SPIRAL MOUNTAIN ARRAY:

The most prominent geographical feature of Hyperborea, the Spiral Mountain Array is aptly named for its shape, which presents as a central axis from which appurtenant chains (arms) extend. In the centre of Hyperborea the mountains are highest, these averaging 25–30,000 feet in elevation and largely composed of granite and black gneiss. Here exist the most powerful and frigid winds, with blasts cold enough to freeze a man solid on contact. Glaciers grip the axis of the Spiral Mountain Array, which is most notable for the treble-peaked marvel of the realm, Mount Vhuurmithadon. Substantial glaciation also extends along the arms of the range. The extent of the Spiral Mountain Array is evinced by the island chains that extend from the Hyperborean mainland all the way to the Rim of the World. Significant volcanic activity persists throughout the Spiral Mountain Array, with violent detonations that shake the entire realm and sometimes mantle the atmosphere in vast clouds of ash for weeks, months, or longer.

In the icy depths of the Spiral Mountain Array dwell some of Hyperborea’s most enigmatic species, creatures of otherworldly origins who have laired under ice and stone since times immemorial and whose purposes remain unfathomable to even the most sagacious of men. Only the peerless Hyperboreans are known to have plumbed the antediluvian depths of these mountains. Legend has it that ancient cities lay hidden under the ice of the Spiral Mountain Array, these built by elder beings who arrived from the Black Gulf long before man arose from the lowly depths of apedom, when Old Earth was but a steaming morass bombarded by meteoroids.

Barrier Mountains:

This glaciated arm of the Spiral Mountain Array rises sharply, 18–20,000-foot peaks that separate the cold and dry Black Waste from the moist and teeming Savage Boreal Coast. From the peaks of the Barrier Mountains, one can see New Pictland and beyond. Legends say that in days of yore, cities of perplexing design were carved into the cliffs of the Barrier Mountains, but ages ago glacial tongues slipped over them, forever shrouding whatever eldritch secrets they reserved.

UNDERBOREA:

This is the mythic realm of legendry, a vast subterranean kingdom where dwell gods, dæmons, monsters, and otherworldly beings. Poets and madmen relate wild tales of vast cities populated by untold races. Although men of learning find wholesale acceptance of these claims troubling, they can agree that evidence supports the existence of subterranean societies of indeterminate origins, including the uncanny ghost-men called the oon.

MARVELS AND WONDERS OF HYPEBOREA

GREAT OBELISKS:

These pillars of black stone stand at the six corners of the world, each marking 0° latitude at the edge of the Black Gulf. Each Great Obelisk stands 555 feet in height and measures 55 feet along each of its four sides at the base. The sides taper as they rise 500 feet to the base of the pyramidion (small pyramid at the top of the pillar); each side of the pyramidion measures 34 feet, and each pyramidion rises 55 feet to its apex. Five of the Great Obelisks obtrude from the sea, at the verge where the Rapids at the End of the World spill; each is believed to stand on a pedestal of stone whose flat top is at sea level. The sixth rises from the dusty desert of Sharath. The Great Obelisks are each composed of an otherworldly black stone consistent with minerals derived from Yuggoth. Each is graven with curvilinear designs and strange geometric patterns. Native Hyperboreans claim that these ancient enigmas are not amongst Old Earth’s marvels and that they must have risen from the Hyperborean Sea at or shortly after the time when the Ashen Worm laid its icy curse. Sages, sorcerers, poets, and madmen alike concur that the six Great Obelisks were produced by otherworldly or extra-dimensional beings; amongst these, the elder things, Great Race, and mi-go are oft held culpable for the creation of these astonishing constructs. Whether the pillars are hollow or not remains a matter of conjecture; if not, these structures could conceivably harbour beings of otherworldly origins.

MOUNT VHUURMITHADON:

This colossal, treble-peaked, extinct volcano rises from the epicentre of the Spiral Mountain Array. Largely composed of black gneiss and rising some 40,000 feet in elevation, Mount Vhuurmithadon is named for its extensive population of vhuurmis, humanoid beast-men who lair in caves that pock its glassy face at lower elevations. All longitudinal meridians intersect at Mount Vhuurmithadon; hence it is not only the centre of the Spiral Mountain Array, but the very axis of the entire realm. Notwithstanding, Mount Vhuurmithadon is not so easily found. Contained within the impossible undermountain depths of Mount Vhuurmithadon lies a cyclopean mega-dungeon where dwell gods, monsters, and otherworldly races. Here may be found untold mysteries and treasures beyond comprehension.

NORTH WIND (Boreas):

In immemorial times it was the North Wind (boreas) that hemmed in Old Earth’s realm of Hyperborea. Upon crossing these frigid winds one entered a mythic land of endless summer, where the people were a blessed race of nigh immortality, a race of preternaturally gifted sorcerer-scientists known as the Hyperboreans. Gods and heroes visited the realm, for Hyperborea was deemed the finest nation in the world, taking tributes from its coevals Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu. Then came Yikkorth, “The Ashen Worm”, and all was changed. The how and why is left to speculation. Presently the North Wind roars beyond the edge of the realm, several miles outside the six corners delineated by the Great Obelisks, past the Rapids at the End of the World. Indeed, the North Wind is met by the great vacuum that is the Black Gulf. Unceasingly it lashes around the realm in two opposing hexagonal belts. Oft the North Wind ushers in men, monsters, dæmons, and otherworldly beings from various times and places. It is said to house the deity Boreas (though some religious scholars posit that in sooth the god is imprisoned within the North Wind). Also, the North Wind is reputed to be home to other beings; specifically, hordes of night gaunts are said to glide its endless streams.

RAPIDS AT THE END OF THE WORLD:

Loci of fear and veneration to seamen, the Rapids at the End of the World are where the waters of the Hyperborean Sea spill from the Rim of the World to the infinity of the Black Gulf. Within 12 miles of the edge, the rapids pull with unmatchable power, sucking any vessel to her doom. Vessels are tugged at about 10 knots, which means the doomed have about one hour to consider their mortality. Whither goes all the water that cascades off the edge of the world, none can say with any certitude. Some men of learning suggest the North Wind captures the water and pulls it up into the Hyperborean atmosphere to at length fall as precipitation, whilst others suggest that it curls to the underside of the realm, an airless land of volcanoes, acidic oceans, and constant earthquakes, where dwell dæmons and other nameless horrors. The water that seeps up through this hostile area purportedly pushes back up through the Hyperborean Sea, though also feeds the underground lakes and seas of Underborea. Little evidence corroborates these suppositions.

R’LYEH:

Forbidden texts aver that this loathsome city was æons ago fashioned by colossal, shapeless beings from other dimensions. Certain Pnakotic fragments suggest that R’lyeh is a metropolis of nightmares, with cyclopean vaults housing slimes, oozes, and other amorphous life forms. Most notably, it is the dwelling place of the dreaming deity Kthulhu, where he sequesters his unspeakable hordes. For millennia, tracing back to Old Earth, the following phrase has been repeated by Kthulhu’s raving cultists: Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Kthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. Loosely translated, this means, “In his house at R’lyeh, dead Kthulhu waits dreaming.” In days of yore it was held that R’lyeh lay hidden beneath the waves of the South Pacific Ocean of Old Earth, but other locales have been reported. In Hyperborea, where the scarlet sun bloats thicker and sheds less warmth, and as the stars grow dimmer, R’lyeh is rumoured to lie in the ocean deeps of Dagon Bay, though certain Esquimaux shamans insist it lies within a black reservoir beneath the ice sheets of the Plain of Leng.