Vónekh VII

The remote, forbidding planet of Vónekh VII lies on the threshold between the material universe and the Void. Beneath its battle-scarred surface lie ancient secrets, lost technologies, and slumbering titans of unimaginable power. Upon its blood-soaked battlefields, the fate of both realms will be decided. To survive here, you will need your wits as well as your strength. To face what is about to be unleashed on this desolate arena will take the courage of an immortal.

The Ominous Legacy of the Aëdr

Were it not for the War in Heaven, Vónekh VII would be untouched by even the crudest of lifeforms. Yet as fate would have it, life indeed came crashing down on this bleak, treacherous planet some six millennia ago. During the final throes of the war, a terrible cataclysm ripped through both forces. The skies blazed with destruction and were streaked with falling starships. This once-barren world would witness the ultimate, climactic battle and the almost complete annihilation of the Aëdr, a mighty race who once strode among the stars.

The legacy of those once proud and powerful beings remains on Vónekh VII for their descendants to unearth. The shattered carcasses of ruined starships still lie rotting in the darkest and most remote locations: hidden beneath the searing dunes of Vaëtar; buried in the undergrowth of its steaming jungles; resting high among the towering peaks of Khaïrnóth; submerged deep in its cratered lakes and glacial fjords. Still even further north, across icebound seas, mysterious Nharán holds its own secrets behind a veil of soul-shuddering snows.

The Void stirs. Forces beyond comprehension are starting to awaken. Increasingly there have been reports of fell creatures coming forth from the Void to wreak havoc on the living. The Symmetron system of pillars that spans a vast network of planets and moons is failing. Existing on the threshold between material reality and the Void, Vónekh VII will be at the heart of the coming catastrophe. To its people, a great burden has fallen: to decide the fate of galaxies.

Yet amid the peril there is hope. A potent force lies dormant among the lost technologies of the Aëdr, evidence of their commanders of old, beings of immense power and wisdom known as the Násr. Could these living relics offer a way to save Vónekh VII from the fury of the Void? In any case, whatever secrets this grim world holds must be uncovered before it’s too late.

The Hidden Face

The extent of the world of Vónekh VII that is known to cartographers is defined almost singularly by the planet’s unique and deadly predicament. Lingering precipitously at the edge of the material realm and the mirror-like dimension of the Void, nearly half of the planet lies in a perpetual shadow that is anathema to all that lives. Here, magenta-red mists of Void energy drift over a landscape of blackened soil and unearthly horror.

The untainted side offers a vastly different spectacle: an expanse of broad, glimmering oceans, bisected by the twin continents of Khaïrnóth and Vaëtar. These rich lands are a dazzling mural of emerald forests and obsidian mountains, of golden deserts and silver tundras.

Once the domains of the Lánaraï spanned both continents, stretching from Telárkharóth in the northern deeps of Starfall Chasm, to Eánaoróth in the riverlands of the far south. However, the awakening of the Kheïtanni, and the bitter internecine war that has raged ever since, caused city by city to fall. Some to siege, others to internal strife or even overrun by the multitudinous tides of the prolific Rhïan population.

Over these years of strife, the seat of Lánaraï power shifted, almost singularly, to the mighty mountain fortress of Araïkharóth, the City of the Sky. More than a city, it is an impenetrable fortress set between the two imposing peaks known as The Pillars of Heaven that tower over the southwestern tip of Khaïrnóth.

So too did the epicentre of the brutal conflict drift northwards. Where the Lánaraï went, their hateful Kheïtanni kin followed to continue their genocidal blood-hunt.

It is unsurprising then, that Chapter I was always going to take us northwards to the continent of Khaïrnóth. Here the war between the descendants of the Aëdr is waged with relentless fury, a two way siege that batters like waves upon the peaks of the dividing range of The Silver Spine. Here the vile Lán-Faën rise like a Black Plague from the shadowed depths of chasm and forest. And here in the frozen northern mountains the dread gaze of the Tyrant-God has fallen.

One day our story will take us back to the south lands, where the Mouth of God intones fiery doctrines from the steps of the Great Pyramid of Rhïanakharóth, and the roots of the forests of the southern isles are woven together in a vast network that eclipses modern supercomputers. But that day is not today.

Here you can see the great continent of Khaïrnóth as it appears in the game itself. It won’t be long before you will be able to explore the northlands yourself or deploy and lead a Warband of your creation to advance the cause of your faction in World Quests.