Daemon's Cleft
The reason the Celinadion Empire collapsed, Daemon's
cleft is a huge canyon nearly 150 miles long and
apparently bottomless. From time to time, huge clouds
of smoke and stinking gas issue forth from it. Its
walls are made of craggy black and brown rock, which
grows smoother further down. Expeditions in the days
before the fall of the Empire never made it further
down more than a few thousand feet before the walls
became sheer. Even then the bottom was still not in
sight. Those few expeditions which used flying
magic never returned.
Since the Fall, no serious attempts have been made to
explore Daemon's Cleft, but there are many theories as
to what it holds in its depths. Despite evidence to
the contrary, some believe it merely a natural
phenomenon. Some say that it holds the palace of a
demon lord exiled to this plane, or perhaps a renegade
god. Still others believe that it is the abode of an
extra-dimensional sorcerer of great power. One widely
held rumor holds that the cleft was formed when a
glowing artifact fell from the sky. Some say that
Crown Prince Ildanor was looking for this artifact
when he led the expedition into the Cleft. Some
believe that he found it, and that is why the Empire
fell.
Whatever the truth may be, there is no doubt that the
Cleft has an evil aura about it. Malevolent creatures
have always been drawn to it, especially in the days
since the Fall. In recent years, large groups of
orcs, trolls and worse have begun forming around the
Cleft, and this is almost certainly a portent of evil
times ahead.