Map B.04 - Ob Gulf

Sub-arctic region spanning from 77.22°N south to 62.96°N, encompassing the northern provinces of Magloshkagok, Biyetia, and Ostyakia. The map also depicts the lower Ob River and the vast Ob Gulf estuary, flanked by the Yamal and Yavey peninsulas.

To the east and southeast of the Northern Ural Mountains, the land known to Europeans as "Siberia" stretches beyond the limits of the map, extending for thousands of miles into the interior. The lower Ob River, though largely remote, serves as a minor trade route, its waters carrying goods through sparsely settled lands. In particularly warm summers, European whalers occasionally venture into the Kara Sea, though such journeys remain rare and perilous.

Hexes are 20 miles in diameter. Total area depicted equals 403,095 sq.m.

Physiographic Features

The northernmost reaches of this land are defined by a harsh and unyielding geography, where the tundra stretches toward the Arctic Ocean, and the mountains rise like a final barrier between the western plains and the endless expanse of the Siberian interior. Ice-bound rivers carve through the landscape, their sluggish waters feeding vast estuaries and frozen gulfs, while the land itself is shaped by permafrost, relentless winds, and the slow grinding of time.

Yamal Peninsula

A vast, wind-swept expanse of tundra and permafrost, the Yamal Peninsula juts into the cold, ice-strewn waters of the Kara Sea. Covered in low-lying marshes, countless lakes, and braided river channels, the land remains waterlogged in the brief summer before freezing solid in the relentless grip of winter. The peninsula's treeless terrain is shaped by permafrost heaving and thawing, creating rolling, uneven ground where only mosses, lichens and hardy sedges cling to life. In some areas, great frozen mounds, known as palsas, rise from the tundra, while in others, sudden collapses in the permafrost create deep sinkholes that further disrupt the landscape. The Yamal Peninsula remains the domain of migratory wildlife and nomadic reindeer herders, its desolation broken only by seasonal movements and the distant howling of Arctic winds.

Yavey Peninsula

Extending eastward into the Kara Sea, the Yavey Peninsula is a land of rugged coastline and shifting tundra, where low cliffs and eroded headlands break against the ice-choked waters. Less hospitable than Yamal, Yavey is more exposed, with relentless Arctic winds scouring its surface, leaving little more than frost-shattered rock and thin layers of soil that barely support even the hardiest plant life. Lakes and wetlands are fewer here, and the coastline is marked by gravel beaches and frozen mudflats, where the sea ice lingers deep into summer. Though barren and desolate, the Yavey Peninsula still serves as a resting ground for migrating seabirds, while polar bears occasionally prowl its shores in search of stranded prey.

Northern Ural Mountains

These rise in a series of low, weathered ridges, their bare summits and steep valleys shaped by countless ages of glaciation and frost. Unlike the towering peaks of the central range, these northernmost Urals are rounded and subdued, often hidden beneath layers of snow and ice for most of the year. Rivers cut through the valleys, their waters sluggish and cold, meandering through frozen bogs and vast stretches of taiga that fringe the mountain bases. The tree line thins as the range extends northward, giving way to stony tundra where patches of lichen-covered rock and permanent ice dominate the landscape. The winds here are ceaseless, funneling through the passes and along the ridges, their force carving deep ravines into the exposed rock. Though largely uninhabited, these mountains form a natural divide, a stark and desolate boundary between the lands of the west and the endless Siberian wilderness beyond.