The northeastern corner of Addar is a desolate and sparsely inhabited area loomed over by the Floating Island, a vast slab of land that levitates miles above the surface of the continent and adjacent ocean. The perpetually shadowed area beneath it is known as the Shadow Desert (or often just "the Shadow") and gets increasingly dark and dry farther in. Darkness near the center of the shadow is total.
Given its position in the northern hemisphere, the areas up to and even just below the southern fringes of the Floating Island remain mostly sunlit and habitable, though the cold air that seeps from under the island often provokes violent storms around the periphery when it mingles with the much warmer air outside.
Those who've returned from expeditions into the Black describe a desolate and almost impassably rugged landscape, strewn with fields of stony debris shed from the underside of the mass above. Precious stones and mineral formations unlike any other on Eamon may be found among the rubble and retrieving them has become a lucrative but extremely dangerous trade. The priceless Star Stone is believed to have been found here in antiquity.
Despite the seemingly unlivable conditions, some have reported signs of activity, though the nature of the beings residing there is a mystery.
