Terrain of the Borderlands III
Meniri Mountains Pt.3
I left off talking about some of the wildlife and the greenery of High Meniri’s in the Borderlands. Now we’re going to move onto the geology and minerals of the range.
The Atlas chain most likely was formed by tectonic plates merging during the convergence of the African and European plates. None of the geography changes by the writer would seem to have made a difference there and we can carry that over easily to the Meniri’s. So we’re looking at the ranges being formed about 65M to 2.6M years in the past. As far as ranges go the High Meniri’s are fairly young and are still going to have frequent tremors.
The seasonal nature of the drainage determines that the runoff is going to have large erosive capability and will have cut deep narrow gorges through all the layers of sediment. Unlike the actually Atlas mountains whose rivers tend to run dry except during periods of rain the High Meniri are going to have flowing rivers all season and be prone to flooding during melt and heavy rain seasons. This is due to the different shape of the mountains, their acting as a rain break for the Waste to the south and finally because the author and myself have raised the height of the mountains. More height, more surface area for rain and snow and therefore more runoff.
Here’s an example of those steep ravines and narrow gorges and open plateaus. These are great impediments for characters, trying to climb those with a group of characters is going to be a real pain for them. Plus it makes for evocative descriptions.
Soil worth a damn is going to be rare at high altitude in this region. Mostly its just going to be bare rock and loose material that is going to be moved around by frequent landslides. Limestone, that’s going to be the majority of the ledges and raises, and marls, made of limestone and clay, that are going to be cut by erosion into mazes of ravines and crumbling gullies. Rare sandstone in those area are going to be where you’ll find trees at elevation. The best soils are going to be on the terraced slopes and in the valley bottoms.
Resources
The Meniri mountains are rich in minerals, especially in the High Meniris. I can draw directly off the Atlas mountains, with a little extrapolation, for likely sites of resources. The western section of the High Meniri’s has a settlement of Dwarves that in the past was much larger, Dragons will do that to you if you let them, so I figured that I would have to place large troves of mineral resources. It turns out however that the region lines up very well with the real world location of the Boo Azzer mining range. So that was easy.
I spend several hours filtering through mining reports and mapping out the locations of those mines to determine the ones that could be taken directly over from IRL to the Borderlands.
You’re welcome. You’re really really welcome.
So let’s look over the various locations of the mineral deposits that are known and see what they are and what effects that they’ll have on the campaign area.
First let’s deal with the Dwarves, in their current homes, and the homes that they lost during the Beastman Wars. By the way if you’re reading this and you don’t own the By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization you really should pick it up. First its a great book and second it has a great amount of detail on the Meniri Dwarves.
I fiddled around for a bit with what symbols to use to indicate mineral deposits. The crossed hammer and pick is pretty standard but from that point on its more difficult to tell which mineral(s) the mine is for. So after some time I decided to do it myself. Very keeping in theme for just about everything else I do for this project. Thanks to the people on the ACKS Discord that helped with the design.
The hammer and pick in red on black to standout and the white letters for the periodic table code for the element in question. When its multiple minerals in a mine I’ll list the primary and make a note. Oh and I’ll throw a six mile hex map grid over the area just to make it clear. The numbers on work gangs and volumes of reserves come from By This Axe and the Autarch Patreon article Ore Never Changes.
Azen Radokh, #26 in Capital on the Borderlands, is a Dwarven Stronghold that was originally constructed as a mining outpost for Azen Kairn, #41 in Capital on the Borderlands, which when it fell the refugees settled here. There is a large salt deposit mine IRL that would work perfectly. It’s close enough to fudge in and it gives that Dwarven outpost a solid reason to be there. Salt is very valuable and the Dwarves would have multiple uses for it and selling the excess at market. Plus the idea of the Dwarves and their lost empire with the remains of it toiling away for the profit of a Dragon in a literal salt mine. Nice.
Salt Deposit - Maximum of 400 Dwarven mining families, unlimited reserve
Ruins of Azen Kairn, #41 in Capital on the Borderlands, is a former Dwarven stronghold that they lost to a Red Dragon named Orm and his Beastman allies. They’ve setup shop along this western section of the Meniri mountains and flourished. The location of #41 lines right up with the Boo Azzer mining range in the High Atlas mountains so we’re going to drop that straight in. That gives the Dwarves a rich vein of Copper, Cobalt, and Iron that they would have exploited. As an interesting note Cobalt was mostly used as a source of rich colored dyes, this would have given the Dwarves a very valuable trade good that is either now lost or perhaps it is being mined by the Beastmen and sold on an underground market to the civilized areas. Perhaps Dwarves still toil in the mine but under the Beastman lash.
Copper-Cobalt-Iron Deposit - Sustainable capacity of 300 Dwarven mining families and deposit reserves of 141,600 labor months.
Let’s continue to look at former Dwarven holdings. In the High Atlas mountains to the north of the Boo Azzer mine is the Zgouder silver mine. On this map it ends up just out of the mountains and in a hilly area. It’s easy to assume that before the Humans settled in this region the Dwarves would have likely had an outpost there or some sort of settlement to exploit that vein of material. But with the collapse of the Dwarven power structure here, and the fact that it would be well inside the Auran area of control, its a human controlled mine now feeding the Cyfaraun markets.
Silver-Lead Deposit: Sustainable capacity of 400 work gangs and deposit reserves of 165,600 work-gang-months.
Making our way around the Meniri’s to another Salt Mine. This one is just on the edge of the mountain rage. Likely the result of an ancient evaporated lake but it’s just outside the Unbroken Line, the ring of border forts that the Auran’s use to guard this section of their territory, so it’s going to be a risky endeavor. Outside the border forts patrol areas but still only a few miles from help, but those few miles are up through the mountain passes. It’s likely that someone would be mining it and paying the local legate extra for security. It’s just between #42 Turos Telle and #43 Turos Erin. Also its a pretty spread out mine with the number of families that are capable of working it.
Salt Deposit - Maximum of 500 Dwarven mining families, unlimited reserve
A copper deposit, and one pure enough to be just copper, in the eastern section of the High Atlas’s lines up for this region as well. It’s deep into the Krysivor river valley and that area is ‘technically’ under Auran control but in an area with no patrols and no roads. Another risky operation if someone is mining it. It was likely a Dwarven mine originally when they controlled this range but its now far away from anything they control. Likely a Dwarven Outpost consider how large and rich a vein this is. It commands a high position up in the mountains and would have been a strategic point. Losing this position likely hurt the Dwarves a lot.
Copper Deposit - Sustainable capacity of 1000 Dwarven mining families and deposit reserves of 156,000 labor months.
That does it for the deposits that line up with real world deposits next article I’ll do some generation from the excellent rules in By This Axe, or the Ore Never Changes article from the Autarch Patreon. That will add to the existing range with a little directed randomization and we’ll see what kind of interesting adventure it’ll add to this section of the Meniri Mountains.