Cichekim Wintry Mountains

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History

Geography

The Cichekim Wintry Mountains – an immense, foreboding range of Alpine peaks forming one of the Northern bounds of the Twilight Age world. In contrast to the gently rolling taiga of Chanest, or the shifting, buried glacial seas of Chthyilri, Cichekim is a place of radical verticality. The product of titanic tectonic upheaval and brutally carved by deep glacial scour, the mountains stand as a vast and impenetrable region of fractured rock and eternal winter.

Geology and Topography

The Cichekim Mountains are a textbook study in glacial extremis.

The high, jagged ridges are split by colossal, glacier-carved troughs and suspended glacial valleys. The peaks above the permanent snowline have been ground and shattered to points so sharp that they appear to be mere scratches upon the heavens, yet with sides so sheer as to prevent even the smallest foothold; in many places the very rock has been sculpted by the elements into massive, knife-edged horns and colossal rock spires. Geologyally, Cichekim presents the deep, ancient core of the continent. Ancient and massive granite batholiths pierce out from under a sheet of stark pale quartzite, interlaced and shot through with veins of black metamorphic schist.

The extensive outcroppings are constantly being broken down by violent frost wedging from the extremely cold and wet atmosphere, and the resulting scree fields and talus slides are immense, continually flowing into the valleys of the glacial troughs.

The deep layers have been shattered and fractured on a grand scale. Deep in the mountains lie deposits of precious gems that have been ripped up and scattered throughout the rock of the ranges. The range also possesses veins of highly potent metallic ores and strange and magical stones.

Hydrography and climate

Water is found in glacial basins where a number of cirques have formed basins, holding pure water, crystalline clear even though they are very cold, it fills these basins and eventually flows out and goes down the mountain to the lowland plains where it goes into other streams or rivers. This high altitude glacial water slowly and powerfully grinds through and carries sediment, thereby causing rivers, especially during the summer thaw, to carry a heavy silt load. The climate varies considerably with altitude and geographic position, yet the overall temperature trend is that even at sea level within the mountains the climate does not become temperate for much of the year.

Extreme cold is to be expected year-round even in some places.

Wind is incredibly a dominant factor in this area due to the size of the mountains. Blinding storms of snow with a low visibility are the typical weather and may occur for the whole day or only just an hour. The extremely high mountains and canyons have also made a tremendous influence on weather Patterns in the area causing localized changes in climate depending on position in relation to the mountains such as being trapped inside one of the glacial troughs. Temperature Inversions commonly occurs and can be very extreme.

This leads to deep, narrow, frigid glacial troughs on a hot and sunny day; on the peaks however it can still be extremely cold.

Traversebility

The Cichekim Wintry Mountains represent a substantial hazard to all but the hardiest of traveler and yet represent one of the most spectacular natural landscapes available. The range features no gentle, rolling hills – the transition to steep slopes can be abrupt, even vertical. And as such the only path which will get any traveler safely through this region are along the high, windswept glacial passes, or more directly up and over a high mountain.

There is no true way to skirt the mountains or to safely journey directly through them - one must choose between one of the former options if safety is to be their priority. Even these routes are far from safe – travelers often find themselves confronted with vertical ice walls, collapsing rock faces, treacherous snow cover with deep, hidden crevasses beneath the deceiving white, and sheer avalanches waiting for nothing to pull them down to the valleys below. Travelers making an attempt to cross must be physically in great shape.

Their gear must be optimal to withstand extreme cold, deep snow and ice.

The traveler will want to always have a way to tell the weather and the amount of the day that it will take to reach your destination. The only realistic safe way to pass through the ranges is by staying to well defined and known glacial pathways, though even these may be dangerously misleading or rendered impassible by avalanches or heavy snowdrifts.

Plants

Flora Montane Flora (Altitudinal Zonation and Snow-Shedding Gymnosperms)

The vegetation of Cichekim Wintry Mountains follows a strict altitudinal zonation. Instead of wide, open taiga of Chanest, the flora is divided into vertical zones defined by decreasing temperatures, diminishing soil, and violent, ever-accelerating winds. Lowest slopes are carpeted by dense Montane zone of massive gymnosperms (evergreen coniferous tree).

To cope with catastrophic snow load, they have highly flexible branches, that slopes downward with such effectiveness the massive snow-mass sheds itself without snapping a trunk.

A thick, dense network of roots, the core of the lowermost valleys, hold the fractured earth against the landslides.

Subalpine Flora (Krummholz and Alpine Meadows)

As the altitude increase and atmosphere thin, trees are aggressively sheared by the wind to the subalpine region. Here cold and harsh winds deform top trees into “Krummholz” (German word for ‘crooked wood’) stunted and deformed alpine-type pines growing along the ground, avoiding chilling winds. Above the tree line expanses of alpine meadows dominate.

Alpine herbs and grasses adapt with cushions form, with horizontal growth along the ground in order to trap warmth of geothermals rocks and roots under a dense, tight cover to avoid a drastic exposure to a freezing atmosphere and intense cold.

During short summer heat periods, they experience extreme flowering rapid phenology; in a few weeks’ time they bloom and grow an intense, colourful cover of flowers, while herbs reproduce, develop their seeds and withdraw into the underground, waiting for the freeze up again.

