The Blight

Though the land has been blessed with the light of magic since time immemorial, in recent years, a creeping blackness has begun to gnaw at its borders - the Blight.

— Lay of the Land "Valisthea"

The Blight is the ever-advancing environmental disaster in Valisthea that renders the land uninhabitable. The Blighted lands appear as endless swathes of rocky terrain, and become known as the deadlands because it is believed nothing can live there. In recent years, the Blight has advanced even faster, bringing chaos to the realm. The Blight first appeared in the Twins around 1,500 years ago, in the wake of the War of the Magi over aether resources.

Effects of the Blight

The Blighted lands are sapped of aether, meaning no vegitation grows there, the waters turn black and acidic, and Bearers and Dominants cannot use magics, though Dominants can still prime.

As vegetation dies out, animal and human populations are displaced and driven to new regions in search of new habitats. Beastmen come into too close a contact with human civilizations, causing tension, and monsters that usually are known to live far away from settlements, suddenly become menaces. Entire regions become devastated when crops fail, setting in famines and wars over the ever-diminishing supply of arable land. Societies collapse when towns are left abandoned ahead of the ever-spreading Blight.

Due to the efforts of Cid and Clive in the original timeline, it is known that there are ways to live within the Deadlands, including growing some crops and flowers, and water filtration to make it potable, suggesting that Blighted soil is not beyond saving, though it takes hard work. Additionally, the Deadlands prove to be of some use: mythril is an inert substance refined from Deadland soil. When burned at high enough temperatures, mythril releases copious energy.

The cause of the Blight