Heran Adventures: 001 - Prologue

Heran Adventures: 001 is a prelude of what is to come.

The first vote decides where we will be exploring first!

The Heran Adventures is a new series of posts, interacting with patrons and generating new content for you via polls.
It will be a choose-your-own adventure style of posting.
(An idea from a previous series we had; the Lands of Agon. If anyone is familiar with that series you can expect these posts to be in a similar fashion but new and improved!)

Each post will include lore from the Rites of Heran mythos (the original works of Chibbin Grove).
These chunks of lore will be the means upon which patrons will decide what goodies they will be receiving from this series that month, whether it be maps, items, tokens or handouts.
(These adventures will be on a monthly basis).

As the first of these posts, I will give you a little run-down of what the Rites of Heran mythos is:

The Rites of Heran mythos is the all-encompassing universe where my creative works tend to live.
Heran will be the main focus of this series. Instead of it being the one massive universe, we will scale it down to two continents; Westan to the West and Eastan to the East.
Both continents are filled with the countless ruins, scarring and landscaping impacts of countless civilisations of old. The people who live on these lands know that they live on very old ground.
Like most land masses that are filled with life; the lands encompassing Heran are bustling with all forms of cultures, gods, societies and ecosystems.
Instead of describing them all here and now, let's journey from here on together and I will show you the Mundi of Heran. 

To begin, we will be picking from three iconic locations in Heran.
Each one represents one of the three nodes of power; Westan, Eastan and the Central Belt (Midstan).

Tera Wall
Central Belt (Midstan)
The glistening city of fountains and watery graves.
It is said that there is a mountain, hill or cave for every building that resides in the massive conglomerate metropolis of Tera Wall.
Learned folk from all creeds of life cross paths in this walled fortress city, high in the Palace Mountains.
It is said that the seven peaks that surround the city are the true eternal watchers.
To this day, Tera Wall has never been at war with any nation or state, however, if one is to make one false move in Tera Wall, be it meek, mild or severe, you can expect the consequences to be dire.
Though Tera Wall does not execute, the next best thing is exile, and it is a common saying among the rogues and scallywags of the road that: "If you haven't been exiled from Tera Wall, you are too straight to work with this crooked knife."
Things to expect whilst exploring Tera Wall:

• Beautiful glowing architecture.
• A city filled with subterfuge, dogma and hyperinflated egos.
• A shopper's delight; many of the finest merchants, craftsmen and artisans sell and make their wares within the safe walls of Tera Wall.
• A strict and no-nonsense authoritative government, prone to the abuse of propaganda and media.
• A vast and cavernous system of caves that litter below and surrounding the city.
• A large variety of temples, shrines and academies of arts can be found within the walls.

Northern Jebian Desert
Eastan
The cracked earth of the Northern Jebian Desert is said to be so dry and vast that one can go for days on end without seeing a single soul, and only see the parched and withered bone dust known as the sea of the dead.
This land is filled with mountainous dunes and barren, empty sands for miles on end. However, in this vicious heat and haze of emptiness, there are small pockets of great cosmic importance.
The Northern Jebian Desert is home to the last remnants of what is said to be the oldest known civilisation in all of Heran's known long history; the Deluge.
Things to expect whilst exploring the Northern Jebian Desert:

• Extreme hazardous environments of the heat-beating desert.
• Deep within the sands of the Jebian, slumbering giants rest and don't wish to be disturbed.
  Although, it is said that they hold knowledge of how one can traverse the cosmic waves.
• Scattered artifacts and arcane storms.
• Only one pocket of civilisation stands in all of the Northern Jebian Desert; the city of Jeb. Though one could argue that it is less of a city and more of a piling of slums, roaring with poverty and crime.
  Jeb is home to the 12 Horde-Lords of Mythra and the 72 crime families of the Elemental Nymphs.
• Elemental magic has an affinity to this land. It is said that the 5 elements shift with the seasons and the wind.
• Grim Jennings has undertaken a vast amount of his dungeon-complex redesigns here.

Ripper Keep
Westan
The more West you go in Heran, the sooner you hit the ice. Rather, the ice hits you, as the environment goes from pleasant and bountiful to near enough unliveable in mere steps.
The surrounding area before Ripper Keep is filled with glistening crystal caverns  that open up into an echoing sea of snowy hilltops.
The Sun is never your friend here, as you never see him; perpetual darkness is common. Although, the Moon can be a fine companion and it is said that if you can learn her ways, she can always guide you to safety.
Ripper Keep stands as a monolith of industry, fear and subjugation. One foul Lich has corrupted the souls of many to do its bidding.
This nameless Lich never leaves its fortress and no eyes of the living have seen its form, but its boundless shackled servants scavenge all throughout the land doing whatever mysterious bidding the Lich of Ripper Keep demands.
Things to expect whilst exploring Ripper Keep:

• Death - The hazardous environment is but a minor concern when entering this far West in this chilling zone of darkness.
  If the shadows themselves aren't warning enough, what lurks within and below them are the true stuff of nightmares. Parties will die here.
• Cults, vampires and the undead make the surrounding areas of Ripper Keep their home. They act as a buffer for anyone that wishes to get near.
• If one starts to spend a long enough period of time in this land of constant darkness, they will soon start to see the patterns of floods and avalanches.
• You can expect to find the most bold, daring and famous names within Heran lurking these lands.
  Although the age of heroes has passed, if it was to restart it would surely be in the darkest pockets of the West where the sparks of heroic light would rekindle.
• Though this is a land of pereptual darkness, it is said that the easiest way to find light is through the caves.
  Eventually, one will hit the biomes of the glowshrooms and encounter those that dwell and eat among them.
• If one goes deep enough, surpassing the blue sheen of the land of shrooms, they will come to a wall of heat and a gate of lava, beyond which hellhounds keep watch.

This post is open to the public, along with the voting.
All following posts will be patron only, with content being distributed as normal (Variants to Knights, Tokens and Handouts to Dukes, etc).
You can expect a few free maps and other goodies along the way too!

I hope the Rites of Heran mythos interests you!
Still here? Here's a little peek at the Rites of Heran mythos map that I am currently working on:

Included in this post is the (quite large) introductory poster for folks to grab and have a gander at.
You can see the world map, the 3 locations discussed above and also a cast of characters from the Rites of Heran universe.

If you have any questions regarding the adventure or the Rites of Heran mythos, let me know in the comments and I will do my best to answer!