The Alpine Fires

Few people were directly affected by the Alpine Fires, and most were content to let them burn their course after digging firebreaks around the foothills. "It'll clear out the brigands" was the order of the day. Other than those towns directly affected by the smoke, few realised the extent of the fires, and after the first adventuring parties ventured back up after they ended they returned with horrific tales of scorched ground, where nothing grew and nothing landed - dead bodies of birds charred beyond recognition, and forests of dead and rattly trees where the leaves provided no shelter. Reports also filtered in that the heat of the fires had cracked the rock of the Alps themselves, causing fissures to open up that extended kilometres deep. Those places worst affected by the fires were reported to be impassable, having become seething masses of molten rock and hotspots underneath dirt and tree.  Fires still break out spontaneously in the Alps on occasion.
Townsfolk gossiped about the tales from adventurers, but nothing serious was thought of it until the first migration season for birds and creatures began. Those who were returning to the Alps after time spent in other areas of Mythia stopped in the nearby towns and cities and did not move on. Farms became terrorised by crows and deer, and the streets were filled with other displaced animals. Massive culling expeditions were ordered and by the time the animals were cleared there wasn't a person in the region who hadn't got their hands dirty by killing an animal. The full impact on the wildlife of Mythia is still being investigated by naturalists today, and is estimated to have been on the scale of a full-fledged volcanic eruption.

Origin

The fires are thought to have been started by careless brigands in the mountains, or by adventurers camping. No concrete evidence has been found for how the fires started, and myths abound that they were caused by The Mountain Man in his displeasure against brigands or adventurers. Some even suspect that they could have been the result of a spellwrit gone awry, and that a new Rift may also have been formed, although no evidence of this has been found despite multiple expeditions into the Alps by Rider troops.