Editing Mad Season: Geographical Setting (section)

=The Dwarven Empire=
The Dwarven Empire represents the largest government on the Shattered Coast and occupies the entirety of the Hartshorn (a vast mountain range and forestland to the west) as well as the arable land between the mountains and the coast north of the Great Sands and south of the Clanlands of the northern barbarian tribes.

The Empire includes Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves, and Humans among its protected peoples, but all races can be found within her borders.

==The Wolf Gate and the Raven Gate==
Five ancient stone gateways older than recorded time are interspersed throughout the Shattered Coast. Though the use of them is lost, the ancient standing stones are still considered powerful totemic monuments, and two of them stand within the borders of the Empire.

Named for the knotwork animal carvings on their faces, the Wolf Gate stands in the center of the great Hartshorn range, and the Raven Gate stands in the south of the range, marking the entrance to the Hall of the Mountain King.

==The Cities==
There are countless settlements throughout the Empire, but only three major cities.

===Bar Kesh: City of Swords===
[[File:BKCOS.png|400px]]

Bar Kesh is the Capitol of the Empire. A great trade city on the coast at the mouth of the Blood River, the City of Swords is perhaps the most cosmopolitan city north of the Tiefling Confederacy, with races from all over the Empire, the Confederacy, and the Reach represented.

In Bar Kesh, the '''Labyrinth''' is the largest quarter in the city and is an ever shifting maze of streets and buildings. A road that might be open one day, might be a new towering townhouse the next.

The '''Labyrinth''' is the poorest district and the bulk of Bar Kesh's criminal element may be found here or in '''Rattown'''. The '''Warrens''' (not shown on the map) are a second labyrinth beneath the whole city and the primary way criminals traverse the city.

'''Rattown''' is the wharf district and it gets slummier and more treacherous to the south and west and more upscale to the north and east.

The '''Iron Quarter''' is almost exclusively dwarven and houses the smiths and soldiers of the empire in the city.

The '''Hammerwall''', on the wharf side, serves as a defense against rising tides, but the entire inland side is dotted with smithies, over two thirds of which are sword smiths.

The '''Bazaar''' is the trade district, with shops along the walls and a great open market at its center.

The '''Gold Quarter''' is where you will find the domains of the '''Five High Houses''' and their representatives, while the '''Keep''' serves as both fortress and formal negotiating space with foreign dignitaries.

No one really knows what is in the '''Jade Tower''', but it is said to be the palace for the King of the Dwarves when she visits the City of Swords.

The '''Menhir''' is the ruins of the Old City and is mostly an ancient graveyard at this point.

===Ruvyntarn===
Ruvyntarn began as a fortress in the days of the Dwarven Barbarian wars, and grew from there. Spartan and hard, Ruvyntarn is primarily inhabited by dwarves and humans and even in these times of peace still mostly serves as a bulwark against the barbarians of the clanlands to the north.

The bulk of the stoneships of the dwarven navy are harbored in Ruvyntarn Sound.

===Hall of the Mountain King===
The Hall of the Mountain King is at once a religious and historic destination and the seat of dwarven industry. The mines of the dwarves, the ores and gems of the earth's heart, flow through the Hall as does the lumber of the vast forest west of the mountains.

And while the bladesmiths of Bar Kesh are rivaled by none in their trade, the majority of dwarven metallurgy and manufacture takes place beneath the mountains.

The Empire is governed from the City of Swords, but the matriarchs of the Five High Houses live in the hallowed Hall as does the Mountain King herself.

==The Chasm==
Beginning in the forges deep within the Hall of the Mountain King, a great crack in the earth runs through the mountain bedrock east to the sea, a wound in the earth from the peaks to the depths of Treacher's Deep. 

Though the Chasm disappears underground about a half mile outside the city, it connects the Hall with Bar Kesh, ending in a great cavern under the Iron Quarter.

===The Blood River=== 
Named for it's red color from the runoff of raw iron ore, the Blood River runs from the depths of the dwarven forges below the mountains to the capitol on the coast, traversing the depths of the chasm. Due to the high walls of the Chasm's banks and the violence of the river itself, the only craft that traverse its waters are barges guided on massive rope leads sunk into the sides of the chasm with deep iron rings.

==The Hartshorn==
The Hartshorn is a vast region that encompasses the central mountain range of the Shattered Coast and extends west and north through the massive forestland beyond the range.

===The Pass of Jade===
The northernmost pass through the Hartshorn range connects the frozen flatland of the Sundered Steppes and the northern forest. This pass used to be hotly disputed between the Dwarves and the Barbarian tribes to the north, but now only sees the occasional skirmish.

===Hartshorn Pass===
The broadest and most widely traveled pass between the eastern grasslands and the forest within the Empire is the Hartshorn Pass, the northern edge of which is fortified with several box towers.

===Pass of Shale===
To the south of the range the Pass of Shale is a barren pass just north of the Great Sands of the southron desert, and it is used peacefully by both the Empire and the Confederacy. There is a box tower on either end of the pass and a bizarre tent village stretched between them in the fashion of the bazaars of the southlanders.

The Pass of Shale is the shortest of the major passes and is agreed by one and all to be a fine and manageable road from nowhere to nowhere.

===Kir Ja===
Kir Ja is the northernmost of three ancient stone towers stretching high above the mountain peaks. Though it stands within the bounds of the Empire, the shamans of the steppe barbarians control it now.

===Kir Lan===
Kir Lan, the middlemost of the towers and situated between the Wolf Gate and the Raven Gate, serves as the remote hub of advanced arcane learning within the empire.

===Kir Ijon===
Kir Ijon, equidistant between Bar Kesh and Ruvyentarn, is a towering ruin, infested with the tattered spirits of whatever cataclysm laid it bare.

===Grimdane Vale===
Remote and hidden in the deep folds of the mountains, Grimdane Vale was once a Plague town, a place of exile during the black times of Dwarven history. After that it was used for nearly a century as a penal colony until the inmates rose up against their wardens, took the town, and held it against three attempts to reclaim it.

Now it is the haven of the Blackhand, guildmaster of the Dwarven assassin's guild. Any outsider found in the Vale after dark is either murdered in the night or survives until morning and takes the brand of the hand.

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