The Horneater Peaks

When I first read the description for this area, I immediately imagined they're some kind of alpine version of the deep sea hydrothermal vents - aka the white or black chimneys. I love those bizarre deep sea things, and have been trying to envision how would those hydrothermal vents look like when combined with the Alps. It's really tricky, and the vertical aspect of those vents makes it really hard to see where the Horneaters would put any sort of city or crops fields on. As I keep researching, I eventually came across alpine hot lakes in the Andes mountains, and decided to change direction and go with something like an extinct conical volcano chain that has turned into lakes. The imagery would be more familiar, and the slopes would mean imaginable cities and civilization such as the Machu Picchu. I decided to try and do the phototexture workflow in pursuit of that Skyrim look. It's not there yet, but  can't expect mastery after 1 week!

[edit] There is a bigger version with no text overlay here : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/y9oLn