Map I: Oerstav Caelii - The Isles of Oracles

[Work in Progress]

Once a beautiful unified island before the Great Cataclysm, the land of Oerstav Caelii is now nothing more an archepelago of savage isles continually assaulted by magickal storms. Once called the Isle of Oracles, the land is now often called the Shattered Oracle Isles in reference to the storied history of the place.

These strange and inhospitable islands are located west of the Morrthal Highlands, north of the Morrthault Isles, and south-east of the Fyrrantha Wilds. There are many legends, and dark fables, shared among the Hoelatha tribes distorting the true history of this land. It is a mythical setting used by skaldts in their tales and by oracles in their cautionary teachings. The shear number of tales told about the place ensures that every child in every tribe can recall the place by name.

It is said, in the more accurate tales, that the Shattered Oracle Isles were ruled over by the ancient Morthavi people when they first fled to the world of Myrris. Later, during the reclaimation of the Hoelatha Empire, the island was rebuilt and established as the home of the Sharr-vhult Oracles. These oracles were noted for their command of divination and potent mental abilities that challenged even the elemental powers of the Guardian Knights of Morrthault.

This was a place of peace, where different peoples of different cultures could come together to learn the mystical ways of the Sharr-vhult. It was a center of trade and travel between the Hoelatha lands, the Fyrrantha lands, the Frigid Wastes of Ssvacnoth far to the north-west, and the forgotten lands of the far north. It is said that the druidic tribes of Fyrrantha strongly assisted the Hoelatha people in their occult discoveries, regularly coming to this island for convocations and retreats.

It was when the Hoelatha Empire had grown fat and lecherous on its success that the island would be host to monsterous activities. The great city of Neshran would have its streets filled with blood before it would be sunken beneath the cold waters of the north. The island would be torn asunder by wild magick, sinking vaults of mystical knowledge beneath freezing water or to be burned away in lakes of magma. It was in this time that the final revelation was given to the Hoelatha Empire allowing it to know its decline and eventual doom would be imminent.

Many legends speak of a great seeress of the Hoelatha; a red-haired woman able to communicate with the very gods and forsee the doom that would befall the Hoelatha centuries in advance. It is said that in the ruins of the this maddening land, she still dwells, severed from death by the intervention of some elder god. She is cursed to watch as the world crumbles to nothing while she gives into unholy desires to destroy the other gods. They say at the very core of her monsterousness is the hope to restore the world to the vibrancy it once held, but in order to do this she must cleanse the world of her tainted blood-line.

Tales told to children of this red-haired witch involve her leaving her ruined island hermitage, craven with bloodthirsty madness, seeking children of the Hoelatha who rebel against their elders. She will snatch them up, carry them away, whispering false prophecies about that child's greatness into their ears. She will use them up, drain their life-force from them, and send their ashes on the wind to be forgotten for all time. Her desires and insanity are a cautionary tale to those with the vain-glorious ambition to fight the status-quo enacted by the Elders of the Grand Circle; the last remnants and vigilant guardians of the faded Hoelatha Empire.