The Once Lands are the haunted heartlands of a doomed empire that had sought to subjugate their own gods and ruled the entire face of the Shared World. Remains of this civilization span the Shared World and can be observed in this epoch in the long curved walls made of fossils that spanned across continents, now weathered by eons and mistaken for mountains. During the Breaking of the World many of the trapped gods of the Once Lands escaped to the Black Above and some remained sleeping. Descendant cults of the old sorcerers of the Once Lands keep these sleeping gods in dreams through ritual and sacrifice.
In this new surge to settle the lands between the seas the Once Lands are a collection of territories best avoided. In the last few hundred years four of these territories have had attempts to settle them and released many strange practices back into the world. In Tanuu many different peoples come and trade with the inhabitants of the Once Lands. The seeping alchemies of Besu, Xel, Odosophon, Din twist new births into mutants, drive settlers mad and overgrow the flesh with things that are neither plant nor animal.
Vanir Vani Vanni Vinni
The Vani are descendants of a cult of Once Land sorcerers with an oral history and rune lineage that goes back three thousands years. Their wise woman the Vanni seek a cultural atonement through which they raise wayfinders to seek the safe paths through the once lands and intercept and kill the alchemical mutants that crawl out of the secret crypts of the ancients. The Vani collect the skystones which fall to earth in their territory every 42 moons, fashioning them into weapons that can kill magical creatures and ideas. The Vani live a stone age existence by creed and deny the trappings of the supposedly civilized world. By living simply they believe the sickness of greed cannot infect them – this they hold above all, since long ago their people’s greed was enough to trap the gods and break the world.
Kaa Wayfinders
Wayfinders of the Vani allow themselves to be haunted by animal spirits known as the Kaa. They hollow out a place within their own spirit to hold a ghost and sometimes give the Kaa control of themselves in exchange of supernatural powers.