Great tumuli of the Albine mountains

(...) And we saw the remains of two giant statues ,one was still standing in the open, the other was covered by grass up to the neck. Some walls were still visible but most of the houses and buildings were covered by layers of earth and vegetation, and judging by the size of the mount, it must have been an important village.
Amyntas of Lavron, in his work "Description of the lands of Teria" ca. 226 AP.

Damn is the place where the king sat on his throne,

where all their palaces are gardens are long gone

because they defied the gods because of their evil

and now they have to to live forever inside a world,

a world inside an orb blue as the sky

and the wise good of trees put in on a crosier,

what a mighty ceptre it was!, made of wood from an elm tree!.

Cry, cry! oh mighty king because you've lost your throne and now a tent you will need,

shame, shame on you foolish thiefling king because all of this happened because of your greed!

(Famous nomadic song)

The Great Tumuli of the Albine mountains also known as Tiefling towns, are one of the most remarkable geographical locations on the west side of this famous mountain chain. They have inspired multiple legends and many people from different cultures have tried to uncover the origin of such strange mounts.

For some this mounts hide powerful magic inside of them, for others, these places are cursed and one shall stay away from them. But aside from this beliefs the truth is that this mounts are vestiges of a great civilization long vanished which once dominated the plains, when they're more fertile and green and whose descendants would one day, became of the most powerful empires in the world, this civilization is known as the Yavana culture, the ancestors of the Oronai and the Ikarians.

Geography

Most of the tumuli are located on top of little mountains that form the great mountain range of the Albine Mountains. This is so because this kind of settlements were located in high areas to protect them from enemy attacks and floods.

They are also located near dried river courses, as they were very important for agriculture and for obtaining fresh drinking water.

From the top of the tumuli you can have an impossing view of the area known as the Dry Plains, north of the so called Oronai Gates. Some big trees can be seen in some humid areas, usually close to a river. This trees were worshiped by the nomads as they believe that they were placed there by the god of Trees, the one that suposely sealed the Tieflings into a little world inside an orb placed on a crosier made of elm wood.

Localized Phenomena

Some witnesses and adventurers have stated that this ruins and tumuli display some magical energy (probably they think, because magical artifacts still placed on the ruins).

Also, others have said that they witnessed ghosts walking among the ruins or have heard voices near these tumuli.

One of the myths of the nomads tell us the story of a prince called Yari ei Jan lost one of his precious horses that scaped from the camp. He persued the horse crossing the river and arriving to the Great Tumuli area. There he found his white horse and as legend says, he encountered the ghost of one of the ancient kings of the regions. Far from being evil, the ghost saluted him and excuse himself saying that he had called his horse using magical wispers. He did it so because he loved horses so much. He told the prince that he has lost a son in war and after knowing that Yari was a prince he gave him a magical stone said to have been a gift of the moon goddess herself and then returned the horse to his owner. This encounter,as it was viewed and understood by the nomads, made Yari the legitimate lord of the region as it was understood that the king with his gift recognized that the nomads were now the masters of the land.

Fauna & Flora

The areas nearby the tumuli are home to boars, wolves and foxes and in the northernmost part of the region of the great Tumuli you could also find the legendary ice lions.
The plains are also home to other animals such as aurochs and the so called golden zebras.
In contrast with the plains the mountains, thanks to the abundant rain and some lakes in the middle of the mountains  there is way more vegetation.  Pine trees, chesnut trees, can be found in the forest near waterfalls, lakes, or rivers that run between mountains.

History

The area of the great Tumuli was once occupied by the people belonging to the so called Yavana Culture during the Bronze Age. This people were clearly a davidovian people and were the direct ancestors of the Ikarians and the Oronai.

During the Bronze Age, this area was quite fertile and hundreds if not thousands of hillforts appeared across the land. Each of them seem to have a communal assembly and perhaps it was ruled by a chief or petty king. the fact that they are in such a defensive position and that they have strong defences points out to the violence and possibily endemic wars between this petty kingdoms. Perhaps one hillfort was at war with the neighbouring one, or they established an alliance to defend themselves against other more powerfull settlements. The main occupation of its inhabbitants seems to have been agriculture and cattle raising.

But around 1300-1200 BP the climate in the region began to change, the area became dry, the rivers course changed and the pression from the nearby peoples forced the Yavana to migrate. One tribe went south-west, becoming the Oronai and other fled to the west and eventually crossed the Albine Mountains, becoming the Ikarian peoples.

Of course this settlements became abandoned and in a couple of centuries those hillforts became covered by vegetation and later on, by layers and layers of earth, thus forming little mountains or tumuli .

When the nomads arrived to the region and occupied the region from 900 to 231 BP, some vestiges of the houses and palace complexes of this hillforts were still visible and thus, legends about the peoples that inhabitted those settlements starting to appear among the nomads. Some considered this tumuli to be palaces of extremely wealthy kings, and so they starting to dig some of them looking for treasures. Others thought that they were settlements of dwarfs, but the main hypothesis among the nomads were that they were Tiefling villages.

Tourism

For centuries after the abandonement of these settlements, crossing across this lands became dangerous as one might encounter a nomad raid party. But some people attracted by these ruins was able to visit them safely. One was the Oronai historian and geographer Amyntas of Lavron, who is the first historian that pointed out that this settlements were not Tiefling villages but hillforts like those described in the epic tales such as the  The Siege of Dorstulon, the city of the Ten Walls and stated that they were villages related to the davidovian peoples and possibily the ancestors of the Oronai and the Ikarians.

Some elven adventurers from the Kingdom of the Snow elves had explored this locations suposedly guided by magical forcers searching for magical objects left behind by the old inhabitants of the hillforts.

Alternative Name(s)

Tiefling cities

Type

Mountain / Hill

Related Ethnicities

• The proto-Davidovian peoples