Location from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Massive volcanic peaks created by the Lord Ruler to counteract his repositioning of Scadrial closer to the sun. Their constant ashfall defined life in the Final Empire for a thousand years.
The ashmounts are the Lord Ruler's engineering solution to his own catastrophic mistake. When Rashek used the Well of Ascension's power to move the planet closer to the sun — intending to burn away the Deepness — he overshot. To cool the planet and prevent the surface from becoming uninhabitable, he created the ashmounts: massive volcanic formations that spew ash into the atmosphere, blocking enough sunlight to make temperatures survivable. The ash itself became Scadrial's defining feature — coating everything, requiring constant cleanup, killing natural vegetation and replacing it with brown, ash-resistant plants. The ashmounts were eliminated when Harmony remade the world, returning the planet to its proper orbit.
Towering volcanic mountains scattered across Scadrial, their peaks perpetually wreathed in dark smoke and glowing with deep red fire. Ash billows from their calderas in endless columns, spreading across the sky to filter the too-close sun. Rivers of lava occasionally stream down their flanks. The land around them is barren, scorched, and covered in deep ash drifts.
Also known as: ashmounts