The Ashen Ring was a blackland that stretched hundreds of miles across eastern Commona. The Ring possessed very little in the way of fauna, beyond the occasionally creature native lost from the Realm of Fire or scavengers from the Sea of Trees. Close to the center of the Ashen Ring and the Emberpeak Mountains, rivers of lava flowed through the valleys, fragmenting and connecting disparate chunks of land.
The reason for the deadness of the region was due to its proximity to the Emberpeaks. Fire spirits from the mountains spewed flame and death in their anger, allowing little life to survive. Still, the mountains themselves possessed value, replete with desirable gemstones created by the unique circumstances of their geography. The promise of riches led many merchants and slavers to send teams of workers across the Ring, attempting to extract what wealth they could from the Emberpeaks.
These daring prospectors tended to travel up and down the Ashwater River, generally accessing it via the Fortune's Bridge; few were made enough to trek across the valley itself, as the land belched with flame and randomly gave way to empty pits of quickened ash.