Nocturia

Nocturia is an independent nation in the northern mountains of the continent of Sudai.

## Nocturia

### Cities

Arkus, Yodunheim (Formerly), Theros, Duergars Pass, Phandelver, Ancient Theros (Formerly), Dhogovi (Formerly), Sigil

## Appearances

### Appearances

To Kill A Goblin, Into the North, Bridge over Betrayal, Stronghold in the Snow, Inside Information, The Lost City, The Ravens Final Flight (Mini Session), The Price of Power, A Journey Beyond (Vision)

Theme Song

## Notable Locations and Regions

### The Howling Peaks

The southern half of Nocturia is covered in high standing mountains of ice.

> *The Frozen North of Sudai is made up of thousands of towering mountains jutting from the earth like broad arrowheads climbing high into the stormy skies. The surfaces not frozen over with thick sheets of crystal blue ice are blanketed with a heavy layer of snow pouring over onto the scattered rigid rocks. The clusters of high-standing glacial peaks are separated by dark ravines and valleys burrowing far into the earth, like a great web of colossal cracks in the earth. The area you all have found yourself is particularly inhospitable, with not a single sign of civilization in sight beyond the ruins you have just emerged from. The road, if you could even call it that, is a twisting rocky trail of slightly less treacherous terrain obstructed by frequent smashed boulders or large snow drifts scattered along your route. You find that you have to shout just to speak with your companions, as every sound you make is easily overpowered by the constant howling of the blizzard, whipping snow and ice into your face and forcing you to lose your balance every few steps. The ridiculous cold bites at your exposed skin like thousands of daggers, and you feel your limbs go stiff as your boots and sleeves pile with snow and frost. Welcome to the cold, miserable, and politically unstable Nocturia.*
> *(Into the North)*
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### The Unsummitables

In the northernmost regions of Nocturia are a range of impossibly tall mountains called the Sovehn Mountains, though more commonly known as the Unsummitables, which very few travelers dared to venture into. In the heart of the Unsummitables was Excelsior, the tallest mountain in the Material Plane, atop which is the city of Sigil.

> *The edge of the Sovehn Mountain Range stands like a great wall of connected peaks, standing more than thrice as high as the southern peaks you had been hiking through so far. The sky is constantly overcast with white rolling clouds pierced by hundreds of the largest physical things you have seen in your life. The mountains rise several thousands of feet high into the clouds like colossal masts of snow topped stone, all tilted to the east as if they had been blown over by the tyrannical force of the wind, with their flattened slopes completely drenched in snow like countless thick white slabs of stone all leaned against each other, reaching thousands of feet to the east. Making up the backsides of each mountain are looming icy cliffs sheltered from the worst of the elements by the overhanging summits, from which billowing clouds of snow are blown off by fierce gusts of wind, as if each mountain was leaking with steam that pours out onto the landscape. The rocky edges of the peaks are dark gray, spilled over with snow drifts and hanging with icicles the size of watchtowers. Compared to this, your initial travel through the howling peaks in the southernmost regions of Nocturia felt like a beachside vacation. You trudge through meters of thick snow, standing upon whichever deep batches of frost beneath you look the most solidified and sturdy. At all hours of the day your clothes are filled with snow, and your clothing is bleached white by the bombarding elements, until you dust off your garbs while resting at the now few and far between caves hospitable enough to seek refuge in. Welcome to the treacherous Sovehn Mountains, often simply called the ‘Unsummitables’ by the vast demographic of folk too afraid to venture into it, and for good reason.*
> *(The Lost City)*
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### The Monastic Peaks

In the frozen mountains near the Lair of Balagos are clusters of abandoned monasteries and shrines.

> *You find yourself atop clusters of rocky white peaks blanketed in snow, all of them much taller and thinner than the mountains you had traveled through before. Your path takes you across various long wooden rope bridges, which are uncomfortably flimsy and rickety. Far below, the ground is obscured by a thick steamy mist rolling in from the mountains to the north. Built atop some of the peaks are old ruins very round in shape, most with their roofs collapsed in, most likely monasteries at one point. As you take in your surroundings, the view from here is absolutely astonishing. To the west, you can see a strange blue forest in the distance down a mountainous decline obscured mostly by fog. To the north through the gaps between some of the closer mountains you can see a deep and vast abyss in the earth, with a single thin white bridge spanning across, suspended over the darkness by seemingly nothing. As you look a little further beyond the very distant mountains, a single white mountain stands tall over the horizon, nearly taking up as much of your vision as the closer mountains just across the valley, though shrouded behind thousands of kilometers of fog and wind. It is almost otherworldly being able to see something so incomprehensibly massive, even from so far away. The sun is just beginning to set over the mountains, and you are treated to a flurry of swirling pink and orange over the horizon that lights up the mountains around you with a fiery light, reflecting off the ice that blankets them.*
> *(Into the North)*
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### The Icewilds

The region around Theros is made up of icicle trees called the Icewilds.

> *The trees making up the forest look similar to pine trees in shape, but with delicate and beautiful blue crystals of ice on their branches rather than pine needles, like segments of massive snowflakes stabbed into the trees. The stumps and branches are white and smooth in texture, with a slight blue tint at the very bottom of the stump. You notice the strange way that the sunlight interacts with the crystals, forming peculiar shapes of light and shadow on the snow-carpeted forest floor. It is incredibly beautiful and pleasant here, and you actually find a real path made up of white cobblestone, rather than a rocky icey trail like what you had been traveling on before.*
> *(Into the North)*
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### Theros Lake & Ancient Theros

North of Theros is a large lake wreathed in mist and inhabited by Aboleths. Upon the lake is Ancient Theros, a ruined city destroyed in 1113 by Uregad soldiers during the start of the Nocturian Revolution.

