The Empyrean Wastes

Image of the Empyrean Wastes

 

 

The Empyrean Wastes

The Empyrean Wastes are the legacy of the Clock Wars.  When the city-states of Salfrey and Karos went to war, both sides employed weapons apparently powered by the passage of time itself.  The Clock Wars ended when both cities launched simultaneous attacks; apparently, the strange energies of their weapons collided, producing a devastating explosion.  Both Salfrey and Karos were destroyed, and a blasted wasteland covering over seven hundred square miles was created: the Empyrean Wastes.

Today, the Empyrean Wastes are one of the most dangerous areas in the World. The landscape radiates a weird light, the result of hypersaturation by empyrean particles.  The particles gather, sometimes, in wild storms of flashing light that are known as time storms.  Anything caught within these storms rapidly ages to dust.  Just as dangerous are the pockets of still-time that dot the landscape, areas where time has slowed to a crawl.  Occasionally, a wanderer will get trapped in one of these pockets.  He will appear as a frozen figure, unaware that he has been putting his right foot down for years.  Sometimes decades.

Obviously, traversing the Empyrean Wastes is dangerous. Most travelers go around them. However, for those people in a hurry, local guides are available.

 

A Seer of the Empyrean Wastes

 

The explosion that created the Empyrean Wastes had a profound impact on the peoples of the region. Although no one in Salfrey or Karos survived, some individuals on the edge of the blast did. Although most moved away from the area, some stayed, settling on the fringes.  Over time, the longterm exposure to the Empyrean particles had a mutative effect on the locals. Most developed minor ESP abilities; some used these newfound abilities to act as guides through the Wastes, relying on their psychic abilities to avoid time storms and still points.  However, there was a tradeoff. As these Seers developed their psychic abilities, most lost the use of their eyes.  Successive generations were born without eyes at all.

The main reason anyone hires a Seer to navigate the Wastes is the city of Ring.  At the time of the Clock Wars, Ring was a small, neutral city-state.  Although it survived the initial devastation, most of its populace fled.  Today, Ring lies just within the Empyrean Wastes, and is home to a small, hardy population that exists, predominantly, to look after the Moongate and the people who use it.