Beyond the World Spine Mountains…

Up an ancient road that cuts through those impossibly high peaks, there is a land still unspoiled by this age of blood we live in.

There, beauty is a virtue not forgotten. There is still honor and civility. Magic is still an untamed force of nature, not the play thing of evil men.

The people that call this place home are tranquil and peaceful.

They are brave and upright.

They are the keepers of a lost culture…an ancient way… a better way…from a time before the world was ruled by the corrupted temples of careless gods, before all men were broken under the machinations of greedy merchant guilds,  before magic itself was broken, forged into a tool to exploit the weak by mad wizard kings!

They call themselves the people of the mists, and their settlements rise up on the shores of a great central sea hidden in the mountains.

This sea is fed by a thousand waterfalls that rain down from the mountain peaks, and a thousand rivers that flow from them…The Sea of Ancients…

they say it flows though those peaks like a meandering serpent, a maze of waterways surrounded by cliffs and half drowned mountains.

This land is alive with magic, and the People of the Mists are at one with the land.

They have learned to touch the mysterious infinite beyond death, and are counciled by the wise spirits of their ancestors.

The land itself is alive with mighty spirits…forces of nature and divinity embodied! Powerful beings that watch over and protect this noble people.

Travel through this mountain realm would not be possible if not for a network of ancient roads made of shimmering white stone. They wind through the endless peaks, spanning the great ravines on wondrous bridges. No one knows who built them..they are thousands of years old, untouched by time, unclaimed by nature…they are magical things…Not even the people of the mists tread lightly upon them. They are a people steeped in ceremony and strange traditions. To them, travel itself is a sacred and holy task, never entered into lightly.

Holy sites, and sacred points, said to be vertices of the worlds magical veins, dot this place, hidden away in the mountains and up the ancient roads. They say those who find them are granted mysterious power, renewed youth, sight beyond sight, the luck of the gods…

The ruins of a forgotten age cling to the mountain sides…

…and lay hidden in the wilderness.

They say the secrets of our past, the story of where we came from, treasures and ancient magics are hidden away in these places, waiting for those with the courage and wherewithal to seek them out.

…but they are not free for the taking. The ghosts of a more violent age haunt these places…for you see, there was a time when much blood was split in these lands to make them free. The lands are still scared by the evils men committed there in the past…not all of the spirits here are friendly…

…not all the dead are at rest.

It’s said there is an underworld beneath this land, a place filled with demons who plot to corrupt the People of the Mists…

Warlords and bandit clans..men who have made pacts with demons and dark spirits in the wilderness, roam the edges of Yunshan, jealous of their prosperity, hungry to consume their peace in blood.

Brave Heroes…they call themselves demon hunters, and bandit hunters…venture out to face the darkness that threatens their people.

For the people of Yunshan have something worth protecting, something worth fighting for…

They have peace, freedom, honor…love…Now the men who rule over us…they laugh at these things like the useless ideas of a bygone time…but in Yunshan, these things are still alive!

Maybe it’s just a stupid legend…maybe Yunshan is just like the rest of the world, a disappointment…maybe it doesn’t exist at all!

…but if I were still young like you…I would make that journey…I would go and see for myself!