Editing Acrozatarim/Gazetteer (section)

===Kyros Lowlands===

West of the mountains of High Kyros lies the steppe of Ascaria; here, the armies and settlers of the Kyrosi have carved a new dominion, their provinces expanding over what once were the lands of Ascari blood-clans.  The military machine of High Kyros has rolled inexorably westward, sacking settlements and chaining communities as it has gone, a decades-long expansion that leaves pallisaded towns, dirt roads and farmlands in its wake.  For now, the lowlands run as far as the broad, deep Praga river, a border guarded by outposts and mustering grounds for Kyros raiders to stage new attacks from.

The invasion has been driven by several factors; the growing population of High Kyros, the general desire by the once-colonists for expansion and wealth, and the Frost Council's hunger for arcane resources - the Ascarian lands hold many sacred sites and spots of elemental energy, all of which the cryomancers wish to take for themselves.  Unlike the early stages of Kyrosi colonisation, where Drak and Ascari tribes were assimilated, many of the Ascarians conquered in the current expansion end up enslaved, with the most unfortunate or rebellious sent to Thunderbreak.  Mines and industries erupt across the lowlands like a rash, tapping into resources that the blood-clans have not fully exploited.

Central to the lowlands provinces is the city of Verdigris Hold, formerly a major Ascarian town before the Kyrosi conquered it and rebuilt it.  Sitting amidst a network of hot springs, geysers and mineral lakes that are awash with copper-rust and other chemical substances, Verdigris Hold taps into the heat and steam of the earth through a series of complex thaumineering engines.  Now a centre of trade with expansive slave-markets, Verdigris Hold as attracted a burgeoning population of mercenaries, merchants and opportunists clustering at the skirts of the Frost Councillors who rule over their new domain.  It seems that whatever elemental energies run under the region, the cryomancers have found a key focusing point under Verdigris Hold and the city regularly shudders and groans from the arcane powers that are being called together in the subterranean ritual-chamber that the Council have drilled down at the heart of the settlement.