Location Artwork - Avernum (Patreon)

Avernum is the most important city in the Northern Searing Plains. The reborn Empire moved back to the scorched and abandoned region soon after the Calamity and found it ideal to settle because of the new resources that can be found in the vicinity: salt, rare minerals, and even obsidian. Thus, Avernum was built at the center of the Smolderbone Flats. The city mostly lacks the religious apparatus of large provincial settlements, but has a fairly large military presence there under the direct control of the Prefectus, its governor. Rumor is that due to its backwater status, the city of Avernum follows Imperial regulations more loosely, and it has become essentially the private kingdom of the reigning Prefectus.

Controlling the city from the dreadful Slagfort, an imposing dark fortress, the Prefectus sends his personal army, the Avernus Legion (Legio XVI. officially; a notorious, but small group of veterans and ex-mercenaries) to handle his business when necessary. Since many comitati carry obsidian and even metal through here, there’s an unusual density of weapon craftsmen and even blacksmiths in Avernum, so much so that one can find several forges and smithies on the main street. Tribesmen of the Sadirar people, scavengers of Dvendra Tharr, nomads of the Ashlands, and even Kal-rish traders turn up here quite frequently, so trade is booming. Yet no one is quite safe under the ash-choked skies of Avernum, so most inhabitants and visitors carry weapons and always expect trouble.