Anvil Vale Distant Lands

Of course, the folk of the Anvil Vale know there is a large world beyond their doors. These are the lands that lie beyond the Thanewall and even beyond the Frostwood, with as much information as most folk likely know of them, outside of particularly learned sages or well-traveled merchants and travelers.

The Seawall Mountains

On the other side of the Frostwood lie the Seawall Mountains, a range of peaks beyond which lie the Sea Domains of the Sea Lords. These mountains are traditionally thought of as an abode of bandits, from humans to goblinoids to giantish raiders. Its wild expanses are also home to many monstrous creatures that might try to hunt those who travel its lengths, although the defensive structures of the Seawall Corridor make such attacks difficult.

• The Seawall Corridor: The Searoad that runs out of the Thanewall crosses through a passage cut deep into the rock of these mountains. This passage, the Seawall Corridor alternates between a subterranean passage and a crevasse with tall carved cliffs on both sides. This passage is assumed by Valefolk to be dwarven-make, for it shares a great many stylistic and architectural features of the Underroad of the Vale. Even so, no one actually knows who wrought the long path, which has small side chambers carved into its subterranean lengths that allow passing caravans to camp in safety during their trips through it.

The Sea Domains

The island and coastal domains of the Sea Lords are quite wealthy, and for good reason: they are the greatest trading empire known in these realms. The lands of the Sea Lords do not extend more than a dozen or so miles inland, for their power is largely tied to the oceans they claim as their true heritage and dominion. It is known that the Sea Lords jealously guard the privilege of long-distance ocean travel for themselves, and maintain trade routes with strange kingdoms over the sea.

Tynara-by-the-Sea

A largely human kingdom founded two hundred years ago or so by rebels from the Sea Lords power, Tynara's people have settled the lands between the coast and the Mirror-of-the-Sky, the great lake which acts as the gateway to their realm. Tynaran settlements are palisaded and walled. They are a boating people, who ride the river between the Mirror and the Coast, although the Sea Lords have utterly destroyed every attempt by Tynarans to build any fleet capable of doing more than fishing the coast of their cold homeland. Tynara is ruled by a hereditary royalty descended from the national hero who first rose up against the Sea Lords and led the fight northward away from the tyranny of the Domains.

The Bluewater Vale

Somewhere to the northwest of Anvil Vale lies the Bluewater Vale, a bowl-shaped indentation in the mountains. In distance, it is not truly far from the Vale as a whole, but in terms of accessibility, it might as well lie on the other side of the world. There are no paths through the mountains that lead to it, and even if there were those mountains would end abruptly in the sheer cliffs that form the sides of the Bluewater Vale, a length of stone punctuated with occasional majestic waterfalls made of the runoff from the glaciers on both sides of the Bluewater Vale that constantly flow down into it.

The bottom of the indentation is a great lake of blue glacial water from the many rivers and streams that meet in its center, and no one truly knows how deep the bottom of this lake is. The Bluewater Valefolk dwell in small towns along the shores of the Bluewater Mere. It is said that they have tunnels through the mountains that allow them to trade with the Riverwood and Manyrivers beyond, but none of these passages come anywhere near the Anvil Vale.

The Icecrown Mountains

Far to the west of the Starfrosts, the Icecrown are so named for the two massive sheets of glacial ice that crown their heights. Old dwarven treatises speak of the giantish kingdom of the Icecrown, masters over the small tribal folk of its valleys, but no one has had any actual contact with these mountains in so long that such stories may well be wildly out of date.

The Riverwood

The wide plain fed by a dozen or so rivers from out of the mountains to north and west dips down and gives way to a lush forest of mixed conifers and deciduous trees. It is known that the Riverwood protects a great lake kingdom of high elves whose mastery of magic was indisputed even in the days of the Ruined Empire. Exactly what its political realities may be today is unknown, for the plainslands between the Frostwood and the Riverwood is inhospitable to caravans and travelers. The elves of the Frostwood may very well know more than the Valefolk, however, for it is said that the elves of the Frostwood consider those of the Riverwood to be kin and allies.

Manyrivers Mere

The rivers flow out of the Riverwood and mix into a massive lake miles across: the Manyrivers Mere. The Merefolk are humans, elves, and others besides, whose livelihoods and protections are provided by the Mere itself. Communities of mere-houses move around the lake, fishing and trading, and several small island clusters host towns that extend out over the lake itself in several places. In the center of the Mere there is said to stand a palace of shining stone, the home of the Lady of the Mere, a powerful sorceress who defends the people of the Mere as her own.

Urnmadar

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The Ruinlands

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The Argunmath Peaks

Also called the "Dragoncreche Mountains," the Argunmath hold the distinction of being the mountains that most of the legends and myths of the world agree birthed the First Dragons.