The Old North

''[There] is Danerwaard, in which is the tower of the holy and great Ter-Beren, the Founder; then, again, at the running back of the river, is the renowned Halskervir by name, a journey of two days from Danerwaard; and beyond lies the Great North, the heathenous, which the Emoricans and the Sidhenari have blotted out, but over which in former days Catuus used to rule. Such are the landmarks and names along the Daner river [...].''

--- Han-Calimir, "Odds and Ends of the World; Tome II"

The Old North, also known the Needling North (Nordic dialects: En-Oglaedd, Aen Oglaedd, En-Englad) was the term used to define a sprawling area of northern Neuvalon which was inhabited overwhelmingly by dozens of nordling tribes. It was bordered by the Emerald ocean to the west, the Ostaran sea to the east, the Arnagmar mountain chain to the north, which separated it from the frozen plains in the far north, and Central Neuvalon to the south.

According to oral tradition and sparse records, the age of which cannot be verified with certainty, the ancestors of the nordlings had migrated there thousand of years ago, as the land was rich in ore and timber in the hills, as well as fertile ground in the southern plains. Several smaller nordling chiefdoms existed in the area when elven expeditions from the west arrived in ages past. Curiously, they had never completed their conquest of the region, opting to leave the northmost territories, mainly past the Daner river, alone. In the times since, the climate has grown colder and the population suffered a steady decline until around 2600 TC where the Old North's eastern reaches were colonised by Iollenians from the east, and then again when a large number of nordlings were displaced from central Neuvalon by the expansion of the Old Ealing empire, c. 3000 TC.

The region is also famed for its vast expanses of forest, most of which had not yet been fully charted or named by geographers, Avaline or otherwise. The most famous of these woods is the foreboding Harkkenwood, which carries a reputation of a foul, dangerous place.