Hornbeambeck River
Umarwald’s timber route and the northern measure of an unequal bargain.
The river threads the northern interior before the sheltered approaches to Norrun. Timber crews mark the first floating log of each spring with the name of someone lost over winter. At the Norrun Ice Truce, boats from rival banks carried the same name, forcing both courts to recognize shared losses.
Anja Rusk can close the timber booms but not reverse the current. A premature thaw would sweep those booms toward the firth before the ice roads are safe. The Snowline Companies now guard measuring stations against saboteurs who need only warm a single bend to make an army's supply plan worthless.
A vast northern march holding the winter that other kingdoms chose not to endure.
Norrun’s narrow shelter, where river ice and sea surge negotiate every spring.
The eastern drainage whose herb scent warns boatmen of a dangerous thaw.
An eastern wall of ridges with a road older than the ice above it.
A sheltered forest preserving impressions of villages erased from the tax rolls.
The southern river whose irrigation gates decide who receives summer.