The Needles
Geography
A very spiky mountain range of white-gray stone covered in eternal, magial mist. They are to the very east of Trian and considered unpassable, usually making them the end of the map. Bordering both the Radiant Hills and the Verithal Alliance only very few cities are placed into the foothills of this range, as it is dangerously easy to get forever lost in the mist. From time to time, the wind moving through the range creates wailing sounds that are considered to be cries of those that have been lost and turned to madness the mist.
The origin of the mist is widely discusses, with theories raging from it being the path to the afterlife or into a different plane, to hidden kingdoms, remenants of old magic or even just uncommon but naturally occuring weather. The correct guess (though regarded as mostly superstition by those living close by the Needles) is the following:
Ther is a notable settlement entirely unreachable by foot in the northern mountain range - an ice-cave labyrinth stretchin many miles and housing a large family/den of white dragons. Even though white dragons are recorded to be the most primal and animalistic, this den is as manipulative as it is greedy. Lost adventureres are usually collected by the younger members, and either magically contracted to a life of serving said den, or they are turned into Frozen Wailers.
Localized Phenomena
Freezing Death: Most of the higher mountain tips are snowcovered, though actual snowstorms only tend to happen in high altitudes and towards the northern part of the range.
Mistless Days: The mist sometimes pulls back into the more central mountain range itself in a very unpredictable pattern. The phenomenon carries a feeling similar to how the ocean rectracts before a tsunami, but when the mist rushed back in, it returns to the exact same spot as before. The big issue with this is that sometimes people use these mistless days try to go and explore parts of the range and get surprised by the returning mist.
Frozen Wailers: A physical condition bestowed onto unlucky adventurers by Fythar the Elder. Their eyes are destroyed by a horizontal slash and shock-frozen, leaving them blind. Their intelligence and wisdom is permanently reduced (by -4) by a ritualistic, modified ice breath and they loose all grasp and understanding of any language - forcing them to comunicate in wails, and leaving them susceptible to mind control. As part of that breath, their bodies are also instilled with a immunity to cold, but also very vulnerabe to heat and an uncanny hunger. Often enslaved by one of the white dragons, the Frozen Wailers serve as unwilling protectors of the lairs, as peace offerings to the beasts living below the mountains, and rarely also as a snack. Considering that the closest nation by far is the elven community of the Radiant Hills, the form of the Frozen Wailers most frequently resemble that of high elves, though there are also other prominent turned races, such as hobbits, and dwarfes.
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