Black Desert/Landmarks
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Landmarks
the places that are not settlements
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The rock spires and ruins of Drieghan From the Adventurer's Guide, Pearl Abyss
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| Covers | Ruins, trees, gateways and one dead castle |
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| Oldest | The works of the civilization that predates every state |
| Most consequential | Cron Castle, which ended a kingdom |
Landmarks are the named places in Black Desert that nobody lives in. Ruins, sacred trees, border gateways and the wreckage of buildings that used to matter, they are what the map has instead of scenery.
Most of them are damaged. The continent's history is largely a record of things going wrong, so its notable places tend to be the sites where something went wrong rather than monuments to anything achieved.
1 Ruins of the ancients✎
The oldest landmarks belong to a civilization that fell before any of the current states existed, and its remains are scattered through Valencia. The Crescent Shrine is mostly buried, the Hystria Ruins hold its artifacts, and the Aakman Temple lies underground with the people who guard what it left behind.
That civilization used black stones as a power source and was destroyed by them. Its ruins are therefore not simply old buildings but a warning about the material the modern world fights over.
2 Sacred trees✎
Two trees anchor the elven realms. The Kamasylve was planted by the goddess Sylvia and very nearly killed when desperate Vedir burned it for its power, and the Old Wisdom Tree at Grána holds the capital in its branches.
Turasil, the Thornwood Tree of O'dyllita, was grown from a branch the exiled Ahib carried away with them. A people banished for burning one sacred tree used a piece of it to raise another, which is as neat a summary of that quarrel as the setting offers.
3 Ruined seats✎
Cron Castle in Balenos is the most consequential ruin on the map. Noir Bartali III attempted a summoning there in pursuit of immortality, the castle came apart, and the kingdom of Cron ended with it.
Mediah Castle burned in the Three Days of Darkness and took the House of Bareeds with it. Valencia Castle still stands but is no longer used, the royal family having moved to the palace at Valencia City three generations ago.
4 Borders and passes✎
The Barhan Gateway is where the green country ends and the Great Valencian Desert begins, and crossing it is the clearest boundary on the continent.
At the far northern tip of the map, the cliffs of Star's End break off into the sea. The Ibellab Oasis is the opposite kind of landmark, a reliable place in an unreliable one, and experienced travelers use it as the halfway mark of a desert crossing.