The Barren Badlands is an arid and treacherous expanse of cracked earth, jagged stone mesas, and sun-scorched valleys that stretches north of The Sands of Serrakhan, forming a natural, hostile divide across The Sun Realm and the vast northern lands of Osira. This desolate maze of rock and ruin was not always the lifeless wilderness it is today—legends tell of a time when it was a flourishing mountain range, dotted with the sun-blessed shrines and settlements of the ancient Solir civilization named Itela.
The Blight of Betrayal
The Barren Badlands are believed to have once been a grand continuation of the Spine of the World, the towering mountain range that still spans The Earth Realm to the north-west. In the days before the Sundering of the Sun Realm, these mountains were home to the Solir of Itela, an enlightened civilization that built mountaintop temples to Helios and thrived under the watchful gaze of their divine avatars. The golden spires of their temples once gleamed across the horizon, and their sunward-facing cities stood as testaments to their celestial faith.
But their prosperity was not to last. When Malekith, the false god of the sun, betrayed Avatar Lumina and stole her divine power, his unleashed fury scorched the Sun Realm, reducing its once-magnificent peaks to crumbling rock and shattered mesas. The mountains that once connected the Sun Realm to the Spine of The World were ripped asunder during Malekith’s climactic battle with Avatar Rok, the Avatar of Earth, severing the region entirely from its northern kin. What remained was a barren, forsaken graveyard of stone, where only the echoes of the past whisper through the canyons.
A Lawless and Deadly Land
The Barren Badlands are no place for the weak. What little life clings to this harsh terrain does so through sheer ferocity and unrelenting survival. The mesas form a natural labyrinth, with towering walls of rock that hide carnivorous predators, roving warbands, and lurking monstrosities.
Denizens of the Badlands:
- Warring Stone Giant Clans – The last remnants of the stone giants, these towering beings war over ancient ruins and deep, shadowed valleys.
- The Tumb – Stone-like golems who claim to be the chosen of the forgotten titan, Tum, and wander the badlands in slow, eternal pilgrimage.
- Savage Orc Tribes – These brutal warbands fight over meager resources, clashing in endless bloodshed.
- Kroot Nomads – Wandering bands of the cursed Kroot, scavenging and striking from the shadows, blending into the stone with eerie precision.
- Bandit Lords and Raiders – Ruthless outlaws who carve out strongholds within the mesas, preying on the foolish few who venture too far.
- Sandwyrm – Titanic serpentine horrors that tunnel beneath the cracked ground, ambushing the unwary.
- Wyverns – Lethal winged hunters that circle high above the mesas, waiting for prey to stray too far from cover before striking.
- Carrion Beasts – Flesh-pickers, buzzards, and scavengers feast upon the remains of those who fall in this cruel land.
Echoes of the Sun
While most who enter the Barren Badlands do so at great peril, there are those who seek the forgotten ruins of the Solir, hoping to uncover the mysteries of the past. Some claim that deep within the labyrinthine canyons, the shattered remnants of Itela’s sun shrines still linger, half-buried beneath the sands, their golden reliefs blackened by Malekith’s betrayal. Others whisper of hidden vaults, sealed away before the Sundering, containing lost relics of a bygone age.
Yet few who search for these relics return. Whether they are slain by raiders, devoured by wyverns, or lost within the endless maze of the mesas, the Barren Badlands do not give up their secrets lightly.
A Land Torn Between Realms
The badlands are a borderland between elemental forces, where the severed roots of the Spine of The World still tremble with the aftershocks of Malekith’s treachery. While the desert sun beats down upon the crumbling cliffs, the influence of the Earth Realm to the north is still felt in subtle ways—deep fissures, ancient ruins that shift of their own accord, and echoes of power buried deep beneath the stone. Some even believe that Titan Tum, the forgotten god of the land itself, still stirs beneath the surface, waiting for the day when the world will call upon him again.
Legacy
To travel through the Barren Badlands is to tempt fate itself. It is a land ruled by stone and sun, where water is worth more than gold, and mercy is a forgotten concept. Whether one seeks glory, riches, or forgotten knowledge, only the strongest—and the luckiest—survive.
The Barren Badlands stand as a testament to the cost of divine betrayal and the ruins left in the wake of gods and avatars.