#Sheerside Mountains

[mattaytchtaylor]

Recently finished commission for @maimedmarshal and their OC Valruun!

[tare-otome]

Sights Around Sheerside Mountains 2/?

Discovered the majestic Thunderjaw in a valley. I love to admire them...from afar lol 😅 Look how cute it is with its fish tail~

^ God rays with The Base mountain in the far distance... It's an indescribable feeling being on top of the world...

God these mountains are gorgeous...

Getting closer to Stone Crest...

[r4d14t3lov3]

Target locked.

[h0riz0nstuff]

Countdown Cameras (2) : The Sheerside Mountains 2021 Gameplay Showcase Countdown locations and my attempts at recreating the (moving) camera angle, noting differences along the way.

This one is possibly the most interesting of the bunch, because it features assets that were apparently never used in the final version.

it's too bad they took away the structures and the bridges. Only the steps and some tenakth decorations are still there. Maybe the bridges collapsed.

You should really look into telling your clans to take better care of the infrastructure, Hekarro.

I actually took this path right away during my first playthrough, when I was supposed to go to the Bullwark. I saw the steps in the mountain and followed them to the top. (That's how I found the slaughterspine way before you're supposed to see one in game, apparently xD) But because the structures aren't there anymore, I didn't recognize the place. I wonder why they took them away (apart from the fact they don't look Tenakth), it makes for a really cool vista.

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon forbidden west | sheerside mountains 16/?

[sunwingsunset]

Horizon Forbidden West ↳ Scenery / The Sheerside Mountains

[betzy-silver]

Sheerside Mountains - Home of the Sky Clan

[elliott6669]

Scenery: Sheerside Mountains

[no-title-currently]

This is a Fanghorn, specifically a Fire Fanghorn. These are lightweight machines that often graze in packs. Their behavior outside of combat is identical to that of a normal Fanghorn. They’re acquisition class machines, meaning their main purpose is material collecting. It’s also interesting to mention that while we never encounter an alive one, it is possible to see a Plasma Fanghorn carcass in Sheerside Mountains, though as it is dead, it doesn’t appear in the notebook.

What I wanted to point out though is the horns. They’re incredibly similar to that of an elk or a deer, and are used in both scavenging and combat. For scavenging, they’re used to assist in digging, and for combat, they’re able to close, as well as enhance attacks if it’s a Fire Fanghorn specifically. They can also be torn off with Tear damage, and used for upgrading gear and weapons, as well as being used in trades.

[myrrkva]

“Tenakth respect a blade, and the strength of the fighter who wields it... an outlander and a maimed marshal aren’t going to change his mind.”

Took the top photo of Aloy looking out into the Sheerside mountains only to find Kotallo doing the same only moments later.

[wings-of-the-ten]

Chapter 6 opening/WIP snippet...

Here’s a long snippet from the start of Chapter Six of ‘What I Choose’.

For those who are looking forward to a little canon divergence, it’s coming up after the end of Chapter Six (or the end of the Kulrut)... It involves a party, some intense pining, and a cheeky friend from the Desert Clan... 

For now though, here’s a 950-word chunk of preview for you if you’ve followed me for Kotaloy/What I Choose stuff.

___

Aloy absolutely had not meant to spend a week in the Bulwark, but she felt she owed it to the rest of the Sky Clan to help out after she’d blasted a massive chunk out of their defences.

To her surprise, most of them didn’t actually seem to mind her continued presence in their lofty settlement, but to her growing horror, she found herself with a new epithet. ‘Wall-breaker’ wasn’t the most elegant of her accrued titles, but on reflection it wasn’t the worst. It was certainly a million times better than ‘Saviour’. That one always made her dry-heave a little, especially given that she usually heard it in her mind in Avad’s voice, accompanied with wide, adoring, imploring eyes that resonated with unspoken words. To his credit, he had backed off after the final time she’d turned him down, but a hope like his was hard to crush completely. It had an unwanted tendency to pop up again and again. Like a burrower.

Aloy wasn’t about to admit it, but another reason she lingered at the Bulwark was to find out a little more about the kind of people that had raised a man like Kotallo, and sure enough, she found the Sky Clan gruff, direct, and unimaginably tough.

Cresting the rise of a brutal climb near the top of their sacred mountain, however, Aloy did begin to wonder if she’d finally bitten off more than she could chew. A teenager with a lot to prove lost amid a raging snow-storm, in fading daylight, up a climbing route ravaged by storms and winter avalanches, and, oh yes, two stalkers, a bunch of leaplashers, and now a sodding great frostclaw.

“I’ll handle it!” she yelled at the wiry teen as Penttoh ducked without argument and rolled beneath an enormous gout of chillwater, followed up almost immediately with a barrage of shock attacks that made her hair stand on end and her skin prickle.

