The Immortal Stars Setting

A large amount of yapping for my fantasy world, a slab of a world trapped within a dream.

How did it start?

This is one of the more important details for me to remember, it guides how the stories are structured in this setting. I can't remember when, but a long while ago there was this idea that popped into my head of a setting where things change based on the will within your heart. "A warrior burning with determination will never fall to even the strongest magical flame." Was the original sentence that went along with the idea, but for a while I worked on the setting without realizing that the sentence was incomplete. I started focusing on that whole battle element that's in the quote, drifting away from the original idea. These days, i've managed to complete the whole deal. "A warrior burning with determination will never fall, even to the strongest magical flame. Because that feeling in their heart burns brighter than any flame ever could." That's the hook I have to always keep in mind, your heart and what you feel deep down changes the world around you.
Now onto all the worldbuilding that helps me stay on track, if you'd like to read an actual story you should look at my other projects. There will be a few tales here but it's mostly descriptions of places and some history.

The Setting

The land is named Enud. A rough rectangle of rock and dirt floating through absolute nothingness. An ocean takes up much of the slab, the waters spilling into the void endlessly, leaving only about a quarter of it all as solid land. The sky has no stars except for the sun, and no moon to light the night. In the center of this land is The Black Compass, a tall dark mountain that can be seen from anywhere in the world. Surrounding the north half of this mountain is the Hermea Valley. a town sits hidden at the valleys deepest point, surrounded by trees and lacking any direct roads. A towering forest of great red trees grows towards the south west edge of the world. While in the southeast, an evil place still clings to life. Far north, the land ends in a spike that juts out into the ocean, pointing towards a distant island with an ancient cave.

Locations/Geography

Hermea Valley-
A horseshoe shaped valley, filled with trees, brushes, birds, insects, and other small animals. Much of the valley is made up of sloping canyon walls of light gray stone on one side, and the dark jagged rock of The Black Compass on the other side. Green hills smooth out the transition between forest and sheer walls of rock. A small chain of mountains exist at the top of the canyon walls, right at the middle of the U of the valley. Snowy peaks melt during spring to fill a lake way down at the bottom of the valley, known simply as Lake Hermea. The trees thin out the closer you get to the exits of the valley, slowly transition into a wide flat prairie of tall grass. As you travel south out of the valley, towering trees can be seen in the distance, and the grass begins to lose it's height.

The Forest of Towers-
Ancient forest of red trees, wider at their bases than ten people stretched arm to arm, rising from a pale green moss covered floor. Creatures skitter, and jump, and stalk throughout. Everywhere you turn looks the same, and anything could be behind the next tree you round. You may come upon an old lake for example. The normally flat land slopes suddenly down, with rocks hidden under the moss, as you slowly come to the waters edge. An ancient being is said to be trapped under the lakes placid surface, so not many dare to go near it. The forest continues north east, bordered in some places by the steep drop of the Hermea valley, until it reaches the sea. While heading directly west through these woods, once past the shadow of the Black Compass, the forest will suddenly stops as the land begins to die.

Dreadburg Woods-
Moss, grass, and all other vegetation die away suddenly, the transition a hard line. In one step there is grass and life, and in the next there is nothing but dark dank soil. The air grows cold and a mist begins to roll in. Then the mist becomes a fog. A fog so heavy it prevents you from seeing anything past your outstretched hand. You shiver, and as you walk blindly, your feet crunch on loose dirt and trip over unseen roots. The sound seems to echo for miles despite the dense fog. The forest just keeps growing colder as you march on in dead silence, even your heart begins to feel too loud. A tree looms for the first time, the only sign of life you've seen for whats feels like an hour, it's two black branches outstretched like arms frozen in rigor mortis. More emaciated trees surround the path you walk, reaching out in every direction. Each time you pass one, you swear you hear their branches silently creaking... creaking as if they are reaching out to you... but theres nothing... just fog and distant dead trees... will there ever be a way out of this place?

Carlos's Blockfield-
If you exit west from the hermea valley and follow the beach, or get lucky on your journey through the Dreadburg woods, you'll come across a special place. A barren field of rocks. Most of the boulders here are smooth, and some are as large as a house. A few sparse grasses sprout between the boulders, and while that may be the extent of the locations features, it does have one strange phenomenon. The rocks float, higher or lower based on what temperature they are exposed too. Cold makes them sink, and hot makes them rise. It can be a wonderful sight during the summer, watching large stones drift through the sky like clouds, with the sound of the waves washing against the pebble beach to calm your nerves.

The Ancient Cave-
Straight north, the land narrows to a point, dropping off as a sharp sea side cliff. But an island can be seen on the horizon even from here. Make your way there and you won't find much besides a sandy beach, a few crabs, some short ferns further inland... and suddenly a cave. The entrance isn't much more than a jagged hole in the ground, maybe about twenty feet across, and hidden behind a few shrubs... but there's an... energy? As you stand at the threshold, the ground seems to pulse, and the air seems to buzz. You feel like you don't belong, and decide to leave.

Societies/settlements

Warriors Rise-
Long ago, humanity wandered the wilderness as various tribes, hunting and farming the land they considered their own. But powerful beast and spell casters terrorized these divided tribes, breaking apart families and forcing people from lands that had been theirs for hundreds of years. Until a young lone hero began to rise up. Unarmed, he'd pester one tribe and the next for weapons or allies, waving a stick around while talking of grand plans to bring down one beast or another. But few had time to listen, or the heart to hear what he had to say. Many tribes had tried to remove the forces threatening their peace, and a few attempts had even been successful, but the losses were always more than it was worth. One day by chance, the chief of one tribe ran across the man during a hunt. They were chasing horses, and the young man was getting in the way. So on a whim, the chief decided to give him some food and an old spear, just to get him to go away. He thanked the chief and immediately rushed off into the woods. Everyone thought he'd be dead and went about their business. But by the next sunrise, the young man returned. Behind him he dragged a sack through the leaves, holding the three heads of a chimera. He was dirty, bloody, but smiling. And so this was the start of the heroes reputation.
Soon he began to gather allies one by one, and by following his plans, they began to remove the beasts terrorizing the various tribes. One week they'd track down a hulking bear, and then the next day they'd find a way to strike a griffin from the sky. (Continuing from here later ive got work in the morning lol)