A massive cliff formation rising between West Whitewall and East Whitewall, forming the central portion of Venalthier's northern ice barrier. The Face takes its name from a natural rock formation visible in the cliff that resembles a colossal human visage—though whether it is truly natural remains a matter of debate among those few who have seen it.
Geography
The Face stretches roughly 80 miles along the boundary between the glaciated south and the Tundra Oblivio to the north. Unlike the pure ice of West Whitewall or the rock-and-ice composite of East Whitewall, The Face is predominantly exposed stone—dark volcanic basalt that has resisted glacial erosion where the softer surrounding terrain has been carved away.
The cliffs rise 600-800 feet from the glacier surface, their faces nearly vertical in most sections. The rock is heavily fractured, with deep horizontal cracks that create the appearance of stacked layers and vertical fissures that have widened over millennia of freeze-thaw cycling.
At the center of the formation, visible from miles away on clear days, the cliff face bears an uncanny resemblance to a human face in profile—a jutting brow, the hollow of an eye socket, a straight nose, thin lips, a strong chin. The features are too precise to dismiss as coincidence, too weathered to be obviously carved. The Face stares eternally north, toward Tundra Oblivio and the lands beyond.
What It Actually Is
The Face is a titan—one of the colossal beings that walked Alaria before the God War, killed in battle and frozen into the cliff where it fell.
The Nabuhe know this. Their oral histories describe the final days of the titan called Velkoreth the Watchful, who fled south during the God War's climax, pursued by forces that no longer exist. Velkoreth died here, its body flash-frozen by magical cold that still radiates from its bones millennia later. The "cliff" is its skull and upper torso, petrified and fused with the volcanic rock it fell against. The features aren't carved or coincidental—they're the actual face of a dead god-thing, preserved by ice and time.
The Nabuhe don't discuss this with outsiders because they serve as Velkoreth's wardens. Their ancestors made a pact: they would watch the body, ensure nothing disturbed it, and receive in return the Frostfire that bleeds from the titan's slowly-decaying heart deep within the mountain. The Frostfire isn't a natural resource—it's Velkoreth's life force, crystallized and harvestable. The supply will eventually run out; when it does, the titan will be truly dead rather than merely frozen between states.
This is why the Nabuhe discourage western travel from East Whitewall. This is why they maintain silence. The titan is dead but not gone, and some knowledge invites attention from things that remember the God War and might want to finish what was started.
Approach and Access
The Face can be approached from three directions:
From Tundra Oblivio (north): The glacier rises gradually until it meets the cliff base. Travelers can walk across the ice to within touching distance of the rock, though the journey across the tundra is dangerous and the cliff offers no shelter once reached.
From Pale Death (south): The southern approach requires climbing the glacier that banks against the cliff's southern face. The ice is crevassed and unstable, making this route more dangerous than the northern approach despite being shorter.
From East Whitewall (east): The Nabuhe territory connects to The Face's eastern end, but the Nabuhe discourage visitors from traveling in that direction. No formal prohibition exists, but Nabuhe guides become unavailable and warnings about ice conditions multiply when western travel is discussed.
The Eye
Within the face formation, the eye socket—a deep concavity approximately 100 feet across—contains the titan's actual eye, still partially liquid after all these millennia.
The Eye is not water. It's vitreous fluid from Velkoreth's preserved ocular globe, mixed with meltwater and titan tears that still seep from ducts in the surrounding bone. The warmth comes from residual life—the same slow decay that produces Frostfire. The Eye is, in a very real sense, still alive.
Drinking from the Eye doesn't induce visions—it grants access to Velkoreth's memories. The titan was called "the Watchful" because it observed everything, accumulating millennia of knowledge before the God War. Those who drink the Eye fluid experience fragments of that observation: battles witnessed, civilizations rising and falling, the faces of beings who no longer exist. The experience is often overwhelming. Some who drink can't process what they learn and emerge speaking languages no one recognizes or describing places that don't exist anymore.
The Nabuhe forbid their children from approaching the Eye not out of superstition but out of knowledge: a child's mind cannot contain what Velkoreth saw. Adults who drink and survive gain genuine knowledge—historical facts, forgotten techniques, the locations of buried things. The price is carrying a dead titan's memories alongside your own, which some find enriching and others find maddening.
Reaching the Eye requires climbing the cliff face—approximately 400 feet of vertical ascent on fractured bone that resembles basalt. The Nabuhe maintain a hidden route for their own use; outsiders must find their own way up.
Wildlife
The Face hosts the largest seabird colonies in Venalthier. Thousands of birds nest in the cliff's horizontal cracks during breeding season, taking advantage of the thermal anomaly that keeps the rock slightly warmer than the surrounding ice. Their guano streaks the dark basalt white in places, creating patterns that some observers claim form writing in unknown scripts.
The birds are the only consistent life on The Face. No mammals den in the cliffs; no fish swim in the Eye's waters despite its temperature; no insects survive the conditions. Just the birds, wheeling and crying above the ice, and the vast stone face staring forever north.
For Travelers
The Face is a destination for scholars, mystics, and the deeply curious. It offers no practical resources, no shelter, and no safety. The journey to reach it is dangerous; remaining near it offers no particular benefit beyond satisfying curiosity.
If you must visit:
- Approach from the north if possible. The glacier crossing is brutal but more predictable than the southern crevasse fields.
- Don't drink from the Eye unless you're prepared for consequences you can't predict.
- Note the Nabuhe silence. They've watched The Face for centuries and they don't discuss it. There's a reason.
- Watch the birds. Their movements sometimes suggest they're reacting to things humans can't perceive. When they go silent, leave.
The Face has watched the north for longer than human memory. Whatever it is—natural formation, ancient sculpture, or something else entirely—it will continue watching long after any visitor has gone.