Fort Rhea

> Madness can take many forms, but only those who allow themselves to be consumed by it's influence can be truly called mad. Here, we tread the line.
>
> - Salvaged Letter

## Fort Rhea

### Lead Writer

C-Bass

Fort Rhea is the name attributed to *Rhea’s Sanctum* after the catastrophic events that came during and after the SplinterFall. It consists of the old sanctum’s ruins scattered around a massive Shard known as "*α-Red*" and it covers an area with a radius of around 3.5 km.

It is located around 270 nautical miles off the southwest coast of Aeranor and is known only to the few who ventured into the deep seas, seeking the power of said Shard that plunged into the ocean. The region used to be a tropical paradise but the Shard bent the weather into a constant storm of cold temperatures.

In the year of 1272, Fort Rhea was classified as a restricted area by most regions, making it so that nobody is able to legally venture into it. This decision was made after, through a bunch of letters sent to different regions and their subsequent proliferation via means of intelligence agents monitoring those regions, the world was made aware of the dark nature of *α-Red* - it’s ability to grant great power overtime to those exposed to it while, at the same time, ripping them of their humanity and slowly driving them into madness. This was named *“The Curse of Rhea”*.

Fort Rhea's illegal status has remained active since then, but hasn't, however, deterred countless people from around the world from setting journey towards ''α-Red''. Some set sail in search of it' great promised power, others, criminals or refugees, seeking a place to live, unshackled by laws or wars that may have hindered their lives. Overall it's assumed that, in the first two years after "Splinter Fall'', around 5000 - 7000 people ventured towards de Fort. In the following two years, this number has decreased to around 2000, thanks to the increased control over the borders of the curse-afflicted area. If well-prepared, these trips have an estimated survivability rate of 35%, but only 5% of unregulated ships ever come back, usually with a loss of over a third of the passengers and crew aboard the vessel.

## The Curse of Rhea

*α-Red*'s influence over the surrounding environment and living beings is present strongly in Fort Rhea and it slowly, exponentially, subsides as one gets farther and farther away from it. Humans that come in contact with its influence obtain strange abilities if they do not already have them; if they do already possess an ability, they will only experience the downsides of the curse.

Besides increasing with proximity to the Shard, the strength of the abilities and the insanity that corrupts the individual will also increase with the amount of time of exposure to the curse. Someone who spends a year in the edge of the affected area might feel the same effects as someone who spends a day near the Shard.

The effects of the curse are not permanent until the subject has been exposed to a considerable amount of it, and it's said that when someone achieves considerable power, it's already too late for them to leave the same person as they came. In this case, the effects and damages are permanent.

### Symptoms

As one gets closer to the Shard the effects of the curse vary in nature and intensity, these are characterized in 5 stages:

* **Stage 1** - An individual exposed to the lesser influence of the curse might feel slight discomfort, nausea and increased fatigue. No abilities visibly awake within individuals in this stage. *This effect will be felt by creatures ~450 km away from α-Red.*
* **Stage 2** - As one delves closer to the shard they will start to feel strong headaches, dizziness and paranoia. People with these symptoms start to develop odd abilities that are weak and sometimes even inconvenient to the user. *This effect will be felt by creatures ~150 km away from α-Red.*
* **Stage 3** - The effects of stage 3 are significantly stronger than previous stages, as soon as an individual feels the pressure of this stage turning back becomes a hard task to accomplish but not all is lost. Symptoms include profuse sweating, extreme paranoia, the hearing of voices in one's head and abnormal aggressiveness towards people around. Abilities that were weak start to take shape into powers of similar strength to those acquired by normal means. Extended exposure to the curse in this stage might make the effects permanent. *This effect will be felt by creatures ~50 km away from α-Red.*
* **Stage 4** - Directly around Fort Rhea and in some areas of it is a zone of no return. Individuals experience hallucinations, waking nightmares, intense pain and bleeding from bodily cavities and in some cases an inescapable urge to inflict self-harm. Abilities in this stage grow abnormally in power. Once the effects of the stage 4 curse settle in, there is no way to make them stop. *The cure is death. This effect will be felt by creatures ~2k km away from α-Red.*
* **Stage 5** - The people who inhabit the inner parts of the Fort are completely lost as human beings, reports of them differ vastly, but they all talk about how people in this stage have become one with their insanity, their powers far beyond anything in the mainland. For them, madness is life and sanity is disease. Do not hope to become one of these creatures. *This effect will be felt by creatures ~100 mm away from α-Red.*
* **Stage *α*** *(Transcendents)* - Can we get much higher, so high. *(To be written)*

These effects are immediately felt when entering their respective areas, not taking account the time of exposure.

### "Purity - The seed of madness"

The curse of Rhea has different effects on people based on their distance and exposure to the source, however, there seems to be another factor that influences its effects - Purity. The purest, most gentle souls tend to be twisted in the most intense ways. Nobody knows much about this variable, but rumors tell that "the curse devours light and spits out darkness pitch black".

## The Veil

Fort Rhea is a chaotic, lawless place for the most part but some people who managed to return in one piece state that there is actually order amidst all the chaos, this is due to the existence of a particular group of individuals known as "The Veil" in the inner parts of the Fort. They seem to follow a strict hierarchy of "rule of the strongest", leaded by an extremely powerful individual. *Their objectives are unknown.*

## Places

### Sanctum Outer Ruins

The Outer Ruins consist of the original structure's walls forming a ring around Fort Rhea. This ring stretches for around 800 meters from its periphery to the inner part and rises high above the surrounding water, surrounded by collapsed parts of itself forming small platforms and rock formations that make it hard to approach by boat.

## The Sea of Rhea

The name attributed to the ocean within The Curse of Rhea's zone of influence.