Silver River

The Silver River is a long river that connects the Gold Coast to the Black Swamp.

Name

It was originally, in 2019, named "the White River", after the vast birch forests that once covered the land, and believing that its egress was north of (and therefore untainted by) the Black Swamp, a mistaken belief which arose from in-person exploration of where the White (now "Silver") met the Black (now "Ebon"): if you follow each river's course straight through where they meet, their meeting appears to be an intersection. Later map analysis around 2022 revealed that the rivers actually bend where they meet, meaning that the White River, contrary to its name, did in fact egress through the Black Swamp. Nevertheless, the old name persisted out of inertia for many years, and it was not until the beginning of 2026 that it was rechristened. By this time, most of the river's birchen forest had been either felled or converted, and it had long felt odd to continue referring to it as "the White". Its new name, "the Silver River", kept homage to the birch trees which once wholly surrounded its northern stretches, while also referencing the many trips Delta's founders took along the river under the silvery light of the full moon to hunt slimes in the Black Swamp, back in the early days of the world, long before there existed any slime farms. And in referencing the moon, the river's new name also reflects a kind of liminality, appropriate given that the river passes through and between many different kinds of biomes.

Geography

The Silver River at its north end meets the sea in a modest delta at Delta, so-named for this feature. Originally, the river's main course meandered east around that town's central island, but its course was later altered to favor its originally shallower western branch in order to make room for a kelp farm in the eastern branch. South of Delta, it flows through the Organ Lakes and then turns west, where it flows until it meets the River Ebon, roughly halfway between Delta and the Black Swamp. Thence flows it southward until it reaches said swamp, where it turns westward once more and meanders until reaching the gulf to the northwest of the swamp, where it finally empties.

In its original state, it had many sections that rose above land and thereby required portage to traverse; Swenthorian dredged it sometime in the early 2020s, to permit uninterrupted passage by boat.

Structures

Delta lies to the north, and has built a large amount of infrastructure on the river.

A primordial Nether Portal lies south of Delta along the banks of the river, not far from Stomach Lake.

The tiny outpost built by the founders of Delta on their moonlight journeys to the Black Swamp still stands beside the river to this day, long-abandoned.