Valdross is referred to all over Kryastal as The Blasted Continent. At one point in history, it was the most beautiful of all the lands with great kingdoms and empires. The greatest of which was controlled by the Council of Mages. On Valdross, those with magical powers ruled the land. It was also the same mages that brought about the desolate landscape that exists today.
At the heights of the mages power in the First Age, the art known as artificing began. Artificing is the making of mechanical devices that use both magic and natural resources as their power source. This was immediately viewed by the mages of the world as a possible threat to them. As the artificers began to improve their machines and inventions, the mages became more and more fearful of their growing power. Rumors became rampant that artificers were plotting to overthrow the mages' rule. Fear and paranoia would lead to the event known and cursed as the Mage/Artificers War. The war would be fought all over the world, but the most intense fighting would be done on Valdross.
Towards the end of the war, Izneria, the god of magic and of artificing, intervened surreptitiously to confine the fighting Valdross entirely. The war ravaged the land greatly and showed no signs of slowing. It was then that Izneria reluctantly cast the spell Raze. Raze, the spell of ultimate destruction, destroyed all living things on that land, including most of the mage and artificer armies.
Even now milleniums later the land is still barren. No life will ever grow there. Ryder Salice has ordered that all fights involving gods should be confined to this forsaken land. With no life to be harmed, the land was a perfect battleground. Ryder placed a magical enchantment on Valdross that keeps a god from leaving the land until the battle was over. Any god of Kryastal caught breaking this rule faces banishment from the realm. |
