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The Mostreve Hills

🔈 (mohs-TRE-vuh or mohs-tre-vay)

The Mostreve Hills are a stretch of rough, rocky hills, with some higher peaks, that run in a series of long ridges from the flat plains of the Maseau Gap to the ~Cymea Border Mountains~, dividing Sembara, Addermarch, and Tyrwingha from the Plaguelands. They are largely wooded, although some of the highest peaks are above treeline, and the drier southwestern sides of some ridges are high plains with only scattered trees. The climate is temperate, with warm summers, cool winters, and frequent precipitation year round, with occasional winter snowfall on the higher peaks.

Geographically, the Mostreve Hills are composed of five distinct ridgelines:
* The Westcliff ridge is a sharp escarpment that runs in a truncated north-south ‘C’, on the western edge of the Mostreve Hills. The western edge of Westcliff is particularly steep, forming a dramatic cliff line against the flat Maseau Gap. The northern edge of the escarpment, in contrast, forms a series of tumbled, broken ridges that blend into the Sembaran Borderlands. The Clavert, to the north, and the Valmont, to the south, both have their sources in Westcliff. . The highest peaks of the Mostreve Hills are here, especially along the western escarpment.
* The ~Aure Headwaters Ridge~ runs mostly east-west, arising from the rolling hills of the Aure river valley some 50 miles east of the Westcliff ridge, and cutting in a south-south-easterly line towards the ~Tyrwinghan Ridge~. This ridgeline partially separates Addermarch from the Darkwood.
* The ~Tyrwinghan Ridge~, which runs in a north-easterly line from the ~Aure Headwaters Ridge~ towards Tyrwingha
* The ~North Tyrwinghan Ridge~ which is east of the Aure, and runs in a series of lines running north-west from the Tyrwinghan ridge. These peaks are notably gentler than the other ridges, and form less of a barrier to travel.
* The ~Orlenas Ridge~, which starts south of the Latazaro swamp and runs almost due east until it grows in the ~Cymea Border Mountains~

In between these ridgelines are several major gaps:
* The Aure river cuts between the Westcliff and Tyrwinghan ridges, in a broad and relatively fertile river valley
* The Darkwood creeps north between the Westcliff ridge and the ~Aure Headwaters Ridge~, forming a hilly wildland on the southern borders of Addermarch
* Between the ~Tyrwinghan Ridge~ and the ~Orlenas Ridge~ the land is hilly but there are few high ridgelines, and multiple passes cut through the Mostreve HIlls immediately northwest of Orenlas.

The Mostreve Hills, then, can be divided into a number of major regions based on these features:
* The Westcliff Ridge and associated hills
* The western Aure river valley, where the hills are gentler and rolling and typically wooded except where cleared for pasture and orchards. This is a land of rushing river valleys broken by rugged, hilly forests, but with few truly high peaks.
* The eastern Aure river valley and nearby foothills, between the ~Aure Headwaters Ridge~ and the ~Tyrwinghan Ridge~, where the soil is poorer and the land is grasslands mixed with rocky outcroppings
* The Darkwood itself, between the Westcliff and ~Aure Headwaters Ridge~, and stretching south beyond the reach of the Mostreve Hills
* The Tyrwinghan foothills, between the Tyrwinghan Ridge and the North Tyrwinghan Ridge, a land of rolling forested hills
* The Tyrwinghan highlands, along the Tyrwinghan Ridge and where it mets the Aure Headwaters Ridge, a land of high occasionally snowcapped peaks and difficult to pass valleys