The Aurbez Plateau

• A region in the Aurbez and the Andonne, the Istaros Watershed

The Aurbez Plateau rises sharply just north and west of the Maseau - Dunmar Road, and is several thousand feet higher than the lowlands of the Aurbez and the Andonne region. This is the heart of the Refounded Alliance of Aurbez. This land is marginally better than the plains below it, protected somewhat from the ash storms, and with a number of reliable streams fed by the snow melt on the Sentinels, water is more plentiful than farther east, despite the lack of rain. Stands of quaking aspens and highland pines grow scattered along rushing brooks, fading to drier scrubgrass on the exposed hills.

The plateau is home to small farms, clusters of farming villages, goat and sheep herders, and wildcat miners. The biggest settlements are around the marshy upper Aursen before it spills off the plateau in a series of waterfalls just before the road crossing, although many people still live scattered across the foothills of the Sentinels to the southwest and northeast of the Aursen.