History:
The blistering boil of the material world. Ignis, the land of fire and sin. It is said that the land of Ignis is not natural to our realm. It is said that an ancient queen allowed her pain to consume her, and made a deal with Lucifer to be rid of it. His only demand was that she plant but a single thorny seed at the heart of the country. This seed spread corruption, as it scorched the soil and brought with it clouds of ash whose rain burned like acid. From that seed the land formed volcanoes and chasms. From that seed, the plants withered and the creatures died. Each corpse acted as a sacrifice, allowing demons to rise from the ground. From that seed rose the horrors of hell. From the woman came the seed. Only minutes after we’re born, and our mind already does crave senseless violence. The son is the child of the man. And sin cannot exist without a seed. And once the horrors had risen and the land had been culled, the seed finally sprouted from the soil. The plant it grew was more thorn than stem, with a beautiful black rose to bud it. The plant was thin but impossible to cut, shattering every blade that tried. The plant grew impossibly long for its thin stem, growing for miles and miles and further still. The plant wrapped around the entire country, covering every path, mountain and wall with everlasting thorns. when the plant had finished spreading its pain, just as its seed did and just as its mother had, it returned to its birthplace. there, the plant began to weave itself. Stem tangling with stem, thorns catching on thorns. The plant weaved and weaved until it had formed an enormous throne, impossible for nearly anyone to rest upon even without the thorns. And at the very top of that throne lies the “Burnt Rose”. And on that throne sits lucifer, smiling pridefully at the gash he stabbed into our realm. Lucifer, the sin of pride, the king of hell, the fallen angel, the devil. And most recently, the Yorkelun of influence.
It is said that there is still a way to undo the curse of Ignis, and remove that blight from our realm. To do so, you must pluck the burnt rose from the throne of thorns, and make Lucifer eat at least 1 petal from the rose. This will not only remove the plight of Ignis, but kill Lucifer.
Present Ignis:
Most of Ignis is an unlivable wasteland, full of nightmarish creatures and rivers of lava. The Burnt Rose’s thorns are ever present and an enormous pain, as they can’t be cut by anything other than dragon(born) claws (when sharpened or forged into a blade by a smith), or a Dwarf quality Nomai Steel blade.
Nomai Steel
Nomai steel was a type of alloy created by the Nomai. They created it to be used as an almost indestructible metal in experiments, but it also has the capabilities of making the most perfect armour and blades possible. Once this discovery was made, they immediately stopped production of Nomai steel, and switched to using Nomai gold, a substance that was just as hard to destroy, but also slightly more flexible/bendy, making it far worse at making weapons and armour. In total, only around 27 cubic feet of Nomai steel was ever produced, and only around 6 cubic feet total is still around today. Nomai steel is more expensive by weight than red wyrm eggs, it’s value in everything cannot be understated. It is seen as more luxurious to have a Nomai Steel ring than a platinum suit of armour. Some scientific experiments/medicine can only be conducted/made with Nomai steel. And, of course, all other materials pale in comparison for weapons and armour, even mythril looks like copper in comparison. The players will likely not even find an entire bar of Nomai steel in their entire campaign – though they might find some ancient religious ruins with Nomai steel relics, which Mira will urge them not to take. They might find a Nomai steel ring, which they could use to coat one weapon. A blade made of entirely nomai steel, forged by a master smith, is so sharp that it can ignore all armour. When rolling to hit, roll against their base AC with no natural armour or worn armour, just 8 + dex.
Also, the blade that the leader of the great heroes used to slay the Litch was made of Nomai steel. Replicas can be found in museums all around the realms.