*Disclaimer: This is a very lore intensive chapter to help with world building, but I tried keep it interesting*.
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Lecture: "The Twelve Wounds of the World"
Location: The Glass Colosseum, Anatheon Academy | Instructor: Professor Haleth Samaan, Scholar of Ruinology and Extraplanar Geotheology
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The lecture hall smelled of ink and oldness.
Stone-like tiers ringed the hall in concentric circles, filled with almost all Anatheon's elite—students in various uniforms of lineage, power, and arrogance.
Siege sat near the center, arms crossed, shoulder still aching from the Pit of Ordeals.
Albion lounged beside him like a panther in repose, unreadable as ever.
And Leo was seated to his left, talking about something nonsensical to Zachary with a big smile.
The glaive-girl—Cassiel—sat two rows ahead, hair tied back, already taking notes with a pen that bled midnight-blue ink.
At the front of the hall, a map manifested.
It spanned the entire floor, it seemed to be stitched from magic and scaled hide, animated with shimmering runes.
As the lights dimmed, the map glowed brighter, showing not just land—but wounds. Scars across the world.
At its center stood the speaker: Professor Haleth Samaan, a stern middle-aged man in a professional black suit.
His eyes were veiled, his voice quiet but iron-sharp.
"Today," he began, "we chart what should not exist."
With a flick of his finger, the runes pulsed. The world writhed.
"You do not know the Earth as it was. But that Earth is gone."
He raised his hand.
"The collapse of the World Tree fractured more than realms. It reshaped the planetary mass. Midgard now bleeds into Jotunheim. Muspelheim seeps through crust and ash of Olympus. Entire nations vanished into Svar-Ioka. Others twisted into things... less than desirable."
He stepped aside as the map shifted, growing.
"Current estimates place Earth's new circumference at roughly four times its prior measure. But even that is uncertain. No one has charted the far edges."
A hand went up.
It belonged to a student with gold-threaded hair and piercing jade eyes.
"So what's stopping us from exploring? We have Ascendants, fleets, war-archons—"
"All lost," Haleth said without pause.
"Exploration parties dispatched beyond the Outer Dark return with madness, if at all."
"GPS fails. Compasses spiral. Memory degrades. One captain claimed they reached the edge of the sea and found their own ship sunken there, crew staring from the waves."
A ripple of unease passed through the room.
"Instead," Haleth continued, "we rely on what we know. The twelve Forsaken Lands."
The map fractured again. Twelve blood-red markers pulsed across the continents like tumors.
"Each Land is not simply a region of monsters. It is the domain of a Ccorrupted sovereign—myth twisted, truth perverted by the Eldritch."
"Each ruler was once a god, a titan, or a creature from the echoes of legend. Now, they are fallen. Mockeries. Their Aspects rotten domains."
His pointer tapped the first mark.
1. [The White Vale] – "Formerly Scandinavia. Ruled by the False Hydra, once Lernaean. Its heads no longer multiply. They erase. Victims forget their existence even mid-scream. Villages vanish without memory. Sound is twisted. Songs summon death. {Desecrated Colossus}."
Siege flinched. Cassiel's pen froze mid-scratch.
2. [The Endless Rain] – "South America. 'La Llorona' reborn as the 'Mourning Queen', corrupted into a banshee-divinity. Her scream sunders souls. Rain never stops. Rivers run uphill. {Vile Goliath}."
3. [Umbra Canyon] – "Formerly known as the Grand Canyon. A sinkhole to Hel. Ruled by the Slithering Evil, a serpent made of stitched nightmares and illusions.. It can only be seen in shadow. {Desecrated Colossus}."
4. [The Hollowpoint] – "Western North America. Under the domain of the Swamp Wyrm, a basilisk merged with a forgotten Native American war god. It eats the souls of its victims. People form cults to it—then disappear. {Vile Colossus}."
5. [The Demon Chasm] – "East Asia and the broken remnants of Japan. Now held by the Thousand-Faced Oni, a chaos-specter spawned from a shattered Shinto pantheon. Each face wears a god it devoured. {Vile Colossus}."
6. [Frostmourne Reach] – "Siberia and beyond. Frozen under the eye of the Wendigo God, simply known as Hunger. A predator who mimics warmth. Survivors wander into the cold willingly. It turns it's victims into lesser versions of itself that haunt the wilds. Never to be satisfied. {Cursed Colossus}. "
7. [Haelstrom Sea] – "Pacific remnants. Ruled by the Stormfather Wyrd, an abomination created from the corpses of Aeolus and Typhon. Now a corrupted cyclone elemental that wears drowned titans as armor. It is a living hurricane, intelligent and vengeful. {Cursed Cataclysm}."
8. [The Black Labyrinth] – "Australia's core. Where Minos Reborn now reigns, a grotesque fusion of mythic King and beast. The entire Outback is its maze. The minotaur rules from the center, remade in bronze and god-blood. {Cursed Cataclysm}."
