One road, one pass, and a war on either side of it.
The contested frontier is split by a range of mountains the locals simply call the Spine — a long, hard ridge that runs across the march between Talins and Severni Mars. It is not the tallest range in the world, but it is in the way of everything, and there is only one pass through it.
That pass is held by the fortress city of Halgard, and whoever holds Halgard holds the throat of the whole region. The empire’s one great highway threads through it, running from the northern port of Talinsthorpe, up through the pass at Halgard, and down to the southern coast at Eastmark. Off that spine, lesser roads wander west through the interior and south toward the warmer country around Verath.
The land changes as you cross it. The north is colder, its coast grey and wind-scoured; the south is warmer and softer, its old Talins settlements drowsing in the heat. To the west lies open ocean. Everywhere between are the things that make a company’s living: forests thick enough to hide a warband, fens and rough hill country, ruined steadings, and roads that were safe last season and are not safe now.
It is a small slice of what two kingdoms both claim — and both claim it loudly.
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