A translucent plain east of the Crownspines where ancient heat turned miles of soil to coloured glass and reflections sometimes refuse their owners.
Overview
The Steppe changes colour with the sky: rose at dawn, white at noon and black beneath the stars. Wind produces organ-like tones through cracks deep below the surface.
Travel requires felted boots and veiled mirrors. A visible reflection may continue walking after its owner stops; if it reaches the horizon first, the traveller is said to become the copy.
History
No surviving culture claims responsibility for the heat that made the Steppe. Veyran scholars blame a divine weapon, Harthane accounts describe a second sun and the oldest orc songs call the place the wound left by an unanswered name.
During the Clockwork Wars both sides harvested resonant glass for command systems. Several autonomous armies later marched here and vanished into their own reflected formations.
The present record
Licensed cutters collect glass only during cloud cover. The material is essential to high-grade listening devices and prohibited in unsupervised war-engines.
A dark line now crosses the Steppe from edge to edge. Surveyors disagree whether it is a crack, a shadow or writing too large to read from the ground.
Notes and record
This article combines campaign record, spoken lore and the mythic account preserved in the Earin archive.