Vargan Vale

Excerpt from The Cartographer’s Lament: A Record of Lost Lands and Cursed Places, by Dalen Varr, itinerant scribe of the Third Epoch  

“I have seen battlefields strewn with corpses, charnel halls of kings long dead, and the lightless tombs of forgotten gods, but never have I felt the earth itself hunger, until I came upon Vargan Vale.”

— Dalen Varr, Year 301 After the Shattering

 

Location and Geography

Vargan Vale lies in the far southern reaches of the kingdom once known as Thaldrinor, beyond the ruins of its burned watchtowers and the choking bramble of the Ashenwood. The Vale itself is a sunken basin, rimmed by jagged shale and sickly moss. What distinguishes it, what gives the place its dread name, are the Black Pits: vast, gaping maws in the ground, each a different size and depth, scattered across the valley like the marks of some colossal predator’s claws.   No map records the exact number of Pits. They shift. Their mouths crumble or reform. New ones are said to open overnight, devouring trees, stones, beasts, and men alike. Some claim to hear whispering winds from their depths, others, the sound of slow breathing far below.  

The Origin of the Pits

The oldest tales tell that Vargan Vale was once a fortress-monastery of the Order of the Deep Flame, devoted to the study of what they called the “Subterrane Will”, an entity said to slumber beneath the world’s crust. The monks built shrines and wells to channel its unseen fire.   When the Cataclysm came, the Shattering of the Sky, they opened their final shaft, hoping to commune directly with the being below. The ground buckled, the monastery sank, and from that day forth the Vale became a place of swallowing earth.   Later ages gave other explanations:   • That the Pits are wounds left by falling stars.   • That they are mouths of the underworld, where the souls of oathbreakers are dragged.   • That each Pit is a gate to a buried realm of sleeping titans.   Whatever truth there was, it has long since been buried.  

Hazards and Phenomena

The air of Vargan Vale carries a constant hum, like distant thunder trapped beneath the soil. Travelers report strange lights glimmering at the edges of the Pits, pale, blue-green flames that flicker in patterns, almost as though signaling.   Creatures of uncanny form haunt the valley: pallid things with translucent hides and eyes that gleam like molten coin. Scholars call them The Subborn, but locals know them as The Hollowborn. They seem drawn to noise, and will drag any living thing toward the nearest Pit, chanting in a forgotten tongue.   The Pits also distort magic. Spells behave unpredictably, charms rot, wards unravel, and divinations return only whispers of “downward.” Metal corrodes in hours, and written words fade from parchment by morning. Even the sun above seems reluctant to shine directly on the Vale, its rays bend, dim, and die before reaching the center.  

The Settlements of the Rim

Despite the curse, several settlements cling to the outer rim. The largest, Graveholt, is a shanty-town of scavengers, mad prophets, and miners seeking relics from the Order of the Deep Flame. Its people say:   “The earth may swallow the fool, but the wise take what falls before it’s gone.”   Graveholt’s folk trade in relic-iron, shards of luminous glass, and the black crystals that sometimes surface after tremors. They also speak of The Deepfire, a light glimpsed far below the largest Pit, a vast, shifting glow like an eye awakening.  

Rumors and Modern Use

In the courts of the northern lords, whispers abound that a cult has returned to the Vale, led by a figure known only as The Speaker Below, who preaches that the Pits are the world’s true wombs, that all life must return to them for rebirth.   Mercenaries and wizards alike now venture there, drawn by promises of forbidden knowledge, lost artifacts, or the power said to slumber beneath. Few return unchanged. Fewer still return sane.