Table of Contents
The Vereheq Ruins (veh-reh-eck) are the ruined remnants of a city east of Njoty, west of Nahla City and Nightclaw.
The ruins have an ominous air, given everything seems to have eroded far more than would be normal for the timespan its allegedly been here (the early 1900s) - and it seems to constantly attract mists, even during midday, when one would presume the sunlight to keep it away. At day, it thus always seems like dusk within, and at night, the light of the stars does not pierce through.
Solalon resides here. He's not territorial, but will engage anyone who he believes to be following him, and deal with them with legendary precision (albeit usually non-lethally, as he's not a fan of undue harm; he might even set them down at the edge of Vereheq that they seemed to be travelling toward, letting them wake up there).
Reputation and Genuine Hazards
Vereheq is presumably safer than its reputation implies, but the combination of thick mists and the 'main road' being prone to ill definition (for one, moss cover often washes out its edges and low foliage needs to be hacked out of the way, for two, occasionally branching roads are better-defined) and the fact that there's a very real risk something is going to fall on your head and crush you flat has certainly resulted in people disappearing within it. Furthermore, Solalon's light is occasionally woven into tales akin to a siren's call… and probably occasionally has that effect - people might assume the distant light is from someone else they can pair up with on their travel, or they might recognise it from the tales and be determined to dispel the mysticism, in both cases straying from the main path.
The area is considered a cursed zone even by the least superstitious people of Sehto and no one who can help it travels through it. As such, Vereheq provides the northern divide of Sehto, where Roaring Hollow provides the southern divide. Given these odds, it's quite surprising that Sehto doesn't have a stronger east/west cultural split than the western or eastern cities have amongst themselves, but that may be owed to their autonomy in general, and the framework of the Sehto gym circuit (from a non-trainer perspective!) providing an abstract but pivotal semantic sense of unity.
The trek through Vereheq on foot takes about a third of a day without straying from the main path. It's recommended to be well-stocked on water when travelling through it, since it's very rare people don't stray (especially the ones confident of their resolve to stick to it, who easily overestimate their sense of direction).
The sky is no help here, of course, and the landscape, while very varied and providing plenty land marks, is naturally starkly unfamiliar to any travellers. Compasses and GPS can help, though electronic gadgets can suffer from the extremely high humidity, and compasses can occasionally be confused by Magnemites in the area.
The mists have a reputation for being responsible for the erosion and so there's a rather pervasive belief that they may be partly acidic or metaphysically guided to eat at whatever inanimate object resides within it. As such, the idea of spending a night in Vereheq is a component of many horror stories, and provokes mental images of skeletal remains. (Obviously, the mist has no such powers.)
Genuinely staying on the main path usually makes for safe travelling.
History
Vereheq's history is dubious. It's plainly apparent that it's some sort of blast zone, but whether it's considered the result of a weapon test, a scientific experiment gone wrong, the intervention of aliens, or a supernatural phenomenon varies greatly from Sehto subculture to subculture.
Jagdish Tsukinaka believes himself responsible for it - not that he says as much to anyone, also due to his inability to comprehend how that could have even transpired, but he certainly was in Vereheq at the time of its destruction and quite near if not precisely in the epicentre. Whether he really is the cause or not, it's made him very wary about using his less documented powers and equally wary of emotions threatening to overwhelm him - he'll look for the safest possible outlet for them to prevent 'another accident'.
(The real cause for Vereheq's state is welcome to vary from Sehto run to Sehto run. There is no strict canonical answer. For example, Vendetta could just as easily play a role in its destruction.)
Descriptions from Sessions
Collected from Arsaga:
It seems as though the dusk springs forth from Vereheq, lapping at the world like dark flames. The mists are there, heavy, thick, reducing sight down to about fifty metres, tops.
The darkness slowly begins to enclose around them, lapping at their features, pulling them in further. Night falls far quicker than it should - it's as though the sky here were subject to the sparkle of stars regardless of what time of day ruled the rest of Sehto… but how could that be? Besides, it's probably nothing other than an optical illusion, the shadows cast by the mists intermingled with the already growing darkness of dusk.
Abseits of the main road, Vereheq's ruins seem almost labyrinthine, with the destroyed walls and broken glass scattered across the landscape to block some and open new paths.
Collected from N'Sehla:
For Basilisk, the world faded from the battle scene to a desolate landscape wedged between large, jagged rocks, chunks knocked out of them for the construction of a broad, flat, slightly gravel-littered, light-coloured road between them, winding toward an ominous seeming mist.