Spine Watch

The highest permanently manned outpost in the Ashen Spine, perched on a ridge where sentries can see volcanic activity across six peaks simultaneously. Spine Watch relays eruption warnings to Taldrin Pass and Cinder Vale using mirror signals and smoke codes. 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.