Barrow Plains

The **Barrow Plains** of the Arathi Highlands is a large geographical area in the central Highlands, dominated by largely flat plains but with some gentle hills and several complexes of man-made mounds; it is also the largest human necropolis in the world. It has served as a mass burial ground since the Pre-Imperial Period, with dead heroes from different tribes and clans being interred in lands overseen by a band of neutral volva and pagan priests, where they might be protected from necromancers and the popular practice of corpse-theft raids by rival tribes. It has since become the site of one of the world's largest tomb and barrow complexes, as well as the seat of the House of Barrow in its three incarnations and an unusually powerful minor fiefdom.

## Geography

An expansive stretch of flat lands, the Barrow Plains offers little in the way of beautiful vistas or variation, save for the small area of hills that help to form its south-east border and which abut Refuge Pointe. This initial appearance, however, is deceiving; the Barrow Plains are in actuality several ancient plateaus, where erosion has gradually smoothed the once steep sides to a comfortable incline. Located some three thousand feet above sea level, the Plains are cold and largely barren, dominated primarily by low grasses and shrubs. No trees grow on the Plains, which sits above the tree line of the Highlands, and much of its potential rains are stolen by the coastal mountain ranges, leaving it remarkably dry and snowless for its elevation and climate.

## Notable Sites and Settlements

### Burial Mounds

While the natural landscape of the Plains is largely flat and undifferentiated, it is nonetheless home to a number of remarkably large mounds, isolated from any other hills - ancient burial mounds. Hundreds of such mounds dot the Plains, most dating to the immediate aftermath of the Troll Wars and serving as large barrow-complexes home to multiple tombs.

#### Barrow of Corel

One such burial mound is the Barrow of Corel, a folk hero who died in the Troll Wars, holding a narrow mountain pass and individually slaying 'hundreds' of trolls before succumbing to his wounds. While a mythologized account, the records of the nascent Empire do record the heroism of a 'Thegn Corel Smalasson' and the commissioning of a large burial mound for his interring, complete with side chambers for the burial of his slaves and slain thegnsmen. The site rise to notoriety during the Third War, when agents of the Cult of the Damned succesfully infiltrated it and raised Corel Smalasson from the dead with the intention of creating a Death Knight to raid behind the Wall and strike chaos and terror into the defense against the Scourge's push further south. Fortunately, the House of Barrow were alerted by the local villagers and led a swift and merciless assault, scattering the Cult forces and destroying the skeletal Corel by striking him down and burning his bones, before resealing the tomb.

### The White Monastery

Home to the Order of Ossus, the White Monastery is located near the southern border of the Barrow Plains. It is a silent place, largely empty in recent years but home to some seven hundred brothers at its prime. The isolationist Ossites believe that by ministering to the pagan dead and by enacting variants on pagan rituals to 'summon' their spirits, they may best serve the Holy Light by converting long-lost heroes away from false gods and into the service of the divine, to fight against the shadow. This view is heavily informed by the forbidden Dualism of the defunct Arathorian Church of Deus, and it is a matter of record in the library of Northshire that the brothers of the Abbey travelled north to a 'corpse-monastery' and returned with 'hidden and ancient books' detailing lost elements of the Dualist belief.