Cliff and Scree Flora (Chasmophytes and Pioneer Lithophytes)

On sheer granite cliff walls and on shifting talus/scree slopes is formed a bio-community of high biological endurance. Soil is absent: this ecosystem is populated by extremophiles called chasmophytes, a type of plants, which penetrate deeply the cracks in the rocky surface, in the pursuit of some water traces.

Lithophytes, such as various kinds of crusty lichens and pioneering mosses, settle on the bare rock surface attaching to it thanks to their crust and secreting organic acids, which gradually corrode and break down a rock surface over a long period of time: they suffer constant’ abrasion from ice blown by the wind and live very close to permanent snow limit. Glacial and Wetland Flora (Nival Communities and Meltwater Corridors) Where the melted glacial water flow down to lowlands carving huge rocks and ravines, thin ribbons of flora come into being. Cold tolerant sedges and short willows border glacial lakes and melt-water channels providing stabilizing support for gravel-accumulating debris of screes and flood plains.

Among most unique forms, on alpine lakes, there are the so called ‘nival communities’.

These hyper-specialized plants bloom just on the periphery of lingering snow masses from end of summer: submerged 11 months under ice, they finish their life cycle in just few days.

Seasonal Adaptations (Cryo-Endurance and Disturbance Ecology)
Cichekim flora doesn't evolve rapid growing forms or extensive development. In Cichekim, vegetation has adapted for survival the lethal winter weather, using as a protective layer a massive and heavy layer of winter snow, protecting roots and some other organisms underneath against the freezing temperatures above zero (-30 degrees Celsius, sometimes much more) of mountain weather. In this region disturbance is one of the factors of evolution: large scale events like slab avalanches and massive rock falls strip down the ecological environment; then an slow process of succession of ecosystem occurs when mosses and hardy grasses begin again to inhabit bare rock gradually recreating a functioning ecological system.

Animals

Montane Fauna (Subalpine Guilds and Boreal Megafauna)

Life in Cichekim Wintry Mountains is all about the brutal mathematics of gravity and cold. Unlike the horizontal, undifferentiated taiga of Chanest, the life in Cichekim is starkly stratified by altitude: a stack of communities uniquely adapted for distinct levels of terrain. Within the deep forests of the lowlands exist massive ungulates and apex predators, masters of pure, brutish endurance.

To withstand the savage winters these megafauna boast incredibly thick, double-layered coats and reserves of subterranean fat.

Since they must muscle their way up 45 degree, timber-choked slopes, agility, not speed, takes precedence; broad hooves and specialized musculature permit them to scale impossibly steep terrain, cross unstable snowpacks, and step with eerie quiet over massive downed conifers.

Alpine Fauna (Tundra Specialists and Topographical Ambushers)

Moving above the treeline one finds a desolate, wind-lashed landscape of high alpine tundra-- a thin air environment where the sun beats down without mercy and plants are scarce. These tundra animals are built for minimizing heat loss; a high-mass to surface-area ratio with highly compact, often spherical, morphology is prevalent, their coats transitioning to stark white, dappled gray, and dusty brown during the harsh winter months to camouflage amongst the ever-shifting backgrounds of snow and scree. Since the rocky barren landscape offers no vegetal cover for animals seeking to conceal themselves, those here who prey on other species employ a strategy of topographic assassination.

They utilize the very landscape to trap and hunt; knife-edged ridges and mountain passes are natural choke points the local predators use with deadly efficiency to stage ambush attacks on the herds forced through narrow mountain corridors.

Cliff and Glacier Fauna (Obligate Climbers and Nival Scavengers)

The smooth sheer granite faces and permanent high icefields of Cichekim are the domain of the obligate climbers and the hardy, cold-adapted nival extremophiles. Scaling sheer ice-coated granite requires immense evolutionary adaptation:many cliff-dwelling fauna have specialized, rubbery feet, individually articulated toes, and sharply hooked dewclaws capable of adhering to microscopically small fissures within solid rock. These vertical walls serve as their natural fortresses.

By giving birth to their young and raising them on solitary, vertiginous ledges, the animals living high in the Cichekim range are wholly inaccessible to land-based threats. The edges of the high glacier and high pass often play host to unique avian scavengers and small, well-insulated predators that subsist on freezing specimens of ice worms, flying insects, and other creatures caught in the glaciated expanses.

Behavioral Cycles (Altitudinal Migration and Phenological Tracking)

In Cichekim, animal behavioral cycles are intimately linked to the topography and weather.

Instead of lengthy, horizontal migrations like many flatland-adapted species, the creatures here are subject to a powerful rhythm of altitudinal migration.

With the onslaught of a punishing winter, the crushing weight of snow drives the ecosystem downward. Herds move into the sheltered lowlands of Cichekim to survive blizzards, while many burrowing animals slip into prolonged states of hibernation in insulated underground chambers to wait out the frost line. When spring arrives at long last, this ecological shift reverses with a stately slow-motion ascent. A transient wave of new foliage follows the melting snowpack up the mountainside, and the herds graze their way upward over the weeks of the short summer, keenly pursued by their natural predators.

It is an endless, up-and-down migration chasing the few months of alpine growing season, a desperate, spectacular chase along vertical corridors of earth and ice.