the Free Lands of Vârr - map #8 of the Atlas Elyden

[vorropohaiah]

Vârr is an unfortunate place, haunted by the echoes of a past tainted by the actions of a mad god. Vorropohaiah, he was once known as, though his name is now whispered only amongst the most learned of scholars. He was one of the Two-and-Twenty worker gods – the Demiurges. They were abandoned by their creator as punishment for their hubris in creating the mortal races. Vorropohaiah went mad following his divine emancipation and spent his days shaping the features of Elyden into monuments: first to his Father, then to himself, and finally to nothing at all. Many of these ancient monuments survive in the dead parts of Vârr, testament to his godly artifice.

None, however, as famed or feared as the twin wonders of Carceri and the Varrachon. The former is a world-spanning cavern built by the god in the latter days of his insanity. None know its purpose or how even such a monolithic edifice can survive the timeless movements of the land itself, but it simply IS. To descend into its depths is to court madness and the whispers of the languid god, or, if one is lucky, merely death. The latter - the wretched mountain known as the Varrochon - measures no less than 400-miles long and 175-miles at its widest point and is commonly thought to have been created by millions on toiling hands hauling rocks from the construction of carceri into a large valley that in the day dominated the area. over the years the valley was leveled and was slowy turned into the foul mountain we see today.

In more recent memory, Vârr was occupied by the Korachani empire, which used it as little more than a resource to be plundered. For over two millennia the empire mined its ores, cut down its forest, and fished its seas. IT left no resource untouched and retreated only 300-year ago after taking all it could. Vârr now lives in the shadow of that empire, al and unwanted and uncared for despite its attempts at rebuilding the ruin that Korachan left behind.

A dichotomous leadership – in the form of the priestly Heirogoths and Regent-kings – picked up the pieces left by Korachan. Some of the abandoned quarries and open cast mines are not fully spent, and they work them at great toil to get what they can from the land. Forests stripped bare by Korachan are only now starting to regrow and the Vârrans have learnt to tend to them, careful not to take too much, as the risks of what await over-exploitation are all-too apparent.

So map #8 is done, and with it the journey around the Inner Sea slowly continues. This was a relatively easy map to do – the south west was ready from previous maps (Korachan and Pelasgos), and the region of Vârr itself was pretty well-thought out in my head. This type of map doesn’t do the region justice at all. I have a mood board for this place filled with pictures of grey hills covered in tree-stumps, sprawling open cast mine, industrial pollution, wastelands and other inspiration. It’s a bleak place, but I have a morbid fascination with such things, and that’s really where Elyden came from. Vârr is probably the epitome of what Elyden and the Korachani empire are.
Some of you might recognise the word Vorropohaiah – so now you know where it comes from and what it means

I've actually made some updates to the maps - making the territories outside the focus map paler. I’ve also made the roads thicker and clearer added a bit of hue/saturation to make the colours 'pop' a bit more. I also started applying a greyed-out colour to show areas of corruption, which I felt was missing before. I now have to go back and update the older maps to match this one.

Varr - small.jpg