Cinder Vale

The commercial heart of the Ashen Spine, built in a wide valley where lava flows from two volcanoes meet a river system in a permanent curtain of steam. Cinder Vale's markets deal in forged metal, volcanic glass, and geothermal salts. Roads lead north to Korrin Hold and south toward Ironmark. Within the Ashen Spine, this site is part of the long chain of forge-towns, quarries, and iron-vein settlements that work the world's oldest forges from Ironmark down to Old Varr. The smoke is the climate. The Fray here is physical — cracks open in the rock, tunnels appear that were not there the day before — and the Cleaved is the regional consequence. Forge guilds keep their own records, and they keep them close.