Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Hollmgrads

This is a low range of mountains that creep out of the great northern wastes and edge up to the Inner Sea. The mountains are thickly forested in evergreen. The mountains are not high and are gently sloped, having been scraped raw by the glaciation during the Winter Dark. The mountains frequently give way to highland plateaus, areas where the elevation is sufficiently low enough to allow for longer summers. They are very wet, dominated by bogs and pete marshes.

Winter lasts throughout much of the year and snow can fall at any time. In the short summers many creeks and streams of frigid water wash through frosty vales and across the cool plateaus.

Many creatures of the north dwell here, sea lions on the coasts, musk oxen, white bears, wolves and snow deer, yak, elk, caribou and moose. To those who know the secrets of the Hollmgrads, it is a bountiful land and one full of promise. Winter is the only enemy, for they harsh. Frozen winds from the Inner Sea mix with the chilly storms of the north in a battle in the sky, bringing icy rain, then snow, all carried by bitterly cold winds.

The men of Holmgald call this place home, and many wander into the Hollmgrads seeking fabled creatures, snow-beasts and white dragons. An old dwarven highway remains, the Andrus Road, beginning in the Gruswald, wandering the whole length of the mountains to end in the Moravan Plains. It is narrow, made for foot and mule traffic only and frequently consists of little more than stairs carved into the mountain, or peg cliffs designed for climbing up vertical walls. It is sprinkled with old hostels, stone ruins now, a testament to when the dwarves wandered the road on an almost daily basis.

~The Codex of Aihrde

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