Geography of Aurentium

Overview

Aurentium runs from the southern coast north toward the highland peaks, with the Wyrmway pass as the threshold between the settled kingdom and the wilds beyond. Its borders were never perfectly fixed and are less fixed now than they have been in living memory.

Regions

The North — The Highlands

Cold, exposed, and sparsely populated, the highland interior is old country that remembers being wild. The Pillar of Morthanos dominates the northern skyline — vast, ancient, a site of religious significance since the kingdom's founding. The souls of the worthy are said to pass through its stone on their way to rest.

Three weeks ago, the seal on the mountain shattered.

The Wyrmway cuts through the highland approach to the mountain. It is the easiest northern route through the range — not the only one, but the most direct. The Grave Aegis sits at its southern mouth. North of the fort the road becomes suggestion, and the wilds take over.

The Centre — The Highspire Ruins

Where highland meets lowland the ruins of Highspire stand as a monument to older ambitions. The elves built it first — a city of beauty and learning, the only true civilisation on the continent before Aurum-Hadal came down from the peaks and destroyed it. Humans later settled the ruins and built over the elven foundations before the kingdom's centre shifted permanently south to Auremar.

What remains is striking even as rubble — grand archways, carved stonework, cellars that descend further than anyone has fully mapped, and beneath the human construction the older elven work, finer and stranger. Scavengers and scholars have been picking at Highspire for generations. The pace has increased recently.

The West — The Mountains and Beyond

The western range forms a natural wall. Little trade comes from the west. Beyond the mountains lie rain-shadow lands — dry, strange, and home to peoples with no interest in the kingdom's politics. The southwestern coast, where the peaks meet the sea, is dramatic and largely uninhabited: great sea stacks, cliff paths, fishing villages that answer to no lord.

The South — The Heartland

Rolling farmland, river plains, established towns and trade roads. The bulk of the kingdom's food and population sits here, administered in rough thirds by the three remaining great lords. Auremar, the capital, sits on the southern coast — a deep-water harbour, old architecture, and a population currently crowded with refugees and political tension.

The East — Lowlands and Marsh

The eastern lowlands run to a shallow coast of marsh, estuary and fishing villages. The land is flat and difficult for armies, which has historically suited those who settle here. Grimholt, the seat of House Grenn, is a stilt-town on the marsh — timber walkways over dark water, fishing boats and shallow-draft vessels working the estuary lanes where larger ships cannot go.

Key Locations

Related Pages

• History — How these places came to be
• Factions — Who controls what
• The Grave Aegis — The fort in detail