The Green Hunger

The continent of Kraestoa has always been a source of legends and fear. Many miles to the south of the Principality of Corania, it is the most isolated piece of land in Iskandria. Still, it is close enough for boats to be flung against its rocky coast by rogue storms, and for explorers to risk visiting it, wanting to become the first ones to claim the glory of having mapped it.

The civilized countries of Iskandria have learned the hard way that the northern parts of Kraestoa aren’t a place to disembark at, though. If one manages to navigate the treacherous coast, they will find themselves in a place where even the land itself seems to be hostile to all sorts of life. The so-called Cursed Land of Yerek is a barren place, littered with the ruins of an unknown civilization. Scholars claim that a catastrophic magical event took place there, destroying the land and those that inhabited it.

Slightly less inhospitable but equality deadly, the vast jungle known simply as The Green Hunger extends itself across the southernmost part of the continent. It has become a sort of competition between nations (or more precisely, their rulers) to attempt exploring this hostile place, with the latest known expedition having been sponsored by the Republic of Thermest just a few decades ago. Only a single ship returned, with barely enough men to properly man it and bring it back to safer shores. They brought tales of ancient ruins and a hostile species of barbaric insectoid creatures, and many new plants and seeds for the scholars to study.

Through the efforts of the different expeditions sent to The Green Hunger, scholars have managed to put together a picture of the place’s history. It appears that sometime during the First Era, a mighty civilization controlled all of Kraestoa (back then known as Karaestoia). It appears they were a powerful seafaring nation that ruled the region, and even had some settlements in what is today southern Alderworth and Corania. The name of this civilization has been lost in time, and as their influence faded, so did any knowledge of them. It is clear that whatever cataclysm reshaped northern Kraestoa had a large impact on the rest of the continent, and it is believed that it was ultimately the reason for this civilization’s collapse. Nowadays, southern Kraestoa is just a vast, unexplored jungle filled with the ruins of what most consider to be some sort of temples, making scholars believe that the place must have been a large religious complex. The creatures inhabiting the jungle are some sort of skitterclaw species, and a few scholars believe that they might be the descendants of those who built the ruins in the first place, now devolved and transformed into bestial things. This isn’t a popular theory, though, as it is also an uncomfortable one.

There are rumors of some Alderworthian nobles wanting to sponsor a new expedition to this hostile place, using prisoners condemned to the gallows as cannon fodder, something that has been applauded as a brilliant solution to the country’s prisoner problem. Whatever happens, few think that the mysteries (and potential riches) hidden in the jungles of southern Kraestoa will ever be fully revealed.