The Ganthian Range is located in the far west of Ganthia, serving as the region’s spine. These mountains are said to be where the Ganthians originated many thousands of years ago, before we spread out to the east. According to the Ganthian creation legends, the great god of life Ganlon hewed the very first Ganthians from the same stone which now forms the Ganthian Range. The old storytellers say that this explains why we tower over other races, and why we have such impressive physical strength and stamina. In time, the first Ganthians multiplied, then spread out beyond the Ganthian range. Other races also spread out in their respective lands.

Eventually, most of the peoples of the world started straying from moral and just behavior and conduct and becoming sinful. Upon seeing this, Ganlon opted to cleanse the world of its sin by way of a great flood spanning its surface. But in this time, all the Ganthians were moral and just, and Ganlon instructed them to ascend to the peak of the world’s highest mountain, which we now call Ganthia Peak. Only there would they be safe from the purification of the rest of the world. After Ganlon’s great deluge, he repopulated the world with plants and animals to make Ganthia fertile, thus rewarding the Ganthians for their morality. Only after the Ganthians had spread throughout Ganthia did Ganlon recreate the other humanoid races of yore. All true Ganthians now worship Ganlon and the other gods and goddesses who shaped the world, each at their own individual shrines scattered throughout Ganthia.

Nowadays, most of the peaks of the once-towering Ganthian Range have eroded over time, with the exceptions of Ganthia Peak and areas of scattered mountains to the south and northeast of Harvis. These peaks form easterly extensions of the main stem of the Ganthian Range. This erosion has allowed for the prospecting activities which led to the discoveries of diamonds at multiple points throughout Ganthia. The mining operations that resulted have since led to our newfound prosperity over the past twenty years, in no small part due to demand from our partners, the Rusnav Federation. The conditions our miners are required to face, however, can be variable. Sometimes, prevailing northerly winds bring in cold and humid air from the Northern Ocean, resulting in copious rain or snow in the winter. On other occasions, dry southwesterly winds from the Losan Desert bring sunny skies and warm conditions to the mountains. Within the mineshafts themselves, temperatures vary from cold to very warm, depending on various independent factors. This variability in climatic conditions, along with the influence of elevation, results in the mountains’ great biological diversity. The Ganthian Range is doubly important, not only as the source of our recent prosperity, but also due to our origins there, and we do well to respect its rolling hills and towering peaks alike.

• By: Douglas Holt, the Royal Geographer of the Ganthian States