9. [The Sky Rend] – "Broken Himalayas. Occupied by the Depraved Roc, a corrupted celestial bird who fell upward into the void. It breathes space and terrorizes the area. {Cursed Cataclysm}."
2. [The Mawdeep] – "The former North Atlantic trench. A realm of pressure and leviathans. Home to the Drowned Monarch, the violated remains of Charybdis, whose tentacles stretch across fault lines. It sings to tectonics. {Apocrypha Cataclysm}."
11. [The Hateful Dawn] – "Deep Sahara. A corrupted sun spirit, the golden crow, that rises in cycles of nuclear fire over the scorched equator. It does not bring warmth—only searing regret. A solar-chimera of corrupted Sekhmet and Chinese origin. It has turned the sands of the desert to fine glass. Its presence boils the soul. {Nameless Cataclysm}."
12. [Vranmyr] - "Southeastern North America. There is little known of this Forsaken Land other than it is the hibernation place of the greatest evil to walk our realm. The dwelling place of the Light-Devouring Dragon, the fallen Black Dragon King Vritra. {Nameless Apocrypha}."
A dreadful hush followed the last name.
Leo turned to look at Siege, wide eyed and encouraging.
Siege resisted the urge to slap him.
*Bro, do you want me to die? Do you really think I can kill that thing?*
"The only recorded appearance of this dragon was at the start of the Ragnarok, where it wiped out most of Southern U.S."
"Pre- Ragnarok the greatest threats we're merely Savage or Goliath mortal beings, no Corrupted or Divine. All suppressed by a now destroyed organization called the Order."
"Thus, the masses were largely unaware when disaster struck."
Then a voice—soft, but cutting—spoke from the back.
"Professor," Albion said, "have any of them ever left their domains?"
A pause.
Haleth turned slowly.
"They do not leave," he said. "They... drift. Slight shifts as their powers tend to cancel out one another."
"That's where Citadels lie, on the faults between their domains."
"We sit between White Veil and Frostmourne."
Another student raised a hand. "Are they killable?"
"Not by anyone below Rank 5. And even then—it's unlikely. Monsters tend to be stronger than their divine counterparts."
Albion smiled faintly. "Then I suppose we'll need to be more than gods."
Haleth's expression remained neutral.
"That brings us," he said, "to the Citadels."
The map pulsed again.
Eight blue marks flared across the bloodstained world.
"Each Citadel is a bastion. A remnant of old power. A seat of divine rule. Only these eight remain. All else has fallen or been consumed."
He gestured to each in turn.
1. [Halgrith Citadel] – "Northern Europe. Ruled by Lyssandra Maxwell, True God of War, inheritor of Kartikeya's legacy. Our ruler."
Siege stiffened. He'd seen her from afar once. A woman made of silence and thought.
2. [Neryth Citadel] – Northern Canada. "Lorded by Orryn the Tempest, True God of Winter. Inheritor of Boreas."
3. [Solbrink] – "South America. Held by Valkhana, True God of Renewal. Inheritor of Xipe Totec."
4. [Uroth-Kai Citadel] – "Mongolia. Ruled by Kharzan the Hollow-Eyed, True God of the Sky. Inheritor of Tengri."
5. [Aen Virel Citadel] – "Australia's floating fortress. Governed by Iza Schultz, True God of Illusion and Binding. Inheritor of Hecate."
6. [Dreugan Citadel] – "South Africa's ruins.Under Malthor, True God of Flame and Volcanoes. Inheritor of Pele."
7. [Gravethorne] —"Eastern Siberia. Under the rule of Ivan Peterov, True God of Storms. Inheritor of Perun."
8. [Edoreh Citdel] – "West Africa. The only exception as it does not lie in a fault line between Forsaken Lands."
"It's ruler—Oshio Fosu is the only living God King."
"He is also the only known owner of a Primeval Aspect— {Ultimate Sun}."
"He alone suppresses the Hateful Dawn, restraining it just to the Sahara."
A boy beside Siege raised a hand. "Primeval? What exactly does that mean?"
"It is the earliest age," Haleth said.
"It is something else. Something older. Primeval does not rewrite the world. It is the world. It is the most elementary state of all things."
He looked out across the students.
"These eight Citadels hold civilization. The rest is silence and monsters."
"How long until another Citadel falls?" asked someone behind Cassiel.
Haleth's veil flickered with light. "One already has. Gravethorne. Last week."
A blast of silence.
Siege exhaled slowly. Gravethorne had been a northern haven. Brutal. But proud.
"That," Haleth said, "is why you're here. Not to ascend. Not to flaunt Aspects or duel in pits."
He stepped onto the map, her feet casting no shadow.
"You are here to understand this world. To face it. To die in it. Maybe to kill for it."
"And if you're lucky—if you're strong—to outlive it."