The Hellcatch Valley is a badlands region of harsh, dusty canyons near the center of Marquet.
Description
Because of its location, the Hellcatch acts as a hub between the mountain ranges, connecting the Rumedam Desert and Panagrip Sands to the northeast, Aeshanadoor to the southeast, the Taloned Highlands to the southwest, and the Oderan Wilds to the northwest within the Serpentwind Peaks. Running all along the northern borders of the Valley are the Aggrad Mountains.
The Hellcatch Valley was heavily impacted by the Calamity. There is a 300-foot drop from the lush jungles of the Oderan Wilds where the land simply fell, wiping out the vegetation in the formerly fertile valley and creating a desolate, pockmarked and ravine-carved landscape surrounded by broken mountains. It is covered in multitudes of nearly mile-wide sinkholes and unexpectedly collapsing and refilling tunnels.
The weather within the valley, with frequent high winds and dust storms, can be problematic for skyship travel, and the air trade routes therefore go around it rather than straight through. However, for ground travelers there are roads and bridges across the ravines.
Despite its desolate appearance, the Hellcatch is home to many animals and birds.
History
The Hellcatch Valley has a historical connection to an event that scarred Marquet during the Calamity. The event in question was the Ruiner's catastrophic strike on Cael Morrow to the northeast, which laid waste to much of the formerly verdant continent and raised the mountain ranges that separated the regions of Marquet.
In 843 PD, the ley lines crossing Exandria were shifting in conjunction with the impending, incredibly powerful Apogee Solstice, indicating that it would be focused on Marquet, with three possible nexuses: the Panagrip Sands, the ocean north of the Oderan Wilds, and the Hellcatch Valley. The actual location was later revealed to be the Tishtan excavation site, a known sinkhole north-northeast of Bassuras containing an archaeological exploration of ruins from the vanished Tishtan society. The ruins became known as the Red Center after the battle that took place there, and for weeks the forces of the Ruby Vanguard and the Exandrian Accord, with additional help from Ruidus and independent divine champions respectively arriving to the region to fight.
Society
As of 843 PD, although the Bassur Republic centered in Gujjar-Serai nominally governs the entire area, the Hellcatch Valley is inhabited by multiple roving groups of scavengers known as " crawler gangs " or "Crawlers", who live outside the centralized law. The various gangs, and independent cities and villages of the Hellcatch Valley compete with each other for territory and dominance, sometimes violently. The gangs ride massive constructs known as crawlers, with wide wheels covered in scaled spikes, to travel rapidly across the dust-encrusted plains..
The Hellcatch Valley is home to Paragon's Call, a group of mercenaries well known for their involvement in the conflict between the Stratos Throne and the Court of the Lambent Path.
Locations
- Bassuras
- Dead Man's Crater
- The Drowned City
- Gujjar-Serai (the Green City), seat of the Bassur Republic
- Kanak Gulf
- King's Fall, seat of the Order of the Red Raja
- Loonpur
- Nadigarh
- Rajarma
- The Rift, a 300 foot cliffside marking the borders between the Valley and the Oderan Wilds.
- Tishtan excavation site
- Troll Ferry
Flora and fauna
- Chimera
- Cockatrice
- Dusttra
- Ember roc
- Kagaronk
- Skirath
- Large desert birds - used as mounts by smaller humanoids
- Vultures
- Haggardoe trees - 20-25 feet tall, look like withered arms coming out of the ground with pale green and orange leaves, with lines of seedpods in the lower branches
Behind the scenes
Basheer Ghouse helped Matthew Mercer with the design of the Hellcatch Valley.
