The jagged, freezing peaks of the northern Amber mountains offered a highly intimidating, naturally impenetrable fortress. Nestled deeply within a sheer, rocky gorge was the ancestral estate of Lord Vane. While the southern capital had completely fallen and the Usurper had been reduced to ash, Vane absolutely refused to acknowledge the new continental reality. He was a deeply entrenched, highly wealthy Amber loyalist, and he firmly believed his isolated mountain stronghold was completely immune to the legislative reach of the young monarchs.
