Quinn returned to her room after wandering about the city for a time. Torrence had ditched her in the store, so she had no guide back. Thankfully, there seemed to be cultural politeness among the citizens. As long as she asked a passerby, they would at least point her in the right direction.
It took just a bit longer to return than it had to go to Epso’s Books. She also stopped at a food stand a couple of streets away from the Shattered Grail and bought a couple of badgius skewers. She wasn’t quite sure what a badgius was, but it tasted like an odd mixture of beef and venison. It was also surprisingly tender. Just two skewers alone cost eight copper.
Quinn lay down in her bed and used Match to light a nearby candle. The bright, flickering flame of the candle cast just enough light to read by. The flames' constant motion sent dancing shadows all across her room as she pulled out the first book she wanted to take a look at, Lands of Tarsha. She had long wanted to know where exactly she was and now was the perfect chance.
The first couple of pages were filled with references, about the author, and a legend for all of the symbols on the maps. She ignored most of it, but noted the name of the author; Rimor Magellan.
She found the first map of Tarsha. It was one massive landmass that was cut off on every side. The North was cut off by a thick mountain range called the Skathi Mountains. The East was cut off by something called the Walking Sea. The south was cut off by the Endless Dessert. And finally, the west was cut off by a symbol of a four-legged creature.
In between the ‘walls’ of those sat five countries all wrapped around something called the Nightmare Wastes. The Nightmare Wastes itself was larger than the other countries and took up the entire middle of the map. The entire area was denoted with several skulls, warning labels, and marked in dark gray. Using the scale bar showed that the entire place was about fourteen hundred miles across and about six hundred and fifty miles vertical.
The westernmost border was a large lake with a mountain range on the west side. Sharing the western mountain range as a border was Tundrus, The Snow Theocracy. They were marked with a blue color. The easternmost side of the country lost its color and was marked by some kind of creature. The country reached a few miles south of the mountain range, all the way north to the Skathi Mountains, and wrapped east around the northern edge of the Nightmare Wastes for a couple hundred miles.
Sharing a border with the Snow Theocracy to the east and the Nightmare Wastes to the south was Magin, The Magic Monarchy. The Magic Monarchy was marked with a pink color and extended pretty far north. The Skathi Mountains formed a rounded v in which Magin extended into. There was a massive lake on the country's northern side just before the mountains. Quinn faintly remembered Mikeal said he came from Magin, specifically Merlo the magic academy in Magin.
Sharing the western border of Magin was The Empire of Storms, Halis. Halis wrapped far into the north as the mountains snaked upward. The entire country seemed to be almost a highland peninsula bordering the Bellum Ocean. The entire country was blue with raindrops all over it.
About halfway up and on the western side of the country was a small area marked the Veiled Grove. The Veiled Grove had the Skathi Mountains to the east that wrapped around the valley around the west, and a massive swamp to the south. The only way into the Veiled Grove was through a mountain pass to the north where the city of Mauershein was located.
Strumgard sat on a small bay leading out into the Lence Bay on the south side of Halis. It, unfortunately, appeared that she had unwittingly signed up for a several hundred-mile walk to the south side of the Empire of Storms.
Out into the Bellum Ocean and far to the south sat an archipelago a ways away from the mainland. The entire archipelago was colored a bright green and named Wani. The country of Wani was made up of seven large islands with the biggest being just three hundred miles across. Several hundred smaller islands were around the north and south side of the country. Symbols for pirates were all over the smaller islands and the bigger islands were all marked by volcanoes. Just four hundred miles to the east of Wani was the Walking Sea.
The last country had the entire south side of the Nightmare Wastes. It was seemingly one massive dessert called The Sand Corporatocracy, Tymac. Tymac was cut off to the south by the Endless Dessert. It shared an eastern border with Tundrus and extended out into the west on a large peninsula bordering the Bellum Ocean.
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A large bay area sat on the western side of the Nightmare Wastes. It extended five hundred miles into the continent and was at least three hundred miles across. It hooked sharply down towards Tymac for a couple hundred miles, forming the Peninsula of the Sand Corporatocracy. Halis, Magin, Tymac, and the Nightmare Wastes all touched Lence Bay.
