The Burning Spire

"Just over the ridge it appears, a column of basalt as tall as a Steelbark Birch. Covered in flickering, dancing lights that move across its surface like flames swimming across its length. It's as if the Great Spirits stuck a burning branch into the world."
Residing at the headwaters of the Sparking River the Burning Spire stands tall. Like many of the other Spires found on Amerre the exact origin of the Burning Spire is unknown. What is known is that its name is quite literal, burning day and night without relent.

Geography

"I looked out my window upon the Sparking River, its black surface flickering red and orange with the setting Autumn sun. The Scal sits quietly around the tower but not still as the Wondering Maples stride, their way along the ancient paths their ancestors left. I watched enthralled as a Radiant Hawk descends burning a golden line across the sky down into the forest below."
Sitting upon a plateau above the Sparking River and surrounded by a temperate forest named the Scal. Filled with tall hills and deep valleys leaves the Scal difficult to navigate. The plateau the Burning Spire resides upon sits at a low point in the Sparking River allowing people ford, its due to these factors that the Burning Spire sits in a strategic position.

Ecosystem

The Scal forest that surrounds the headwaters of the Sparking River and the Burning Spire is made up of Steelbark Birch, Wondering Maples and Scoria Hemlock. Many creatures make the Scal their home a few of the more prominent ones being the Radiant Hawks and Itae Elk.
The ecosystem of the Scal is predominantly based around the migratory patterns of the Wondering Maple. Who follow trails and paths carved through the wilderness by their ancestors who developed this ability.
The Wandering Maples travel from hill to hill rarely moving in groups larger than 3. Traveling without care they crush all that remain along the paths before them. Many creatures of the Scal follow in the tracks of the Wondering Maples as they upturn deep soil and stones along the path. In their wake the forest becomes meadows and nesting grounds for many.

Climate

The weather of the Scal is fairly temperate year-round with a stable 4 seasons that are noticeable but not drastic.

Fauna & Flora

The Itae Elk is a large relative of the Elk. Standing at 10 feet tall and 14 feet long with green-brown mottled fur and silver horns that end in gleaming pearlescent points . The Itae Elk settle the meadows left in the wake of the Wondering Maples migration. Using the overturned Steelbark Birch to rub off their velvet and cast off their antlers.
The Radiant Hawk, despite its name, is a small eagle. Covered with yellow-brown feathers along its body and wings, each of the remiges ends with a tip of white within which is the shape of a triangle in gold. The Radiant Hawk makes nests within the most stable branches of the Wondering Maple from these vantages they pick off any prey overturned by its passing. A unique trait of the Radiant Hawk from which it gets its name. Is that when they gain enough speed, the triangle along their feathers alight with a golden glow that then leaves a trail of hard light within their path.

Alternative Name(s)

The Smoldering Pillar, and Burning Hills

Type

Forest