Kiern
Vale Handbook
Chapter 5:
The Northern Vale – The Drarun Hills and the “Stone Brothers”
Prologue
| Landscape and Important
Locations| The
Hunting Estates| Important
Characters
Background
of Player Characters
|
Landscape, Important Locations, and
passes into the region The ridge that overlooks Kiern Vale
from the north, separating it from the Urgaka marshes, is lower than the
immense mountain slopes of the Kor-Om’thel region. The area holds no major
trade routes. Only a handful of narrow, winding paths—untended for generations—cut
through the hills, leading north into the Urgaka marshes and toward the
region of Lake Vagrak (and the “Temple of the Dripping Cat”). These routes
are widely regarded as treacherous and ill-maintained. The Drarun Hills are a land of steep
slopes, some thickly forested, and of rushing, treacherous channels that
plunge into one another in a series of small, roaring waterfalls, or gather
into hidden pools nestled between the cliffs.
At the heart of the region, between the
twin peaks Ir’gre and Tol’gre, the many tributaries of the Drarun River burst
forth from the depths of the rock. They cascade downward, merging as they go,
until they reach Lake Tol’ve, which spreads in full beauty beneath the hills,
dividing them from the green forests beyond. In recent years, one of the local
lords—also an uncle of Lord Kor-Om’thel—has begun insisting that the lake
bear his name: Lake Tolvis. The most renowned monument of the
region lies at the base of a vast, sheer rock face that rises from the
shoulders of the hills toward the peak of Ir’gre. There, as though carved
into the dark stone above the tree line—or perhaps crushed into it in some ancient
age—loom relief-like forms resembling three enormous, human-like heads,
grey-black in hue, half-flattened and half-emerging from the cliff. The site,
which appears to have once served as a place of worship for local tribes, is
known as the “Stone Brothers,” or “The Three Stone Brothers.” The peak of Ir’gre, with the dark and
unsettling monument set into it, overlooks the wealthy Bar-Anzorel estate,
which lies beyond the borders of the Drarun Region, in the fertile lowlands
of central Kiern Vale. The hill region of the Drarun gorges
and the Stone Brothers is a wild, beautiful, and dangerous land—even in the
more temperate seasons. As few humans dwell here, the region is home to a
wide array of strange beasts, and perhaps even monsters: great reptiles,
unusual insects, an ancient breed of dark and aggressive deer—rumored to be
carnivorous, or at least omnivorous—and enormous birds. Many of the local humans, so it is
said, are nearly as wild as the beasts. Three or four tribes of hunters dwell
in the region today—though ancient remains and scattered markings found
across the hills suggest that many more once lived here. Contact between the hill tribes and the
inhabitants of central Kiern Vale is limited. A few of the tribesmen descend
from the hills several times a year to trade furs, meat, and antlers, and to
acquire tools[1].
Beyond this, there is little interaction. The local tribes have been only lightly
touched by En’mirian culture, and remain much as their forebears
were—worshipping the spirits of stone and forest, as their forebears had done
for countless generations, long before the gleaming legions marched into
Kiern Vale. Though little has been put into
writing, “the stones themselves, and the wind that blows between the trees,”
are said to be full of tales—of forgotten tribes, and of feuds between
hunting families as ancient as the hills themselves; of brutal murders within
and between those same families; of clashes with ancient creatures that
descend from the ridges under cover of darkness or the snows of winter; and
more. |
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Kiern Vale guide
Created and edited by Gideon Orbach (2017) © All rights reserved. Commercial use and/or any
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