By the skin of her teeth, Aloy made it back down the mountain afterwards, though not without with a nasty bruise on her shoulder and three extremely delicate ribs, and she promised Wekatta that the kid wasn’t far behind. At the summit, she’d pressed one of the blood-red blossoms Penttoh had given her between two plates of machine casing in her pouch, though she couldn’t quite have said why. Perhaps she’d show it to Kotallo and watch his eyes sail wide with astonishment again.

Kotallo.

No one mentioned him around the settlement, as though his very name was a taboo not worth breaking, but she saw echoes of him in the features of every warrior, in the colours of beads and the patterns of ink and paint, and in the fighting stances of the warriors in the melee pit. ‘I bet he’s a sight in a melee pit,’ she thought, unbidden, and flushed immediately. He’d certainly been a vision in battle with the rebels against that tremortusk, and she could still remember with stunning clarity the way he’d felt between her thighs as she’d come up atop him in the grass. He’d looked… stunned… at the sight of her straddling him, though he could have simply hit his head during his heroics in saving her from a wayward rebel that she should have seen coming a mile off. Still, it was hard to forget a man like Kotallo, and she found herself in no hurry to do so.

At the Bulwark’s cook fire that night, she wondered what Kotallo’s tastes in food were while she sank her teeth into a haunch of ‘sheerside mutton’ and felt the medicinal herbs soothe her aching ribs and shoulder. Drakka had tried to foist the spiciest bird wings imaginable off on her, and he’d had laughed uproariously as her face had burned and her tongue felt like it as blistering, but something told her Kotallo wouldn’t be so childish. She did snort to herself at the memory of the glint in Drakka’s eyes though. Whatever else he was, he wasn’t dull. She wondered fleetingly if he and the other Desert Clan warriors she’d met along the way would be at the Kulrut. Part of her hoped to see him again, with all his boundless, twitching energy and awkward innuendos, but another part of her wished he’d stay as far away from it as possible, if Regalla really was going to attack. She’d lost too many good people already, and Drakka, inexperienced and naive in some ways as he was, was one of the good ones.

Tekotteh never emerged from his rock-hewn burrow all the while the ‘Wall-breaker’ remained in the Bulwark, but after a week of helping out, Aloy knew she’d have to leave soon. If the Chaplain were to be believed, Hekarro would be putting on the Kulrut very soon, and Aloy had given her word to be there. It wouldn’t do to have Hekarro renege on his word if she missed the start of his sacred contest, and if there was a strong chance Regalla would show up, Aloy knew she’d have to be there to help counter her. Whatever Sylens was up to, she recognised his hand in all the endless meddling, and after his betrayal with Hades at the Alight, she was not about to let him get away with anything a second time. Not that she thought for a moment he would be at the Kulrut in person, but he would be watching through Focuses he had gifted out, she was sure.

Before dawn on her eighth day after bringing down the Bulwark, Aloy hurled herself off the top of the wall for the last time, and turned her steps towards the Grove.

___

Head on over to my AO3 to read the whole thing, and bookmark it for updates if you’re interested!

[tare-otome]

Sights Around Sheerside Mountains 3/?

After speaking w/ Derikka and Teikka in the desert, i meandered more in the Sheerside Mountains toward the coast. What breathtaking vistas!

[r4d14t3lov3]

Tranquility I

Kotallo let the icy water flow through his fingers. He hadn't been here in years.

As he crouched by the water's edge, listening to the bird song and the gentle rustling of the birch trees leaves, he couldn't help but wonder what it would've been like if he'd build that cabin, he had dreamed of as a young soldier. Over there by the trees, the water's soft sounds nearby, calming, and tranquil. 

But life had taken a different route, and now, everything had changed.

Kotallo looked over at Aloy, who was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chin in the soft grass, watching the clouds move lazily across the sky. How he loved her... perhaps that cabin away from everything, raising a family, was now a goal to pursue.  

[h0riz0nstuff]

Countdown Cameras (6) : The Raintrace This one was a bit tricky to find but I think i've pinned down the location, thanks to the recognizable mountains and a few details.

I could have looked a long time if I was basing myself on the Tenakth structures which aren't there anymore. this whole bend in the river has obviously been reworked a bit, but I'm 99% sure it's the right place.

Those structures were the right Tenakth ones tho, unlike the Sheerside one, so I'm a bit sad they're not there anymore. It was a very picturesque location with them placed there. Much less without. The angle was a bit hard to replicate but I think it's close enough.

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon forbidden west | sheerside mountains 17/?

[mehoymalloy]

Survey Drones - Horizon Forbidden West

Because at this point if I’m going to do something, I’m going to throw it out into the void so maybe someone else won’t have to.

I present to you the survey drone collectibles: their module number, region, a screenshot of the dome, and its corresponding triangle symbol (poorly drawn and layered over the image for your convenience).

024 - NO MAN'S LAND

047 - PLAINSONG

143 - DRY YEARN

287 - GREENSWELL

367 - STILLSANDS

549 - THORNMARSH

678 - GRAYPEAK

398 - STAND OF THE SENTINELS

739 - SHEERSIDE MOUNTAINS

863 - ISLE OF SPIRES