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The Lone Continent of Azula, lost in the midst of an endless, inhospitable ocean, is made even lonelier and more sorrowful by the Wall of the World, a colossal mountain chain thousands of miles long and several hundreds of miles wide that divide the continent’s eastern and western boards into two self-contained, almost mutually unreachable halves.
Even this titanic, magnificent barrier has its cracks, though, and for the most skilled smugglers, these hidden passages and long-forgotten roads turn the Wall into an impenetrable fortress... and an invaluable vault for their ill-gotten gains!
In the dangerous, narrow, and treacherous trails of the mountain tops, the journeys are always gray and the skies always cloudy.
Well, almost always. On some very rare and blessed occasions, the clouds can part and the sunlight can shine through the icy air to reveal the hidden beauty of even the deepest and most desolate zones of these mountains, a beauty not meant for common men’s eyes, and one that’s most dazzling, almost divine in a little area called the Gap of Whoa.
In this most hidden of most hidden spots, the rare traveler can be blessed by the view of a sprawling ice field at the bottom a dizzying fall, beyond which only the tallest mountains of the Wall lay, and further beyond… the Ever-Storm! The Black Dome of the World! An endlessly raging tempest that clouds the northern chain in perpetual darkness!
From the precipice of the Gap of Whoa, under the rare clear sunset skies, the unsuspecting traveler bears witness to all the terror and awe of the Wall’s majesty and woe: its delicate beauty, deadly falls, breathtaking vistas, slippery slopes, and all the darkness that its vast, sprawling expanse harbors!
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This concept art shows The Girl’s expedition (from right to left: the Girl, her Lover, the Guide, and his bodyguard Carlos) at the Gap of Whoa during a rare clear sunset sky, near the eastern gates of the Wall of the World.
© Art by Gigi Potemkin with the help of AI (perchance.org).