Nareth is a cracked world above a hungry nothing called the Void. For a thousand years the Dawnstone held it together: while it shone, the fields bore fruit, the cities grew, and no one asked what peace cost. Then Morgrim, the Ash King, shattered it.
The Age of Ashes
The shards of the Dawnstone fell upon the world as glowing ash, and wherever they landed, beasts became monsters, heroes became tyrants and hope turned into madness.
For thirty years the ash has fallen. Every shard grants power to whoever touches it, but twists their deepest desire: the plough-ox becomes a raging beast, a caravan leader becomes the mistress of the sands, a priest becomes the prophet of a mad god. The dead, silent for a thousand years, have begun to whisper. Something has changed at the border between the world and the beyond, and no one knows what.
The lands of Nareth
Nareth stretches from lava-lit cauldrons to frozen peaks, from misty jungles to drifting dunes. Every region has its own sky, its own dangers and its own legends.
- Starting valleys – the heroes' first steps: Scarlet Vale, Golden Vale and Azure Vale.
- Regions – lands that build on one another from level 1 to level 290, each the stage of a chapter of the Chronicle.
- Cities – three capitals, one per realm – Bloodmoon Keep, Suncrown Keep, Veilharbor.
- Dungeons – ruined temples, crypts and towers where only a party will hold its ground.
Full lists with levels: Regions and Cities.
Peoples and factions
Four peoples live on Nareth – humans, the Shadowblooded, the Demonblooded and half-elves – and three factions fight the Ash King: the Order of the Blood Moon, the Suncrown Alliance and the Azure Veil League. Each wants something different from the shards, and each guards something it will not speak of.
Chronicler's notes
The key terms of the world at a glance.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Nareth | The cracked world where ash has fallen for thirty years. |
| The Void | The hungry nothing above which Nareth hangs. |
| The Dawnstone | For a thousand years it held the world together. Its crystal came from the mines of the dwarves. |
| The Ash King | Morgrim, who shattered the Dawnstone. He is watching – and he has something to tell you. |
| Shards | Glowing pieces of the Dawnstone. They grant power, but twist the deepest desire of whoever holds them. |
| The Veil | The border between the living and the dead, studied by the Azure Veil League. |
| The Dawnwardens | An ancient order of guardians; the Order of the Blood Moon descends from their soldiers. Their tomb is the Crypt of the Dawnwardens. |
| The Breaking | An ancient catastrophe; the demonblooded descend from its survivors. |
| The Ash Cult | A sect that preaches that the Ash King is the new god. |
| Ashrift | Where a shard has lain in the ground for too long, the earth cracks open and twisted echoes rise from the deep. A wound in the world that seals again within minutes. See Ashrift. |
| The Silenced Library | A ruined library where a scroll hides the origin of the Dawnstone. It was once guarded by the Order of the Sages. |
| The Order of the Sages | The Library's former guardians. |
| The Ashmarked | You: the one a shard killed and then brought back to life. |