The Tulhermaa

Vance examined the contracts that had been posted this morning at the Mercenary's Guild. Plenty of relatively dull scutwork, some class A work that was underbid and had no chance of being taken. But there was one contract that had a decently sized payout, pinned underneath a notice about finding a lost pet. He lifted the notice up to read the contract underneath.
"Fourteen thousand Florin to escort to Tulhermaa? What kind of joke is this?" The hunter rolled his eyes. The bid price wouldn't even cover the chartered power-sail, and Vance had no desire to go to the end of the world simply so some fop could paint a landscape.

Geography

The Tulhermaa is a barren peninsula jutting out from the southern ice cap, in the far southern reaches of the South Feryll Sea, multiple weeks' journey from the Principality. It serves as the second known access point to the southern ice caps, though it is multiple weeks journey away from the 'land route' that leads from the East Saibh archipelago, through The Whitecaps. While closer to the Principality than the Whitecaps by distance measurement, the shifting currents of the sea mean that journeys to the Tulhermaa can take anywhere between three to six weeks (by comparison, travel to the Whitecap mountain range takes roughly four weeks travel time from the Etoile Capital City). The sea around the Tulhermaa is treacherous, with both icebergs and unmapped seamounts making travel risky, and with only one safe anchorage over a deep 'hole' in the oceanic shelf.
The Tulhermaa itself is a flat, narrow jot of land on a cliff extending out to the sea, seemingly emerging from under the edge of the southern icecap. This land is considered 'unsuitable' for settlement by the Principality of Etoile due to its hazards; enormous oceanic waves regularly scour the stone beach landings and damage the lines that permit easy ascension of the cliff, requiring a hazardous free climb up the rocky cliffside. The top of the cliff itself is simply open dirt and rocks all the way up to the edge of the glacier, with no plant life to speak of. Even with these ominous conditions, the Tulhermaa is the only actual land for nearly four hundred miles in any direction, with nothing but open water washing up against the sheer wall of the icecap otherwise.

Ecosystem

Due to being the only accessible land in the region, the Tulhermaa is a major breeding ground for seals, who don't mind the regular wave scouring and flooding along the beach. This provides a ready source of meat for adventurers in the area, but otherwise there is no native plant or land animal life amongst the rocks. Principality agricultural experiments have failed in the soil that's found here; even with sufficient heat, light, and water, seeds do not sprout or thrive.

Localized Phenomena

Notably, wizards are known to feel an oppressive pressure in their heads, like a severe physical headache, when present on the Tulhermaa. No cause or source of this has been discovered, and the few mages that have experienced this refuse to return to investigate further. The Academy of Etoile has published speculation about all of the earth under the icecap potentially having this property (as the southern icecap covers a land mass of some size).

Climate

The weather around the Tulhermaa is oppressive. Powerful winds scour the top of the cliffside each night, destroying open campsites and extinguishing campfires. The temperatures are merely cold during the day in second season; fourth season nights are dangerous and bone-chilling, and overnight stay requires descending into one of the deep burrows that the Principality dug into the cliff, which are relatively well insulated, though poorly ventilated.

Natural Resources

Not long after the discovery of the Tulhermaa, the Copper and Ironworker's Brotherhood sent prospectors to the site. Their report was fairly straightforward - no resources of value were to be found here. While freshwater off the glacier is plentiful and meat is easy to come by from hunting seals, there are no local ores of any note and no real commercial value to exploit.

History

The construction of Siege-sails and other Powered naval vessels enabled a new age of naval exploration, unbound by currents and winds. While the Great Circular Trade Route that runs clockwise around West Saibh and the Eastern Saibh archipelago is predictable and languid (with the Bui Sea being a placid body of water), the Feryll Sea that surrounds Saibh is difficult to navigate the farther away a captain gets from land. The reports of Isolde of Saumann describe oceanic currents that can reverse on a whim, frequent squalls that can appear out of nowhere, and dangerous unmapped seamounts that can wreck unlucky vessels.
With the ability to drive a prop screw using a Powered flywheel, the whims of wind and water could be overcome, as long as the ship had power to bear. The first major task of the Principality Navy was to rectify the existing naval maps, establish a network of flywheel recharge stations, and explore the oceans around Saibh as far as the ships could be safely sailed, up to the point of no return. The existence of the southern ice cap was vaguely known in reports of pre-Etoilean adventurers and explorers, but the Navy was able to authoritatively map the southern Feryll Sea, with the Cartographers publishing detailed charts that accurately described the extent of the icecap and its distance from Saibh and the Principality. The Tulhermaa (a word that meant 'desolation' in an ancient tongue) was discovered during this mapping process, and the Navy established an operating base on the land, eager to claim new unknown territory for Etoile and the First Princeps. The base consisted of a number of burrows dug into the rocky soil, with large quantities of supplies stashed away to aid any ship that arrived, as well as a number of wind-powered turbines driving recharger wheels; while there was no dock to directly recharge, a cabling setup allowed for recharge of the ship's flywheel at significant distance, though this cable was itself prone to breakdown and could only be run in calm weather.
By the time the First Princeps passed in 649, however, the naval base on the spit of land had just about been abandoned. The brutal sailing conditions meant that there was always serious risk of supply ships wrecking, and the post was considered one of the worst that a sailor could have. While the Tulhermaa was useful as a land-based Power recharge station, there was nothing of actual value on the land, and nothing nearby that would interest any ship, besides potentially researchers from The Academy of Etoile. While expeditions onto the southern icecap could be launched from the Tulhermaa, crossing the Whitecaps on the land route was arguably safer and easier. The second season of 651 saw the last sailor leave the peninsula.
Since then, the remains of the naval outpost have given shelter and resupply to the occasional ship that visits the area (and the Navy itself occasionally restocks the supplies here), and adventurers occasionally attempt to overwinter in the burrows, but otherwise, the Tulhermaa remains empty of Etoilean activity.

Tourism

The Tulhermaa is perhaps one of the most difficult to reach destinations known to Etoile, and attracts 'extreme' adventurers looking to make the claim that they've been to the edge of the world. Wealthy tourists will charter a private power-sail to the Tulhermaa, take a launch onto the beach, climb the cliff, and retrieve a token that indicates that they've been there - typically a ration pack that the Navy left behind for stranded sailors. This is, of course, highly frowned upon by the Navy, who have been called upon more than once to investigate lost expeditions to the Tulhermaa, only to find a shipwreck floating somewhere along the edge of the icecap. 
Less frivolously, some wealthy nobles who tire of the politics of Etoile decide to retire to the Tulhermaa to live out their last days, an act that came in fashion due to a novel written by Mirandei Aldur, describing forlorn lovers that elope to the Tulhermaa to consummate their forbidden love, free of the law of the Principality and the opprobrium of the social scene. While the Principality officially discourages this, there is no actual enforcement of Etoilean law on the Tulhermaa. A number of adventurers report finding corpses in some of the more remote burrows of the base, frozen after wintering over the fourth season.

Type

Tundra

Contested By

• Principality of Etoile