Exile's Shame

An ancient tunnel under the Riftwall Mountains, the only direct connection between the Solar Highlands and the Great Rift. Exits on a small shelf south of Ithemba.

Origin

Excavated during the "golden age" of the Kel'tan empire, fairly soon after the splitting of Soefra from Noefra. Used for many things, but most notoriously to "dump the trash"--to exile those creations deemed "unworkable" or "unwanted" by the haughty gwerin purebloods. These became the zandolit and other beast-folk that now call the Rift home.

It was sealed up in 2550 BC and fell into obscurity and ruin, used only as a boundary marker for the under-mountain goroesi and dwarves.

Reopening

During the post-Cataclysm centuries, the guardian families of the Phoenix Empire (notorious for being politically neutral even at cost to themselves) secretly began excavating and repairing the highland-facing side of the tunnel, although they did not break all the way through.

In 254 AC, after the death of Hafgan ap Kel'tan, the Phoenix Emperor, factions seeking to escape the chaos of the ensuing civil war worked with the guardian family to finish re-opening it, providing an escape valve. Since then some small groups of elves and others have escaped into Ithemba. This migration has not been without difficulty or opposition from both sides.