Yaram

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The Yaram river begins in the northwestern part of the Kilth mountains. It flows south then west, ending at the Sea of Mourning. The free-thinking bard Zab described it as "placid, deep in parts, gentle in flow", yet to the detriment of many explorers, forgot to mention all its dangers. These include trackless marshes that dot its banks, old canals leading to murky pools, and overgrown ruined towers and walls, keeps and watchtowers, the black footprints of the dark reign of King Bloodtusk.

In 1467, two years into the Black Tide War (1465 - 1504), Admiral Jairall, the one that would become King Bloodtusk, captured Salandirik. In the plunder of the city, he learned of long-standing peace treaties between those that had previously governed Salandirik and the Scrag tribes of the Yaram river. These treaties, respecting the scrag claim to the river's length, went all the way back to the settlement's founding under the pirate captain Gadbog. Now in the Siege of Salandirik it is often said that it was an amphibious invasion that took the city, but the truth is that Jairall's forces were helped from the landward side by Maleraunt guerrillas based out of Tholig-Mizin and the rolling hills of Khâl-Rakhs. These groups had an interest in opening up trade along the Yaram river, the only viable route to move goods to the rich coastal settlements. Ivory Asylum, the previous owners, had a policy that was against such trade. They believed that commerce with the mountains savages, a people chaos infused, would only embolden them with wealth and clear a route for them to attack. When Admiral Jairall of the Black Tide took over, he declared that his friends in the highlands would soon see trade with the coasts. The fortifications that came to dot the river's southern banks, and the forces that came with them, eventually forced all the scrag from the area. Most of these bitter refugees fled north to the Bangasûza fjord.

The canals and murky pools that dot the river's banks were once used as spawning pools for undead and other monstrosities. The bodies of the fallen, friend and foe, tossed in to bloat and rot, then raised up by Black Tide necromancers. This was a normal procedure for the Black Tide, raising the dead to serve again, but at Yaram it was found that the scrag did not like clawing, biting or even touching things powered by negative energy. As a result, efforts were doubled in this area, with bodies shipped up river to the spawning pools.

In the Burterinii-Bloodtusk War (1795 - 1800), Yaram's fortifications would be used one last time. After the allies captured the area, then abandoned it after the fall of the Kingdom of Bloodtusk, the scrag began to return. The new owners of Salandirik once again renewed the treaties with the river's people, and once again created a hostile element in the highlands. Some of the river's canals and pools are still avoided by the scrag and others that take up residence here. These particular places are still tainted from the evil rites once practiced here, sometimes giving rise to something powered by cold life-sapping energy.