The Dark Rift

Home to the Shadowspawn, dark creatures pour out of the rift every full moon and make their way into the Valley of Dread. It is a gigantic wall of black smoke, mist, and storms, stretching across the entire continent. It is unknown how far east it goes.   Long ago the rift almost swallowed the whole world, but was fought back to the valley where it is held in a stalemate by the Kingdom of Solis until the day it can be fully purged from the world of Penumbra.   Each day, a smaller rift appears anywhere in the world. These rifts are gateways to the same unknonw plane the grand rift is connected to. They spill out shadowspawn into the local area and grow in size indefinitely, if not dealt with they risk becoming too grand to vanquish, like the Dark Rift. Groups of adventurers often take jobs to close rifts, and any that grow out of control are dealt with by inquisitors. Out of control rifts no longer just grow and bring shadowspawn, they begin to leech off the world around them and corrupt the land. The desert within the valley of dread was once a great forest, the dark rift has killed off all possible forms of life both animal and plant.