The Punctured Lands

The Punctured Lands cover a significant area on the western coast of Myruthea, centred around what little remains of the ruins of Honirham, the ancient capital of the Old Pale Empire.   In 7 APC, the malign forces of the Dark Domains, contrived a meteoric bombardment here, which so devastated the city and the military and civic leadership that it not only brought about a halt to most organised defence but effectively put an end to the Empire altogether. More details can be found about the history of this period in the article about the Fall of the Old Pale Empire.     The land was so badly damaged by intensive cratering that the flow of rivers was permanently altered and the coastline cut into hundreds of ragged inlets and rough cliffs which remain difficult to navigate even today. Although the area has long returned to a kind of exhausted tranquillity, healed by long years of natural regrowth, few people choose to dwell close to the site of the ancient ill fated city. Indeed the region has become known as one of the Three Stigmata of Myruthea and although the old road to (and from) Sunrock passes through the area, most travellers hurry on to their destination, haunted by the tragedy of an ancient calamity which is an uncomfortable reminder that the Dark Domains are still a sleeping threat, even after so many millennia.   Only a few curious tourists or the most stubborn of archaeologists linger to look upon all that remains of the capital of a once mighty Empire.