The Shadowed Passes

The sheer faces of these gloom-ridden mountains hide a deeper darkness still. The peaks and valleys filled with ash drifts from the fiery storms that tear in from the Fire Divide, those who lose their way amongst the mountains are doomed to forever wander in shadow.

Geography

The Fire Fissures. All along the northern reaches of the mountains where it meets the Fire Divide is the perpetual ashfall that fills the shadowy valleys with ever dying embers.

The Mute Peaks. The southwesterly peaks where they border the Ghost Sands, so named as any who travel along them fear to speak lest they stir the spirits that haunt them.

The Plaguelake. Once known as Sea of Shades in the Age of Fire, with the end of the dragons the tireless thralls of the vampires built the grand city of Duemonte upon its waters. It was at the end of the War of Extinction that a shard or relic of the Great Old Ones was lost to the waters, turning it all into a creeping and nebulous bile. No longer like anything of reality, the water as it is called, corrupts life utterly.

The Vales of the Vanished. At the center of the region where no light can breach and no eye can pierce is the dark heart of the corruption of the Shadowvale emanating on the Prime. This fell echo of reality pervades each and every mountain, any who would dare traverse the range would find themselves lost forever in the devouring darkness.

The Valley of Pallor. The most fine and white of ashfalls reaches the valley giving a pallid cover across the blackened volcanic stone. The valley remains littered with vestiges of the War of Extinction, as the campaign known respectively as the Crusade of the Dawn and the Crimson Feast brought untold ruin for the conflicts forces.

Roads and Landmarks

The Chained Pass. This mountain road of vile history carves a path from the forests of the Green Reach to the edge of the Plaguelake near Duemonte. Named for the innumerable human slaves that were marched to their deaths at the hands of the vampires. Those who travel the road still find the twisted chain that runs the course, guiding those that travel through the region, as it had once ensured the passage of slaves centuries ago.

Mont Nosferah. The westerly mountain where the Shadowed Passes end overlooking Symtharian, the great fortress temple of Duemonte. Named as the most sacred of holy sites to the Vampiric people by the Unliving Sect, the worshipers of the Unliving Emperor. It is said in ages past the mountain was where he first bestowed his blessings of immortal life, so that his children might endure the eldritch horrors of the Age of Water and the tyranny of the dragons in the Age of Fire.

Peak of the Impaled. The eastern mountain above the greatest citadel of Duemonte, Bloodharn. During the War of Extinction the peak was reinforced with massive iron spiked ramparts that once held the bodies of countless war dead. The rust red of the iron now turns the mists of the peak into what most take as a bloody haze.

The Rot Roads. The winding roads that leads through the eastern mountains to a number of Duemonti settlements before meeting once more with the Pale Passage through the Rotmire and Endless Canopy.

The Sanguinary Gate. The colossal gate at the mouth of the Valley of Pallor, digging into the blackened stone like teeth of iron a hundred feet in height. Each section of the wall like a fang can be raised to allow the passage on to the city of the vampires Duemonte.

Settlements

Balfort. Within the Shadowed Passes above Rotmire south of Pallorport, this once proud stronghold of Duemonte is now populated only by the most scant of vampiric residents.

Bloodharn. An immense Duemonti fortress unrivaled the world over, it is seated at the at the end of southeasterly range, beneath the Peak of the Impaler. Having endured hundreds of sieges in the War of Extinction, the citadel never fell to the Northern Forces. It now serves as the heart of the Emperor's Ward, the military of the vampiric people.

Dague. A merchant town of Slygish humans high in the western peaks overlooking the Green Reach. Settled by slaves freed with the peace following the War of Extinction, the town prospers with trade between the dark elves of Malanh and the vampires of Duemonte.

High Endarus. The secret citadels of the dark elves hidden upon a peak above Malanh by the illusions sown by the Trav'magi of Sithua's Stand. Serving as command for the forces of the Malanhi Empire, the mountains above Malanh all know to be watched by the most keen of elven eyes and viciously protected.

Symtharian. The most sacred of sites for the vampiric people, this settlement of monasteries and tomb complexes is set deep into the valley of Mont Nosferah, the southwesterly peak of the region that meets the edge of the Ghost Sands. The outer citadels that border the Sanguinary Gate are known as the Emperor's Hand, the five bastion keeps run down the mountain like fingers of black iron forming a fist.

Szolnacht. A hardened Duemonti fortress in the southeastern range, where the mountains meet the jungles of the Endless Canopy. The road of the Pale Passage is contentiously patrolled by both the Southern Lycan and the vampiric soldiers of the Emperor's Ward.

Tirisfell. Deep in the easterly mountains of the region this vampiric town holds sway over a network of wealth filled mines. The iron taken from the mines is imbued with the dark nature of the mountains, when smelted is the hardest of materials, Blacksteel which Duemonte built its empire upon.

Ruins and Subterrane

The umbral-marked peaks of the Shadowed Passes lie over the rupture of magical energy known as the Chaos Bleed and the labyrinth of chasms the Hated Sheer in the Depths. Countless caves and crevasses lead to the darkness below the mountains, yet the terrible convergence of the Depths with the Plaguelake at its center drives back any who would dare enter.

Ruins of the draconic and abandoned fortresses from War of Extinction can be found throughout the valleys and summits of the mountains. Many of the ruins consumed when the Fire Divide was empower by the Plane of Elemental Fire was drawn nearer the Prime.

Dracuvaln. Set into the northwest of the range an early city of the Vampires formed from a call to human peoples the world over to come and be graced with the blessings of the Unliving Emperor during the Ashbreak Rebellion. The city fell to ruin during the days of the Grave Tide in the War of Extinction, where it was said the whole of the city marched to the heart of the Vales of the Vanished.

Nightflame Fortress. Once a great bastion of Duemonte, it was said the fires along its walls could be seen from beyond the mountains, a fiery red beacon to pierce the shadows. The mountain it stands upon is now swallowed entirely by darkness as even the stone has been tainted by the power of the Shadowvale.

Vyhser'axveer. A massive ruin of the draconic, half devoured by magma at the southwestern edge of the Fire Divide. The red Dragon King that ruled over the mountains was said to hide its hoards among the peaks that surround the ruins.