A world stitched together by memory, magic, and survival.
Shardfall is a world of places that could scarcely be more different. Ships crowd the harbors of coastal city-states, mountain settlements cling to towering cliffs, and entire communities thrive beneath freshwater lakes. Across those distances, peoples have developed their own customs, loyalties, and ways of understanding the past. They trade, disagree, learn from one another, and sometimes fight over the remnants of the old world, and what they should become. The old empires are gone, but their influence remains in the cities people inhabit, the boundaries they defend, and the histories they tell.
No map can show all of that. But it's a place to begin.
Lyria
A city that looks older than it works.
Built into the coastal cliffs of Dunlorn above a bustling harbor, Lyria is a maze of steep stairways, crowded markets, and weathered stone repaired so many times that the repairs have become part of the architecture. Sailors, merchants, adventurers, and travelers fill its streets, while music and arguments spill from taverns long after sunset.
Beneath all that battered stone, the ancient Conduit provides running water, public bathhouses, and reliable magical lighting. Lyria is a city of contradictions, where extraordinary conveniences exist alongside ordinary hardships. It isn't particularly elegant, and it doesn't pretend to be. But there's a warmth to its crowded streets that makes leaving harder than arriving.
Lastlight
A beautiful city learning to change.
When evening falls over Lastlight, its broad river begins to glow silver-blue, illuminating pale stone bridges, dark slate rooftops, and the busy waterfront below. The largest city in Selenor is a place of old traditions, refined architecture, music, and lively evenings along the water.
But Lastlight is changing. Refugees from the lost homeland of Veilara have brought new traditions, unfamiliar songs, and countless stories into its streets. They've also brought challenges that even a prosperous city struggles to accommodate. Housing grows crowded, old institutions strain, and familiar neighborhoods become something new.
For all its elegance, Lastlight is discovering that welcoming people is easier than making room for them.
Aelun
A city where the water is the street.
Hidden beneath the waters of Farwater Lake, Aelun is a luminous city built for people who have no need of roads. Lake Elves swim freely between elegant structures of pale stone and gold, while translucent magical membranes protect gardens, homes, and public spaces without ever removing the water within them.
Massive domesticated Farwater sturgeon glide through the city, hauling heavy freight between underwater markets and residences. These enormous creatures are part of everyday life, moving cargo through a city where the water itself serves as the street network. Above the crowds, quieter residences offer one of Aelun's greatest luxuries: privacy.
Here, status isn't simply measured in wealth or possessions, but in the freedom to be left undisturbed. And while Aelun may be beautiful to outsiders, being invited inside is an entirely different matter.