The Silent Wastes
This sparsely inhabited tundra is dominated by frozen grasslands, bitter snowstorms, and largely nomadic warrior tribes of humans, orcs, and goblinoids.
Geography
While most of the region is dominated by flat plains, the Wastes border The Jagged Spine to the southwest, and rocky hills pockmarked with frozen caves can be found near the mountains.
While the climate in the region could be considered pleasant in the summer, winters here are bitter-cold and blizzards can last for days on end. For the few humanoids who live here, death is expected to come with winter, even despite countless generations of experience surviving the cold and hunger.
Fauna & Flora
The growing season in the Wastes is short, and nearly the entire region has a thick layer of permafrost just below the surface, so the landscape is dominated by hardy grasses and sparse bushes. In fact, while newcomers could be forgiven for thinking the plain empty, such an assumption could cost them dearly. Packs of tundra wolves, often led by their larger and more intelligent cousins, dire wolves and winter wolves, roam freely hunting reindeer and humanoids alike. Nomadic tribes of survival-hardened orcs and humans will take anything of use from unwary travelers. Giants, giant kin, and minotaurs who lair in the hills and mountains range all over and fear few others. Imp-like frost elementals, seemingly incarnations of the malevolence of the land itself, harry travelers in swarms. Rumor holds that the truly unlucky traveler may even draw the attention of a white dragon who considers herself queen of all lands touched by ice.
Natural Resources
The tundra tribes depend on the local reindeer for food, leather, and tools. The animals are abundant, but their wandering nature necessitates that the groups dependent on them be nomadic as well. Furthermore, there are only two major herds, and both provide food for multiple tribes of orcs and humans. Conflict between the various groups is commonplace, which has bred a strong warrior culture in the Wastes.
Rumor has it that the south-western hills have an abundance of magically-active ore, but the area is thick with giants, and only the incredibly stupid would attempt to mine there.
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