The Remains of the World

"When our maps cease to fit the territory we prepare ourselves for a world that soon won't be there. When this happens, the inevitable result is frustration and an ever-increasing tendency to warp the self to fit our end. We see what we want to see, and the more we see it, the more likely we are to reinforce this distorted perception, in the familiar circular and spiral feedback pattern."

- Levels of Mapmaking: Studies in Geography-Induced Insanity, Harold Vainberg, Mapmaker.

"It was with much glee that I finally found myself in possession of a fragment of the Map of Enmnon. The things I had to do to obtain it were... unpleasant. Sometimes at night I wondered whether it had been worth all the lives I carelessly threw aside in my quest. I swore to myself time and again that some of the fortune I found would go the church, as atonement for my sins. For ten days and as many nights I journeyed, seeking the landmarks that would point the way to Enmnon's buried treasure. I found the rock shaped like an eagle. From there it was a short trek through the Whistling Pass. In the valley just beyond what I hoped to find were riches beyond my wildest dreams. Instead, I saw a wall of darkness creeping ever forward. I feel to my knees and wept. Fifteen years of searching and I got here a few days too late. The valley and the treasure were already gone."

- Memoirs of Lemuel Strange, acquired from a ragged beggar in Brink who claimed to be the famed explorer.

• The Taennagh: The frostcapped mountains to the north, once home to only the most resolute and scattered barbarian tribes. The refugees in Brink have stripped the Taennagh of almost everything edible.
• The Forest of Riegland: Blanketing the foothills of the Taennagh, filled with trees sickened by the blight of the Disjunction. The Forests of Riegland are fiercely defended by the numerous Counts that have castles nearby.
• The Sea of Bones: What used to be the Green Sea before it dried up, its waters sucked away by the Disjunction. What was once the world's most travelled ocean, connecting the Twelve Free Cities and the Kingdom of Jade to the south is now a barren and dusty desert inhabited by the ghosts of the past, with only Astudan at its end, keeping watch over the Disjunction.
• The Western Marches: The westernmost lands of Anicca, once ruled by proud Dukes and Duchesses, now overrun with refugees flooding in from the West. The Western Marches have become desolate and barren, tainted by the blight.
• The Western Ocean: Wracked by storms caused by the Disjunction, its waters being inexorably dragged into the void. Only the most insane watchers make their home on The Rafts, the collection of floating debris anchored a stone's throw away from nothingness.
• The Tearn Wetlands: A swampy bog that was once the site of the capital of a long-dead empire. Ruined towers and palaces thrust towards a cloudy sky.
• The Hundred Kingdoms: An expanse of tiny warring nations that broke off from the Iridican Empire around the time of its fall. Dozens of Kings wage constant war with each other to the point that map-makers had to update on a daily basis. The influx of dethroned monarchs from further afield has only made the situation worse as they search for a place to settle, leading to confrontations with any of the half-dozen or so people laying claim to any particular stretch of land.
• Erewhon Desert: A barren sweltering expanse of sand covering the centre of Anicca, some say at its heart lies the solution to the Disjunction. Countless people have headed into the sands, never to be seen again.
• The Greenswards: Lush farmland and smooth rolling hills, nearby rivers and a temperate climate made the Greenswards fierce competition for the Ghana plains. They provided the food that fed the Twelve Free Cities, and in return received their protection. Now, with the Cities gone, the Greenswards have been overrun by bandits and petty warlords flooding in from the East fleeing the advancing Golden Horde.
• The Shield Wastes: A collection of wastelands, salt flats and deserts that served as a barrier against the Golden Horde from the East. The collection of raiders and warlords that make up what's left of the Golden Horde have adapted to life in the Shield Wastes for now, as they each try to unite the Clans for an attack onto Anicca's fertile lowlands.
• The Ghana Plains: Once the breadbasket of the Iridican Empire, the vast plains give up smaller yields every year now and the farming communities are soon to find that the trickle of refugees onto their lands was a forewarning of the deluge to come.