Subzone - Carmine Canyon

Carmine Canyon is a geographical feature located between Elifga Valley and the Direwind Hills, in which lies a river also named the Carmine. It flows from the mountains at the western edge of the Evernight Forest down to the Shimmering sea, running directly east to west. The Canyon and river are renowned for many things. Firstly, the Canyon is very deep, there being a massive drop from the top to bottom. The Canyon continues to get deeper as it runs, giving it a steep gradient. The river is also one of the fastest running in Felarya due to this slope and taking a boat on it, unless very well prepared, is considered suicidal. The Canyon itself is known for having a distinctive, deep red colour which is quite striking and beautiful, contrasting with the white foam and mist raised by the river and the blue sky seen above.

Carmine Canyon also happens to be a very rich ore deposit. Many minerals are buried deep in the area - the erosion from the river has left many of them accessible from the Canyon walls - in some places laying sparkling in plain sight! Adventurers sometimes head here to try and get some of this wealth.

However, few return. This is because the canyon is home to a loosely connected tribe of rock harpies, who are the main predator of the area and are known for their speed, stubbornness and keen eyes. It is nearly impossible to hide from them and even harder to escape once they spot you. These harpies pride themselves on speed - it is not uncommon for them to race each other down the canyon at breakneck speeds, laughing and taunting each other. It is also due to these harpies that no one has built a bridge across the canyon. The harpies eat anyone that has tried to do this. Some predator species, such as Jotun and elves, tried to build a bridge but the harpies refused to allow one in their home. The harpies live in caves carved into the sides of the canyons, often making intricate connected networks.

One more interesting part of the Canyon is the end - there is a small, sandy island located there, where the river flows into the sea. On it, there is what appears to be a town, though it is long abandoned. It bears similarity to human mining towns, leading many to believe that at some point a group attempted to mount a large expedition here. Who they were is unknown, as is how they managed to built a town and what caused their method of protection to fail.

Bump for opinions. Good, needs work, or scrap?

Good, but needs expanding. I'll make some suggestions in a little while, I need time to think.



Here's some of my ideas & suggestions:

You didn't specify how long the canyon is, it would be good to know the length.

I think it would be good to have a reason for the extreme speed of the river.
Maybe a really steep slope at the start of the canyon (not a cliff, waterfalls don't usually encourage really fast flow).
If you decide to go with that, I have a (possibly not well thought out enough) suggestion concerning it:

On the steep slope that is the beginning of the canyon lies an (abandoned?) settlement.
The builders of this town seemed to have an idea of what they were up against, the streets are far to narrow for a giant predator to squeeze into and all the buildings have low, flat roofs and are constructed out of heavy stone. None of the buildings are over one story, the reason for this seems to be because if a harpy lands on a roof, the building next up the slope is a just the right height for spear-men and archers or gunners to encourage the harpy to leave. However, that isn't the town's main defence. 4 huge gun turrets line the top of the slope. These huge guns have a range allowing them to cover can part of the town. Embedded in the canyon walls above the bottom of the slope are a further 2 emplacements.

If town is abandoned:
However, the town is long dead and the turrets that once protected it now serve as nests for harpies. These nests are prized by harpies because of the view and also strategic value that the turrets provide.

(I haven't quite thought out the details of having the town still inhabietd, but I'm working on it).

Hmmm. Those all seem to be great ideas. I'll work on beating it into shape.

Made some edits to this, want to see what you think.

I'm thinking of adding more about the source in the mountains.