02 - Iron Kingdoms W.. - Captain Spud Is Amazing

316 Iron Kingdoms
108.1.141.197
Cryx
The wild places of the Scharde Islands are home to
terrible beasts of fiendish cunning and nefarious wit.
They are driven by more than instinctual hunger, for
the beasts of this land are capable of great malice and
unforgiving cruelty. In the western seas, sheltered by
rings of razor-sharp reefs, a long and foreboding coast
of jagged peaks jut from dark waters like the fangs of
a monstrous creature hungry for the flesh of the sky
above. Towering sea stacks in this place are lit at night
by balefires of unnatural green and purple and chill
the souls of foreign sailors unfortunate enough to find
themselves plying these waters. The shore, much of it
steep cliffs, is overhung by dense undergrowth and
thorns. Atop them tenebrous rainforests are shrouded
by a cloying mist—the hot, heavy, and blood-scented
breath of the great predator that is Cryx.
On the main island in the shadow of its jungles
and mountains, foul creatures inhabit putrid cities
and villages of collapsed and crumbled architecture,
communing and festering like ticks on the hide of a
mangy wolf. Though Cryx is the host to Lord Toruk’s
undying legions, its black cities house desperate,
disposed mortals attempting to eke out their lives
within the borders of what mainlanders call the
“Nightmare Empire.” In these wretched places, the
weak survive at the mercy of the strong, and the strong