Ossyeard

The Ossyeard is a region in northwestern Galessia. Bordered on the southeast by the Protectorate of Highvale, the Dwarven Kingdom of Starn, the City of Garlond, and the Great Forest of Baxbury, all across the towering Galespine Mountains; in all other directions, the Ossyeard is surrounded by mostly frozen sea. Frigid, remote, inhospitable, and largely uninhabited, this region lacks any centralized government or national identity, instead having many disparate localities who survive in the region's extreme cold. Its largest settlements are Yarsol, Whitedawn, and Sootfall.

Physical geography

The Ossyeard is deceptively large, and therefore, not uniform in its geography. Whereas nearly the entirety of the region is frozen year-round, some patches of vegetation exist near the Windchill Pass, which serve as the sole agricultural output of the region, exploited by the people of Ossgate. The south and center of the region is largely flat wastelands of ice, rumored to be nothing but a frozen sea. North of Yarsol, the region becomes more rocky and dangerous, eventually culminating in the Allends: steep, dangerous mountains home to dwarves and no one else. The seas surrounding the Ossyeard are mostly frozen year-round, with the exception of the coast by the Sea of Storms, which proves too wild to freeze shut, and most of Black Ice Bay, which thaws in the spring and summer.

Flora and fauna

Outside of rare hardy mosses and grasses, plants aren't found here. Animals are less rare, however these are mostly dangerous carnivores such as white bears. The frozen seas are replete with fish beneath the sheets, and some creatures capitalize on this. White dragons roam the skies in surprising numbers, the ruthless apex predators of the Ossyeardan ecosystem. Many a monster resides here, too, and sightings of even extraplanar creatures have been reported, mostly near the peculiar infinite smokestack known as Hells' Egress. By and large, however, the Ossyeard is as its reputation says deplete of life.

Society

The history of society within the Ossyeard is largely a tale of different peoples and their trials in the cold. Even prior to the arrival of the frost goliaths during the reign of the Ancient Dwarven Empire, there was already life here: the March of Yarsol was founded at an unknown date long before this, and according to the legend, originally served as the home of the now almost extinct frost elves, of whom Marchioness Valeria Rosecroft claims to be the last. The only other people to be known to originate from the region are the dwarves of the Allends, a mountain chain at the northwestern edge of the land, who have been reclusively toiling away since time immemorial and show no signs of stopping. They have built a settlement within the mountains: Gond's Resolve. Finally, a settlement called Sootfall was built by a wayward family of halflings on the shore of Black Ice Bay.
After the arrival of humans on the continent, the balance of power shifted, and many peoples migrated around the continent. Some groups therefore ended up in the frozen Ossyeard and tried to make their home here. In this time, the last two settlements in the region were founded: Ossgate and Whitedawn. Ossgate was constructed at the north end of the Windchill Pass, the only safe land route into the Ossyeard. The people here live off of trade, livestock, and the northernmost farming in the known world. Whitedawn was founded by shipwrecked sailors who braved the Sea of Storms - and inevitably failed. The currents of the sea wash debris up on the eastern coast of the Ossyeard, and there exists now a thriving community of treasure hunters and merchants, hoping to uncover riches from the many wrecks.
The modern history of the Ossyeard is much of the same. No communities here engage in or were affected by the wars of the continent, and despite Ossgate and Yarsol being invited to the Meeting of the North, neither showed up. Therefore, the region remains a largely wild and empty wasteland of snow and ice.