She flipped through the rest of the maps, only taking a quick look at them. She had gotten most of what she wanted to know from the world map and the rest was just info she didn’t need at the moment. Still, she glanced through just in case.
After a while, she put down her atlas and moved on to the next book she had wanted to read: Era Rundown. She only briefly ran through the book, deciding to give it an in-depth read some other time.
The book had a table of contents that showed it was broken into seven chapters with each chapter except the last being pretty short. The first chapter was called The Lost Eras and briefly talked about the first four eras. No one knew what happened during them or even what they were called. Essentially, it was speculation on what they were as well as various theories about why all information regarding them was lost. The chapter was only a few pages long.
The second chapter was called the era of Discovery. It was marked as the fifth era, though this could be a redundant number since no one knew how many eras were in the Lost Eras. A quick glance through showed that it was the start of human expansion in the wake of magic. Not much was known about it other than humans spread everywhere and began the growth of magic. Most of what was known came from the ruins of the seventh era. That unfortunately seemed to be a common theme as she moved throughout the next couple of chapters.
The third chapter was called the sixth era, but it was purely speculation as most of the history regarding it was lost. Not even a name was left for the era.
The fourth chapter was called the golden era. The era was the seventh era. It was a period of immense growth and prosperity for the human race. The race as a whole rapidly grew in power and advancements. Nothing stood out as a fact though since the knowledge regarding it mainly came from ruins once more.
The chapter continued for a time about the ruins of the seventh era. They were apparently dangerous places that were filled with loot and knowledge as long as one braved the danger. It was also pointed out that only one percent of explorers ever return alive after a delve into the ruins.
The fifth chapter was called the era of War. Nothing much was known about the first half or why the war was even caused, but it detailed the second half quite well. Most of what was stated was first-hand experience from those who fought in the war. The second half of the war was between two countries, Malsol and Galas. Malsol covered the entire north side of the continent and Galas covered the south.
The two sides were in a bloody war that caused the deaths of millions and destroyed entire countries as they fought. Individuals called gods spearheaded the war, fighting with powerful magic and abilities that could wipe out hundreds with just a wave of their hands. Battles during that period depended entirely on which ‘god’ won as armies clashed. The land was devastated and the people were slaughtered in the wake of the ‘gods’ movements.
Eventually, there were just three countries left on the mainland. Malsol, Galas, and a country sandwiched between them called Elras. Elras was in the middle of modern-day Nightmare Wastes and was almost entirely slaughtered by the stronger armies of Malsol and Galas purely because they were in the way. Eventually, they had enough and did something that formed the Nightmare Wastes. Every ‘god’ in the area of the Nightmare Wastes, which was almost all of them, either outright died or was severely injured by whatever Elras did.
Following the cataclysmic event Elras caused and the bloody war, humanity fell into a dark age. The sixth chapter was called The Dark Era and it went into detail on the establishment of new countries in the wake of the old ones and how humanity built themselves back up from the darkness they had fallen into.
Finally, the last era, the current era, was called the Tech Era. The book didn’t go too much into detail on it, only stating that the change in eras was denoted by the reclamation of all human lands and the sudden influx of growth in not only academic and magical studies, but also something new called technology. The greatest invention as of the time the book was written was Magin’s Starrail. From what she could tell, it seemed like an old-style steam train. A picture of it in the book even looked almost exactly like the old steam trains she had seen. The major difference, however, seemed to be that the train ran on light instead of coal.
She closed the book and blew out the candle. She sat in the darkness and wondered about the supposed 'gods' of the eighth era. Were they actually gods in the true sense of the word? Were they truly all-powerful beings like the gods from her world's history? Or were they just strong individuals who reached a level of power beyond normal? If they were truly all-powerful, what were the chances she could meet one and have them send her home? The book said they died, so the chances that they had reality-bending powers were low. That being said, just what caused the Nightmare Wastes to be formed? The book didn't mention it, so either the information was too common knowledge that it was left out, or the reason the War Era ended was unknown.
She still didn’t know nearly enough, but at least she had a start now. Quinn fell asleep thinking deeply about the lost history of the world. A question kept weaving through her waning thoughts; why was it called the Nightmare Wastes?