During the Interregnum, when the Reach became an independent Reachman kingdom and lost its status as a Nordic hold, a tenth hold named Karthald was created from the Reach's northern fringe. The nine traditional holds of Skyrim are: Haafingar, Hjaalmarch, the Pale, Winterhold, Eastmarch, the Rift, Whiterun, Falkreath, and the Reach. Each hold is a large area of land roughly equivalent to a county in Cyrodiil, each individually governed by a jarl who maintains court in the hold's capital city. The Nords long ago divided the province into nine geopolitical regions known as holds. However, the southern regions of the province are relatively mild. Much of the northern half of Skyrim is cold and covered in snow.
Skyrim holds four of the five highest mountains in Tamriel (the Red Mountain being the only one outside Skyrim). Morrowind lies to the east over the Velothi Mountains, Cyrodiil is south beyond the Jerall Mountains, Hammerfell (and the latest incarnation of Orsinium) is to the south and west, High Rock is past the Druadach Mountains to the west, and the Sea of Ghosts runs along the province's long northern coastline.
