The Mindens

The Mindens, or Minden Range, are the great majestic mountains of the far northwest, running as the dominant geographic feature of the Wilderlands. They dwarf the "little mountains" of southern Castal (Sevendor's own range) and are rivalled on Callidore's Dry only by the rugged Kulines. Their deep valleys, high passes, and hidden vales shelter a patchwork of peoples: the Bovali and other Wilderfolk in their upper pastures, the Kasari in their forest cantons, the Alka Alon in concealed citadels such as Anthatiel and Carneduin, and the gurvani in their warrens and mountain-halls.

There is no single government of the Mindens; historically the Wilderlord petty nobility held the foothills under the Duke of Alshar, while the deeper ranges remained a mosaic of Alka Alon, Kasari and gurvani polities. It was in the depths of the Minden Range that Sheruel secretly raised the gurvani army of nearly a million with which he launched the invasion that opens the series; Boval Vale, once Minalan's home, became the epicenter of evil in the Mindens.

Through the later books the Mindens remain the primary theatre of the war. Anthatiel (now Olum Seheri) lies in their hidden heart; Vanador, Minalan's new capital, is built on the Wildwater plateau where the Mindens descend toward the Poros; and beyond the Land of Scars at the range's far reach lies Anghysbel. The Mindens thus function as the series' great geographic antagonist — a vast, unsubdued, multi-layered range whose control is the war's true prize.