An Overview of the End of the World

(Excuse my rough map. I've improved upon it in the months since I drew it, but my scanner is packed away while I'm in the process of moving.)

The land commonly known as the End of the World encompasses the southernmost part of a huge supercontinental landmass. Separated by the towering mountains now known as The Gates of Exile from the rest of the supercontinent, these lands follow the Spine of Korthag Mountains south, ending past the planet's south pole. 

The Northern Lands include the Gates of Exile and the lands immediately to the south. The Gates are a massive chain of mountains stretching from the west coast of the continent to the east, and continuing on for thousands of miles against the southern coast of the lands of the Others. Still young, these mountains are tall, sharp, and eternally capped with snow and ice. Few navigable passes through the mountains exist, among them the Winding Stair in the west and the Eastern Pass in the east.

Below the Gates of Exile, the Spine of Korthag dominates the Northern Lands. The Spine is an older and less severe range than the Gates, having had more eons to weather and erode. Even so, the southern latitude of these mountains give rise to extensive glaciers in their heights.

East of the Spine, the land is lush and blanketed in primeval forest, and crossed by many rivers flowing from both mountain ranges. The greatest of these is the Serpentine, which draws its headwaters from both the Gates and the Spine. The warm currents from the north in the Ocean of Storms keep these lands temperate, and the easterly winds carry the ocean's moisture to the land. West of the Spine, however, the land is frigid and parched, a desert as desolate as it is cold.

Several islands dot the Ocean of Storms east of the Northern Lands.

The Northern Lands are the most populated of the End of the World. Cities and towns dot the coastline and follow the great rivers up from the ocean. Even the Gates of Exile are inhabited, especially near the passes to the Lands of the Others.

The Isthmus lies south of the Northern Lands. As the name implies, the End of the World narrows here to little more than the Spine of Korthag. With little room on either coast between the mountains and the oceans, the coasts are gouged into fjords and jagged rocky isles. The largest of these fjords is known as the Bite, and it is here that the Isthmus is at its most narrow. 
 

The great city of Narkuz, the seat of power in the Stormfist Empire, looms above the northern channel of the Bite. Several other settlements cling to the coastline and venture into the foothills to harvest the bounties of the sea and the riches of the mountains.

Although not as heavily forested as the Northern Lands, the eastern side of the Isthmus is still wet and relatively mild, while the west remains locked in a deep freeze. The southern end of the Isthmus is crossed by the Dusk Line, the planet's Antarctic Circle. 
 

South of the Isthmus, the End of the World widens again to the vast Lands of the Long Night. So called due to their location south of the Dusk Line, these lands offer endless day during the summer months and endless night during the winter. Given these extremes, the weather can get quite warm during the summer months, while the temperature plunges in the darkness of winter. Even with the months-long darkness, though, the winters are survivable outside of the mountains due to the warm ocean currents that follow the eastern coast.

The Spine of Korthag reaches its terminus in the Lands of the Long Night, curling around the pole like a puma's tail. Enormous glaciers stretch down these mountains toward the coast of the Endless Western Waters and deep towards the pole. Closer to the pole itself, the glaciers end in great trackless tundras, with the rare stand of trees in sheltered areas. In this endless expanse of grassland and marsh lies the pole itself, where the People have long tended a shrine. Beyond the tundra, the land grows more lush, and trees appear again near the coast of the Ocean of Storms.

Despite their expanse, the Lands of the Long Night are sparsely populated, with no large cities and few widely spread towns and villages. These are concentrated along the coast of the Ocean of Storms, but a scattering of villages can be found across the rest of the area.

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