Rising from the central Sea of Silt a few hundred miles east of the isle of Waverly, the Mountains of the Sun are a mighty range that is slowly dying. The fierce storms of the deep silt have been weathering the mountains for thousands of years, and with each day a little more of their substance is broken apart by the heat of the sun and the cold of the night, to be carried away by the endless winds. The scale of this change is beyond human comprehension; only a few inches of dirt and rock might be lost in the lifetime of a man. The Mountains of the Sun are very old and no longer possess the jagged edges and sheer cliffs of younger ranges such as the Ringing Mountains. The softer rock has all been worn away, and only the rounded domes of granite that once composed the mountains' hearts are left today. The individual peaks range from 200-3,000' high and are often separated by broad tracts of deep silt. Each mountain is anywhere from one to ten miles across and rises one to eight miles from its neighbors. From the highest peaks in the center of the range, it is barely possible to see the ash storm surrounding the Valley of Dust and Fire. There are few sources of water in the mountains and fewer foliated regions. Some of the older mountains support a few acres of sparse scrub along their leeward shores. Most are barren.
The wildlife of the Mountains of the Sun is unusual.
Thousands of years of isolation from the mainland have
weeded out all but a few tough species. Those peaks
that support life are the lairs of powerful avians such as
wyverns, dragonnels, or rocs. A few hardy goats and erdlu
still survive on some of the larger peaks. The dominant
predators are a bewildering variety of spiders, including
huge, giant, and phase species.
Scattered groups of intelligent beings inhabit the Mountains of the Sun. A few small clans of aarakocra
live in the high peaks, and underground degenerate
tribes of hej-kin guard most of the hidden water supplies.
Surprisingly, a few small clans of feral dwarves inhabit
the mountains as well. The dwarves and the hej-kin are
the last remnants of large populations that migrated to
this area before the Silt Sea became impassable. A dying
breed of less than 100, the dwarves here are cannibals
and wretched savages who constantly war with the spiders
and the hej-kin. Needless to say, the dwarves are not
doing very well. It is a testament to their innate toughness
that they are even there at all.
The hej-kin and spiders attack anything foolish enough
to cross their paths. The dwarves, regrettably, are not
much different. They have never known anything but a
world full of enemies. The dwarves of the Mountains of
the Sun may be ignorant savages, but they possess a lot
of unusual oral legends concerning the days before the
Dragon. Unfortunately, they firmly believe the rest of the
world to be uninhabitable silt.