Name: Yraso Mountains
Location: In the northwest corner of Ash-Akul, among the Northern Wastes.
Climate: Frigid. Even in the warmest months of the year, these mountains remained buried deep in ice and snow, riddled with glaciers.
Physical Features: Tall and steep, none of these mountains are known to be volcanically active. Perhaps it is even too cold for magma to venture here.
Flora and Fauna: Very few plants can survive the bitter cold, although a few species of lichen cling to rocky surfaces where they can be found. Snow-pear grow in the bottoms of icy chasms. However, ice-loving beasts find these mountains a haven. From polar bear to remorhaz, white dragon to frost giant and pretty much any other snow-dwelling creature imaginable. Due to the lack of green growth, nearly all of the animal life is carnivorous, and feed on the other carnivores that populate the rugged terrain.
Known Dangers: Most of the wildlife is dangerous, and small clans of orc, orog and ogre are frequent throughout the range. There is also the danger of the mountains themselves, from glacial temperatures to avalanche and ice-chasms, blinding white-outs and deep wells of powder-fine snow that can completely consume a traveler, like quicksand. Sometimes ice-trolls wait at the bottom of the powder wells, but even if they don’t, it is nearly impossible to even tell which way is up once you have fallen in.
Ethnicity/Race: Several orc clans dominate the mountains, but there are also numerous orogs and ogres, frequently joining together into small but vicious war-bands to attack each other with or against the orc clans. Occasionally there are barbaric humans that have chiseled out a niche for themselves, either among the orc clans or in small, harried tribes of their own. Ice trolls are not infrequent, and will attack any of the other races on sight.
Language: Orc, ogre, and rough versions of common. The ice trolls speak a language of their own, and expect anyone that wants to talk to them (before being eaten) to speak it as well.
Resources: What rare export can be found is managed primarily by those few humans that have managed to make a place for themselves, and is mainly in furs, with a small output in gems and precious metals from shallow mines. There is also a rare gem that is infrequently found very high in the mountains, called a ranak, or vring ranak.
Special Facts: Although usually at war with each other or the other races that inhabit the mountains, the orc clans have one place that none dare attack. The Yraso Clave, center of religion and home to priests and shaman alike, where clans will meet and mingle several times a year. It is not uncommon for several orcs to leave with a different clan, and promptly make war against the clan they so recently left with all of the fervor and hatred they felt mere weeks prior for those they fight alongside now.
The vring ranak is rumored to be the frozen heart of an ice dragon. Few are found, and even fewer ever leave the peaks. Uncut they are perfectly clear, cabochon they take on a silver-blue sheen, and when faceted they glitter with vivid ice-blue light. In any form, they maintain a deep, bone-chilling cold within six feet of the gem itself. This sphere of cold is the same regardless of the size of the gem itself, although legends speak of massive ranak deep in the cores of the Yraso Mountains that maintain the year-round chill of the tall peaks.
Location: In the northwest corner of Ash-Akul, among the Northern Wastes.
Climate: Frigid. Even in the warmest months of the year, these mountains remained buried deep in ice and snow, riddled with glaciers.
Physical Features: Tall and steep, none of these mountains are known to be volcanically active. Perhaps it is even too cold for magma to venture here.
Flora and Fauna: Very few plants can survive the bitter cold, although a few species of lichen cling to rocky surfaces where they can be found. Snow-pear grow in the bottoms of icy chasms. However, ice-loving beasts find these mountains a haven. From polar bear to remorhaz, white dragon to frost giant and pretty much any other snow-dwelling creature imaginable. Due to the lack of green growth, nearly all of the animal life is carnivorous, and feed on the other carnivores that populate the rugged terrain.
Known Dangers: Most of the wildlife is dangerous, and small clans of orc, orog and ogre are frequent throughout the range. There is also the danger of the mountains themselves, from glacial temperatures to avalanche and ice-chasms, blinding white-outs and deep wells of powder-fine snow that can completely consume a traveler, like quicksand. Sometimes ice-trolls wait at the bottom of the powder wells, but even if they don’t, it is nearly impossible to even tell which way is up once you have fallen in.
Ethnicity/Race: Several orc clans dominate the mountains, but there are also numerous orogs and ogres, frequently joining together into small but vicious war-bands to attack each other with or against the orc clans. Occasionally there are barbaric humans that have chiseled out a niche for themselves, either among the orc clans or in small, harried tribes of their own. Ice trolls are not infrequent, and will attack any of the other races on sight.
Language: Orc, ogre, and rough versions of common. The ice trolls speak a language of their own, and expect anyone that wants to talk to them (before being eaten) to speak it as well.
Resources: What rare export can be found is managed primarily by those few humans that have managed to make a place for themselves, and is mainly in furs, with a small output in gems and precious metals from shallow mines. There is also a rare gem that is infrequently found very high in the mountains, called a ranak, or vring ranak.
Special Facts: Although usually at war with each other or the other races that inhabit the mountains, the orc clans have one place that none dare attack. The Yraso Clave, center of religion and home to priests and shaman alike, where clans will meet and mingle several times a year. It is not uncommon for several orcs to leave with a different clan, and promptly make war against the clan they so recently left with all of the fervor and hatred they felt mere weeks prior for those they fight alongside now.
The vring ranak is rumored to be the frozen heart of an ice dragon. Few are found, and even fewer ever leave the peaks. Uncut they are perfectly clear, cabochon they take on a silver-blue sheen, and when faceted they glitter with vivid ice-blue light. In any form, they maintain a deep, bone-chilling cold within six feet of the gem itself. This sphere of cold is the same regardless of the size of the gem itself, although legends speak of massive ranak deep in the cores of the Yraso Mountains that maintain the year-round chill of the tall peaks.
