Verza

• Controlled by: Verzae Legion
• Capitol: Viridian Grove
• Official language: Elvish (wood)
• Common languages: Infernal common, dwarvish, abyssal
• Inhabitant races: Wood elf, dwarf, human, tiefling
• Demonym: Verzae
• Population as of AC 1411: ~ 3,600,000
• Approximate form of government: Stratocratic Oligarchy / Military Junta
• Head of State: Generals of the Emerald Council

Eastern Verza has fallen to the Iris Corruption. The Viridian Grove together with its city is held by the Enemy. Administrative operations has extracted to Shattered Gate for the moment.

The Land of Verza, rich in history and nature, played a vital role in almost all important events of Terre. Being the old capitol region of the Forgotten Empire, Verza and the Shattered Gate now lies in the hands of Verzae Legion, ruling and controlling the Gate from Viridian Grove. Druidic leylines and Netheric arcane torrents intersect and intertwine, bringing fortune and conflict to this land.

The Land of Nature

The region of Verza is one of the most hospitable places in Terre. The land is blooming with verdant life, as the northern part consists of sparse forests and grasslands, while the southern part has more dense vegetation, giving shelter for animals to thrive and prosper.

Old ruins from the Forgotten Empire era scatters the grasslands and the forests, the most prominent of them being perhaps the Shattered Gate itself, serving as the throne of the Forgotten Empire before its downfall.

Despite its previous prosperity, Verza currently has very few permanent major settlements, as the nature of Verzae Legion implies the legionnaires’ preference of temporary military encampments, preferring mobility and availability over the confort of settling down. Apart from the Shattered Gate, Viridian Grove serves as the major permanent settlement as well as the capitol city for the Legion.

Verzae Legion

Verzae Legion, current controllers of the region of Verza, is a legion of military soldiers that align with the land, nature, and the druidic leylines of Terre. A majority of Terre’s wood elves belong to or are associated to the Legion, and so do many individuals of druidic nature.

The Legion’s alignments establish themselves as a force of the land, favoring druidic practices and opposing unregulated utilization of Netheric arcanes. Their diplomatic relationship with the Mages’ Guild and the Provincial Empire of Okeanos, by extension the old Forgotten Empire, is thus rather tense at times, but both of these entities rarely interfere with the Legion and each other. For now, most of the Legion’s forces are focused on the eastern front on Bladefall and the High Wall to fight and hold back the corruption from invading further, which in turn attracted many soldiers, mercenaries, and adventurers to associate with them and act under their commands.

The Verzae Legion’s ranks are in general as follows, from low to high: private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major, colonel, general. The Legion is led by Council generals of the Emerald Council, a collection of highest-ranked legion generals, who convene in the chambers of the Viridian Grove to govern Verza and the Legion. Although Council generals are selected by special protocols and are usually appointed by life, most of them retire at the coming of old age, or perish in the frontlines before a natural cause.

Rise of the Legion

Verzae Legion used to be a military clique of independent soldiers, adventurers, and mercenaries of druidic or wood elven origins, before the fall of the Forgotten Empire. The group operates around the Viridian Grove, where the druidic leylines converge, which despite its proximity have avoided interference from the throne of the Forgotten Empire in the Shattered Gate.

During the Tides of Steel, many legionnaires rebeled against the Forgotten Empire with druidic spells and weapons, and together claimed the land surrounding Viridian Grove. Throughout the following centries the Legion expanded slowly and acquired new territory. During the events following the Awakening, the Legion is together with the Nomadic State of Maltross the first responders to the cataclysm, delaying the Enemy effectively, earning them sizable political power in the current day Bladefall and the world in general.

Viridian Grove

The Viridian Grove is a giant fairy oak thousands of feet in height, visible over the canopy in most parts of Verza. Together with the city surrounding and named after it, the Viridian Grove acts as the current capitol of the region of Verza and Verzae Legion. Legends say that the wood elven deity Faevan himself planted the seed of this giant fairy oak besides the spring water of Hollunberg, and no matter myth or history, the Viridian Grove acts as the foci of the druidic leylines, and has been home to generations of druidic practicioners, of wood elven and other origins alike.

The city of Viridian Grove is built surrounding the Grove itself and along the river Laviange. Many resides in treetop structures or hollow trunks, while the majority of the rest of Viridian Grove’s architecture consists of planks, logs, and leaves, decorated with intricate wood elven patterns and infused with natural energies.

