Nether Realms

The Nether Realms lie far to the south, at the rim of the world by some accounts, with the Stygian Sea on their northwest and the Forgotten Sea on their northeast, and sailors everywhere avoid them. Southern Tamoanchan natives call the region the Land of the Dead, where the spirits of the wicked roam forever, a place of scorching days, freezing nights and drifting clouds of red dust like crimson ghosts. The Elysium Islanders hold that every dragon comes from here; the Kiowans say dragons are born in fire and climb out of volcanoes carrying buried riches. One Kiowan tale tells of a greedy warrior who tried to rob the three-headed dragon Azhdak while it dozed, only to learn that one of its three heads is always awake.

More useful to navigators is The Log of the Mariner, a hefty book by an unknown author said to have been found in the hold of a half-sunk Sheban trader: exaggerated, yet oddly exact in places. Its captain saw bluish mountains stretching east and west, like the ice peaks of Jotunheim, though the air was strangely warm. Near shore, countless channels led inland, one about 1,200 feet wide. Following it past junction after junction, he realized the land was a maze of ice islands, the smallest the size of a fair mountain, divided by natural canals. He saw no plant or animal life, only odd sounds and ripples, and his terrified crew all but mutinied when he proposed landing.