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<<{{image url="http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z62/ZamahLand/Wiki/Cathilcarn.jpg"}}>>====__**The Cathilcarn Mountains**__====
The Cathilcarn Mountains, also known locally as the Summersnow Crags and the Spears of the Sky, are the highest mountains in Meditra. They form a massive physical barrier between the northern foothold of the Holy Empire of Aridoc, to the west, and Ardashir to the east. Their effect on the region's climate and history has been profound. Many of Aridoc's major rivers originate in the misty peaks of the Cathilcarns, and sages believe that the Black Sands desert of Ardashir would not exist but for the mountains' blocking sea winds, and thus rainfall, from reaching that arid land.
The Cathilcarns themselves range from tropical rainforests at their western feet and scorching desert on the eastern side to grasslands and subtropical pine forests as one moves higher up the mountains' slopes. Above those are temperate broadleaf forests and, still higher, alpine meadows interspersed with sparkling mountain lakes. Crowning the range are the forbidding peaks for which Cathilcarn is known: merciless spears of ice and rock, adorned with ever-blowing "tassels" of snow plumes that whirl away in the vicious winds prevalent at that altitude. As the entirety of the range is forbidding and sparsely settled, the slopes of Cathilcarn are home to a vast number of unique, niche-adapted species.
Centuries past, the lower reaches of Cathilcarn were dotted with fortresses and watch towers manned by soldiers from Aridoc and Ardashir. Most of these have fallen into disuse as both empires shrank and lost control of their outlying provinces. Several are merely abandoned ruins; others have become nests of the very bandits that the empires once sought to exterminate through the soldiers who originally filled those fortresses. A rare few are still manned, but these are as likely to belong to some independence-minded local lord as the central empire.
The northern reaches of Cathilcarn, stretching close to Vir, tell another [[HeartofCourage tale of woe]]. There, it is said, a great red dragon lairs in the conquered halls of a once-mighty dwarven kingdom, and orcs have seized hold of the passes. Certainly travel through that region is not a fraction of what it once was; but this may be as readily attributed to the slow deaths of the southern empires as to any danger in the passes. With trade dwindling steadily year after year, fewer merchants find cause to make the long, arduous trek through Cathilcarn every summer.
**See Also: [[HeartofCourage The Heart of Courage]]**
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<<{{image url="http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z62/ZamahLand/Wiki/Cathilcarn.jpg"}}>>====__**The Cathilcarn Mountains**__====
The Cathilcarn Mountains, also known locally as the Summersnow Crags and the Spears of the Sky, are the highest mountains in Meditra. They form a massive physical barrier between the northern foothold of the Holy Empire of Aridoc, to the west, and Ardashir to the east. Their effect on the region's climate and history has been profound. Many of Aridoc's major rivers originate in the misty peaks of the Cathilcarns, and sages believe that the Black Sands desert of Ardashir would not exist but for the mountains' blocking sea winds, and thus rainfall, from reaching that arid land.
The Cathilcarns themselves range from tropical rainforests at their western feet and scorching desert on the eastern side to grasslands and subtropical pine forests as one moves higher up the mountains' slopes. Above those are temperate broadleaf forests and, still higher, alpine meadows interspersed with sparkling mountain lakes. Crowning the range are the forbidding peaks for which Cathilcarn is known: merciless spears of ice and rock, adorned with ever-blowing "tassels" of snow plumes that whirl away in the vicious winds prevalent at that altitude. As the entirety of the range is forbidding and sparsely settled, the slopes of Cathilcarn are home to a vast number of unique, niche-adapted species.
Centuries past, the lower reaches of Cathilcarn were dotted with fortresses and watch towers manned by soldiers from Aridoc and Ardashir. Most of these have fallen into disuse as both empires shrank and lost control of their outlying provinces. Several are merely abandoned ruins; others have become nests of the very bandits that the empires once sought to exterminate through the soldiers who originally filled those fortresses. A rare few are still manned, but these are as likely to belong to some independence-minded local lord as the central empire.
The northern reaches of Cathilcarn, stretching close to Vir, tell another [[HeartofCourage tale of woe]]. There, it is said, a great red dragon lairs in the conquered halls of a once-mighty dwarven kingdom, and orcs have seized hold of the passes. Certainly travel through that region is not a fraction of what it once was; but this may be as readily attributed to the slow deaths of the southern empires as to any danger in the passes. With trade dwindling steadily year after year, fewer merchants find cause to make the long, arduous trek through Cathilcarn every summer.
**See Also: [[HeartofCourage The Heart of Courage]]**
