Great End Peaks

Right at the southeastern edge of the world we find the **Great End Peaks**, one of the highest and more dangerous mountain ranges in the world. Its massive size hides what explorers named the **Mountain of O'oze**. A strange volcanic phenomenon, it spews a dark liquid with strange properties. Whenever it's applied to organic matter near death, it will greatly restore its strength, but after a couple of days, it will start showing strange changes that vary from being to being. It has been theorised by wise men that it could have great uses for agriculture, but the difficulty to access it and the distrust of the changes makes its use highly theoretical.

## The World End’s Peaks

At the southeastern corner of the continent of Giantstep, there lies a massive mountain range, the highest natural mountain range in the entire world. It is a volcanic range that extends from the eastern borders of the Gnoll Empire to near the cast of the South West Sea, and from the southern borders of Old Nogar to the lands of Otamlar. It is a harsh area, with very treacherous peaks and mountains, most of the time non-traversable due to harsh snowstorms. Hidden within the mountains, certain valleys can be found, either filled with glaciers, frozen lakes and even grass-filled tundra, perfect for the groups of nomadic herders.

The nomadic herders in the area, mostly the Tenzinese and the Otamlar, as well as other minor populations, have created a complex system of bridges and boundary markers to find the different areas where cattle can be fed, protected from the yeti and other monstrous creatures that roam the area in search for prey. Many of these bridges are centuries old, reinforced by the herders themselves every time they need to move their cattle from one area to the next. The bridges can vary in quality depending of the amount of transit they receive, with the most frequented ones being artworks of tenzinese architecture and engineering, and the least frequented ones being barely a couple of frozen flatboards put together. The tenzinese and the otamlar have also created many temples and shrines, either for Amu or one of the many tenzinese cults. Many of these temples also double as refuges for the herders, since being caught in a blizzard could mean a horrible death, and the priests are sworn to help the local herders in case they or their cattle need sanctuary, at least until the storm has passed.

At the deepest and highest areas of the mountains, the land is so irregular and the altitudes are so high no herder dares to go there. The region is only visited by adventurers and madmen, trying to prove their worth or find unearthed treasure from the uncharted lands. The area has also attracted the followers of the God of Action, who challenge themselves to reach the highest peaks, though even with their divine physique, it is still a life or death challenge. The air is barely breathable, and one needs to acclimate for months before trying to even get near some of the deeper ranges. Monsters undescribed also stalk, always starved for anything to eat. There is also the risk of seismic activity, since some of the mountains at the center of the World End’s Peaks are actually volcanoes. There is some architecture still, but it is extraordinarily rare, and it has been abandoned by centuries now, from refuges for the lost, abandoned temples and even khenomeric fortresses. The most famous case for this is the **Green Castle**, an ancient fortress made of green quartz that is in seemingly the middle of nowhere. Explorers who have ventured there have claimed the castle is completely empty, and nothing remains inside. What’s interesting about the Green Castle is that its architecture is completely different from the locals’ style, and differs even from the khenomeric engineering of old, which makes many wonder who built it or why. The walls have been scrubbed from whatever art or messages that used to be there, and whatever furniture, book or anything of the sort has been lost or stolen long ago, which leaves archaeologists baffled and frustrated.

At the center of the range, there lies a particularly noteworthy mountain, the **Mountain of O’oze**. A peak of obsidian, in reality it is a strange volcanic phenomenon. But instead of spewing magma or ash, it produces a dark, and very dense liquid. This liquid has peaked the interest of many wizards and alchemists around the world, due to its strange properties. Locals say that the liquid has extraordinary restoring capabilities, from curing diseases to even regrowing entire limbs. However, the effects of this ooze go well beyond that, as whatever being it has been treated with it will start showing strange changes within their body. These changes vary from individual to individual, and can range from a change in the color of a spot of their head to growing limbs where they are not supposed to. This is demonstrated in the fauna around the mountain: horrifically mutated abominations that have accumulated so many changes that now are unrecognizable from whatever they were originally, and somehow are still alive. This mutagenic ability is being studied as a way to quickly transform certain species, something that would greatly help certain areas of the world, but the but the difficulty to access it, lack of proper studies and the seeming inability to control what changes happen has limited the use of the ooze.