The Green Line

Art Credit: "Just Get Away" Amazing Wilderness by Kory Wolf, https://www.themebeta.com/windows/theme/14781

Geography

The Green Line is one of the largest mountain ranges in the world, second only to Kentricury's Blasted Mountains. The Green Line is 700 miles long and cuts straight through the heart of Terisirae. The earliest people who settled the land were mountain tribes that behaved as nomads, moving from one peak to the next in search of food and shelter. As time went on and they began to more firmly settle the region, the many mountains that rose between wooded areas made it increasingly difficult to create civilization.
In the 3000s E.Y., settlers in the area underwent one of the greatest recorded feats of civil engineering, even to this day. Massive cooperation, the usage of tools down to their breaking point, the backbreaking labor of hundreds of thousands of people over dozens of years, and the constant round-the-clock movement of people and earth finally produced results sometime in the 2800s E.Y. when a single small mountain had been carved through. That mountain, its name lost to time, had a tunnel bored through it so the people of the area could more easily access The Vastwood, a massive lumber yard on the other end of The Green Line.
Thousands of years and many technological achievements later, there is a one-hundred-mile stretch of The Green Line that has been completely ridden of anything larger than a foothill. Once a contiguous mountain range from one end of the country to the other, sometime between the 2000s and 1000s E.Y., The Green Line was split in twain, an enormous, mineral-rich flatland extending between its two segments.
Although the area is still colloquially known as The Green Line, scientific communities have created two names to denote the separate regions of it for the purposes of specificity. The northern segment of the line is called Astralis, it touches the beaches of the Emberbarren Sea, and is flanked by The Vastwood to its east and the Firelands, Sharizudr, and Karusha to its west. The southern segment of the line is called Hyrathalis, it is connected to the beaches of The Restless Sea, and is flanked by Ob-2 to its east, and Silk Mist Gladeto its west.
Astralis is known for its serene beauty and amazing views. Overlooking some of the largest and oldest civilizations in the world, it is a common stop for tourists and thrill-seekers. The Vastwood is also found at its base, a dense forest that appears to stretch into lumber eternity. Many poets, writers, and thespians have ascended the mountains of Astralis in hopes of gaining insight, or inspiration, finding gorgeous vistas that forever imbue them with an appreciation for their surroundings and a connection to the land. Astralis is also resource-rich, its coal, diamond, copper, and iron mines have operated non-stop for a thousand years and show no sign of stopping any time soon.
Hyrathalis is a four-hundred-mile stretch of danger and death. To its east is Ob-2 and Black Lurch Gorge, a famously monster-infested area that rumbles with the chorus of night creatures. It is common to find creatures from Ob-2 lurking along the mountain ranges of Hyrathalis. Nomadic tribes in Spirix have mostly migrated north to avoid encounters with such dangerous creatures, making those four-hundred miles of desert hostile and potentially lethal to all who travel through it. Hyrathalis is believed to be as resource-rich as its northern counterpart, and there are precious few historical documents that predate The Impetus to corroborate those theories. Unfortunately, the risk massively outweighs the reward. Even if crews were able to defend themselves against the hordes of monsters living in and moving around the area, no one would dare intrude on the terrirtory of Scylla the Crysopel. The great mother of the night, believed to rest somewhere within Black Lurch Gorge, excursions into Ob-2 have historically been known to awaken her wrath and visit great destruction on those unlucky enough to be nearby.
This is the duality of The Green Line, one-half beautiful and the other deadly.

Ecosystem

The climate of The Green Line fluctuates between temperate humid and polar, with much of its peaks being perpetually frozen and powdered in snow while the rest of its peaks receive cool breeze and humid air from the easterlies. Indeed, there are many species of mountain-adapted animals that dot the peaks of the line, though the creatures that inhabit Hyrathalis are much less docile than northern equivalents.
Huge amounts of seasonal humidity get trapped in The Vastwood every year between Spring and the beginning of Fall. East-borne winds that blow in from the ocean carry that humidity up the slopes of The Green Line, creating a bubble of humid tropical air that rests on the side of Astralis, creating luscious and bountiful flora for which the line gets its name. This humidity once wrapped all the way down to Hyrathalis, but since the mountains were removed by humans in the area, those humid winds blow through the great corridor between the two mountain halves every year. This has provided The Colum Kingdom with year-round temperate weather that perfectly suits its agricultural needs, as well as making it a relaxing vacation spot for tens of thousands every month.
Though Colum and the great corridor have benefitted from these winds, they routinely struggle to climb over the peaks of The Green Line, creating a massive rain shadow that has led to the development of The Spirixian Desert over millennia.

Localized Phenomena

Both Astralis and Hyrathalis have their own unique phenomena. In the north, at the peaks of the line, it is common for the Summer and Fall skies to alight with twinkling stars from all over the night sky. A region a few dozen miles south of The Vastwood is known for a particular cluster of stars and nebula that glow more vibrantly than all others in the sky. From a certain angle, it can even look like their beams of light have traveled the infinite stretch of space and arrived like a light show on the mountain tops. Beads and tendrils and stands of light are reflected off the snowy, rocky surface of the mountain tops in an array only challenged in beauty by the aurora borealis.
Hyrathalis is known for a strange phenomenon in the Spirixian desert called The Dust Devil's Dance. For those truly brave or reckless enough to venture to the peaks of its mountains, they get an unparalleled view over the uninhabited stretches of Spirix. In these quiet places destitute of civilization, it is possible to see the patterns of wind kicking and dragging dust and sand into an elaborate, intricate dance. It is thought to be Solanil ridding herself of frustration by dancing wildly into the night, adopting her alter ego for just a few hours before sunrise so she can be completely cleansed of her darker half by the morning. The Dust Devil's Dance extends for hundreds of miles, with no large structures and very few geographic features to interrupt the desert winds, it is possible to see vortexes of sand from vast distances. Despite its location and proximity to danger, Hyrathalis is considered to be just as breathtakingly beautiful as its northern half. A famous expedition to the highest peak of the Hyrathalis range led by Range Captain Gybar Toleen reported "[A] scenery unmatched by anything else in the world. Even those peaks I can see from here that sparkle in the radiant glory of the heavens cannot compare, for they are safe. There is no exhilaration like balancing on the edge of a knife, knowing true beauty and true death at the same time. To climb from or to this place is to make peace with the ultimate fate of all adventurers, to seek great things and to find them just before meeting with a glorious end."
Fortunately, Gybar Toleen and his crew returned to Colum with no losses, reporting on the stunning wonder that could be found atop the mountains just south of where they were standing. Though few expeditions like it have been commissioned in the two-hundred odd years since Gybar's passing from old age, the Toleen expedition stands as one of the primary motivations for any excursion into Ob-2 on the basis of discovery, exploration, adventure, or knowledge.

Alternative Name(s)

Constellation Hills, Rofhal's Reach

Type

Mountain Range

Location under

The Colum Kingdom

Owner/Ruler

Queen Cassandra of Vastwood

Owning Organization

The Country of Terisirae