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The Esben Mountains

The Esben Mountains · Navarre's eastern wall · where the wards run

The Esben Mountains

Dark stone, snow that doesn't leave, and the shimmer of the wards running the whole length of the ridge — the wall between Navarre and everything it's afraid of.

The mountain range forming Navarre's eastern frontier and the line the protective wards follow: the most contested terrain in the war, where riders fly constant patrol and the fighting with Poromiel's gryphon fliers never really stops.

The warded wall

The border that does the kingdom's defending for it.

The Esben range is Navarre's real eastern wall — hard, high, exposed, with the wards' shimmer running the length of the ridge. It's where cadets are sent to fly actual war missions instead of drills, and where the fighting with Poromiel's gryphon fliers is at its worst. The academy ends and the front begins along this ridge.

The unprotected edge

The villages the wards were quietly drawn to exclude.

The wards follow the spine, and the line isn't drawn to save everyone. Villages like Sipene and Sumerton sit past the barrier, unprotected, and are the first raided when the fliers come — a quiet decision by Navarre's leadership that becomes one of the war's uglier reckonings. A strip near Draithus is shared airspace, by treaty.

Along the range

The border, and what it holds back.

Swipe to meet them all

The kingdomNavarrethe Esben is its eastern wallEnter Navarre →
The kingdom beyondPoromielthe range divides themEnter Poromiel →
The source of the wardsThe Wardstonethe wards run this ridgeEnter The Wardstone →
The outpost in itSamaraset into the eastern peaksEnter Samara →

The File

Region
The eastern border of Navarre — the natural divide between the kingdom and Poromiel.
What it is
A high range of dark grey stone, snow on the peaks, the wards' shimmer running along its spine.
What runs here
Navarre's protective wards — the magical barrier that repels gryphons and shields the kingdom's interior.
What happened here
The most contested terrain of the war. Riders fly constant patrol; the gryphon-flier fighting is fiercest along the ridgelines.
What it hides
Border villages past the wards — Sipene, Sumerton — left unprotected, and therefore the first to be raided.
Status
Held, patrolled, and never quiet. The spine the whole war is fought along.

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