Mount Nirka

Canon Information

Mount Nirka and its sister Mount Nyid are sprawling volcanoes that lay within the land of Arak, Mount Nyid at its centre and Mount Nirka on its northern frontier with Darkon. They and their land were subsumed by Darkon as part of the Great Upheaval in 740 BC. The mountains rumbled back to life from presumed extinction in 750 BC at the moment of the Requiem - the destruction of Il Aluk, the decapitation of Darkon, and the 'birth' of Necropolis - whether in celebration or sympathy. Activity thus far has been limited to minor tremors and sulfurous plumes of smoke. The risk run in exploring the many lava tubes, mine tunnels, and mine shafts that riddle the two mountains has no doubt increased greatly. The peaks used to stand side by side, but they appear to have grown apart, with the Mountains of Misery being anchored by Mount Nyid in the southeast and Mount Nirka in the northwest. Mount Nirka soars to a breathtaking height of 7,960 ft, easily surpassing Mount Baratak. It is the source of the Amnis Lacrimarum ("River of Tears"), which traverses Keening before re-entering Darkon and joining the Corvus River well to the west. The northeastern foothills of Mount Nirka are described (wrongly it would appear) as the source of the Khourx River (unless they are also the source of the Foaming River).

All life on Mount Nirka, save for its northern flank, and indeed all life across the face of Arak was eradicated in 588 BC by a sandstorm of unprecedented ferocity that scoured the land clean in an event recorded as the Scourge of Arak. A century and a half later Mount Nirka and its environs remained a blasted, rocky wasteland. Even today the only trees to be found on the mountain are on its northern flank. At lower elevations tenacious grasses, spike plants, and low shrubs have made some inroads. As for fauna mundane and monstrous, it consists chiefly of vast swarms of bats, spiders of all sizes, and ettercaps.

The proof that the surface of Mount Nirka and its environs were inhabited by civilised races prior to 588 BC are the mines. There are also dwarves in Tempe Falls and gnomes in Mayvin whose fathers left to carve out those mines over a century and a half ago after Darkon appeared on Arak's northern frontier in 579 BC. miners returning to Darkon brought stories of strange temporal fugues. One might spend a week underground and return to the surface to discover that only a day had passed. Stories were also told of the native inhabitants of Arak. The Arakians were humans who herded sheep and goats, but were also themselves miners. They warned the dwarves and gnomes not to dig too deep. Equally, they tried to impress upon their northern guests their abject fear of the hours of the night when the Sneeuane Feallagh ("Gossamer folk") would swarm up from the kingdom of Niurin Scaa ("Shadow Nether") to devour the souls of mortal men. The dwarves began to believe in the existence of these beings whom they took to be a race of dark elves.

The Scourge of Arak did not harm life far beneath the surface of the land. Yet when the shadow fey emerged from their hidden kingdom of Niurin Scaa, it was to survey their loss. The surface dwelling Arakians, who had been an excellent diversion from the ennui of eternity, were no more. Fortunately, others came to the land of the Arak. There were dwarves and gnome seeking lost kin. There were looters and treasure seekers too. Those who failed to quit the land before dark risked being carried off as play things of the Arak. As the flow of visitors to Arak shrank, a visitor's risk of being buried alive under miles of stone grew. Until it became accepted wisdom in Darkon and later in Nova Vaasa and Tepest that anyone who dared the hours of the night in their unwanted neighbour would end up entombed without a trace beneath its stone.

In 740 BC, as part of the Great Upheaval, Niurin Scaa and the Sneeuane Feallagh were dragged away to the southwest by Gwydion the Sorcerer-Fiend. The land of Arak ceased to be and the Land of the Mists tore open beyond Tepest. The Shadow Rift, sealed by roiling black mist, was the new land of the Arak. The old land of the Arak was annexed to Darkon, a fact of which perhaps only its Darklord, Azalin Rex, was initially aware. But the consequences could not go unnoticed for long. Desperate men discovered that to spend the night in the Mountains of Misery was dangerous but no longer tantamount to suicide. Individuals who returned told tales of having been beset by things other than fey creatures. Shadow fey incursions into the countryside beyond the frontiers of their former home all but ceased, which did the Tepestani no good at all for the most trustworthy fracture from the Shadow Rift proved to be in Tepest. The reputation of the Mountains of Misery for being haunted by the fey was gradually eclipsed by a reputation for being haunted by the dead. The bravest of dwarven and gnomish miners return to Mount Nirka. Darkon began work on the Strigos Road which will start just east of Tempe Falls, cut through both the Mountains of Misery a little southwest of Mount Nirka and the Forgotten Hills, and reach its terminus in Liara. And the Mountains of Misery became a hideout for the most wanted or reclusive of men.

The Abyss of the Hated Mother is a complex of caves and tunnels hidden beneath the northern flank of Mount Nirka. It serves as the headquarters of the Dark Delvers and was, and perhaps still is, ideally situated for the study of temporal fugues and alterations of time generally. Were this not dangerous enough, its tunnels run deep and might well breach those of Niurin Scaa, at least if anything remains of that realm in the wake of the Great Upheaval.

Elsewhere in the northern flank of the sprawling mountain lies Tombdust Hall, home to a clan of dwarves whose ancestors arose from the grave in 712 BC, an event now called the Ancestor Uprising.

Dr. Rudolph van Richten in Van Richten's Guide to the Created places a glass golem in the vicinity of the mountain's northern flank with the last sighting being in 719 BC. (p. 50-51)

And Mulger D'Ajust, a hulzurdan obsessed with the arcane, mined anthodite crystals for Azalin, as per an agreement struck prior to the Requiem, from Mount Nirka's northern flank in the months following the rex's disappearance.

References

Van Richten's Arsenal, p. 11

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Ravenloft Gazetteer
		Ravenloft Third Edition - p116 Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium I - p242 Domains of Dread - p34 Van Richten's Guide to The Created - p51 Realm of Terror - p61 Ravenloft Gazetteer - p87-88,116
		Realm of Terror - poster map