Dragon's Spine Mountains
The Dragon's Spine Mountains are a massive, dense mountain range extending down from the Everwinter mountains in the north and reaching nearly all the way down to the southern coast, practically cutting off the smaller eastern end of Gilden from the rest of the larger continent. The Dragon's Spine Mountains are known to be impassable, not just due to geographically difficult terrain but also for the numerous other dangers that make any attempts to cross through them perilous. This mountain range, and the Southern Wilds which cover the remaining area between the end of the range and the bay, are the reason why the southern empires of Xarjanna are only accessible from Gilden by boat, despite all being on the mainland.
Here there be dragons
The Dragon's Spine Mountains are named thus for the old legend that they formed from the literal spine of the ancient draconic god Ide, the mother of all dragons. In the era of the Ancient World, before the War of Nine, she circled the entire world and from there ruled all dragons of every land. She perished in the War of Nine, and when she laid down on the earth, her bones became a vast mountain range that would become the home of dragons forevermore. The Forgotten Age sages once foretold Ide would someday reawaken, her new body erupting from the mountains and laying waste to the entire land, razing all of Gilden to ashes to create a new, divine empire, that would be ruled by her, her subjects her dragons, and all other living things their prey.
Some are sure the legend is true, and there really is an enormous god-dragon in a finite death-slumber within those mountains, but most believe it's just an old myth, and the mountains are just mountains. What is not a myth is the hordes and hordes of very real dragons that do currently reside all over the range. From diminutive subdraconids that are about the size of a particularly well-fed housecat and around as dangerous as an angry stray, to enormous monarch dragons that are as large as a castle themselves and could devastate entire towns in a single blow, the Dragon's Spine Mountains are positively swarming with dragons.
Note that the Dragon's Spine Mountains are not the only place in the world, or even in Gilden or on the rest of the continent, that dragons can be found, but it is where there are the most of them all in one area. Dragon sightings anywhere else are much rarer in this age.
Further Reading on dragons here ->
Rocky Terrain
Being such a long mountain range spanning so far north and south, the Dragon's Spine Mountains are host to a varied number of different climates, ecosystems, and types of terrain. The mountains themselves are largely very rocky, and more barren higher up and towards the center. They trail down like a long tail from the Everwinters, which are, as their name suggests, in an eternal wintrous state, so the northern areas of the Dragon's Spines are similarly cold and snowy. Towards the south, the bases and lower altitude areas are more verdant, mostly on the eastern side which faces the coast, where it meets the highlands, central plains, and forests of Gilden. On the western side, which faces away from the coast, there is significantly less precipitation, leaving that side of the mountain range much more dry and barren, where it meets the western deserts. Around the southern end, closest to the coast, the tapered tail of the range is enveloped in the rich and green rainforests that grow around Radiant Bay. This includes the southern wilds, and some of the smaller southern nations on the other side of the Wilds from Gilden.
A mountain Range, a tomb, a kingdom
Though the world's dragons are no longer all united under one draconic god-queen, they are still divided into what are considered dragon kingdoms. The monarch dragons are the rulers of these kingdoms, at the high peak of the hierarchy of dragons.
The Dragon's Spine Mountains and all its draconic inhabitants are ruled by such a monarch dragon, the legendary Dragon Queen Eden. Many an adventuring party have attempted to explore the mountains, seeking to discover and defeat her, but none have ever made it anywhere close to the core of her domain, nor has any person actually ever seen her-- none that would have lived to tell the tale, that is.
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