Shaar

The Shaar seems to be a vast expanse of nothingness that presents an unfortunate obstacle to trade among other lands. The fierce barbaric nomads and dangerous beasts that roam its grassy plains appear to spend all their time attacking caravans and fighting over precious water. Indeed, many feel that everyone would be better off if the Shaar just disappeared.
But this immense sea of gently rolling hills is far more diversified and wondrous than most people understand. The Shaar is a land of hardship and fierce people, certainly, but it also, offers a bounty of unusual cultures, varied resources, and trade opportunities found nowhere else.
==The Misty Vale==
The Misty Vale is a largely unexplored, thickly overgrown, stiflingly hot jungle tucked between the Dun Hills and the Wyrmbones. The River Channath flows through the center of the woodland, becoming sluggish where tangles of creepers and vines dangle down into its waters. The river teems with fish, and the occasional crocodile, snake, and more unusual jungle aquatic creature also call its waters home. In the canopy overhead, countless birds with colorful plumage cry out, their voices echoing through the deep green.
In the courts of the High Suihk of Ormpur and the Overking of Lapaliiya, records dating back to the foundings of both realms speak of a race of feral elves native to the steaming jungle. According to these documents, the elves were so xenophobic that they made a practice of hunting down and killing any intruders in their ancient homeland.
The descendents of the wild elves described in those ancient records still dwell in the same forest today. Their oral tradition relates how their ancestors betrayed the other wild elves to the depredations of the drow during the Grown Wars. Afterward, they were given this section of woodland to call home, though the drow sorcerers had released numerous dark horrors there. Remorseful over having betrayed their own kind, the wild elves of the Misty Vale withdrew into the forest so deeply that no one would ever see their guilt, vowing to live in isolation forever after. In accord with that philosophy, they embraced Fenmarel Mestarine, the Lone Wolf, as their patron deity. Today, their descendants still adhere to both their ancestors' isolationism and the worship of their deity. They tolerate no intrusion into their forest and slay all intruders without exception. Though the wild elves have hunted many of the deadlier monsters in this wood nearly to extinction, a few terrible creatures still lurk in the deepest shadows of the Misty Vale.