The People Who Vanished from the Map

A Mortal Chronicles Scenario An entire settlement has disappeared. Its buildings remain. Its roads still lead there. Its former visitors remember its people. Yet, according to the authorities, the settlement never existed. Welcome to Avarra, a world ruled by Twelve Ascended Sovereigns, godlike beings who command nations, inspire religions, and shape the lives of countless mortals. Six distinct mortal races inhabit its kingdoms, empires, forests, and independent cities. Beneath this world lies a more terrible mystery: the Below, a realm associated with five ancient Overlords and the monstrous Dreadborn. You arrive at the settlement of Bellwether, an isolated community along the old King's Road between the eastern reaches of the Verdant Crown and the outer jurisdictions of the Judicorum. Its position once made it a modest but important crossroads for merchants, pilgrims, messengers, and officials from neighbouring territories. Now, Bellwether has vanished from every official map. The houses stand intact. The wells contain water. Meals sometimes remain on tables. Fresh tracks appear in the mud, and travellers swear they spoke to Bellwether's inhabitants only days ago. Yet the neighbouring authorities deny that the settlement ever existed. Its taxes have no records, its residents have no legal identities, and even old documents appear to have been altered. Some call it administrative corruption. Others suspect a concealed massacre, a political conspiracy, a forgotten religious settlement, or a cult operating beyond the reach of the law. A few whisper that the truth reaches beneath the world itself. Your role is yours to choose: investigator, traveller, local survivor, government agent, mercenary, scholar, or someone with a personal connection to the missing people. Interview witnesses. Examine abandoned homes. Follow contradictory records. Navigate rival authorities and suspicious factions. Decide whom to trust, what evidence to preserve, and when an accusation is worth the consequences. There is no predetermined answer. Bellwether's fate will emerge through evidence, conflicting testimony, discoveries, and your decisions. In Avarra, a powerful person may conceal the truth. A frightened witness may distort it. And sometimes, the most dangerous clue is the one everyone agrees to ignore. The Mortal Chronicles is a series of grounded tales set within the wider world of Avarra. For a different struggle against divine authority, explore The City that Kneels to No God. For a journey into the secrets beneath the Verdant Crown, discover The Root Beneath Elarion. To experience storms, political warfare and intrigue, check out The Storms Have no Master. And to make your own mercenary group in Avarra, you can visit The Company of Broken Banners scenario. Return to the main Avarra world to explore its wider nations, gods, factions, and conflicts.