Fetterer's Pass

An vast abyss of greenery forms a 'natural' border between the southern province and the heartlands. To safely traverse the sea of savage wildlife, one must use the only bridge of solid ground connecting both provinces within dozens of miles- Fetterer's Pass.

  The site where the Four Ghouls' invasion was halted by an Eideli saint during the Third Wasteland-Eidel War.   As a narrow valley surrounded by some extremely harsh terrain, it acts as a natural boundary between the southern and capital provinces. The valley cuts through a vast, bottomless arboreal sea, the only effective crossing point within dozens of miles.   In modern times, the region contains a massive Orichalcum chain, several inches thick, embedded in the ground. Hundreds of years later, the mass of metal remains pristine, eldritch irradiation meaning that nothing wants to even come close to the thing. It remains a monument to one of Eidel's greatest alchemists, canonized as a saint.      

Origins

The crossing's name stems from the Third Wasteland-Eidel War, which in turn came to be known as Fetterer's Miracle. The Wasteland armies, led by four monstrous ghoul generals, couldn't be stopped by conventional walls and soldiers. Eidel simply wasn't equipped to handle this sort of enemy- they expected men, not monsters, and their formations reflected this. The horde tore through Eideli armies in their attempt to reach the capital. Little did they know, they were being baited into doing so.   Fetterer's Pass, then known by a name now forgotten, was by far the fastest route. While the ghouls and their elite soldiers may have been able to pass through the wild abyss surrounding the pass, their infantry and supply train would not. Therefore, two of the generals led the bulk of their army through this narrow area- what did they have to fear in bottlenecking themselves, when either general could single-handedly tear through the famed shield walls of Eidel?   What met the ghouls at the pass wasn't a wall of shields. Rather, it was a monster greater than themselves. The southern province's governor had summoned something best described as a singularity of Blood, constantly reaching outwards to devour all that it touched. Most of the Wasteland vanguard fell, subsumed along with the two generals leading the march. Tethered by a massive chain of orichalcum, the singularity couldn't stray far from its original manifestation, and collapsed on itself within a week.   The governer was ordained as a saint for his miracle that may have single-handedly won them the war. To this day, the chain remains pristine, nature unwilling to approach the residual energy within it.  

Stories

The Saint himself never made it known what he did, though his subsequent canonization was enough for most people to not be particularly worried. Those more in the know recognized that it likely involved human sacrifice numbering in the several thousand, but still had little idea of what he did with all that blood. The region was ordered evacuated such that he alone (and several dozen spindles, bloodless automatons, as a personal guard) bore witness on the Eideli side.   As a consequence of this, most of Eidel simply never knew what he did- only its outcome, and that it was (by rather circular definition, really) a miracle. A few of the Wasteland's side did escape, bringing stories back with their retreat. This was enough to form a legend in Wastelander culture, only later discovered by Eideli scholars (mostly after the fourth war , during the mass migration to Eidel post-unification). The Eideli had long accepted that it was something they apparently just weren't meant to know (by divine decree, no less), but centuries later, they got some answers. By that point, it was simply academic curiosity; all those involved (on Eidel's side, at least) were long dead, and none of the information really changed public perception of the saint.  

Geological Impact

Fetterer's Pass is perhaps the only known artificial island of stability within the southern jungles- a region where magical tides regularly sweep through the land, wreaking all sorts of havoc on man-made constructs. The more devout view it as their goddess affirming the Fetterer's canonization. Some alchemists believe in a more mundane explanation: not even nature wants to get close to the monstrosity spawned there. Regardless, the great chain created a stable route between the south and heartlands, as before, pathfinders were forced to remap paths through the region's arboreal sea every few years.