The Maelstrom

The Maelstrom is a mysterious, magical phenomena that violently appeared in 1240 over Last Stand Canyon during the Final Battle for Pallas at the conclusion of the Great War. It is visible from across Pallas, and even parts of Viscovy and the Sunderlands, as a black shadow on the horizon that stretches up into the sky.   The Maelstrom appeared in a colossal explosion, and primarily refers to the remnant of that event. The event decimated the canyon and ended the lives of tens of thousands of combatants, including the majority of the Pallatian army and their king, Ethar. It threw debris up to hundreds of miles away from the site and released a pulse of ghostly energy that reached across almost all of Pallas. There were dozens of reports from across the land that many people were 'transformed' by this energy - often found 'changed' and surrounded by the dead corpses of their former family and loved ones.   Among the material cast up by the event were strange, alien materials that held a great deal of energy containined within them. Some of these rocks or deposits were up to forty feet in diametre and were found across Pallas. Over time, reports of horrible events were recorded in correspondence with these minerals, including mutalation and monsters.   The storm itself is roughly 30 miles in diametre and can visibly be seen swirling in a slow pattern from across Pallas. The storm stretches many miles into the sky, and can be clearly seen and observed from across the shattered kingdom. Its constant appearance and presence has led to increases in zealotry, cultism, black magic rituals as well as a general sense of fear and depression amongst the common people. Green flashes of lightning illuminate the storm from deep inside, giving it a supernatural and unnerving quality.   The closer one is to the storm, the more of its true nature reveals itself. The storm is fast moving and violent - it can clearly be seen inside its edges that winds howl and churn across the landscape, which has been rendered barren and destroyed by the storm over the course of five years. Those who lived close to where the edge of the storm currently stand have long since moved away, and the land for another thirty miles around the storm's edge is mostly a deserted wilderness.   Few have been into the storm and returned. Rumours and stories circulate that the dark, evil magics that reign within the Maelstrom drive mortals to madness and transform those who enter into vile and grotesque entities. The only official party to have entered the storm and returned to report on their findings was the team of mages from the Royal College of Nurem - the Torov expedition. What they encountered is recorded in the Torov Report; an expansive document kept in secret within the College. While many notable nobles and leaders have supposedly read the report, it continues to be protected by the College.