Forsaken Peninsula

The Forsaken Peninsula is an area that defines Arcadia's southeastern coast, known for its unusual biome diversity and the Free City of Stillwater. For hundreds of years, the peninsula was used as a pirate headquarters and ignored by many of the formal kingdoms for its apparent strategic worthlessness. However, after the hero Mantel established Stillwater, the peninsula's ports and towns exploded in wealth and population.

## Geography

Cartographers agree that the Peninsula's northwest border (and thus, only border) is met by the Nerish Empire's southern border, though the Elmaren desert broadly crosses these borders. The desert serves as a natural barrier between the Peninsula and the outside world, considered exceptionally dangerous to cross by foot. The stone mountains which dot the Peninsula's coast and interior serve as another natural defense, meaning the Peninsula's inhabitants are safe from most outside threats.

The Peninsula is home to at least 5, sometimes argued 6, different identifiable types of land:

* The Grasslands
* The Honeyed Forest
* The Stone Mountains
* The Ley Forest
* The Elmaren Desert
* The Blighted Lands

### The Grasslands

The most survivable portion of the Peninsula with the densest population, the Grasslands are host to the Free City of Stillwater, the villages of Strathe and Nosk, and the Stillwater Port. Their fertile soil and gentle winds, blowing softly from the Stone Mountains, provide a haven for agriculture and trade.

### The Honeyed Forest

Once considered a part of the Grasslands, the Honeyed Forest is a wilder and more dangerous portion of the Peninsula, still inhabited by some. As the name implies, this dense pine forest is filled to the brim with massive hives and magic bees. The honey produced by the insects is used by the Stillwater Meadery, and the bees themselves are infused with magic from the nearby Ley Forest.

### The Stone Mountains

Though the entire Peninsula is dotted with tall mountains, the Stone Mountains are a select region where these mountains tower over a small river. These mountains form a stern blockade between the Grasslands and the Elmaren Desert, and may potentially be the reason the Peninsula wasn't entirely consumed by the sands ages ago. Though this history has long been forgotten, the centerpoint of the Mountains lend the Forsaken Peninsula its name; there, centuries ago during the time of the Elven Empire, the disgraced Archmage Slann constructed an immortal tower of black stone nestled between (and beneath!) the Stone Mountains. The Forsaken Tower, as it came to be known, once scourged the peninsula with legions of dark magic and foul undead; when the Elven Empire slew Slann, the tower fell into disrepair, though it never crumbled.

### The Ley Forest

At the tip of the Peninsula's eastern edge, a leyline convergence has produced one of the most startling sights in Arcadia: a beautiful rainbow-colored forest known as the Ley Forest, as rich in danger as it is magic. The Forest has drawn many sorcerers and mages, both kind and cruel, to its mana-rich edge to feast upon and learn from the incredible magics within. During the late Elven Empire, one of Arcadia's four floating cities was constructed atop the Ley Forest, though the city has since been hidden away. The forest is one of the most dangerous and unruly places in Arcadia, home to magical aberrations great and small.

### The Elmaren Desert

The massive Elmaren Desert, named for the impossibly large Elmaren City which once crossed its entirety, is one of the largest landmarks in all of Arcadia. The desert stretches across the peninsula and far into the depths of Arcadia's mainland, and is thought to be near-inhospitable. Travel across the desert is only possible through ancient practices by the nomadic Elmara, and creates a massive natural barrier between the Peninsula and the outside Arcadia. The desert is host to a small handful of versatile, well-adapted, highly dangerous flora and fauna.

### The Blighted Lands

A recent development across all of Arcadia is the Blight, a mysterious disease that gradually consumes vast swathes of land, giving rise to strange monsters and killing most natural life. Dense concentrations of Blight can be found in Daeryllys, the Nerish Empire, and along the Shattered Coast, but a small patch of it threatens life in the Forsaken Peninsula's Grasslands. Though the Blight is small enough to be crossed within a few hours by wary travelers, extended exposure fatigues one, and habiting the Blight for more than a month often leads to incurable illness and death. Within the Blight, natural flora and fauna are twisted into strange fungal abominations which attack anything on sight. Those in the Forsaken Peninsula are young enough to be of little threat; in other realms, they've grown powerfully dangerous.

## History

The Forsaken Peninsula was first settled by elven settlers in the pre-imperial era, from which very little written history exists. The early elves enjoyed the benefits of its Ley Convergence in the Ley Forest, but found settlement a difficult task; the Peninsula was rife with magic-imbued monsters, and besides its potent magic, the land offered very little in terms of strategic or economic value. The handful of elves who remained in the Peninsula secluded themselves in the Ley Forest and constructed small villages in which they studied these powerful magics.

### The Elven Empire; 1200BA-0BA

During the age of the Elven Empire, when early men were subjugated by the ambitious, magic-infused elves, the Forsaken Peninsula remained sparsely populated. A few free men who escaped elven enslavement constructed agricultural villages and solitary huts, but many of them were killed by the Peninsula's natural dangers. The Elven Sages of the Ley Forest did not bother with outside politics, having become so closely attuned with the Ley that the mortal world seemed trivial.

Around 600-615BA (Before Arcadian), the earliest signs of pirate activity appeared. It's common knowledge that the humans who escaped elven enslavement often had to resort to unscrupulous means of survival in order to get by; the largely-ignored Peninsula proved a perfect center point for such illicit characters. The inlet which would later be known as the Saendel River offered a perfect hideaway for pirate vessels and human refugees, and although life along the coast proved difficult, most found it better than elven enslavement.

