Ngorrhal
Alias: The Sentinel Range, The Mountain Passes
Location: South of Kela, east of Ukhaalstaag, far north of Jeyrha (western continent)
Ngorrhal is the western alpine continent of stratospheric peaks and megafault ranges. During the Early Dominion, the Geban Empire intervened in a brutal civil war between the Western and Northern Passes and the Thazvaar-aligned Northeastern Passes. War Chief Tharyn'Bregun allied with Prince Vaer'gidon to defeat and permanently remove the Northeastern line, ending generations of conflict. In exchange for survival, Ngorrhal fully assimilated into the empire, and their people became the Frost Sentinels—the second most populous group in the Geban capital. Northern Pass children were raised in the capital as the Emperor's royal bodyguards, an unprecedented honor never extended to any other non-imperial people. When Vaer'gidon and Tharyn'Bregun died together fighting Ukhaal Walkers during their bonding trials in Ukhaalstaag less than a decade after Emperor Vaer'karesh's death, their shared sacrifice transformed an already-solid alliance into something eternally unbreakable. Frost Sentinels were granted their own district in the capital with unrestricted freedom of movement, and their youth could pursue politics or engineering, though warrior paths remained culturally favored. Their physiology later became the genetic foundation for the first Engineered. Despite most of the population migrating to Geba, Ngorrhal's massive mountains host the planet's largest and oldest operable surviving relay infrastructure—older even than Geba's, drawing engineers to test experimental arrays. Frost Sentinels return for their ancient rite of passage: once a local hunt of the Greater Smilohound, it now demands crossing oceans to Ngorrhal, surviving an unfamiliar land, killing the hyper-lethal apex predator with bare hands, and hauling its entire 4-tonne carcass back across the sea. Alpine to subpolar climate (−20°C to 5°C) with ice storms and stellar winds preserves ancient surfaces. Ngorrhal remains a proving ground for endurance and imperial loyalty.