The giant fairy oak itself is hollowed out and constructed as a multipurpose complex housing the administrative mass of the Legion. The complex extends deep underground, even rumored to reach the leylines themselves.

The Shattered Gate

The Shattered Gate is the old throne of the Forgotten Empire, now under the control of Verzae Legion, as one of the two only major cities in Verza. While Viridian Grove is a wood elf majority city, the demography of the Shattered Gate is rather diverse. Many tieflings unable to relocate with the Ascendant monarchy and more open-minded than the aristocrats stayed behind in Shattered Gate, now living besides wood elves, humans, dwarves, and others alike.

The passage of time is evident in the architecture and planning of the most ancient surface city in Terre. Surrounding the Gate in the center, multiple rings of structures, each representing an era with its corresponding architectual style, expand outward like waves in the ocean or rings of a tree.

The Gate itself lies shattered and broken in the middle of the city, guarded by the Gate Keepers of the Legion. For centuries after the Ascending, the tieflings of the Forgotten Empire and countless other casters and scholars of Netheric arcanes tapped into the power beyond the gate, tramping the borders of danger and insanity. Now the Legion keeps it under firm watch, to stop whatever may be trying to ascend yet again, and to stop the curious from looking into the abyss.

Netheric Breaches & The Cinderfalls Incident

Despite Verzae Legion’s best efforts, there are times when whatever awaits on the other side of the Shattered Gate tears the thin veil between the Nether and the Material. Breaches of various sizes are occasionally discovered across Verza, and are a major issue of Verzae Legion, for if left alone, either the curiosity of Material residents, or the invasion of Netheric creatures, mostly fiendish, will cause huge disturbance within Verza, and potentially Terre.

The most catastrophic breach incident happened around AC 1343, in Cinderfalls, a rather secluded village in southwestern Verza, under a series of waterfalls surrounded by mountains and forests. Young villagers discovered a breach in the wild, and tempted by promise of arcane magic and their own curiosities, tapped into the Netheric arcane, with the help of some rogue mages exploring the area. Before the Legion is made aware, the breach soon expanded and exploded in magnitude, spewing out wild, uncontrolled energies, as well as armies of fiends. Nether hellfires coated the land in ashes and cinders, covering the sky with plumes of smoke. It is not until late AC 1346 that Verzae Legion is able to drive back the netheric armies and seal the breach, and not another couple of decades that the region around Cinderfalls is able to regrow and recover.

The Cataclysm in Verza

Fall of the Viridian Grove

Following the Cataclysm and the fall of Bladefall in late spring of AC 1411, for a time Verzae Legion evacuated into Shattered Gate, setting up administration in the Grand Ward under the Shattered Gate.

One of the most severe consequences of the Cataclysm, second only to the loss of Bladefall and the Old Guardian, is the Corruption getting a hold on the Viridian Grove. With the sole focus of the druidic leylines within Enemy hand, the uppermost hierarchy of druidic practitioners have their power diminished significantly, and has to rely on tactics and strategy to fight back.

The Legion, together with Terre, is racing against time, however. Iris Corruption slowly seeps through the lost territories, and it is only a matter of time before they are erased from records forever, just like the Lost Lands to the east. Whatever plan the Legion and Terre devises, haste must be made.

The Legion’s First Steps

Despite the militaristic inclinations of the Legion, large scale military operations to reclaim Viridian Grove raises concerns - The Legionnaires are trained in fighting Corrupted creatures from beyond the High Wall, and they are aware that it is no simple task.

In a desperate attempt to level the field, the Legion gathered groups of adventurers to infiltrate into enemy backlines, both within Viridian Grove, and in the larger region of eastern Verza. Most prominently, between the two groups led by heroes of Bladefall’s Cataclysm, one pinpointed the Corrupted servant stationed within Viridian Grove, breached into the Grove itself, and assassinated this leader; the other investigated traces of cultist activities, and unveiled a plot to summon powerful entities from an ancient civilization lost to the Corruption, putting a stop to it.

With these initial successes, the occupation forces from the Corruption weakens significantly, idling aimlessly without a lead. Over the Fall and Winter of AC 1412, the Verzae Legion managed to wrestle control of Viridian Grove from the Enemy, and pushed the frontline of the war east of the great tree. Although the devastation to the great fairy oak and its surrounding settlement will take much longer to rebuild, this is a vital first victory against what people have thought to be impossible to defeat.