Editing General Setting Information (section)

==== Asphodel Fields ====
To the South of Karteria lays an expanse of wetlands. Barely above sea level, these lands are water-logged and difficult to traverse at the best of times, and outright deadly at the worst. A shallow pool can suddenly give way to a chasm, leading many an unwary walker to drown. The mud is sticky and easy to be trapped in, and with the land flat and fog common, it's just as easy to become ''lost''.

These lands have never been particularly well-trod or well-developed. Some attempts have been made to drain the water, or even construct platforms to live above it, but neither approach showed much success. Even before arcane radiation became the problem that it is today, most of these attempts had been abandoned. No one ''wanted'' to live above a festering bog.

To go out there now, it's possible to still come across the skeletal remains of some abandoned building project. Harder to find are the skeletal remains of whoever built it, scattered and sunk deeper into the muck.

Presently, due to the effort of Augmented exploration (and some Patho-Gen guidance and materials), there are now multiple '''waystations''' breaking up the mess of marsh, providing places to rest and take shelter from the buggy climes. There are additionally '''teleportation platforms''' installed alongside some of these waystations, allowing one to skip directly from the origin point (Patho-Gen HQ, within Karteria), across the swamp—all the way to the bridge connecting Orexis to Eparsis. And even across it, with the furthest point being just outside the borders of Kelesis itself! Asphodel Fields is now a holiday destination for those who love bugs and muck, rather than a treacherous impasse for anyone trying to explore Southwards.

As in the forests, life of a sort thrives here. Insects and avians abound, as do a variety of reptilians. Arcane radiation has made its own mark on the land, as all mud and water here is '''deadly to ingest''', at least for a human... and not recommended for the Augmented either. Simply coming in contact with the tainted materials invites rashes and fever, and to be bitten by the insects that live here is similarly dangerous. Physical masses of the arcane mineral are suspected to lay underneath the marshbeds, but who's going to go looking for them?

(Reptilian, Arthropod, Cephalopod, and Golem-types have an easier time in this landscape than others. Terra-types have it ''particularly'' rough, unless the particular plant(s) they're based on are comfortable in marshes and swamps. Aves-types can potentially fly above it... but will have to land eventually.)