The First Age is recorded in legends, in scrolls sealed in the depths of Kioku libraries, and, some say, known by the dwellers of the Tsurunoya, the Jade Cranes. But the presence of the legendary conflict is proved where, in places like here, it is written into the earth.
Known colloquially as the Plains of Despair, the Zetsubō Kurushimi is death. Nothing grows here. There is no hope of fertility nor life. It is simply a dead land. It is said that the last stalk of grass withered and died during the First Age, when battle raged here between the Shin’rei and their ancient enemies. This battle saw the land scorched, and the blood of the aberrations seep deep into the dirt, killing all life it had thus far nurtured.
Even today, Zetsubō Kurushimi is a bleak place. It bears the pains of those long-ago wars, still unable to recover. To walk these barren lands is to know despair. True despair. Only in the knowledge that the plains do not go on endlessly can relief be found, just as all pain must surely end eventually. What horrors this place harbours remains a thing of speculation, as most who brave the plains do not speak about whatever it is they encounter in the ashen landscape. Seeing their gaunt faces and hollow eyes, the imagination of onlookers cannot help but conjure up the worst horrors known to them. The truth is undoubtedly worse.