Shadow of the north

We were warned, but we did not listen. We thought that if Glen Asturac himself would not move, we had to do it ourselves. Our arrogance cost the lives of half of my comrades.

The northern part of Odelia has always been notoriously dangerous. Something lurks between the mountains and catches whoever wanders too close.
As no one ever came back to tell what it is, people named it the Shadow of the north.

Converging stories

Whatever the Shadow is, it fiercely guards a very delimited area. The few survivors all told a similar story. As they went closer and closer to its territory, they first began to hear noises, sometimes loud, sometimes quiet. Many people consider this to be the first warning.
After a few more steps, their vision was becoming blurry. It was not long before they also started having collective hallucinations. This is where every survivor stopped. Anyone who either stayed too long or kept going never came back. The survivors did not even hear screams most of the time, just silence, as if the mountain itself ate their comrades.

At first, it was like someone was rubbing a stone on a sword. The noise was deafening, but we kept going on. Then, after a good fifty extra steps, the sound stopped, but everything around us seemed bigger. I went back when I started losing sight of other people. At some point, I realized that my senses were back to normal, and by then already six people were missing.

From inadvisable to forbidden

At first, the realm only advised people to stay away from the Northern Odelia, but this quickly became an interdiction during the 2nd century of the Golden Age.
People were striving to be recognized by the crown and be ennobled. The Prexyann Family and the Karnassian Family did it by chasing monsters and bandits away, which inspired many intrepid young people to try and free Odelia from the Shadow. Like the many adventurers who tried to do the same, most of them never came back.
This led the crown to take drastic measures and strictly forbid going there. They funded a few groups of patrollers for three decades; they had to capture and imprison any stupid youngster who tried to go north.