Ringerrige Mountains (The Rings)
The Ringerrige Mountains rose up, a towering and formidable barrier that formed the western border of Cantum Pale.
Luminia Gate
Blackwall left the posting station and walked along the caravan road through the Luminia to the far side. The towering shoulders of the mountains pushed hard upon the pass so that the stars coursed to earth in a narrow band of brilliance. High Post stood close to the western outlet of the Luminia Gate. Blackwall, walking down the center of the road, reached the far side of the pass in about fifteen minutes. Here the mountains gave way, the sky opened hugely and the night enshrouded Catadhan lay below him. The land sprang from the roots of the mountains and cast out into the darkness and far away.
Nebbegaard River
Wide in expanse, thrilling in potential, intoxicating in adventure, the Nebbegaard River thrummed between two great civilizations, the Catadhi to the west and the Rhillim to the east.
The Arc
Finally, the day came when the waters of the Arc grew more swift. The great Rhillim valley ended with the rise of the surrounding hills, which were close upon them one moment and the next they were abroad in a huge landscape as the great flood of the Nebbegaard River sucked the cargo boat into its strong, southerly bearing current.
The Canal
Eugene had missed entirely going through the canal, which carried them from the waters of the Lynn to the Arc.
The Lynn
The Lynn cut through the great Rhil Valley, a green land of gently rolling hills, rich farmland, and abundant water.
The Rhil
When Blackwall first came upon the Rhillim, he found himself diverted by their utter, sometimes comical confidence. Then he had found it restful, and then comforting.
Cantum Pale
Cantum Pale swept away from the river in one great, powerful surge, only to be subsumed in the relentless majestic upward reach of the mountains.
The Rhillim Coast
The only thing to the east was the Rhillim Coast, the rich center of the Rhillim trading empire.
Sanguine Innundare
Below her in the great, nearly round bowl of the Illiana, Lilles beheld the fertile Sanguine Innundare. The valley was much bigger than she had imagined and green, even now, when the rest of the world seemed shriveled by the heat of summer. In the distance, she could see the irregular and broken lines that marked Errabundis, nearly enshrouded in a crown of trees. The stark, open caravan road lead directly to it. She wondered if the solitary horseman moving swiftly upon it was Blackwall. A pair of hawks rose into the sky, effortlessly circled higher and higher, then glided away together.
Caravan Road
For hundreds of years, the great caravans of Wehrle had come this way. Their passage had worn a wide, deep track across the plain. In the Rhil, the post chaises had four horses and good roads. Here, six horses pulled the heavier coach along a road that was unpaved and far from smooth.
Melifidelis Wells
The Melifidelis wells held water until the very end of summer. A dozen wellheads marked the place and very little else. Sitting to the southwest of the Sanguine Innundare, Melifidelis stood on the road to nowhere. The ground was rocky scrabble where only a few hard, spiny grasses grew. There was no shade and no welcome. Only the very desperate or the horribly lost made their way here.
River Ode
The river had shrunk from its winter flood banks to its narrow late summer channel, which meandered back and forth through sand and rocks.
Reus
Parrish suspected Erastus might just possibly be a member of one of the legendary Reusi warrior clans.
The Hidden Land
According to the myth, the spawn of the Lorilex went off by themselves and settled in the Hidden Land, hoping to be safe from her revenge, but they joined Lucianus eventually to fight her. Legend says the Vin Vindex are descended from those creatures.
Plain of Ode
The geography of Ode presented no significant obstacles of any sort. Gullies cut through the land regularly, but were easily crossed in High Summer. Come the rains, the arroyos would fill with raging waters impossible to ford. The plain would become a mud pit, sufficient to bog down any army. Until then, the Plain of Ode presented a hard and swift surface crossed with ease.
The Edge of the World
They had ridden from the Edge of the World, crossed the Reusi mountains and the Orokantner River, passed into Balt, fighting their way through forests and woodlands, hills and valleys, losing more than half their number, until they reached the plain of Ode. Nothing now stood in their way.
Errabundis
Many said that Errabundis had only two seasons, wet and hot, and that you were either muddy or dusty. But that was not true. There really were several gloriously beautiful months wedged in at either end of winter and summer. The spring months saw the surrounding hills covered with riotously blooming wildflowers, so that the eye lifted up to them and the spirit gladdened at the sight. Those months also saw the orchards in bloom, pink, white, and pale yellow, so that Errabundis seemed wreathed in magnificent splendor. When the petals fell, the wind blew them all over the great bowl of the Sanguine Innundare, the gentlest storm imaginable.
Nyilynn
Blackwall made his way along the teeming High Road of Nyilynn and into the main post station. Nyilynn, capital city of the Rhillim Empire, straddled the swift River Lynn, not far from where it poured out of the Mountains of Nye. Blackwall knew little about the history of the Empire, except its conquest of parts of the Catadhan. The Rhillim were traders and merchants by disposition, which made them empire builders by preference, and soldiers and adventurers by necessity. On the other side of the river, things were not so grim. The dirt was not so deep, the smells not so crude, the air not so rank. Not far ahead he would encounter modest shops, swept streets, laughing children. A little further on, Blackwall knew, modesty would give way to prosperity and then to wealth; great houses lining beautiful squares, silks and satins rustling as pedestrians passed, and merchant carriages drawn by perfectly matched four-in-hand standing wheel to wheel with the crested coaches of noblemen and members of the Empire’s elite.
Wehrle
The ancient Catadhi trade city of Wehrle began in the fits and starts of the shacks and shanties of fishermen and poor laborers, grew and expanded into the wharves and warehouses of the great merchant houses, then filled the horizon from the shore of the Nebbegaard River nearly to the feet of the Ringerrige Mountains with the arresting architecture of a great city - an overpowering enticement to the Rhillim to cross the river.