THE CROOKED LANDS
Greetings, Seeker.
I trust you've heard the tales, have you not? Of stone spires that rise and fall like the winter wheat, making an ever changing maze out of the place; or of spirits and demons that haunt every nook and cranny, looking for some poor sod to prey upon?
And of course there's the Wishmaker, dead at the centre of it all. Come down from the sky one day and BANG! Makes everything the way it is here... and if you're lucky enough to reach it, grants you powers above mortal men. The kind that'll make legends out of you. No shortage of those these days.
Or maybe you been there, done that and now you want more. Well whatever it is, I do hope you know what you're getting yourself into. Seen plenty of folk go in and never come back. Hard enough getting here, even harder getting out, y'know? Got to mind who you trust too. Place just takes and takes, so some folk do the same.
Anyway, welcome to the Crooked Lands. Hope you find what you're looking for and watch your step. It's mighty dangerous out there.
Just testing the waters for now, but the gist of it is a meteor fell from the sky one day and reformed the land around it into the Crooked Lands, a vast hellscape of towering stone spires that jut out from the earth in every which way. It doesn't end there however as
at the end of each day, new spires sprout from the ground like weeds while old ones come tumbling down seemingly at random, making it almost impossible to navigate.
The meteor itself, known as the Wishmaker, grants powers to any Seeker skilled or lucky enough to reach it, but between it and the Seeker camps at the edge of the Crooked Lands are the spirits of every living creature killed in the initial impact that now seek to possess any living body they can find. Those who do get possessed are transformed into demons, twisted into bestial half-human forms that lose their sanity as well as their humanity, making them dangerous and unpredictable.
With a strong enough will, it's possible to survive this process with one's mind and faculties intact. Such individuals are rare however and of the few that exist, most tend to form their own communities within the Crooked Lands as many Seekers tend not to make the distinction between those who haven't lost their humanity and those who have, which is always a possibility regardless of one's initial willpower. Still, as some small benefit, demons are no longer bothered by other spirits and are still able to receive powers from the Wishmaker.
The spirits themselves are intangible and capable of passing through solid objects, but they're also quite fragile and vulnerable against cold iron or steel. All one would have to do is to break their form with the swing of a sword. However, if a spirit is able to pass through a living body then they're likely to become possessed and transformed into a demon. The only known way to counter this, asides from the individual's own will, is a sudden pain response (often in the form of a slap) to startle the spirit and jolt them out of their target's body. A tell-tale sign of a spirit's presence is a sudden drop in temperature whenever they approach.
Some of the powers granted to Seekers who manage to reach the Wishmaker include enhanced strength, healing, resilience and even immortality. No doubt there are many more, but no matter the ability it is always temporary and there is no telling how long they may last. It could be only for a few days or years, but without exception, the power eventually expires and former Seekers must return to the Crooked Lands if they wish to regain it.
It is not possible to have more than one power at a time, so choose wisely when (or rather if) the time comes.
Setting is medieval fantasy.
There's a few more things I could mention about history and factions, but that's all the important bits for now. Anyways, lemme know if you're interested and if you are, I'll see about tossing up a thread.
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