The Norse Kingdom's traditional water routes included not only the Tem River, which led straight into the kingdom's heartland, but also many other options provided by its numerous tributaries. Like branches of an artery, they carried ships to the farthest reaches of this hard-to-sustain body.
After two or three days of travel from the estuary, an ochre-colored tributary branched sharply south, leading into the southern hills and mountains. It was an inland extension of the coastal range, where the aftershocks of rocky waves had left an unsettled, rolling landscape that spread into the kingdom's most intricate terrain.
The mountains blocked moisture from the sea, making this one of the kingdom's few dry regions. Any rain that fell was quickly soaked up by the dry soil in the ravines between the low mountains and hills, leaving just enough for shrubs and small trees to grow.
This vegetation did little to hold the soil in place. Combined with the unusual terrain, it meant that stable sources of surface water were rare. Most of the small rivers, like a network of capillaries, dried up seasonally, and even groundwater reached by deep wells could vanish without warning one day.
Some had argued that, objectively speaking, the southern mountains received less rain than the rest of the kingdom, but not so little as to explain conditions this bad. Yet the fact remained: the hills, blanketed with shrubs and dry soil, swallowed up all the moisture, leaving humans only the drops they had not already gulped down.
Still, the only river in the region navigable by ships had been put to use. Its muddy yellow waters carried grain-laden boats inland and brought boats loaded with minerals back out.
It was also where the kingdom's mines were most concentrated. Rich mineral deposits lay shallow beneath these seemingly