Onthenlian River

Some distance north and east of the Hellsgate Peaks runs the Onthenlian River. Named millennia ago by wild elves fighting to defend their forest homes, in the elvish of the era “onthenlian” meant “waters of bereavement.” No record remains as to why the river was given such a grim designation, though some suggest it references the ash-gray color of its waters due to natural sediment in the region.
The mouth of the Onthenlian pours out into the volcano-heated, northward-running current at the upper end of the Strait of Gehenna and significantly cools the seawater and allows it to return to a more sea life-friendly temperature. The meeting of the hot strait with the cool river, however, plays havoc on local weather, and rain and thunderstorms are almost constant above that stretch of coastline. These “weeping skies” (as one old poem says of the region) have been postulated as another possible reason for the river’s sorrowful name.
Whatever the ancient reason, fey and elven residents of the area recently began to identify more strongly with the “onthenlian” sentiment in light of a rash of kidnappings and disappearances. Taking place just barely outside the range of the Green Warders, where the river runs closest to Hollow Mountain, the disappearances seem to have arisen in tandem with a violent new local cult dedicated to something they call “the true nature.”

Type

River