Giantsfall

This canyon got its name from a tale of when a lone and monstrous giant stepped through the muddy mere that separated the realm of monsters from the people of the earth, with the intent of swiping the people with its large hands into its maw of a mouth. Fearful, the people struck the giant's head dead via targeting stone throwers. The giant's fall onto the earth violently compressed the land under him and the resultant shock wave upturned leagues of earth and soil that fell back to the earth and piled into the landscape that turned a once flat plain into high zigzagging mountain ranges.
As time proceeded, the giant's body began to decompose. Its skin fell away to open the insides to the elements. Its guts liquefied into the Licking Lake, and its teeth and nails turned to ore. Parts of its ribs began to break away and calcify into stone. And its feet dried hard to form the rocky barrier that prevents the Pearl Sea from rushing in to fill the hollowness.

Geography

A long and windy canyon, several leagues deep, that acts as the natural border between the regions of the Floodlands and the more mountainous territories south. The most famous feature of the lengthy ravine is its 'ribs': these are the projections that arch from one end of the canyon length to the other. On the extreme ends, these arches connect to the other side, but at the wider center, they tend to break and fall away; leaving two arms that span the gap reaching for each other.
It is widely suspected by Step folk, Sinklings and others who live in or near the Cold Swamp that cold air sinks. Due to giantsfall proximity to Gaioor's territory in the wilds, makes some think that the swamp's coldness pours into the lake which is what leaves the wet wilds warmer than the rest of the cold swamp. Although, there is no obvious physical connection between the two places.
Another environmental oddity surrounding the canyon is the persistent lack of rain. The cold winds that rise high from the giant's belly punch through and often disrupt normal weather patterns away from Dry Bowl which then fosters windy conditions along either lengths of the canyon.

Fauna & Flora

Bihorn: A two horned creature with a reddish-brown coat that covers most of it's body. The larger nasal horn, is the size of a baby's arm, while the other horn is typically a stub. Mostly a solitary animal except for courtship and offspring-rearing. It is a vocal species that also communicates through marking soil with its feet, twisting saplings into patterns, and leaving excrement.
Banshee: Otherwise called 'Living Cloth', Banshees are boneless creatures with a near negligible depth to them. Capable of surviving, and indeed thriving, in extreme environments; either aquatic, terrestrial or aerial.
Needing to feed infrequently, banshees are either capable of bloating themselves up like a balloon fish and swallow prey hold or drain the fluids through their barbed tail. The latter of which is the most believed as there are more hunters who report such. Although, dissections of dead Banshees greatly support that the former is also possible.
Kiri: A hooved terrestrial creature with dragon-like features. The body is fully scaled to that of a fish and often as multicolored as one. Kiri are migratory and can live in one of two herds of related females and their offspring, or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males. However, they are gregarious and may combine into larger aggregations.

Natural Resources

Minerals: Multiple mines of lead, gold, silver and tin are scattered sporadically throughout the canyon walls.
Cold Forge: The unfathomable coldness found just above the Licking Lake's surface is tapped as a means to modify conventional metals into newer composites.

Tourism

Licking Lake

At the bottom of the gorge is a cool shallow lake that takes up most of the bottom's surface: Licking Lake. It is believed by the nomadic locals that the lake is the source of a supernatural coldness that blows upwards and over the gorge edges. The immediate air above the lake is so uncommonly cold, it is hot, because within this space any material becomes altered into something harder.

Fall Wall

The furthest west of the chasm, ends at a slab wall that extends both above and below sea level. It is temptingly called the "Fall Wall" and is geographically a part of the southern most pillar that makes up the Floodgates. Many dead-end caves pocket the outer facade but their porous nature makes it easy to carve and expand them into permanent dwellings. Therefore, the Fall Wall hold the greatest population of swingers anywhere. But because, it is also so little explored, there are a number unknown elements hidden in the caves.

Alternative Name(s)

• Dry Bowl
• Giant's Corpse/Body/Ribs/Belly
• Shoulders of the Giant

Type

Canyon

Related Ethnicities

• Swingers

Inhabiting Species

• Banshee

Related Myths

• Between Sun and Shadow