Boreal Ruins

Boreal ruins are mostly located in the Septentrion, both in Kaan and Cyfandir. Outposts and traces of this culture’s apex can be found all the way into the Drakenbergen.

Exploring Vestiges

Explorers pushing far north can find practically intact Boreal ruins, as if frozen in the ice. As a result of the rise of the sea level since the Age of Frostelle, there are also many ruins partially or entirely submerged. The spectacle of dark waters contrasting with the eroded engraved marble of a monumental door frame yawning into the unknown can be breathtaking.

These are magnificent landscapes, both fascinating and fearsome, in which one may encounter supernatural guardians. Out of precaution, Nordic tribes stay away from known ruins. At the first sight of an altar or mausoleum, they walk away.

The proximity of a Boreal ruin can almost syste matically be identified by the cold. In those places, it even sometimes snows in the middle of summer. Vegetation has adapted itself, offering a spectacular sight: within only a few hundred feet, a traveler can go from a temperate forest to a taiga! Some ruins are half-buried, almost invisible from the surface; they can also be hidden in huge mountainous caverns, like in Hevitur or Kupatwacuw. Ruins are sometimes at human scale, sometimes meant for giants, since the ancient civilization saw the blossoming of an alliance between these two peoples.

Some legends speak of sanctuary-cities that survived the fall of Boreal civilization and are still inhabited, far to the east, perhaps in Kupatwacuw. It is likely based on such tales that Cyrillan explorers have assumed lost lineages of white and silver dragonborn still live on in these secret places.

The Legend of the Academy of Magic

It is believed that Boreal civilization instituted a control of arcane magic, the academy of magic being one of its pillars. Legends speak of a tall tower held up by colonnades and buttresses, leaning against a mountain side on the edge of a sea or a large frozen lake. If they were found, the ruins of the academy would answer many questions currently debated by the greatest scholars.