Ivlis River
The Ivlis River reaches west by northwest across central Nova Vaasa, defining the southern limit of the Dommark, skirting Bergovitsa to the north, turning west into Barovia, cutting through the Old Svalich Woods, climbing the Balinoks in a valley eventually shared with the Old Svalich Road, skirting the Village of Barovia to the north, mounting spectacularly the Tser Falls, climbing the Svalich Pass, and finally reaching Mount Ghakis, its source. The tributaries of the Ivlis are the Ulvand River from the Howling Hills and Terestrãu ("Mount Sawtooth"), and the Volgis River from the Vaesen Foothills and the nothingness of the Shadow Rift, which is to say that it has its phantom headwaters in the vanished land of Markovia. The Ivlis is joined from the north by the Volgis, very close to the Barovian frontier, just north of the Old Svalich Road. Subsequently, it is joined from the south by the Ulvand, a little south-east of Bergovitsa, along the Vaere Bange Road. It drains into the the Nocturnal Sea halfway between Arbora and Egertus via the Storrokke Canyon.
The upper reaches of the Ivlis in Barovia are impossible even on a small raft, given its swiftness, rapids, boulders, and gravel bars. Its outlet to the sea is a maw of jagged stone teeth. And in between the twists and narrowness of the Ivlis make sailing too unreliable and too unsafe for it to be economical, which is not to say that it cannot be done.
The Prince's Road crosses the Ivlis a little east of Bergovitsa. Given that the Ivlis is not economically navigable and is not wide, a bridge has probably been built across it at some especially narrow spot. One or more additional bridges would be conceivable up to the beginning of the Storrokke Canyon. Probably the Ivlis is too deep in most places to ford. But there would certainly be places before the Storrokke Canyon where a horse could be swam across.
The Ivlis is a critical source of water for crops, humans, domestic animals, and beasts. Many of the creatures dwelling in the southern Dommark would perish without it. Farmland stretches back from its banks from the Barovian frontier to the edge of the Fortress Cliffs overlooking the Nocturnal Sea. Farming along the lower reaches of the river does, however, become an ever more desperate proposition as the Storokke Canyon deepens and access to its water becomes an ever more difficult and even perilous proposition. Where the soil is particularly marginal formerly tilled land is abandoned so there is nowise an unbroken band of farmland from mountain to the sea. This happens more so on the north bank where there is the additional burden of having the Dommark at one's back.
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Ravenloft Third Edition |
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Ravenloft Third Edition - pp112,133 | |
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Ravenloft Third Edition - inside back cover |
