Shiverpeak Mountains

From Guild Wars 2 Wiki

Pre-alpha shot of the Shiverpeaks.

The Shiverpeak Mountains, also simply called the Shiverpeaks, is a vast mountain range spanning the entire continent of Tyria, running north to south and dividing it in two. To the east of the mountains lay the destroyed human kingdom of Ascalon and the Charr Homelands, while to the west is the tropical lands of Kryta and forests that lay north of Kryta. At the south-easternmost corner, the Shiverpeaks merge into the Blazeridge Mountains, and are separated from the Crystal Desert by a river. There is a known Bloodstone in a cave in the south-western area of the Shiverpeaks, however it is possible to have flooded when Zhaitan rose.

The mountains have long been the home of the stout dwarves, who used to live both among the ridges and steppes as well as underground in the vast Depths of Tyria. After the battle with the Great Destroyer that transformed the majority of them into living stone, their grand civilization dispersed to live solitary lives in the deep places of the continent. 150 years ago, the dragon of ice and snow, Jormag, awoke from Drakkar Lake and pushed various races from their land, including the norn and the kodan. In the south, the norn now do battle with the dredge, who used to live underground but has since moved to the surface once they were free of their former slave masters.

[edit] Landscape

With soaring peaks reaching high into the sky, the ice of the Shiverpeaks never melts, and it snows year round. Because the majority of the lakes and rivers in and around the mountains are frozen most of the time, conventional ships find it impossible to traverse them, though the dwarven sled ships and the kodan sanctuaries can pass over them with ease.

Winding passes, sluggish glaciers, frozen forests, frosted plains, and snow fallen hills make up the majority of the terrain between the mountain peaks, and life can be encountered anywhere.

[edit] Sub-regions

The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Shiverpeak Mountains.

In the past, the Shiverpeaks were conventionally regarded as consisting of three smaller regions:

• Northern Shiverpeaks - former territory of the dwarves, currently occupied by the norn.
• Southern Shiverpeaks - former territory of the dwarves, currently occupied by the dredge.
• Far Shiverpeaks - former territory of the norn, abandoned after the awakening of Jormag.