Withepest is a vast, featureless expanse of frozen steppe west of the Dreamplains and east of the Northlands transition. The name is old, older than any current language spoken on the plains, and its meaning has been lost. The Neth translate it loosely as "where breath freezes" or "the white death," depending on which clan you ask.
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If the Dreamplains are unsettling, Withepest is simply brutal. There is nothing mystical about this region's danger: just endless cold, endless wind, and endless white. The terrain offers no shelter, no landmarks, no mercy. Travelers who attempt to cross Withepest without proper preparation simply die, their bodies preserved in the permafrost until spring thaws briefly expose them before burying them again.
The Zwaeron cross Withepest only when absolutely necessary, and only in large groups with multiple supply sleds. Even they have lost entire caravans to sudden blizzards that can descend without warning and last for days.
Hills of Starfire
On the eastern edge of Withepest, where it meets the approaches to the Dreamplains, a range of low hills breaks the flatness. The Hills of Starfire earned their name from a phenomenon that occurs on clear winter nights: the snow and ice on their slopes sometimes ignites with pale, cold flames that cast no heat but burn with eerie beauty.
The flames are not true fire. They appear to be a manifestation of light magic interacting with some mineral composition in the hills' bedrock. Mages who have studied the phenomenon believe the hills sit atop a buried light leyline, too weak to manifest elsewhere but concentrated enough here to produce visible effects.
The Neth consider the Starfire hills sacred. They do not settle there, but their shamans make pilgrimages during the winter months when the flames burn brightest. What they seek or find in the cold fire, they do not share with outsiders.