The DEAD LANDS!!!!!1

HUGE MAGICAL WAR, remember? Well. It was basically the equivalent of a world war, but the place it centered in was the desert country of Rerne -- aka the current Dead Lands. It got the magical equivalent of an atomic bomb dropped on it multiple times, and while few people actually died, they migrated into the rest of the continent. After the war ended, some returned, and some never left in the first place. There was a fair amount still left.

But.

They started to develop strong restless feelings, enough so that, by the time magic was gone from Avern, so were they from Rerne. Towns were abandoned, trash left to rot in the streets, etc.

SWITCH TO CURRENT TIMES.

The Dead Lands are neutral grounds in a governmental standpoint, for the reason that no one can really stay there for extended periods of time. It starts with a strong urge to be somewhere else, just as the original citizens had. They slowly get sicker and sicker if they don't leave; hallucinations, mainly, with nausea and headaches. They'll feel better within minutes of leaving its borders. Animals seem not to be affected by it, nor young children. The Dead Lands often are a part of campfire stories in Kalria and southern Jiranz: however, most people north of them don't even know of its existence.

Items from the Dead Lands, though not magical (there's no magic in Avern, after all) and immensely rare, do carry strange traits and habits. A cup, for example, might always have a teaspoon left of liquid, even after it's been drained. Swords can turn the best swordsman weak, give wounds that are guaranteed to rot, or simply refuse to leave their scabbards. Some of these items favor certain people, seeming to be normal when anyone else touches them, or some might work differently on each use. Even more strangely, strange objects have washed up on foreign shores, as well: most often Azurane, but sometimes Dakan or even the northern most regions of Faline.

...

And that's all you need to know. :D