Briefly, towards the end of the fifth century BA, a rift in the Elven Magics led to the banishment of nearly a dozen well-established Archmages from the High Elven Mana Council. One such Archmage, a villain named Slann, journeyed to the Peninsula and constructed a well-fortified black tower at the heart of its Stone Mountains; this tower sapped local Leyline energy to produce foul magic for the Archmage to use at his discretion. Slann's undead offered a constant nuisance to the locals, but he never engaged in a proper war or persecution of the Peninsula. Rumor says that Slann grew mad and paranoid towards the end of his life, and reclused himself inside the Forsaken Tower.

The Peninsula's relative freedom came to an end nearly four centuries later around 200BA, when the Elven Emperor foresaw the oncoming Mageblight and the Empire rapidly converged on existing Leyline Convergences to sap as much magic power as possible. When Imperial warships arrived on the Peninsula's Coast, they discovered the truth surrounding rumors of a pirate cove to the Empire's southern edge. The subjugation campaign was swift and merciless. Every pirate was slaughtered, as well as local farmers and traders, and the Peninsula was bathed in human blood. The Empire constructed one of their four floating cities atop the Ley Forest, much to the chagrin of the ancient Elven Sages who already lived there; the Sages were not warriors, however, and remorsefully ceded the Forest to the Empire. At this time, the Empire also slew the disgraced Slann. Although they attempted to destroy his Tower, it remained tall and untouched, and was left to rot.

The Floating City served as a hub for magical commerce and research. Elven (and some human) scholars flocked to the City in droves, though none of them knew its true purpose, as the Emperor hid his discovery from his own people. As an extended branch of the Empire, the City drove away most humans, and the rest of the Peninsula was reclaimed by the wild.

### The Manarot; 20BA-0BA

20 years before the Elven Empire fell, magic across the entire continent turned foul and poisonous practically overnight. The Elves, a race that subsisted primarily on magic, died by the thousands, and even the Ley Convergences faltered. The Magic City suffered terrible earthquakes and sunk towards the ground, but never fell entirely out of the sky; the magic that had been siphoned and stored in the city kept it afloat, but did nothing to save the crumbling Empire. As the elves in the Peninsula rapidly died away, humans were left to repopulate it without having to fear the Empire's retaliation, and small villages re-appeared, often inhabiting the ruins of those that were destroyed 200 years prior.

### The Arcadian Empire; 0BA-68AA

In the year now called 0BA, or 0 Before Arcadian, a human warrior and leader named Neres Arcadian rallied humans from across the crumbling Elven Empire and led a bloody war that destroyed the elves once and for all and established a new human power: the Arcadian Empire. Neres Arcadian's primary goal was to spread his empire and populate with loyal human beings, so he sent several colony ships to the Peninsula to assist with growth and rebuilding efforts following the Elves' fall. For most of Arcadian's reign, the Peninsula saw a boom in population and wealth. The farmable land was farmed, the settleable land was settled, and the Peninsula grew and prospered.

### Post-Arcadian; 68AA-Present

After Emperor Arcadian's death, the Arcadian Empire which once spanned the entire continent crumbled and fell apart. Donations to the Forsaken Peninsula ground to a halt, and the local settlers were abandoned by the mainland powers. Thankfully, the Peninsula had grown independent enough that it no longer needed the Empire to fuel it; the local populace had become self-sufficient, and still maintained trade with other villages along the nearby Shattered Coast.

During this time, the Age of Heroes began, when legends both good and evil arose across Arcadia. Without magic, and without a unified governing force, the mainland was divided in an era of chaos. The Peninsula was spared from much of this chaos. Around this time, the hero Mantel made a name for himself after slaying the Dragonlord Xerxes. Mantel's greatest legend behind him, the hero went in search of new homes and people in need of help. He eventually found himself in the heart of the Forsaken Peninsula, where he spent several years living in peace in a small village at the land's center. This village blossomed thanks to the hero's influence, and it soon became Stillwater, one of the four Free Cities that dots Arcadian's east coast.

Following Mantel's departure and death, the Forsaken Peninsula steadily grew for several years. As the centuries passed, the Floating City-- still a home to many mages and scholars-- hid itself from the common populace, becoming a reclusive and exclusive home for magical studies.

The Peninsula saw steady growth for several centuries, but the Lich Crisis threatened this (and the rest of Arcadia). For a period of 50 years, countless undead rose to life and killed everything in their path; small farms and villages were destroyed first, and the survivors often banded together to form traveling armies of undead hunters. The Peninsula's local chapter was known as the Wightguard, headed by Father Boris Donagal. Donagal's band of priests and warriors worked together to smite, burn, and destroy the hundreds of undead who rose from the Peninsula's graves, many of which were slaughtered by the Elves centuries before. When the Lich Crisis came to an end, and the dead finally remained dead, the Wightguard was incorporated as the official city guard of Stillwater, and remains so to this day.

### The First Gate War; 603AA

In the year 603AA, dozens of ethereal Gates opened across Arcadia. Monsters, soldiers, and demons spilled out of these Gates in wild hordes, and the scattered Arcadian people fought desperately against this unexpected threat. The Gate War lasted for only a few short months, but the damage was irreconcilable in many cases. The Peninsula was only subjected to a meager portion of the Gate's dangers, and Stillwater stood strong against its otherworldly foes, but the monsters deposited by the Gate terrorized the Peninsula for years after. The Unified Arcadian Army, the military force led by the kingdom of Midland which forced back the Gate's forces, made brief contact with Stillwater. The Free City, desperate to maintain its independence, refused to join the alliance.