Cutting Mountains
the World Above the World
Known as 'Wat Qu Waten' to the Dwarf, the Cutting Mountains are the range at the center of Ethae, dividing the continent into its three reaches. It is a range of height sharp peaks, many nearing 30,000 feet. The deep valleys are fertile during Late Spring and the summer months. Fall becomes deadly cold quickly and winter sees the mountain valley's buried in snow, often up to twenty or thirty feet deep, making travel impossible.
The mountain range has been the homeland of the dwarves from time immemorial. Their reign over the mountains reached its height during the Kephic Age, with the rise of the Kephic Empire that spanned the entire range and influenced much of the surrounding nations. In the modern day that empire is little more than a shadow of what it once was. Dwarven stronghold still dot the range, with clans controlling their mountains, but the numbers are nothing to what they once were. Their people's influence in the outer world so miniscule that most forget they exist as anything more than legends. However, those that dwell on the edges of the Cutting Mountains or travel through the mountains will attest to the dwarves, knowing full well their presence keeps many safe, holding back the horrors that hide in the mountains heights as well as deep in the Night Below.
When tavern tales speak of the Night Below, they usually mean the vast network of tunnels and mines that have been carved into the mountains by the dwarves known as Waterdeep.
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