Category:Olbin Pass creatures

Tsoran's map

Olbin Pass

This category lists all creatures found in the Olbin Pass hunting area. The Olbin Pass hunting area is nearest to the town of Icemule Trace. It is found on the Tsoran map IMT-east-west-north-gates.

Olbin Pass is the only path to traverse to Pinefar. The path is very harsh based on the common avalanches and bitterly cold winds.

Official Description

The harsh wintery weather becomes almost bearable amongst the natural beauty to be found in Olbin Pass. Far northeast of the Trace, Olbin Pass serves to be the safest crossing point for climbers on their way to Pinefar Trading Post and Mt. Aenatumgana. A natural hot springs fed lake brings a little warmth to the frozen scenery to be found throughout the area.

Rumors: A local halfling trader claims that the steamy oval lake is actually the home of a rare steam dragon that lives deep below. Although he can offer no real evidence, he does have several drawings of the beast that he is willing to sell at bargain rates.

Behind the Scenes

Olbin Pass contains the Chamber of the Dead cave where Ardo, the halfling husband of Belle from Pinefar Trading Post, was mysteriously frozen to death in a scene involving cannibalism. This is a direct allusion to the "sarcophagus" of Bandur Etrevion with its cannibalism, which symbolizes Satan in the Ninth Circle of Hell from Dante's Inferno. The falcon pin his body holds is a play on words regarding Kestrel Etrevion. (The rumor for Olbin Pass is a Loch Ness Monster joke, which was also done for the Shores of Lough Ne'Halin, which translates as "lake without salt".) The pass is located in the Sleeping Lady Mountains, which is presumably a reference to the Empress Kadaena, who was treated as a "sleeping queen."

This might in turn be interpreted as a sly reference to "Beauty and the Beast", where the birds and evil queen and magic mirror in Castle Anwyn refer to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and so the story of Siegfriend and Brynhild with the fairy dwarf ring of the Nibelung referring to "Sleeping Beauty." Sleeping beauty first originates in the "Perceforest" of Arthurian cycles, but this Germanic basis is why the Brothers Grimm included it in their work. Similarly, given the killer rabbit of Monty Python reference in Castle Anwyn's barracks, the chasm in its pentagram chamber can be interpreted as "the rabbit hole" of "Alice in Wonderland" and its magical portal mirror to Alice in "Through the Looking Glass."

Olbin Pass is likely named after Olfin Bedwere of Rheged from the killer rabbit cave in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which they reach after cannibalism in the frozen land of Nador, probably the partial basis of the name Ardo. (Owain the Prince of Rheged is the knight most associated with St. Patrick's Purgatory, which was also harrowed by Arthur and Merlin and Gawain, who has a pentagram shield as the symbol of Solomon.) The Chamber of the Dead refers to "King Arthur's Cave", where the skeleton of a giant was supposedly found, which is associated with King Vortigern. It is an "Ice Age" cave containing bones of creatures like woolly mammoths, which is likely supposed to be an I.C.E. Age pun. The thermal spring of green water would refer to the Roman baths at Bath, whose cathedral depicting Jacob's ladder is related to Glastonbury Abbey, and would play off its Celtic goddess Sulis thought to translate as "the Eye." Vortigern had intended to sacrifice the half-demonic Merlin to keep his tower from falling, built of fear of Uther Pendragon father of King Arthur, but Merlin revealed two dragons were fighting beneath it. Geoffrey of Monmouth asserted Merlin prophesied that the waters of Bath would one day run cold. (British Israelism asserts St. Patrick is really the prophet Jeremiah, who brought the stone of Jacob's dream vision of the ladder, and consecrated the stone he used as a pillow. They argue this is the Stone of Scone used for Scottish coronations, referenced at the end of Macbeth. Caernarfon Castle in contrast is the coronation site of Welsh princes.)