Sarabrand is a strange and terrible place ruled by the Force of Drama; its shores are rocky, deadly reefs span around it, and fog clings to the air. It erases itself from any map outside its borders, moves around, changes its shape, adds new places and structures, and drags those it feels will be dramatic additions to its cast into its timeless shores. While Sarabrand feels like time moves here, it exists only in the present at all outside times, gaining a collection of people from stone tools to gunpowder.
Sarabrand’s flow of time can be easily manipulated, as Septriss’ power is void here, and rifts to the past and future exist, yet cannot change the eternal present. Mountains rise, valleys form, the dead walk, and heroes survive unending drama. Mortals who die without succumbing to the plague that raises the dead wake the next morning without anyone else remembering their deaths.
Sarabrand has several more stable locations such as the cities of Cana Lugar, Gort Mor, Hadidraml, Baeid, Kerzenlicht, Havre Gris, Haibian Xiaoqi, Hreidur, Heartmourn Castle, Sanctuary, Deep Hearth, The Wandering Woods, The Mammoth Pit, The Pilgrim’s Pass, The Endless Dark, and the Spire of Tristian.
Cana Lugar, shortened to Canal, is a large port city on the east of the land. One of the largest cities on Sarabrand, its streets are full of old barricades, sprawling slums and docks, and fortified choke points, fortresses, a large castle, a small grove, and endless tunnels built by the old thief’s guild where the obscure figure Garn dwells, one of the few to survive the outbreak, supposedly. A more recent tower of sleek, smooth black stone rises from the harbor, connected by an underwater tunnel of the same smooth, featureless black stone. Dark power manifests there, and it is home to the dark sorceress Morganna.
Gort Mor, often shortened to Gor, is a smaller city where rich soil fed countless fields, enriched by the great river Taibit, which spreads rich volcanic ash along its shores and down irrigation channels fed by a mountain called the Crowned. Here, past the Wandering Woods, is the Bourbon Forest, which sprawls full of terrors trapped by the old Druid Circle from the rest of Sarabrand.
Hadidraml, a large, sprawling desert city on the southern expanse of Sarabrand, a gateway to the endless, shifting deserts, iron-red mountains, and unnatural shadow lands. The great city of Hadidraml was a place where the desert tribes and places beyond a veil of shifting shadow traded exotic goods with the rest of Sarabrand. It is a city of monuments, beautiful homes, and wealth. Here, elite soldiers of the Sultan, half-mummified from the heat, seem to lurch with greater strength and speed than plague zombies elsewhere on the island. The major features are the grand palace, visible from anywhere in the city; the Oasis of Tears with sweet, healing waters; and the grand bazaar, full of old but fruitful stands selling goods.
Baeid, a small town once a place to patrol and secure the trade routes that existed before the collapse. This small town has few amenities besides an old, weathered fortress, but it is the end of the only safe path through the endless deserts around Hadidraml and opens out towards many dungeons that Drama has woven, nestled into shifting sands.
Kerzenlicht is a mountain town at the base of Candlewick, a mountain dug into deep stone, the only path into the Shroud Mountain Range. Kerzenlicht is a large settlement with many paths into the Shroud Mountains, including the path up to Hreidur and the way to the perilous Pilgrim Path.
Havre Gris, often jokingly shortened to Averis, is a wealthy city and the former capital of Sarabrand. It has an ancient culture and old, rotting wealth, and, while beautiful, is in a state of disrepair after the political capital moved. Dark streets with elegant yet weathered stone walls stand in darkness. Rotting wooden beams form intricate arches and columns up to black marble stone structures, some of which have started to collapse. The old royal castle stands on a hill lit by endless streaks of lightning and haunted by storm clouds like reverse shadows.
Haibian Xiaoqi, or the City of Fortunes, was a Wae Colony port. Wealthy and built as a display of the ancient Wae authority and power, it is one of the most beautiful cities on Sarabrand, as it was more a symbol of power projection than a functional city. Haibian Xiaoqi is all the elegance of Havre Gris without the wear and neglect. The Colony has several castles guarding the flanks of the main gate, with a third built up off the deck on an artificial island, with the terrible fight off a path no bigger than a cart along a long tunnel full of murder holes, gates, and drawbridges across pits of spikes. The defenses are sectioned to make it almost impossible to scale the battlements from the outside, arching outwards at the top.
Hreidur is a small town at the top of the mountain Saltine formed by an old adventurer and around the ruins of an ancient temple. Hreidur lives in the shadow of a large, ruined fortress. Strangely, it’s more modern in design, but its ragged appearance makes it look ancient. Hreidur is dangerous, as a great force of Cultists of the Dead Sun occupies the fortress above, sometimes alive and protecting the pristine fortress, and other times as unending hordes of undead. It seems the fortress is one of the more detached places from the island, stuck between two points in time to fit whatever Drama whims.
Heartmourn was the great castle built in the middle of the Wandering Woods, a place of strength and security, equidistant from most major settlements on Sarabrand, to serve as a neutral capital for its people. The castle has a large courtyard surrounded by a large wall, several structures, and the large castle of the ruling family of Sarabrand. Heavy fog clings to the stone, and a soft rain hangs overhead just loud enough to drown out the moans and shambling steps of the undead who dwell in its halls and deep twisting basements.
Sanctuary a small, settled island off the northeast coast. A small farming settlement where survivors have established a somewhat safe place to dwell, dotted with a few houses. Unfortunately, it lacks any source of metal, and its small size makes it impossible to sustain the survivors’ base.
Deep Hearth is the major Dwarven city in the deep heart of Sarabrand, which sprawls across numerous districts. The Dead of Deep Hearth seem to retain their intelligence, making them very dangerous, though they are driven by the unending hunger of the rest of the plagued dead and will attack the living on sight. Some seem able to resist hunger, and all of them can speak.
The Wandering Woods are a nearly endless stretch of forest that sprawls into foggy eternity. Centered in the heart of Sarabrand, touching almost every major settlement. Those who leave the paths between settlements can be lost forever; terrible nightmares watch those who wander the paths, and strange noises echo from the thick fog. It regularly shifts around, and the roads might change, but they are always safe, and the signage is correct. New paths sometimes form as the Drama seeks new ways to have fun.
The Mammoth Pit is a large section of Sarabrand where pits of thick tar bubble, and black scorched stone stretches beneath the Crowned volcanic mountain. Rivers of lava run down the large mountain, and in a relatively sheltered valley lies a massive graveyard of mammoth bones in the heart of a city, ruined by the eruption of the Crowned. Undead here are terrifying, as walking undead hulks and creatures of ash, obsidian, and lyre lurch through the streets, unable to rest even after their bodies have been burned away. Many of the larger undead seem to spawn here before finding their way into the Wandering Woods and further.
The Pilgrim’s Path is a dangerous cut through the Shrouded Mountains to an ancient stronghold of paladins and zealots. The way is dangerous, and the stronghold’s corrupted magic has twisted the few undead around it into abominations. Though the heavy snow and rough terrain have mostly contained them here.
The Endless Dark is a sprawling set of caverns, catacombs, chambers, underground cities, and oppressive darkness. Mundane light sources do not work here, and the horrors here are only those Sultria can dream up. It shifts its cities, tunnels, and paths endlessly, but the Endless Dark remains.
The Spire of Tristian is a massive tower and seat of arcane learning on Sarabrand. It is said the experiments there caused the destruction of time on Sarabrand and probably the undead plague as well. Great mages linger trapped, some turned; others driven mad to protect the Spire.
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