Tales of the WildScar: Witch of the Wastes

A Humble Surveyor's Report

...Now is a time of wonder for the Aerilon Empire. Bolstered by unprecedented progress in fields both political and scientific.

Under the firm guiding hand of His Glorious Majesty, Tidus Valerious I, trade with the free folk of the Jade Sea has only flourished beyond compare while headway with the Northern giant tribes proceeds towards favorable ends and opportunities unseen in past so-called 'holier' generations. Borders likewise continue to expand outwards with the fervent development of the great railways, allowing even the most remote settlements the opportunity to experience a connection to the capitol city of Kolspun and His exalted personage therein.

Much of this can indeed be attributed in great part to the proliferation of Magic or 'Mana', that most invaluable resource for reasons obvious.

Drawn from the expansive naturally occurring network of ley lines that flow beneath the earth through specific areas of convergence known as 'ley-points', Mana is employed in a variety of crucial processes throughout the Empire. A source of energy for vast spellwork, the Crystal lattices that fuel the machines of industry, or that wondrous phenomenon known as 'electricity' which brightens and warms the homes of its citizenry.

It is no small statement to voice that the Empire is fueled by Magic, and yet it is a finite resource. Only so much can be sieved from the few ley-points situated within Imperial borders, and as the nation advances into the future that strain will mount lest the wheels of progress skid to a halt.

Foreseeing this predicament, His Majesty henceforth looked to the as-yet unexplored desert regions of the far south. A frontier rumored to be beholden to bouts of strange phenomena inhabited by a variety of hyper-lethal creatures alongside mysterious cultures and peoples fallen well beyond the light of civilized society. Dangerous, chaotic, but such things are of paltry concern when the prosperity and livelihood of the Empire and its citizens stand threatened.

At his edict droves of adventurers, entrepreneurs, and researchers both of his personal employ and those magically inclined journeymen of the Arcane Key were henceforth dispatched into the unforgiving wilderness of what had swiftly become regarded as the 'WildScar Frontier'.

Far from the light of civilization, those intrepid explorers braved danger after setback after disaster. Weather patterns warped by vast profusions of airborne Mana such that the land froze solid beneath their feet and fire rained from the heavens, all while potent disease and hostile creatures and natives harried their ranks. 

Nevertheless, they persevered and found success. His faith and trust rewarded as word of suspected ley-points deemed to be of such potency and magnitude that dwarfed any discovered previously. And these were but the prelude of things to come.

So began the great expansion, settlers, and regiments of his Imperial Army roaming southbound determined in the face of near-infinite opportunity. New settlements cropping up day by day, eager to face and conquer the challenges set before them. Against monster, raider, or naysayer.

Let it be declared here and now, the future triumphs of the Aerilon Empire will doubtless be secured in the south, in WildScar...

—Excerpt of a dissertation on the value of magic and the Southlands as penned by Feivash Waibel, Scholiast-Elect in service to His Imperial Majesty, Tidus Valerious I