The usual teleport spots have an artifact that must be claimed by a player before they can use the portal. Not only that, but the spells that transport players there may not be purchased, they must be looted from the creatures of Velious. The way the zones are designed, you'll have to plan your alliances with the natives or rely on invisibility to move you further and further across the icy expanse. There are three main factions that live on Velious. The Coldain, long-separated relatives of the dwarves live in their own city built into a huge ice cavern.
Giants also inhabit Velious, both the nomadic frost giants and the more civilized storm giants.
The frost giants wander the landscape while the storm giants thrive in a strategically-located city that must be crossed in order to move from one side of the continent to the other. Lastly, the dragons and dragon kin themselves live in the most remote portion of the continent, and even have a winding maze-like city of their own. The giants are at war with both the dwarves and the dragons, so killing giants raises faction with dwarves and dragons, and killing either of those raises faction with the two giant clans. At best, player characters are tolerated by at least one of these factions, and must complete quests or kill in order to raise their level of alliance. Tunare, god of the elves exists in the Plane of Growth.