The Deadland

After 1,000 years of the Transcendent War both sides were exhausted, desperate, and yearning for peace. However, the one warrior who had lost none of his zeal was Hanabi, who pushed for an even greater scale of violence, to overwhelm his weary opponents. This culminated in an immense and brutal final battle. At the peak of the fighting, Hanabi found Himitsu and drove his dagger through her heart. Himitsu's death rebounded out to effect the surrounding area for hundreds of miles, creating the Deadland.

It's earned its name because nothing grows there. Not a blade of grass or a cactus or the meanest scrub brush. Nothing can be born there. Or even conceived. It is completely cut off from the creative power of Yokubo. Everywhere else in Kaigara, his influence makes life flourish. The Deadland is the opposite. It's not simply a desert in the classic sense. It's not even particularly dry. It's just utterly barren.

It also has an impact on magic. Casters who spend a long time there find themselves slowly drained, day after day, gradually losing the ability to cast their spells until even cantrips abandon them. This magical drain doesn't effect magic items though. They can endure. And in fact, since the land is populated with ancient battlefields and ruins there are plenty of magic items, lost artifacts, and scraps from the previous age, though many of them have already been looted by treasure seekers.

The Kotetsu are therefore immune to this magical drain and are perfectly able to function and use magic within the Deadland. Many of them decide to abandon the wider world and seclude themselves there. Since they have no need to eat or drink to survive, they find the Deadland to be just as hospitable as anywhere else. Perhaps even more so because of the lack of living creatures cluttering the place up. However, they do have to endure the haunting memories of the Transcendent War. The unchanging waste of the Deadland makes it especially hard to escape those memories, which means the Kotetsu found in there are often somber, uncaring, and anti-social.

The Kitsune were created by Himitsu's death. They each carry a fragment of her enduring spirit. This makes them immune to the effects of the Deadland. So close to the site of her death, they feel her presence and influence even stronger. In the Deadland, they can not hide their true nature, and are forced to assume their fox forms. Many see a trip to the Deadland as a holy pilgrimage to be made once in their lives. The Kitsune still find it extremely difficult to survive there. The only way they can manage is by using their magic to produce sustenance where it otherwise wouldn't be able to grow. A handful of them have formed tiny groups of survivors, living in hidden nooks within the ruins.

Some of the Fateborn are also immune to the magic drain, but only those who come from Kurai's side of the war. Their power and existence is bound to the goddess of death, so they don't need Yokubo's lifeforce to sustain them.

There is no government, military band, or any sizable settlements in the Deadland. Most who venture there don't stay long. Human scavengers and treasure hunters exist in small numbers in the Deadland, but the most common form of "life" there is the Kotetsu, followed by the Kitsune.