Lore, The nexus, Xerath Kingdom

We’ve finally arrived. Two years of travel. TWO YEARS! We’d heard that the nexus was far away, sure, but it’s one thing to actually experience the journey over half the continent compared to hearing about it. There were some sticky situations and dangers on the way but we mostly kept to the well established roads as there’s not many highwaymen or bandits willing to rob a full party of diamond ranked adventurers.

Still, the dangers were almost welcome when they cropped up, reminding me of home on the border of the untamed region where wyvern sightings were common. I also much prefer the temperate climate of home but that might just be my own preference. Hina says she’s much more fond of the warm and moist climate of the Xerath Kingdom where we’re at now, the nexus being in the middle of it all.

I’m not very fond of the sweltering heat but the plants and animals are interesting at least. I haven’t seen a single conifer tree in months. No spruce, pine, fir or sequoias. It’s so strange but fascinating. The animals are also much smaller here compared to the far north but monsters still come in all sizes. There are more lizards and birds than anything else from what I’ve seen.

Then there’s the cities themselves. They’re marvelous. Even though I’m not a huge fan of the warmth there’s still an exotic charm to everything. The colorful and light clothing everyone is wearing, houses constructed with something they call stucco, their roofs tiled with various, colorful shades of terracotta.

Pools of pleasantly cool water on some of their roofs with open air taverns adjoined, serving refreshing drinks and the like. Tall and strange trees with trunks patterned like snake scales, wooden fibers sprouting randomly like hairs between the segments and only a few large and wide leaves at the top. They’re interspersed all over the cities and often bend or twist in funny ways, bringing small patches of shade to where the buildings’ shadows don’t reach.

Then of course, there’s the nexus itself. The ancient ruins of a people and civilization who seemingly vanished into thin air. Many have apparently searched the ruins for answers but very few have been found, even fewer proven. The general consensus being that most of the ruins must have been sealed shut, leaving little to no information lying around undisturbed over the eons. At least that’s what an old man selling peaches told Hina when she asked what he knew.

We haven’t gone there yet but it’s no more than a few days' travel from the city we’re staying in. It’s supposedly over 25,000 years old according to the records various scholars have gathered but I’m not sure if that’s true. I mean, 25,000 years? I’ll see it for myself soon and I can make up my own mind then.

Journal: Entry 756

Willum Kildrik, Diamond ranked adventurer