Upheavology: The Western Barrier Land · 6:30am Jan 7th, 2020
Upheavology: The Western Barrier Land
Terrain: The sharp rise of mountainous ground creates natural markers that separate the Western Barrier Land from the north and south. The West is a land of rising mountains and plunging valleys, pierced by rivers from the northwest that take a southeastern course to drain into the Eastern Waters. The northwestern mountain range known as the Crystalline Mountains are capped with snow and cold all year round with their bases thick with firs and pines. The border between Ursinium and Equestria is dotted by volcanoes, most notably Mount Dragonthroat and the Obsidian Spitter. Farther west, where the brutal ursans live, lie even more volcanoes. The West holds the highest point in all of Equestria: the peak of the All-Mountain, with the Alicorn’s Perch being a close second. Farther south, the mountains flatten out a bit as the weather becomes warmer, with thick woods and outright jungles covering them. A notable exemption is the desert known as the Slaying Sun Sands which lies within the Alicorn’s Perch’s rain shadow far to the southwest.
Population - the West holds both Arcanotropolis and the Great Delve, the elder cities of the unicorns and the earth ponies. The Great Delve, in particular, is considered the capital of all of the Barrier Lands and their most populous city. A temperate climate for the most part and a great deal of natural resources make the West the most populous of the Barrier Lands. It has more large cities than the North and South combined and has a great deal more smaller settlements. Because long stretches of peace follow Ursan Extermination Campaigns, the West is able to experience growth and prosperity far more than the rest Barrier Lands. So much so that its Legion frequently sends recruits to the North and South as needed.
Resources - the West is rich in resources whether it’s food, lumber, ore, or building stone. It trades all of these products whether as raw materials or as finished products, such as weapons and armor, to its Northern and Southern neighbors. The West’s mines and foundries produce the majority of Equestria’s weapons and armor. Unique products include the many mushrooms of the Great Delve, dragon scale, and ursan fur.
Dangers - while the threat of an Ursan Extermination Campaign always hangs heavily across the West, the Ursans are not known for their infiltration skills and their raids are far fewer compared to the Wolven. As a result, the West enjoys greater stretches of comparatively peaceful times with plenty of prosperity. It is also because of this that more ponies engage in banditry, especially as the thickly forested, mountainous terrain allows for many strongholds to remain hidden. Dragons also call the West their home and have many lairs scattered across the mountains. While dragons, for the most part, ignore ponies and their dealings, they have been known to attack when the opportunity to acquire treasure presents itself, or when intruders in their lairs anger them. Sometimes, their own racial politics simply catch ponies in their wake. Bands of ophidites also infiltrate from the south, looking to add complacent ponies to their stables as slaves.
The mountains themselves can prove treacherous. Avalanches are not uncommon in the northwest. Many ponies are killed by simply falling down the mountainside to be lacerated to death by the ensuing slide. Pegasi have been known to be dashed against the mountains by sudden gusts of treacherous winds.
The surface is not the only layer of the West that holds danger. Its many cavern complexes serve as home for underground dwelling creatures that have no trouble predating upon ponies including grells, carrion crawlers, spider-leg horrors, ropers, and hook horrors. Abandoned mines and Old Kingdom ruins lure looters and scholars alike with the promise of salvage only to kill them with squatting monsters or ancient traps.
Prominent Settlements
The Great Delve - the capital of the Barrier Lands of Equestria and the elder city of the earth ponies. It was originally the home of Clan Corundum, built into the All-Mountain to mine its ores. Rock Maven later expanded it to house the United Earth Pony Clans, renaming the place the Refuge Burrows. After the fall of the Old Kingdom, Rock Maven expanded it further to allow unicorns and pegasi to settle, renaming the city as the Great Delve.
Arcanotropolis - the elder city of the unicorns and home of the Arcanis Atheneum, the largest and most prestigious school for unicorn magi. Nestled at the highest peaks of the Crystalline Mountains, it is formerly the capital of the Unicorn Kingdom prior to its destruction by the windigos.
Wallforge - known as the city of building stone. It started out as a massive quarry under the control of the now-extinct Clan Granite later expanding into an actual city as more workers moved in. True earth ponies of various clans still reside in Wallforge, using ley channeling to regenerate the supply of building stone harvested by the city’s inhabitants. Wallforge supplies these stones all across the Barrier Lands to build walls and fortresses, hence the name.
The Five Groves - a city near the borders of the Western and Southern Barrier Land. It’s namesake five groves refer to the large plantations of fruit trees belonging to the five richest earth pony families in the city. There are rumors that their ancestors belonged to Puddinghead’s Clan Coal, but this has never been proven. Politics and competition among the five families is fierce and rife with vicious business dealings and outright crimes.
Have you ever posted a drawing, even if crude, of all this madness?
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It's not madness, It's Sparta
I must have missed this blog post. But thanks for sharing more details on that region. It certainly is always interesting to read more about the Upheaval world.
This last week I read the canon booklet on Skullport and like any dnd booklet, I conclude that either the author makes numbers up on the spot and never checked them. Ex: Slavery is emphasized as being a main pillar of the town with "hundreds" of slaves per year, many of whom are sold in large lots for as little as 10 gp per person. Meanwhile the town's 'bone shop' sells skeletons starting at 30gp, one of the many smuggler guilds is moving around 10,000 gp worth of goods per day and the goblin dockworkers are getting paid 0.4gp per hour, (given that slaves are kidnapped from Waterdeep which is 2 days away means a dockworker earns almost twice as much as if someone walked to Waterdeep, kidnapped a hobo, brought him back and sold him).
The formatting is equally ridiculous where a shop will be listed in locations, and then 30 pages down the character list begin where the 4 people who own the shop are all several pages apart due to listing things in alphabetical order rather than grouping relevent data togather.
98 pages of this leads to many facepalms and a red forehead and yet wizards of the coast sees fit to pay people to make up such random nonsense.
Visiden Visidane is concise, clear, has better formatting and leaves you wanting more.
Great i found something to read for upheaval