The Peaks of Azul

Between the misty veil of Tron Daurat and the storm-torn deserts of Ithara lie mountains dense with redwood and capped with ice. The Peaks of Azul are not kind to settlers: were the threat of sabre-toothed cats, mammoth herds, and the olgoi-khorkhoi not enough to endanger a community and their herds, the high altitude, harsh winters, and frequent drought make day-to-day life a constant struggle.

And yet, the khamag tribes of the Peaks of Azul believe the mountains to be the crucible of life itself.

To the nomadic khamag, the Peaks of Azul are at once a source of respect, fear, and reverence. The mountains exhale, and life springs anew; they inhale, and life is taken again. Spirits of those who have passed linger in the pine forests and frozen peaks longer than mere ghosts, but so too do the spirits of those that still live across the world, and those yet to be born into it. For this reason, it is not only their own people and their herds of sheep and yaks that the khamag tend to, but also the towering peaks they travel upon and the unseen world beneath them.

The elves of Tron Daurat scoff at the khamag, for they know that they are the stewards of creation. The artificers and scientists of Ithara are certain that aether, the lifeblood of the world, flows from somewhere beneath their desert landscape. But when one is alone in the forests of Azul beneath the stars, and shimmering forms dance between the pines, one begins to doubt that the world is really so simple.