The Dark Lands are a stark and cheerless place in the Far East of the Known World beyond the boundaries of the Old World where nature has rent the ground and burst the mountains apart. Amongst the peaks volcanoes spew black smoke into the filthy sky. In the plains the stench of tar pits and oil pools hangs heavily in the air. Steaming lava from beneath the earth's crust covers the ash wastes with a blanket of bubbling magma.[1a] The Dark Lands are bordered on both sides by the Worlds Edge Mounta