The Ashen Spine

A long chain of black-rock mountains running north-to-south, threaded with iron veins, sulphur vents, and the oldest working forges in the world. The Ashen Spine's settlements are forge-towns and quarries — Ironmark and Old Varr the largest, Rookforge and Black Hammer Forge the most respected. Smoke is the regional climate. The Spine is one of the regions where the Fray's damage is most physical: cracks open in the rock without warning, sometimes vomiting heat that has no source, sometimes simply revealing tunnels that did not exist the day before. Vaultkeepers believe the Spine sits over a fracture-line in the First Map, and the monster known as The Cleaved is the regional consequence of that break. Forge guilds keep records that go back further than anyone outside the region is allowed to read.