The Known Territories

Where the Breaking hit hardest. A vast territory of transformed landscape that pulses with residual energy — the highest concentration of post-Breaking phenomena in the known world. The most dangerous region to travel, and the most informative. Verve researchers have established three observation posts at the edges. None of them have maintained a permanent presence beyond six months.

A surviving repository of old-world knowledge, built into the ruins of a pre-Breaking institution of learning. How it survived while the structures around it were destroyed is a question that has been studied for two generations without resolution. Sylke calls it home. Others call it a miracle. Whorl calls it a target, which is why it maintains more fortification than its academic character would otherwise suggest.

A curved territory of fractured geography where Whorl influence runs deepest. Named for its shape from above — which those who have seen it from above describe as a scar made permanent. The terrain itself is unstable in ways that correlate with, and may be caused by, the concentration of Whorl energy in the region. Or the terrain may be attracting the energy. The direction of causation is unclear.

The majority of the post-Breaking world is not controlled by any faction, not named in any surviving map, and not formally documented. Wanderers move through these spaces freely. Settlements exist at varying degrees of stability and size. Some have lasted generations. Some last months. The Unmarked Territories are where most people actually live, which both Verve and Whorl leadership consistently underweights when planning.