South of Shargon, the terrain rises into a desolate expanse of rocky highlands, ice fields, and howling wind: the Bitterlands. This wasteland stretches between the frozen Konai Mora basin to the north and the Plutachranes forest to the south, with the Gorthe Hills marking its eastern edge.
The name is earned. Nothing grows here; nothing shelters here; nothing survives here for long except things adapted to the absolute worst conditions Alaria can offer. The Mythandrulve rarely venture this far south; their hunting grounds are the frozen basin proper. The Jotun of the western hills have no reason to cross this barren stretch. The Bitterlands are dangerous because of the absolute emptiness, not because of what hunts here. Travelers caught in the open have nothing: no shelter, no fuel, no landmarks, just wind and exposure.
Neth traders occasionally cross the Bitterlands when traveling between the western settlements near Sennos and the eastern coast at Soya Grei, but they do so quickly and in groups, following cairn-marked routes their ancestors established generations ago.