Welcome to The Forbidden Gates. This map was originally designed to accompany the Mountaintop Observatory, we thought this could be at the foot of those mountains, warding people off from the holy mountains above.
The idea for the gate came from prayer wheels. We had this cool concept that as they spun they would pull the gate open, so there was this relationship between the physical passage through the gate and the numinosity of spiritual passage. Perhaps you could use this by having the gates immovable unless you have the correct cleric/monk at hand!
We imagined that the village would be mostly monks and mountaineering guides, like Sherpas, living off the mountain between the harsh winters.
This map pack includes gridded and gridless versions of the following variations, for a total of 48 variations: