The Black Knife

"The living have no place on the Knife. It's seen too much blood. Now it's just a dead place for dead things, and the wise know to leave the dead to their own." - Joachim the One Eye, Captain of the Shrieking Lady

The Black Knife is a cape made of volcanic rock and sand on the western coast of Traia and the Boiling Sea. The cape was formed through millennia of eruptions from the nearby Howling Ridge, a series of very active volcanoes just off the coast of the mainland that now form the neck of the cape. Over the centuries these eruptions along with regular tidal forces have connected the islands together and with the mainland. The shores of the area are covered in volcanic sand, a fine black material. The cape runs out to the west for a quarter-mile, and then hooks south and runs for another two, helping form a natural harbor near the town of Everfog. Early cartographers noted the cape's appearance resembled a knife being stabbed into the harbor, and Black Knife was the obvious choice for a name.
However the Unbowed Nomads call it the Broken Heart because its rocky shores and caves are where the legendary Nomad-King Untaran the Sky and his warriors made their last stand against King Termal I Wazida. Untaran's tribe was wiped out on the Knife, and ever since this crushing defeat the Nomads have considered the cape cursed by the soul of Untaran and his disciples as they were buried at sea, by King Termal, thus denying them the opportunity to Touch Heaven.
The Howling Ridge is an extremely active, angry, chain of volcanoes, crevices, and vents. It is unpredictable and dangerous. The black sandy beaches are treacherous as new vents regularly open up, swallowing and incinerating anything unlucky enough to be in the area. These same fissures, which can be found all over the cape, regularly spew noxious clouds of deadly gas, and thin flows and sprays of molten rock that can run a quarter mile or more before running into the sea. Frequent earthquakes cause frequent rock slides, and the entire ridge is constantly erupting from multiple places; places that can change without warning. Danger is everywhere on the Black Knife, and this danger has led the locals to call it the Cursed Shore.

Alternative Name(s)

Cursed Shore, the Broken Heart, the Knife

Type

Cape

Owner/Ruler

Amiyra Wazida

Ruling/Owning Rank

Queen

Owning Organization

Kingdom of Traia