Carthianum (🔊) was an ancient civilization that arose after the Seventh Ruin in the lands east of the Wyvern Mountains and south of the Jarlschlager Range, a region that now lies southeast of the Kingdom of Evenhold.
In the fifth century BA Carthianum formed an alliance with the young Kingdom of Aevinn and in 1 BA fought alongside other members of the alliance under King Anharos against the monstrous hordes of the enemy. When the Great Old Ones themselves emerged from their haunts in the southeast, they advanced across Addar enveloped by a roiling and putrid black cloud that killed everything it touched, and when its path crossed Carthianum the vast majority of the land's population was slain. Anharos and the Alaxaran gods engaged and defeated the Great Old Ones just beyond Carthianum in what are now the Broken Lands.
After the war, Terza, goddess of purification and sacrifice, took the emptied lands as her abode, and under her influence the region transformed over the next century into a vast and desolate desert. Most traces of Carthianum were lost beneath the sands, but one that survived was a great stone pyramid that stood in the capital and served as its temple and necropolis. When Anharos died in 49 YA his mummified body was entombed within the pyramid.
Modern antiquarians prize ancient artifacts from Carthianum — particularly their weapons which were renowned for their strength and exquisite craftsmanship — and will often pay a handsome price for them.