> *Your path abruptly stops at the rocky banks of an icy lake. The water isn’t completely frozen over, but rather is scattered with drifting sheets of ice. A thin fog is cast over the lake, shielding most of its surface from your view, with the far mountains visible above the fog. Rising from the lake is a great crown of debris arched inwards, broken and collapsed and layered in snow and ice. The debris protruded from the water in the center, forming a large round platform that the arches hung over, with 3 collapsed stone towers in the center. The whole place is completely devoid of color, though it seems the lake fog that lingers here is a faint blue, and wisps of steam seem to appear in your peripherals and dance about the bottoms of pillars, before vanishing the moment you look towards them, as if they were never there. You sense a faint whisper of thousands of voices in the back of your head as you look towards this place, it is very unsettling.*
> *(Bridge over Betrayal)*
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### The Desolation

The desolation is an uninhabited wasteland of toppled boulders and rock north of Lake Theros.

> *The mountains here are gray and barren, standing as rigid masts over the rocky and uneven slopes of the desolate wasteland you walk on. Your path brings you through a maze of toppled rocks and ruins, climbing through a seemingly endlessly deep pile of boulders, all frozen over with lifeless gray ice. Though mostly topped with uneven sharp gravel, the occasional boulder is completely drenched in a thick sheet of ice, which you find yourself struggling to keep your balance atop. The sky above is completely overcast, with the occasional boom of loud thunder in the distance echoing through the mountains. With every breath your nose unpleasantly fills with frozen wind, and though there is no blizzard to brave through here, it is almost just as cold somehow, and over all this place fills you all with a sense of dread and misery.*
> *(Bridge over Betrayal)*
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### The Crystal Bridge

The Crystal Bridge spans the gap over an impossibly deep chasm in the center of Nocturia, constructed from 24977 BI - 24715 BI by the ancient dwarves of Arkus as a peace and trade offering to the Crescentguard settlers. Following the fall of Arkus to the greatwyrm Charon, the Crystal Bridge was inhabited by the Shimmering Tempest.

> *Between the great walls of mountain ranges is a wide gap in the terrain, upon which lays a deep abyss of darkness, with no bottom in sight, and spanning far off into the distance.!In the center of the void stands a great bridge, about 50 feet wide, suspended above the darkness by seemingly nothing. The thick surface of the bridge is made entirely of white crystal, foggy and transparent and glowing with ever-changing streaks of different colors. At the foot of the bridge are 2 statues of angels on either side made of the same crystalline substance, both holding swords pointing towards the sky, with the blades glowing slightly brighter than the rest of the crystal.*
> *(Bridge over Betrayal)*
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### The Hall of Thesead

The Hall of Thesead was a grand entryway into the Yodunmarch. The entire corridor was carved of flawless ice, and was lined with statues depicting the royal linear of Yodunheim.

> *Beyond the white gates is a massive structure of ice. The hall looks like the insides of a cathedral, though its beauty is magnified tenfold. The pillars and arches that make up the walls are perfectly sculpted out of wondrous blue ice, sparkling with sparkles of light. The floor beneath you is made up of intricate interlocking tiles of ice, with large floral designs all connecting in a web of curves and curls that encompasses the entire floor. The walls are lined with 40 foot tall statues between each twisting pillar, selecting various kings and queens, sculpted perfectly out of ice and seemingly magically preserved. The path before you goes on for a very long way, with the same otherworldly architecture  continuing along the whole way up to the minuscule white gates far off at the very end of your vision. It is an absolute spectacle.*
> *(Stronghold in the Snow)*
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### The Sons of Surtur

a

> *The mountains around you are great mesas of orange and green powdery rock, clustered with strange formations of volcanic stone. The air smells sour and gaseous, with steam vents and geysers littering the ground spewing plumes of thick white mist into the sky. Your p1ath takes you over flimsy stones across bubbling ponds of vibrant blue water, wafting with steam and mist that fills the sky with a haze of pale color clouds. The air is uncomfortably warm and humid, and up ahead the mountains become a deep ash black, with very rigid peaks and cliff sides, with a tall standing volcano pouring fire and smoke into the sky far in the distance. Further behind the pillars of warped terracotta to your sides, you can see the familiar ice mountains that you recognize from the rest of Nocturia.*
> *(The Lost City)*
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### Mount Surtur

a

> *Your precarious path along the edge of a cliff reaches the beginning of a thin black stone bridge across a deep valley, with a fast flow of lava far below. The other end of the bridge meets a large steel entryway, built into the foot of a massive volcano billowing fire and smoke into the dark glowing sky. The mountain is made up of sharp black rocks, built up with several layers of black rigid cliffs, all spiraling up to the fire-spewing crater at the summit. Large cracks in the edges of the slopes gush lava down the edges, pouring over onto each level and down into the great ravine that surrounds it. The environment is incredibly loud, with cracks of tumbling debris, bubbling magma, and the distant explosion of the summit far above.*
> *(The Lost City)*
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