The Ur-River is thought by some to be the most ancient of all watercourses in the Mortal Realms. It is certainly among the most enigmatic. It is believed to have no headwaters and no outlet, instead crashing endlessly from one realm to the next, its course constantly shifting as it perpetually grinds a new path through the Realms.
As the Ur-River flows from Hysh to Ulgu it briefly touches Aqshy, far to the south of the Vitriol Sea. It tumbles downward from the Catarhactes Realmgate; a vast waterfall that appears in the sky, seemingly out of nowhere. Miles above the eastern flank of the mountain range sometimes called Ignoth's Furnace, the waters of the Ur-River crash into a broken landscape of constant volcanic activity. Flames and smoke spew forth from the rocky ground at random and as the waters of the river rush down the mountainside they become heated, great clouds of steam and mist cloak its banks.
The Ur-River’s last stop in Aqshy is the Ashfall Delta, where it leaves the foothills around Ignoth's Furnace. The wide flatlands of the surrounding Brûlant Plains allow the river to slow and spread out to form the delta, just before it leaves the Realm of Fire and transitions into Ulgu as the Fiammascura Gate.
Out of the sixty or more islands in the Ashfall Delta only five were settled or otherwise inhabited during the Age of Myth: Fuegorn Drift, Infurnata, Heartpyre Nar, Flarecrux Spit and Brimnstorn. Since the Order settlements were overthrown in the Age of Chaos the delta has been mostly deserted.
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Understanding the Ashfall Delta
Coming from the Catarhactes:
When the Great Volcano of Ignoth's Furnace roared forth it’s fire into the sky it was said to have burned so hot with the fire of Aqshy that it tore a new way between the realms and spewed forth into the Haixiah of Hysh… but what poured back down into the ash column of Aqshian fire was more than just the light of Hysh, but a mighty torrent of the Ur-River.
Fire and water raged until at last, in the final cough of steam, the river quenched the fires of Ignoth's Furnace, and where once a great caldara was, now formed a steaming lake that soon flowed down the sides as lava once did.
Water followed the ancient courses and soon found hold in the pyroclastic flow of one great eruption, its ash and pumice easily carved unlike the basalt around it. Thus from the plinth of Ignoth's Furnace does the Ur-River leave the peaks and with the ash and loose fall of that ancient plinian eruption does it flow down to the Vitriol Sea over the Brûlant Plains.
In time the Ashfall Delta took its current shape: as great bastions of hardened basalt were left standing amidst the ashy and silty meandering delta, anything less hardy was eroded away in the inevitable march of time and flow of water.
The ancient heart of Ignoth's Furnace still burns, deep under where the Catarhactes falls from Hysh, heating the Ur-River in its passing to this day. The unwary find out the hard way that it scalds anything it touches, unless it was born to such heat. Though it cools to merely painful levels at the delta. It is only when the Ur-River touches the cold currents flowing from the Fiammascura realmgate, that it becomes bearable.
Cool and Hot are the names of the tides at the boundary, as it ebbs and flows back from the sea - often in a swirling morass of strange weather as more than just heat and cold mix but also as fire and shadow twist in the waters of the Ur-River.
The delta cannot be frozen from without, it must be frozen from within. The flow of the Ur-River’s heated water would push all but the most determined ice to sea, and melt any that manages to stay… thus it would be that Mogrek must reach a point above the delta to see the river cooled enough to freeze into the glacier it needs to be to allow his great horde to pass upriver through the Delta. To this end he cannot rely upon the Rogue Idols that his power awakened, but instead must look to those denizens who have headed his Waaagh!’s call to secure his way and give him the time he needs unfettered to focus the Everwinter upon the River… and why Atressa chose well to launch her counter-attack at this point, knowing well it is here she can delay Mogrek at his most vulnerable time.
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Fuegorn Drift
The smallest of the Ashfall Delta islands, on the western side. Surprisingly this island was largely untouched by the Age of Chaos, the razor sharp cliffs and smouldering mountains hide a beautiful secret paradise at its heart.
- Ravenspite Pass - a lush fertile valley flourishing in the rich volcanic soil.
- Leadtusk Tor - smoke and ash billow from the peak of this, the tallest of the mountains on the islands. One of the hundreds of volcanos that give the delta its name.
Infurnata
The site of some of the fiercest battles and saw the use of terrible weapons: self-destructive sorcery that was used as a last resort.
- The Gleaming Tower - a ruined aelven spire. Fiery geomantic runes mark the weathered stone landscape around it.
- The Voidwell - a lightless, bottomless pit. Cold winds whistle out of the abyssal chasm while it seems to stretch endlessly downward. So black it seems to defy comprehension.
- Wildpyre Watch - a ruined watchtower, overlooking the straits between Infurnata and Fuegorn Drift, built into the steep and jagged cliffs.
- The Blackiron Cage - a Stormvault, known in legend as the prison of a powerful daemon. An atmosphere of oppressive menace hangs over the blighted structures.
Heartpyre Nar (LVO exclusive location)
In the centre of the five largest islands, Heartpyre Nar is the only part of the delta with Order settlements that are currently inhabited and even prospering.
- The Troggwood - a mushroom-forest Dankhold.
- Glowerhold - a sinister angular stronghold in a volcanic wasteland.
- Breakspear - a massive castle built around a shard of The Spear of Mallus.
- Harkdeep - a duardin brewery built into the cliffs below a waterfall.
- Stonethorn Wold - a wanderers enclave of tree-top houses.
- Runefall - a new-built Dawnbringer strongpoint on a nexus of geomantic power.
- Wyrmwater - a mysteriously abandoned Dawnbringer settlement.
- Southmarches - a Stormvault with a badly failing Penumbral Engine.
- Northmarches - a Stormvault with a missing Penumbral Engine.
- Scorchbrass - a dreadhold bastion of the dark gods.
- The Foreteller’s - ancient structures of crumbling stone and twisted metal.
- Turnglass - a mist-veiled labyrinth of ruined stone structures, overgrown with ivy and moss.
Flarecrux Spit
Jutting out of the sea like a massive obsidian tooth, surrounded by scorching waters and steep cliffs that make it appear impenetrable. At the northern tip of the island, a towering volcano casts an eerie red glow across the landscape.
- Hollowsoul - a lake so still and clear that it appears to be made of solid crystal.
- Slurrywater - a blighted river that flows from the mountain, the sulphurous waters smell extremely unpleasant.
- Scalderbright - the ruins of a settlement around a lighthouse.
- The Ebonthorn Hoard - a shattered Stormvault, crackling with residual energy.
- The Gate of Vekhos - a minor realmgate to another part of Aqshy.
Brimnstorn
The eastern island has the only deep-water harbour of the delta, which was once a busy trading port. It was the point of entry for the invasion during the Age of Chaos.
- The Tarkhummar Locus - A sprawling necropolis. A maze of winding stairways with tall stone archways looming overhead, dark catacombs, partially collapsed tunnels, and musty mausoleums.
- Sulphurwald - A yellow-leaved forest, peppered with crumbling stone ruins. Fog-wreathed and strangely quiet.
- Emberport - As the only deep-water harbour in the delta, Emberport was once a bustling trading hub but it was the first place in the delta that was attacked during the Age of Chaos. The harbour waters are littered with the submerged wrecks of burned ships. The winding rubble-strewn streets are cluttered with debris. Many of the buildings were burned down but a few pockets remain that may be habitable. A small number of expeditions here have made their first camps in the old harbourside area.
- Hexstone - A ruined Age of Myth settlement, the shattered buildings seem to brood with a resentful, malevolent energy.
