Black Hills

The Black Hills is a bleak stretch of broken land between the Lahrus Plains and the Stone Flow on the core-fragment of the Plane of Varys. Once simply the eastern part of the fertile Lahrus Plains, the area was devastated by the Devouring Mist near the end of the Seventh Age and transformed into a lifeless and horrible landscape of glassy black hills and stinking acidic pits.

Although the area remains less than welcoming even centuries later, some life how now returned there and most of the acidic bogs created by the Devouring Mist have dried up or sunk deeper into the earth, leaving behind a bleak but borderline habitable land.

The landscape of the Black Hills is one of jagged ridges and shallow, winding valleys. The rocky outcrops common on the ridge-lines and the swamps and bogs that plague the valleys mean that travelling through the area is slow going and a finding direct route is often a challenge. Vegetation is generally sparse and low-growing, with wooded areas rare but not unknown. Animal life is also fairly rare and consists almost exclusively of small, hardy creatures - with anything larger than a rabbit essentially unknown. Examples of creatures native to the area include Acid Ducks, Blackmaws and Swamp Drakes.

Following the recent destruction of Linnastus by crusaders from the Golden Land, many Linnastian refugees now inhabit the Black Hills, dwelling near the ruins of the once-great city of Barrastus. Life here is extremely harsh however and it seems clear that the refugees must soon move on elsewhere or face mass starvation.