The Shields are a major mountain range that runs from the coast of the Mhasmuth Ocean in the southeast into the Taizzan Expanse in the northwest. The mountains separate the nations around the Kilche Sea from those around the Kirnashal Sea. The Shields are a very rocky mountain range, rough and difficult to travel. Some peaks within the range are capped in snow, though the lower altitudes tend to be just as warm as the surrounding regions. In the north, the Shields split into two branches, one that continues north into the Taizzan Expanse and the other west towards the Kilche.
Many ratfolk live in the Shields, pushed into the hazardous terrain millennia ago by Tarkuus' expansion inland. These ratfolk have gathered together in the south in particular, where they have formed the nation of Bukran.