When the Sundering threw fire west and flood east, the cold fled to the quiet edges and stayed. The Whites are strips of snow along the north and south of the map, farther than the starter roads reach: the roads end where the snow begins. Hush, long shadows, steam where lava touches it, frost willows. “The cold only wins if you stop.”
The enclaves and the fords
The roads run on to four walled snow nooks, one at the end of each. Light: Anbar’s Grove, where Grovekeeper Anbar finds lost things in the snow, and the Lampwarden’s Ring, where Lampwarden Suhail keeps four braziers and wants them lit in one breath. Dark: Wajd’s Boulder Wall, where Cinder-Seer Wajd sifts the ash for what the greedy dropped, and Dahna’s Flamekeeper Ring, with its four braziers and one burning breath. Four fords, where the river and the lava run low over stone, connect the roads to the terraces.
The Upper Ground
High plateaus with one cut ramp up the south face hold the terraces, and each has a plateau lord who taxes every caravan below. The titles are inherited — hence the numerals, the Upper Ground I to XIV — and the lord’s successor stands there at once. Watchers signal from the terraces with fires and mirrors. Twenty-two elite camps dot the Whites: Old Horn, the Red Mane, the Salt-Worm, Cackle-Mother, the Glassweaver, Cinderjaw, Whitefather, Hoarfang, Old Hollowheart and their neighbours.
The Frostring
In each of the Whites stands a ring of frozen boulders with four gates: the free-for-all pit, where wanderers settle their disputes under the snow. A war chest waits at its heart for whoever stands last.
