Plane of Ice

Ice, the combination of water and air, with water dominant. Corresponds to the month of Winter Dawning (roughly December). Aspected to memory, for good or for ill.

History

Originally part of the Plane of Water before the planar realignment at the Cataclysm.

Rulers

As part of the Plane of Water, it was originally ruled over by Tatsuryuu until her cursing by the Titan Conclave during the First Age. Her daughter, Selesurala, took charge of the plane until the planar realignment, when she was involuntarily exalted to godhood. Her lieutenant Isskap took command of the portion that became the Plane of Ice, and ruled it until overthrown by a combined force of mortals (the Wild Cards) and planar beings. The resulting power vacuum has not been filled to this date--the ice palace Kek still remains empty and cursed.

Current Factions (252 AC)

As of this writing, there are three significant factions vying for the rulership of the Plane, although none have found the Glacierheart, the object encapsulating the core of the True Word that is the plane, which means that none can truly win. The Angels of the Second Legion, Third Host maintain an active patrol, breaking up any open warfare between the factions, at least in the Valley of Memory.

Remnant of the Armies of the Hungering Frost

Led by the behemoth frost giant general _________ (fill in name when I remember it...), this faction has the most martial presence. It is composed of frost-born giants, giant-kin, and goblins, along with a small amount of enslaved or impressed monsters numbering nearly 200,000. It holds the north-eastern Valley and the glacial slopes beyond. It is allied with/indebted to the Plane of Coal and receives material support from those grasping merchants and engineers. Hierarchical in nature, its leadership is based on physical strength, which is both a strength and a weakness. If the general were to fall, he would simply be replaced by another--decapitation would have little effect. Due to the constant struggles for power among its leaders, however, it lacks the unity of focus to crush the other factions, although it certainly has the manpower and military strength to do so (at least if the angels didn't interfere). Were it to take control of the plane, it would likely start another invasion of the Mortal Plane as its hero, Isskap did. Not in the same place or for the same aims--this one would pour out of the high mountains somewhere and seek to conquer and control.

Grudge-bound Coven

The least numerous, but most unified and magically-powerful faction is led by three ancient witches/frost-bound hags, known only as the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. They long-ago gave up their bond to the Mother Tree in favor of the Name of Ice, but this has only reinforced their hatred and desire to repay debts and slights...old, new, imagined, real, it doesn't matter. Once subject to Isskap's dominion, they betrayed her when the Wild Cards offered them freedom in exchange for allowing them through the inner defenses. They thought that this would give them control of Kek and thus of the plane...but the frost titan hid the Glacierheart somewhere else, and the curse on the palace kept them from fully exploring it. Instead, they've sought for worship in the Mortal Plane, becoming the Threefold Voice, deity worshiped by the Jaruud of the Nocthian Caldera as well as others. On the plane of Ice, they have focused on building up information networks, including spies, agents, and assassins. The faction's numbers are small, only a few thousand, focused almost entirely in the Valley of Memory, but they command many elemental forces and most of the strong mages, witches, shamans, and other such beings. Their objectives are unclear, but it is clear that if they were in power, they would carry on a reign of terror and oppression, manipulating father against brother; poisoning the minds of those that would oppose them. They act in a unified fashion, but only because the Coven itself pulls the strings. Were they removed, the faction would likely disintegrate...messily.

Common Folk

The third, extremely disorganized faction is notionally the largest in pure numbers. It encompasses nearly all the common folk, frost-born and frost-bound and mortal alike, as well as nearly all of the Spoken monsters (including the frost wolves and wargs). It has selected as its reluctant champion Fenrir, mother of wolves, but she is in no sense their leader, having refused that role. They have no common cause other than preventing either of the other two factions from taking control.

Geography

Glacier-covered mountains and endless ice fields surround small habitable (to mortals) valleys of tundra, moor, and bog. These valleys are mostly near the border with the Plane of Ocean. As one approaches the border with the Plane of Cloud, ice storms and blizzards become almost continuous--very little lives here other than ice elementals and mephits of various types. At the other border, with the Plane of Ocean, the mountains give way to floating ice sheets, breaking into icebergs and pack ice as one crosses over.

Approaching the Crystal Sphere means moving into the endless dark and cold. The mountains give way to a flat plain of ice; the light of Eua dims, and even the storms cease. Eventually, even the ice gives way to empty space. Going the other direction, toward Eua, is entering elemental chaos. Once you approach the orbit of Primus, the elements are so jumbled as to present no consistent pattern. This is the most hostile area--strange super-heated ice elementals, blazing storms of ice and fire and rock--these are everyday near Eua.

Places

• Valley of Memory
• The Diamond Fields
• The Hall of Frozen Memory
• Kek
• Estokh
• The Grinding