Ulgrid Kingdom

 

• Location: Southern tip of Mistone, occupying the Brech Mountains.
• Size: [LORE Team Request]
• Capital City: Brenuth (to the outside world), Ulgrid Fortress (to the dwarves)
• Population: 210,000: 90,000 -60% dwarf, 23% giant, 6% orc, 5% human, 3% gnome, 2% elf, 1% half-orc
• Founder: Coldsteel Ulgrid
• Current Ruler: Bar'Grot Coldrock, King and Gretel Coldrock, Queen
• Date of founding: 1112
• Notable towns and cities: Brenuth, Ulgrid Fortress
• Other notable locations: Broken Corals, Pon'a Nak'k

Of all the kingdoms of Layonara, the Ulgrid Kingdom is perhaps the simplest to map. Draw a border around the Brech Mountains, and you're done. The Brech Mountains were formed many thousands of years before the Great Cataclysm. The dwarves that dominate this slowly eroding volcanic mountain range have recorded sediment in their mining and tunneling that dates the range to perhaps as old as the beginning of the world, and the peaks might have been stupendously tall when they first formed. Now, they have worn over time to gentle slopes and one central peak, covered in forest and soft, short grass. Volcanic glass, andesite, pumice and other volcanic rock create a dark grey to black textured surface to the many tunnels and caves that riddle the range. The Broken Corals, just off the southern tip of the range, used to be a part of the mountains and are mostly coral-covered pumice. The Corals are beautiful with their wildly alternating dark rock and colorful orange, red and pink sponges and polyps, but dangerous to walk on due to the rough texture and jutting deposits of razor-edged obsidian.

The mountains themselves have changed since the darkening of the world. Formerly covered in a lush carpet of bright green grass, the ground cover is now bottlebrush, mosses, lichens and ivy. Tree stands are pines and live oaks at the lowest elevations, moving to evergreens as the altitude increases.

Despite the lack of sun during the Dark Ages, the food chain has remained robust. Squirrels, rabbits and rodents feed foxes, owls and lynxes; these along with deer, curly-horn sheep and the occasional boar feed the bigger predators. Cougars and tigers, including the much feared dire tiger, are the top of the non-sentient food chain and tigers adapted to the cold conditions can be found all over the middle of the range.

The seasons here have also changed. Formerly a warm zone with the exception of the highest peak, now the seasons are more defined. Spring brings heavy rain; summer is short and temperate with showers every day. Fall becomes cold quickly with early frosts and winter is the longest season now, with snows from late fall to early spring. Snow now covers most of the sloping peaks and not just the tallest that contains Brenuth. The snow caps are becoming deeper each year as the caps are not melting in spring.