Glass Wastes

The Glass Wastes are a literal and metaphysical desert located in the northern part of Aurestria. The area is forever linked with the Skybreaker Incident, during which the floating city of Areatt fell and impacted the region. This mighty crash caused many of the defining features of area still seen today.

Areatt was a wonder of magical engineering in its time, but in modern days it is mostly treated as a cautionary tale about the dangerous of unchecked hubris or of betting your life on ephemeral forces. As the city, its inhabitants, and its records has been lost during the fall, surprisingly little is known about Areatt's history or accomplishments beyond raising itself into the sky. During the Skybreaker Incident, whatever magic held it aloft failed completely. The city struck Utania like a rain of meteors with immense force and heat. Large swaths of ground were churned up and rendered molten, forming broken fields of glass that give the wastes their name. Many craters and broken landscapes remain visible.

Besides the physical damage, the region's magical fabric was likewise shredded. The fallout of the impacts created a hotspots of magical instability. The Planar Veil is weak throughout the wastes, and many permanent holes remain. Unfortunately, such holes are not simply portals like one might expect, but are roiling masses of chaos that destroy anything that falls into them and occasionally eject mangled debris from other planes.

At some point during the visitation of the Aetherites, they were seen performing enigmatic rituals that lessened the devastation to the area's local veil. These rituals often left behind faint, glowing runes that have since faded over centuries.

Myths

Most mages believe that floating city of Areatt was supported by rare skycrystals. While such items may have existed, the knowledge to create them was lost with the fall of the city. Most mages also agree that the impact would have utterly destroyed such complex magical items. Nonetheless, treasure hunters are often scoring the wastes trying to find these miracles of magic.

The Skybreaker Incident is thought to have been a worldwide instability in the Planar Veil that resulted in some forms of magic failing to function normally for several days. The people of Utania had been experiencing smaller instabilities for generations by that point in time, so the event was mostly a blip in the historical record... for those on the ground. If you were in a flying city at the time, this was a different story. However, some scholars believe that the city fell from the sky after a magical experiment went awry. This goes to explain why the region's magical nature was so profoundly changed by the impact. It also lays the blame for the fall upon some unscrupulous wizard.

Impact

The simultaneous loss of the city-state of Areatt and the formation of the Glass Wastes left northern Aurestria politically fragmented for some time. Many smaller nations rose from the ashes of the old power structures.

The fall of Areatt remains a potent warning about the risks of uncontrolled magical experimentation.

The ruins of the floating city are rumored to be a treasure trove for daring adventurers. While no skycrystals have surfaced, other loot may yet be buried beneath the sands.