The Mountain Wall
“In the end, Herald’s people alone followed him into the north. There, they found a high mountain range that rose up and around them like a fence, which they called the Mountain Wall.”
-The Adventures of Wardenhame, “The House of Herald”
The Mountain Wall (Mārosh Aegus in Classical Paternic) is an immense mountain range that runs along the eastern shores of Rhusagos and the Far North.
Geography
The mountain range is about 900 kilometers (186 leagues) in length, meeting with the Snow Gulf in the north and approaching the Green Sea to its south. At its southern end, the Mountain Wall splits into two lesser ranges: the Spur and the Hollow Hills. Longdale (35 leagues long) is the valley between these two chains.
Surrounding Lands
The Darkholt and Edgewold Forest are the two great forests nestled against the Mountain Wall. Both are known to be deadly.
On its western side lies a region of foothills and gorges known as the Underwall. Some of the Lake-Elves settled there, fleeing the War for the Lake, but their villages were abandoned and fell into ruin sometime around 900 A.B.
Hoarland borders the Mountain Wall’s northwest slopes where it bleeds into the Far North.
Rivers
Many rivers have their sources issuing from the Mountain Wall. From north to south, the largest of these are:
Inhabitants
The Kingdom of Goblins and Dwarves rules over much of the Mountain Wall, its dominion extending even into the Underwall and Longdale. The Goblins and Dwarves, being friends, have delved for themselves great palaces and mansions in the mountains. Vastest of all that kingdom’s works is Clickerhall-by-Goblin-Hole, where the Chief under the Wall resides. South of it is the city Ernbury, which was built within a vale instead of carved into the rock. It watches over Longdale and the Dale Road.
Some tribes of the Hords, a Mannish people, dwell in the northern foothills of the Mountain Wall.
It is said that Vampires roost in the recesses of the Hollow Hills.
Etymology
The Paternic name for the Mountain Wall, Mārosh Aegus, consists of mārosh (“mountain range”) and aegus (“city wall, palisade”).