The Northlands

Ours is a strange land: A place of Steam and stone, a place of Brass and Trees, a place of Shining Technology, and Primal secrets... Auril Vingterœln, Grand Artificier of The Academy The Howling winds of the Neck, the snow-covered pines in the Shivering Desert, the Strange howling echoes of the Fairy Peak, and the legends of long-lost treasures in the abandoned Dwarf-holds Mountains, these are all the evocative images that the Northlands give to outsiders. This place is also that of a strange mix of old and new: Old Standing Stones of the Old Faith alongside a brewery or a steam-powered milling house, a Tiefling druid performing a dance of fertility to a woman in Twin-Tower City, or old and dried out elm trees surviving the strange arid Desolation. Three cities (or, two cities and a massive-ruin of two cities) are some of main importance:

Twelve-Tower City: Home of The Academy; located deep in the Neck of the Nortlands, it is a city of shining progress thanks to the efforts of the Academy, but it also a city of commerce, thanks to the fact that many of the old trading roads lead in some way or another through the Twelve.

Grammilgard: the Last Dwarf Hold; while many of the Hill and Shield Dwarves abandoned their ancestral homes in the Dwarholds mountains to either live where their hearts desired, the Hill Thanes of Grammilgard were the only ones that defied even the council of their own elders, and decided to stay. Ever since, the Dwarves in the city have harbored freethinkers, tinkerers, and engineers of different walks of life.

The Ruins of Einlander; Originally, these were two cities, the human city of Einswick (by then considered to be the Second Twelve-Tower City in the matters of science and achievements in engineering), and the Highborn Elven floating city of Maranlander, but 50 years ago, something happened to the floating city's lightning cortex, and fell from the sky, crushing the city beneath. Today, the ruins of both cities attract a number of adventurers, treasure hunters, scholars looking for trinkets and lost projects that might still be found under the rubble, but the search has been found... Troublesome, for the ruins hold all sorts of dangers: From unbound elemental creatures, to undead, and other strange things.

Geography

Most of the Northlands are crisscrossed by the mountainous regions of the Wym's Teeth, and a good portion is also covered by cold woods. Deep below the mountains, however, lie the underground passage tunnels of the Durkborn Elves , and the Duergar Pass. From here, many of the Duskborn and Dwarves pass through the mountains and forests with little fear of brigands, and reaching the Thunder-Rail systems that the Northern Alliance has begun to lay foundation, even provide assistance by tunneling through the mountains and offering protection, just. The uppermost part of the Northlands are known as the Frozen Desert, as barren cold place, with icy wind that strips the flesh of the unprepared, and a cold that burns the bones. The Seas In the Shattered Coast are infamous for their strong winds, and many an old sailor has claimed that sometimes an ill wind blows from them.

Fauna & Flora

Most of the creatures found in the Northlands are creatures either accustomed to the Cold, or high altitudes: Wolves, elks, bears, great soaring eagles, mountain lions, snow leopards, and creatures live in these places. But, also, especially in the lands bordering on the Valley Princes and the Crimson Lands, there are some remnants of past battles of the War of Winter's Fire, especially in the Desolation, a small desert wasteland of rusted steel, sand, and the ghosts of past battles. Most of the inhabitants here are commonly Humans, Mountain & Duergar Dwarves, and the occasional Greenborn Elves , though some Oceanborn elves do make their home in the coasts. In the north, there are still some giants living free in the mountains, descendants of those that escaped their shackles from the Narrathi Empire, and many of them are old enough to remember how they were treated by the goblinoid empire.