Valfothr

To most the alpine tundras and high mountains of Valfothr would be inhospitable, if not for the cold, then for the lack of natural resources. The Dwarven Lords, however, are not most. Having carved a life for themselves through battle and stone, they have made the land into a place befitting the tales of Bards. There are other races who live within the mountains aside from the odd tribe of Giants, but of them not much is known.

Climate
The tallest mountains in Erebus can be found in Valfothr. As one climbs the Aurilon highlands, an alpine tundra, they would find themselves dizzy with height, only to discover themselves at the foothills of the winter mountains.

Valfothr is not abundant with food for human-kind, but enormous lakes and frozen woodlands within the shadow of the mountains are the hunting ground of titanic beasts, acceptable game for the Dwarven stomache.

No one actually knows what exists at the northern shores of Valfothr. Or whether there is  a northern shore at all, for the cold becomes so biting, the fog so dense, and winds so strong that all most who travel beyond that veil never return.

Those who have returned would remark on worsening storms, and a land of total ice.

History
In the Mythic Era, Valfothr was home to a people whose name and culture have been lost to time, only mentioned in passing in some surviving texts from Aetheron.

The Aurilon Highlands were of some cultural significance to the Aeytheri, who named the place after their Goddess of Winter. However, it is clear that they never ventured beyond, into the mountains, oddly having no need of the rich minerals found therein.

The War in Heaven would end with Aeytheri Magisters locking Dragonkind high in Valfothr, hoping the cold and lack of game would eventually kill them.

The Dragons, however, would create Dwarves from primitive humans - stronger and fiercer, though soulless and obedient. Those Dwarves would be loosed upon the Heartlands, and were soon the scourge of the Empire.

There was a time in which the raids from the North stopped, and no written history from the time would remark as to why, but eventually Dwarvenkind would wage a war of freedom against the Dragonkind, and would succeed where the Aeytheri had failed.

For a long time after, Dwarves would construct monolithic cities within mountains, the engravings found therein were of a provenance far more ancient than what one would expect of a people so young in the world.

The greatest of Dwarven smiths would claim they found their inspiration "In the Mithril", though others of their kind, as well as scholars of all kinds can only guess as to the meaning of those words.