Dhorisha Plains

Dhorisha Plains
Map of the Plains, with the ruins of Ka'venusho marked at the center
Location	Velgarth
Class	Natural feature

The Dhorisha Plains are located south of the Pelagiris Forest, bordering Jkatha and Velvar. The plains are bowl-shaped, bounded by steep cliffs. They are described as

"a rolling country of gentle, swelling rises; like waves. Green grass there was in plenty...and golden grass, and a faint heathered purple. And flowers..."

There are also lines of trees following the watercourses. Though cruel and barren in the summer and winter months, the Plains in springtime are an unrivaled beauty.

The Star-Eyed goddess named the area Dhorisha Shin'a, the Plains of Sacrifice. The People of the Plains are the nomadic Shin'a'in clans, who breed horses and raise their herds across the Plains.

History

The tower of Urtho, Mage of Silence, was once located in Ka'venusho, in the center of what is now the Dhorisha Plains. The Plains are actually in the crater formed when Urtho's Tower exploded during the Cataclysm. (The site of Ma'ar's headquarters in the Royal Palace of Tantara is now Lake Evendim.)

When the Kaled'a'in who had served Urtho returned to the region, they were confronted by the vast, barren wasteland of the crater. After the clans split, the magic-using clans moving north to become the Tayledras. Four clans, which had decided to give up the magic which had destroyed their homeland, remained. Their shamans decided to petition the Powers to help them find a habitable home. The price of the Calling was the life of the elder from each clan. At sunset the four elders sacrificed themselves, each jumping from the crater rim at one of the cardinal points. The shamans prayed to the Powers, and the Star-Eyed goddess appeared. She agreed to restore their homeland, but only if they were willing to pay the price of eternal vigilance, watching over Urtho's mage weapons, guarding the plains from outsiders. "You must guard your new land, which you shall call the Dhorisha Shin'a - the Plains of Sacrifice, and yourselves the Shin'a'in - the People of the Plains." They would have to foreswear magic for all time, to avoid the temptation of using Urtho's mage weapons. When they agreed to sacrifice their freedom, the use of magic, and even their free will to guard the land forever, the Star-Eyed walked into the Plains, and trees and flowers and grass grew up, spreading out in a living wave, covering the landscape.

The Shin'a'in protected the location of the ruins of Urtho's tower at the center of the Plains, where Ka'venusho once thrived. They barred all outsiders from entering the Plains, on pain of death. Maps of the Dhorisha Plains were held only by the Shin'a'in, making it impossible for outsiders to survive or find Ka'venusho before the Shin'a'in killed them. The Shin'a'in forbade the practice of magic among all but the shamans; people who had the Mage-Gift had the choice of becoming a shaman or having the gift blocked, The Shin'a'in guarded the Plains and the weapons hidden there for centuries, until only a select few even knew there was something to be guarded. This duty came to an end at the direction of the Star-Eyed goddess, when the weapons were retrieved in hopes that one or more could be used to end the destruction of the Mage Storms.