Mortenox
Mortenox is the crater in which the city of Vansreik stands today.1 The name also belongs to the old city of Mortenox, whose ruins lie beneath Vansreik.2
The crater lies at the south-western edge of The Empire, near the Free Ports and the southern lands of the D’afat.3
Origins of the crater
How the crater was formed is told in different ways. Scholars say it was made by the impact of a meteor, while the Church of Alarath attributes it to the clash between the archangel Shamyhaza and a colossal demon.3
The legend of Saint Clarice tells that ages ago an archangel and a winged demon fought a fierce battle in the sky. The struggle was turning in the demon's favour when Clarice, an ordinary nun, came to the angel's aid on the back of a noble griffon granted to her through her prayers, and her sword decided the battle. When the colossal demon fell to the ground in defeat, the Mortenox crater was formed.1
Another account links the crater to Mortenox's observatory. Seven great lenses once belonged to that observatory and played a part in building it; when a comet struck, the tower sank beneath the earth, giving rise to the crater on which Vansreik now stands.4
The old city beneath
Below Vansreik's surface rests an ancient necropolis, destroyed in the cataclysm that shaped the crater.3 The Undercity is reached through the perilous tunnels of this necropolis known as Mortenox; it is the centre of illegal activity in Vansreik, and the city's mercenary guilds visit it often.5
Donald Whent, when he was a captain of the Reik Storms, strongly supported sending the Reik Storms into the Deep Pit to secure a few layers of the old city of Mortenox. He believed that extending Vansreik's borders into the pit would let the city prosper and bring long-lost artefacts to light.6
Turnip Bellwater and six of his cousins, descending into the pit, came upon a previously undiscovered section of the old city of Mortenox and plundered its ruins of art, gold, silver and tomes.2
Around the crater
Farmlands surround the crater; Valakar was raised among them.7 Mud hills also lie around the Crater of Mortenox, where Shaila Bellwater, on her first mission, helped an adventuring party kill a hill giant.8
Notes
Sources
This article draws on:
Images in this article
Art by Moreno Paissan. Shadow Over Vansreik (Bad Badger Games, 2024), p. 116.
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PlaceDeep PitThe vast pit at the centre of the crater of Vansreik, a dungeon over the ruins of the old City of Mortenox whose entry is regulated by Tickets that the mercenary companies of the city compete for.
PlaceVansreikA lawless city inside the Great Crater of Mortenox on the south-western edge of the Empire, grown up around the Deep Pit, whose noble houses, church and rival mercenary guilds compete for the riches buried beneath it.CharacterArchibald the FlametamerAn Archon Academy graduate and fire mage who made a small fortune showing off his fire magic in the Farran Islands, then came to Vansreik and joined the Eagle Brigade.ArtifactLenses of ChronnSeven great lenses that once belonged to the observatory of Mortenox and played a part in building it, before a comet struck and the tower sank beneath the earth.CharacterSaint ClariceA nun of legend who, riding a griffon granted through her prayers, came to an archangel's aid against a winged demon; the fallen demon is said to have formed the Mortenox crater where Vansreik now stands.
RegionThe EmpireThe human realm at the heart of the Lands of Exile, an absolute monarchy heavily shaped by faith, ruled from Marble City by the unbroken line of the Red Eagle and divided into five provinces under their Sovereigns.RegionCaligranThe eastern of the two great continents of Teneris, mostly desert since the Desolation, whose habitable north holds the Lands of Exile, the refuge of the surviving races.RegionCanarqueThe western of the two great continents of Teneris, a collection of fragmented lands discovered by an imperial expedition that returned in 289 AVD, and known to most imperial subjects as the New World.RegionDa’fat FederationThe elven federation south of the Calinor-dal, founded in the Second Age by elven tribes who fled north after the Desolation; every surviving elven people lives there, and Lady Nemarin is its spiritual leader.RegionFrazaThe harsh northern realm beyond the Empire's mountain passes, a land of monsters and relentless winter whose clans live free, honour strength and deed above blood, and esteem their seers and witches.