The Ten Natural Splendours

Ten exceptional natural sites that took Laelaz the Walker's breath away when he saw them. He recorded each one of them in the poems he wrote during his twenty two years long journey across the continent.

The Ten Natural Splendours are respectively:

1. The Crystal Spire (within boundaries of modern day Uruzataar Khanate)
2. Windhell Valley
3. The World Scar
4. The Wall of the World
5. Qi-Fu Underworld (Qi-Fu)
6. The Chimney (within boundaries of modern day Treant Empire)
7. The Oak Father (within boundaries of modern day Sisilia Citystates)
8. The Mother Lake (within boundaries of modern day Chiefdom of Uraka)
9. The Boneyard (within boundaries of modern day Kingdom of Skrug)
10. The Ribs of Korok (within boundaries of modern day Uruzataar Khanate)

**The First Splendour: The Crystal Spire**

This bizarre feature extends over several square kilometers in a patch of inhospitable desert near the World Scar. It is covered in crystalline stalagmites, most of which are tens of meters to hundreds of meters tall, but the largest is over three kilometers tall, and is a major landmark which can be seen by travelers days before they arrive. Although some scholars both now and then belief it to be an artificial feature, Laelaz included it on his list of Natural Splendors instead. In his notes Laelaz speculated it was formed by ancient geysers like the Salt Piles of Northedge.

**The Second Splendour: Windhell Valley**

This breathtaking mountain basin located east of what was once the Verani Empire is infamous for its freakishly strong winds. Laelaz wrote many stanzas on the beauty of wind sculpted rock formations and the strange shapes the dust clouds would make as they spun merrily along their path (observed from a save distance of course).

**The Third Splendour: The World Scar**

This gargantuan natural depression dominates the center of the continent. Visited by Laelaz around the same time he visited the Crystal Spire, he wrote extensively about the geysers, sulfur vents, and the strange communities of merfolk and molemen, through strangely he wrote little of the "Parks", perhaps feeling that the large amount of literature on the topic made his own thoughts redundant.

**The Fourth Splendour: The Wall of the World**

This massive mountain range separates Westrasi from the Celestia subcontinent.  Visible for hundreds of kilometers in all directions, it is well known to most inhabitants of Gloria-Etalia.  However, few come as close to it as Laelaz did.  During his journeys, he crossed through hostile territory, and scaled a large mountain in order to come within a few kilometers of one of the massive ridges known as the "Parapets", which rise nearly another kilometer above the surrounding mountains despite only being a few hundred meters wide.

**The Fifth Splendour: Qi-Fu Underworld**

This massive system of karst caves is said to extend under large parts of the Eastralia Peninsula.  Laelaz explored many of the more accessible caves during his tour of Qi-Fu, including the Oni's Maw, a massive chamber several hundred meters in diameter and several kilometers deep.  Strange rites are said to occur in some of the more inaccessible caverns, though Laelaz does not record this, instead writing several stanzas on the glistening stalactites of the Maw.

**The Sixth Splendour: The Chimney**

This massive cenote several hundred meters wide and almost a kilometer deep leads to a vast underground cavern. Laelaz was only able to visit it since it was near the edge of the Treant Empire at the time, but it is now inaccessible to outsiders. In his notes, Laelaz comments on the agility of the treants for their ability to scale the massive vines and carved handholds to reach sacred places carved into the walls of the cenote, some over one hundred meters below the surface level, but it is said even the treants fear exploring the lower levels of the cenote wall, and none will enter the cavern below, though parts of it are clearly visible when the sun is near or at its peak.

**The Seventh Splendour: The Oak Father**

Said to be the father of all oaks, this gigantic tree dominates an isolated hilltop within the Sisilian Forests.  Nearly thirty meters wide at the base, over one hundred meters tall, and almost two hundred meters wide from branch to branch, it is generally believed to be the largest tree outside of the Treant Empire.  It is said that the tree is somehow tied to the fey magic that runs through the forest, and Laelaz had to be extremely persuasive in order to get a band of local clansmen to escort him to its location.

**The Eighth Splendour: The Mother Lake**

An unusual choice for Laelaz, who generally excluded sites believed to be created by unnatural magic from both his famous lists. Some believe that he included the Mother Lake as a favor to the Sylbari, since most of his stanzas on the topic feature seemingly deliberately misleading information.

**The Ninth Splendour: The Bone Yard**

This seemingly endless boneyard is located along several kilometers of beach on the northern coast of what is now the Kingdom of Skrug. Although the bones of groundwhales, wyvern, and akhlut are easily identifiable, others appear to be the bones of massive creatures larger than even the largest known dragons. Whether these creatures are now extinct, or still lurk deep beneath the sea is unknown.

**The Tenth Splendour: The Ribs of Korok**

Somewhere in the steppes of the Uruzataar Khanate, not far from the Zephyr Mountains, stand gigantic rock formations of fascinating shape, resembling titanic rock circles that rise to almost a hundred metres in height each.

These monumental rings are one hundred and eleven in number, scattered over a total distance of twelve kilometres. Some are very close to each other while others are isolated, far from their neighbours.

The minerals of which they are composed give them a strange colour that varies according to the time of day, going from golden to bright orange, and finishing in the evening on a beautiful light blue shade.

The first time Laelaz the Walker travelled to this region and crossed these gigantic circles, he thought he passed under the bones of a gigantic beast, probably the dried out ribs of its monstrous rib cage. This is why he named these stones "the ribs of Korok", Korok being the name of a legendary beast in the region, which his guide had told him about a few days earlier.

Several other natural features are described prominently in Laelaz's work. These include the unusual mountain features of the Midlands, the reefs surrounding the Storm Islands, the massive Crescent Falls in what is now the Maag Kingdom, and Hekat's Arch in what is now the Morloux Republic. Although he didn't visit them in person, his works also include several stanzas on the Great Oceanic Mollusc Reefs, and the Heart Root of the Treant Empire.