Calmor Ruins
"Where truth was broken, and death took root."
Once, the Jewel of Gold Land
Calmor was once a proud city of Aurelia’s sister-state, known for its silver mines and marble halls. Though it bowed to Aurix’s law, its people whispered that Calmor’s lords were too ambitious, too hungry for power. Unlike Aurelia, which sought purity and truth, Calmor sought wealth and eternity, always chasing a legacy that would never fade.
Its final ruler, Lord Veynar Calmorion, was the most ambitious of them all. A man of brilliance and vanity, he feared death above all things. Obsessed with tales of immortality, he searched for forbidden knowledge long banned by Aurix’s decrees. His prayers for “eternal life” were answered—though not by the heavens.
The Bargain in Shadows
In secret, Veynar made contact with a cloaked stranger who promised him everlasting rule. This stranger was no mortal sage, but the Undead Dragon of the Isle, cloaked in illusion. Through rituals of bone, ash, and sacrilege, Veynar drank of the dragon’s black gift.
He was granted immortality… but not the one he sought. His flesh rotted, his eyes became pits of green flame, and his soul was bound in chains of undeath. He became the first Death-Lord of Calmor, his court consumed in the same plague of false eternity.
The Fall of Calmor
What followed was swift and merciless:
The Noble Houses: Those loyal to Veynar were twisted into lich-thralls, skeletal knights, and banshee courtiers.
The Common Folk: Many perished in a single night of screaming. The rest rose again, their bodies shackled to his will.
The Land Itself: Once fertile fields and forests, now withered into dust. The skies grew black and storms refused to leave. Even the sun seemed to die above Calmor.
When Aurix learned of this treachery, he struck against the city with golden fire, but by then, the corruption had sunk too deep. The city’s bones were blackened stone, its heart a nest of death.
Calmor was abandoned to ruin.
The Ruined City Today
Now known only as Calmor Ruins, the place is a scar upon Gold Land:
Perpetual Gloom: Clouds never part above it, leaving the ruins in dim twilight even at noon.
The Streets: A maze of broken spires, collapsed mansions, and hollow-eyed statues worn by ash and rain.
The Forest of Bones: Twisted, petrified trees jut out like claws. Some still drip black sap said to be Veynar’s blood.
Haunted Lights: Pale-green will-o’-wisps drift through the alleys, luring the curious to their doom.
Monsters of bone, shadow, and fleshless wings roam freely. But worse are the whispers—voices of the dead echoing through the empty halls, offering bargains just as false as the one that doomed the city.
Legacy of Calmor
Forbidden Knowledge: Adventurers claim the libraries of Calmor still contain grim secrets of immortality and necromancy.
Treasures of the Nobility: Relics of silver, gold, and cursed jewels lie buried in the rubble, but touching them may bind your soul to Veynar’s curse.
The Death-Lord’s Throne: Deep beneath the ruins, in a shattered throne hall, Veynar still sits. A hollow king, eternal but broken, whispering his undying envy of the living.
Rumors and Hooks
Some say Veynar is not bound fully to Calmor—his spirit is a pawn of the Undead Dragon, waiting to be unleashed again.
A few mad scholars believe slaying Veynar could release the city from its curse… or plunge Gold Land into even deeper darkness.
Rebels, heretics, and power-seekers sometimes vanish into the ruins, hoping to claim Veynar’s secrets. Few return.