Shattered Plains

The Shattered Plains are a vast broken landscape in eastern Roshar, the principal setting of The Way of Kings. The region is a mosaic of stone plateaus separated by a maze of sheer chasms, as if a great plate of rock had dropped and cracked into ten thousand pieces. Tradition places the Plains on the ruins of Natanatan, one of the old Silver Kingdoms. After the assassination of King Gavilar, the armies of Alethkar's ten highprinces camp on the western edge to wage the war of the Vengeance Pact against the Parshendi. The war has its own economy: enormous chasmfiends crawl onto the plateaus to pupate, and their chrysalises hold gemhearts, gemstones of immense value, so Alethi forces race the Parshendi from plateau to plateau, crossing the chasms on portable bridges carried at a run by crews of slaves and conscripts.