Chromatic Range
Chromatic Range
Points of interest: Maestoso, Velvet Underground, Von Suppé, Strauss, River Sinfonia, RV Ridge
The Chromatic Range is a mountain range in far southern Illuminatia. The Chromatic Range is formed by a broad ridge of elevated terrain wedged between the River Sinfonia river valley to the northeast and the Lester, Timothy, Fender, and Cavalry river valleys to the southwest. The Chromatic Range forms the backbone of Illuminatia's Polyphonic Range.
The Chromatic Range extends in a northwest-to-southeast line, paralleling most of Illuminatia's major mountain ranges, including the much-larger Transilluminatian Range to the northeast. The northwesternmost extent of the Chromatic Range is located south of the city of Strauss. The range crosses the Concertino Channel and extends southeast onto Concerto Island, where its peaks diminish in magnitude and eventually blend into the island's eastern hills. Although these hills of Concerto Island are smaller than the mainland portion of the Chromatic Range and are separated from the majority of the range by the Concertino Channel, geologists and geographers agree to include this area in their definition of the mountain range.
The Chromatic Range divides two hydrological basins. To the north lies the River Sinfonia river basin. All of the watershed from the northeast side of the range flows into the River Sinfonia. To the south lies a collection of river systems that all empty into the southeastern ocean. The eastern tributaries River Lester largely flow from the hills of the southern flank of the northern Chromatic Range. To the east, other river systems dominating the southern basin include the River Timothy, the River Fender, and the River Cavalry.
The largest population centers nearest to the Chromatic Range include the cities of Velvet Underground and Von Suppé to the south. Other somewhat more distant major cities include Cadence and Symphony to the north—both situated upon the River Sinfonia.
The peaks of the Chromatic Range are of moderate height and are generally well-rounded. This contrasts sharply with the towering, pointed peaks of the Transilluminatian Range to the north. Very few of the peaks of the Chromatic Range are rocky in nature, and the peaks only see snow in the coldest seasons.
The population centers to the northeast of the Chromatic Range are inhabited primarily by descendants from the settlers originating from the second multiversal duplication of the Lucidus III ship. Populations to the southwest of the mountain range instead descend from survivors from the same multiversal duplication of the Lucidus II ship. In addition to acting as a division between these two cultural groups, the Chromatic Range forms the division between areas of high adoption of the Western Lucidian language to the west and speakers of the Quasilucidian language to the east. Adoption of these two minority Protolucidian sublanguages largely parallels the divisions based upon Lucidus heritage.