Cold Hold
Far North
Hordelands
The northernmost land of Therafim, Rimevast, is a frigid wasteland, its southernmost areas just barely habitable for those without some sort of protection, either magical or natural. These same lands are also just barely arable, allowing some hardy breeds of livestock and crops to be raised. However, at the farthest north, the land is bathed in constant daylight for half of the year, and constant night for the other half, and during that time of darkness, a cold so bitter lashes the face of the land that only a very tiny number of creatures can endure it. Roving tribes of wolfen and actaeons roam the more northern lands of Rimevast freely, along with other beastfolk types, such as bearfolk, while the coasts of Rimevast belong to the hordes of goblinoids, giants, and orcs that make Rimevast their home. On the Bloodwit Delta, humans and ovida make their living, enjoying the most arable land in Rimevast, and fighting hard to hold onto it against the constant raids from the hordelanders. Rimevast is a land of constant, vicious struggle for survival, not only against the dangerous inhabitants of the continent (though there is plenty of that) but against the conditions of the land itself, which constantly threatens to freeze the weak and the unwary to the bone.
Though obvious connections between Rimevast and the rest of Therafim take place by sea, during the cold months of winter, large ice bridges form, connecting it to nearby continents, while in the drier months of summer, shallow water between continents lowers, revealing narrow land bridges. Thus, when the people of Rimevast need it most, they are able to cross over to the warmer countries, and often make it back to their homes (should they desire it) before these natural bridges fail.
Places of Note:
The Temple of Winds and Living Water: Towering high, high above the thick cloud cover that often overshadows Rimevast is a mountain with no name. At the top of this mountain is the Temple of Wind and Living Water, a place where a spring imbued with potent healing energy breaks forth, though it loses its power as soon as it freezes, just outside the entryway of the temple. Being immersed in this water acts like an elixir of youth, but without the side effects of such elixirs, though it only works once in a person's lifetime in this fashion. At all other times, it provides full healing, including the removal of all negative effects, including fatigue. Besides the fountain, the Temple of Winds and Living Water is also the home of a powerful air weird and a gynosphinx, both of whom have great divination magic at their disposal. The gynosphinx is the apprentice and protector of the air weird, and while the weird will answer any one question put to her in fairly direct wording, all must get past the gynosphinx before they can get their answers. Rather than riddles or other tests, however, the gynosphinx demands payment up front for services rendered, as the weird knows what questions will be asked, and how difficult it will be to find out the answer beforehand, and scales the price accordingly, telling the gynosphinx what price to ask. This price can be money, or sometimes a service that must be performed. The gynosphinx can also answer some questions with her own divination abilities, and only requires that those who ask her questions answer her riddles first, at a rate of one riddle for each question asked, but she is less powerful than the weird, and much less acurate, besides being cryptic. Scaling the mountain is a challenge in itself, for besides the normal terrain hazards, the mountain regularly attracts a variety of hostile creatures that are eager to prey on fresh meat or to protect their territory from intruders, or most often both.
Lifesprings: In the killing cold of the north, any heat can mean life. So it is with the Lifesprings, a set of hot springs that bubble up from the ground near the center of the Hordelands. This area is regularly tended by people that have been enslaved, who make use of the relative warmth of the region to raise crops almost year round, though who their owners happen to be changes regularly. Both the orcs and the goblinoids of the region are locked in a constant back-and-forth struggle to hold onto this piece of land, with each group coming into dominance for a time before losing out to the other side. Because of this, the inhabitants of the Lifesprings simply pay tribute to whoever happens to be in charge at any given time, before their rulership changes again, bending with the changes that come, and hiding away enough for themselves whenever possible.
Terrain Features:
Bloodwit Delta: Named after the traditional practice of asking a bloodwit - a blood price - to pay for the death of another and end a tribal dispute, the Bloodwit Delta is a triangular chunk of frosty land slightly set off from the rest of Rimevast by the Waters of Strife, with mineral rich hills near its center, and reasonably fertile farmlands during its short warm months. The produce of these farmlands is sufficient to support a relatively small human population of a few thousand, total, and their livestock, at least as long as no famines strike. However, as famines are quite common in these cold lands, the Bloodwit Delta is also known for producing vicious, desperate reavers of various races, though mostly human, who come tearing down from the far north to Summer Coutnry and Autumn Land in search of glory and booty, not necessarily in that order. The delta takes its name from the vicious battles that its inhabitants must constantly fight against the goblinoid, orcish and giant hordes to the north, against retaliatory attacks from the warmer lands to the south, and from the battle against the land itself to eke out a bare living. This is the bloodwit that every inhabitant of the delta must pay, or die, and every one of them knows it.
Boreal Peaks: This is a relatively small ring of mountains surrounding the roof of the world, the northernmost point of Therafim. Here the energies of the northern lights gather in magical concentration, making this a desirable location for many creatures, who have made their homes in the Underdark beneath these mountains. This region is most noted for its illithid population, who are constantly experimenting to find ways to make use of the powerful but chaotic energies in the area. The kaorti also are present here in force, as are various other monstrous races that enjoy experimenting with magical powers that are likely beyond the ability of any one faction to control. While in this region, all arcane spells cast have a 10% chance of triggering a wild magic effect.
Waters of Strife: As the site of more naval battles than any other single place on Therafim, the Waters of Strife have a surprisingly small amount of plunder in the shipwrecks that have sunk into its depths. This is because the monstrous humanoid hordes from the north and the human and beastfolk hordes from the south went to battle with empty boats, because they were both looking for booty from the other party. The Waters of Strife separate the Bloodwit Delta from the rest of Rimevast, and is the first line of defense against the raiding hordes of the Hordelands and Far North.