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The Yellow Mountains are the great mountain range that runs down the spine of the Seven Dominions seperating the north western coastal Dominions from the drier south eastern inland Dominions such as Pel. The character of the mountains has always been volcanic, marked by black and yellow landforms. In ancient times, but within the memory of the Elves many of the volcanos were active but they are now largely dormant. Yellow stone predominates in most areas and there are deposits of a rich loam in the valleys. The hills though can shine like gold in the southern sunlight and the rocks contain quartz, feldspar, mica and calcite. The weathered black cones of the dormant volcanos now surround geyser-basins and lake-filled craters. Cavern systems wind through the base of the mountains are are home to the Mablad Dwarves and other less savoury inhabitants. Regardless of their local features the Yellow Mountains are uniformly steeper on their north eastern sides. Bare rock predominates on the upper slopes of these side as the gradient becomes too steep to accomodate flora. In contrast the south western slopes are far more gentle and allow many peaks to approached on foot without climbing gear. The frequency of sheer drops on the northern side means that there are few viable passes across the mountains. The best known of these are the Trenth Walk, the Cirith Celiant and the Pel Stairs. |