Cloud Mountain

Cloud Mountain is a mountaintop citadel in eastern Elemnakos' Astorian Mountains, and a major setting of Brother, Son, Shadow.

Cloud Mountain commands a high plateau of grazing land overlooking Khentii Khilok, the Lake of Flint.

Under the Sultanate
Under the Sultanate, Cloud Mountain was a backwater border fortress near the Kingdom's eastern frontier. The border was a clear, wide river, beyond which lay vast steppe plains populated with squabbling tribes. Cloud Mountain records from this time indicate another organized state beyond said tribes, but contact between it and the Sultanate was rare. The Sultans preferred to ignore their eastern border - to the benefit of the local emirs, who were nearly autonomous. However, when the Sultanate collapsed, so did its system of pacification and clever interference with the affairs of the tribes. They began to stream into the depopulated east, the Yakur clan chief among them.

Immigration and Nationalism
The nomadic invaders gained bloodless control of large swathes of the sparsely-populated forests and mountains in eastern Elemnakos. For nearly the first half of the Mercenary Age, the area became a no-man's land, with no organized states or leaders. The perception of the eastern marches as lawless wildlands persisted into the reign of Dashiin ai-Yakur. The Duke of Aujun briefly brought Cloud Mountain under his influence as the linchpin of a planned eastern campaign before his death. Afterwards, the east began to mobilize, more permanent states and armies forming out of the fusion of plains immigrants and natives who had lived under the Monarchy for generations. This was the first time Cloud Mountain became a capital city over a fortress, and began to attract a larger population.

Empire
When Dashiin ai-Yakur slew his uncle and ascended to rulership of Cloud Mountain, he swiftly transformed it into a military capital worthy of the greatest power in the east. Its few cores of stone buildings were quickly augmented by tent cities not out of place in a plainsmen army. Its burgeoning population swelled as Cloud Mountain became the strongest power in all Elemnakos under the Lord ai-Yakur's strong hand. However, upon his untimely death, Cloud Mountain drew back into itself and was thus unprepared for the sudden hammer blow of the Hussar Regiments, who sacked Cloud Mountain and left its great gate in smoking ruin.

Clans and Notable Groups

 * Yakur Clan

Burial/Death
Within Cloud Mountain, the dead are believed to linger for thirty days if they are restless spirits. This time is for the relatives and friends of the deceased to avenge any violent death or seek to complete their final endeavors.

Bodies are cremated, and their names carved into a wall deep within the mountain itself. Vast funeral pyres are an archaic custom reserved for great warchiefs or kings.

Locations

 * The End Wall
 * Cloud Mountain's Gate