Norn (Geographic Location)
Geography
While perhaps out of the scope of the studies of Arstadt’s natural philosophers, Norn’s geology is that of two competing forces. In the days even before the Old Chaos, Norn was a result of a rising magma table that slowly pushed a vast chunk of bedrock upward, its’ sides belching liquid rock into the surrounding land. It was a haven of wyrms, great territory for a lair and the beyond ripe for feeding. Humanity was still unknown. As the world cooled and glaciers pushed south, retreating and advancing by inches, the onrush of ice took a path of least resistance, as ice does, claiming the softer stone that surrounded the plateau, creating vast fjords and essential rivers beyond the dark, stony walls. However, the plateau was not invincible, and as the ice table melted and the fjords flooded, water seeped into the cracks and caves that belched lava eons before, carving their own paths until they encountered the regressed lava table. The dance of these explosive controntations have riddled the walls and core of Norn with caves, some with vast chambers of water or lava, and today inhabited by slumbering dragons, unheavened creatures and cunning humans. Perhaps in millenia to come, the caves will break Norn from within, but for now, the greatest indicator of the roil that exists below the Nornic plateau is the prevalence (relatively speaking) of shield volcanoes, blistering to the surface like hillocks bearing a lake of lava at their summit. Those which are not long dormant are typically content to quietly roil, belching fresh, fertile soil year after year, but the proximity of underground water to superheated rock results in the occasional a gnarly eruption. These volcanoes were sacred to the Shale Throne, and often serve as crematories for the dead by Norns who live near them. Burning the dead, after all, prevents a Fiend from claiming their corpse as an undead, and Shale Fiends that take this land as their hunting ground delight in creating and then disposing of corpses.
