirewater Drake, cornered it, fought well, died to a man, and were devoured. Their older siblings, Mandor and Krone of the famous song, sought to avenge them but found no trace of the famed monster nor of their brothers, discovering instead the Starblade of Astorel which, as everyone knows, was fated to decide the War of the Eight. And of course, who can forget the ill-fated expedition of the Argent Conclave that sought to bind the cyclopean firstborn, Chiliades Thanatoas. Of the handful of survivors from the six-thousand that set out on the fool's errand and were either destroyed or scattered and lost among the wilds, they reported many terrible things. Worst of all was that in addition to the madness of confronting a being born in the Dawn Age of the world, the Conclave discovered to their horror that the Goblet of Souls was not lost to time, but in the possession of the Cyclops who knew very well how to put it to use.

It is said that Shere the Howling Witch makes her lair among the ghoul-haunted waters of the Forsaken Shore bordering Zukov's lands, that the Greymist Reavers again prowl the northwestern rim of the Siren Archipelago, that Firewater Rift has reopened in the south, and that the Black Arch has begun to burn, ever an omen of great danger. However, priceless lore and antiquities lie, as ever, among the perils, as the steady flow of fortune-hunters to the region suggests, and a number of rich hauls each season proves.

All is not terror and death, however. The astonishing Chateau Lafore and its endless revels, Mendaya the One-Tree Wood, Boorthis the Traveling City that rides the back of the great fish that shares its name, Dragonwing Cove, Nightsky Lake where it is said that one world flows into another, and the Labyrinth of the Seti are all found here along with many, many other wondrous locales.

The lure of such wonder is hard for most to resist. Indeed, it seems that few try. GRASP is there, searching for ways to fill the ever-brimming, ever-hungry coffers of Shibboleth Nur. Outposts of the Darksiders, a brotherhood of foresters that patrol the border between the Fable Wood and the Sea of Shadows, keep a keen watch on events in the region (often much farther from their border posts than one would expect). The Iron Angel's agents and those of Zukov travel far and wide in search of many things, most too terrible to contemplate. And there are many others, affiliated with powerful organizations or free-lancing, who have come to find riches, wisdom, and power among the ancient lands and waters of the Sea of Shadows.