Plashin Pass
the Grand Enterprise
Plashin Pass is a major mountain pass through the Plashin Range, a mountain range in Novyum, on the major continent of Ethae. The pass runs over a hundred miles from east to west through deep glacier carved valleys. Through the centuries it has been the primary land route through the mountains, used by merchants, travelers, and armies. That said, it is not an easy trek. Weather is unpredictable in the pass. The road is often slick with rain and runoff. More than three-fourths of the journey is carved from cliffsides of deep river valleys. While many maps show it running between high peaks, giving it an appearance of being level, this is deceptive. It has cost many travelers their life. In truth the route climbs high into the range, well above what some call the death zone. The lack of snow and ice deceives travelers into not realizing how high they are, or how much danger they are in. The air is thinner and can be just as cold as anywhere else in the range, and storms will appear out of seemingly nowhere. It is not a route for the faint of heart.
HISTORY
Through most of civilized history the Plashin Range of Novyum was a near impassible wall between the Heartlands of the west and the lands of Slavyum to the east. Travel in the mountains was difficult due to the high steep mountains and the massive glaciers between them. By the era of the Republic of Lakorthmost merchants were using the Piercing Ocean and Aabanu Sea to bypass the range. The Republic spend enormous funds to cut passes through the mountains but gave up and channeled that money into expanding their shipping lands instead.
In the age that followed, the United Kingdoms of Novyum embarked on what would be known as the "Grand Enterprise." This plan was to create a permanent safe pass through the center of the range. To achieve this Novya engineers looted hundreds of Airkna Stone from the newly conquered regions of Southern Jerain. These standing stones rich with Kianon warmed the air around them. Something the Novya thought the perfect solution to permanently clearing a mountain valley of ice.
A path was chosen and the glacier quarried away over the course of several years. The Airkna were then placed to prevent the ice to build back up in the new pass. The path through the Plashins was successful giving the United Kingdoms access to Slavyum like no other time in history.
The project was expanded over the years, spreading the stones out from the pass in an attempt to open more travel routes. However, the now hundreds of Airkna altered weather in the mountains, melting glaciers that had stood since the prehistoric periods. This resulted in flooding across the north. The farmlands of the Eastern Petty Kingdoms were devastated. Many migrated away from their waterlogged towns causing strain on central cities that took in the refugees. While there are many reasons that together caused the decline of the United Kingdoms, this is considered by many historians as a major contributing factor.
In the years since the fall of the United Kingdoms endless wars have raged across Novyum. Plashin Pass remains the only stable path through the mountains. Many of the Airkna have been taken over the years, as wealthy nobles hire adventurers to venture into the mountains to search for these treasures. Slowly the icy glaciers are growing back over their mountains. It is estimated, however, that these could take centuries if not ages.
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