Lands of Mirhne: The Darklands

Art by Hans Park

A recurring pattern which emerges across the various Lands of Mirhne posts are repeated mentions of the 'deepest and darkest wilderness' in some shape or form, hinting that Mirhne has corners of its wild which are considered terrifying and deeply unsettling even to its hardy people, as well as considering them to be completely and utterly beyond the reach of civilization and mankind. One can travel there, one can explore it and, if they are lucky, maybe survive it. But they won't conquer it. These places are beyond the reach of civilization.

For most of these, it is simply a matter of environments. These are inhospitable lands filled with dangerous animals and whatever less dangerous regions of Mirhne exist have only slowly been taken over by humanity's presence through centuries. Others are home to greater terrors and are truly monster-infested. They are the den of degenerate Low Men, who have split from their much more peaceful kin or been exiled due to their vile worship of dark powers or due to sickness or the den of Teratoma Beasts. Other still, however, are different: stories claim they are lands-between-the-worlds, places which are the 'cracks in the world'. Myths and folklore call them wounds or pox marks upon the stretched surface of Mirhne, from which not only unholy things have crawled but, more often than not, things have fallen into. These are similar to the concept of Kelipot from Silent Legion. Or perhaps, more strangely, Mirhne itself is a form of Kelipot.

The Darklands

The Darklands are comparable to the places such as the Underdark or Feywild of D&D. They are otherworldly and dangerous places but they are not as completely removed from the 'normal' world as another, more alien plane of existence would be. The Darklands are pockets of the odd places of the world, the cracks in reality (assuming Mirhne itself isn't just a bigger crack?). They take a variety of form but most are fairly shadowed places, hidden cave networks and valleys deep within mountain ranges with slightly impossible geometry. There isn't much else to add to the Darklands themselves are conceptually they are nothing new to tabletop fantasy settings and they aren't anything that strive to reinvent the wheel.

Rather, its their inhabitants and content which I wish to slightly flesh out:

• The Darklands, as mentioned, are a good location for a full blown 'monster lair'. While Mirhne tries to often be ambiguous, sometimes a monster lair is a monster lair. There are creatures which are vile, twisted and/or ancient and wholly taken by supernatural forces or twisted and corrupted beyond their natural forms. Hidden away from the world they can fester in the dark.
• There are many exotic beasts which exist in the Darklands, some of them which may appear quite monstrous but are technically nothing more than animals. Some believe them to be mundane creatures which became lost between worlds and have wondered into the Darklands from far away places. Some appear as unusual variations of known beasts while others are wholly alien (as in possibly extra terrestrial, perhaps?) animals.
• Strange, thin and troglodyte half-men exist in the Darklands. They are pale, thin creatures with often hairless heads and impossibly slight stature. While the Mirhnian term for them could be translated in English as analogous to 'elf' or 'fairy' these strange beings can be quite dangerous. Legends say they eat not only the flesh and bones of men but their very memories. Some obscure folklore tales say that in ancient times, Priests fed them the bodies of dead kings and poets so that their knowledge would survive in these beings. That their caves are decorated with strange, impossible runes and painting which seemingly describe events and stories deep into the past hint at this being true.
• Some say sorcerers travel down to the Darklands to speak with the petrified bodies of dead God-Kings and that ancient temples made of stone and/or bone exist deep within the earth, where mad men gather in the depths of giant's ribcages to chant dreadful dirges and enact dark rituals which make the very earth shake and summon misfortune and disasters.