Arctic

The Arctic (sometimes referred to as the "Arctic Northern Regions") is a region stretching from the north of The Iron Mountains, all the way to the polar icecaps "above" The West Sea. Just as the Northern Outland Mountains are the mostly unexplored wastelands above the Outlands, the Arctic is inland Chima's equivalent. The Iron Mountains divide the Arctic from inland Chima, and the Ice Mountains, a part of the Arctic, divide it from the Northern Outland Mountains to the east, making the Arctic occupy the top left portion of the continent's map. Despite being a wasteland blanketed in snow and an eternal winter, impossible to traverse without being frozen unless one has either fire chi or thick cold weather gear, the Arctic has been home to a surprisingly large amount of settlements over the centuries.

The supernatural aspect of the Arctic is evident in how beings are frozen when falling into the northwest waters, or exposed to the climate without proper gear; instead of being killed and having their souls appear in the Chi Ghost Realm, the frozen beings will be held in a sort of stasis by the ice, their souls trapped in their bodies even as they decay (depending on how long they're frozen). This sleep will continue even after melting the freeze victims free, but they can be "revived", brought back awake, by having chi plugged into their harness. Despite being fully living beings again after the revival, the bodies of the freeze victims would still have decayed if they'd been frozen long enough, giving them a "zombie" appearance in which any visible bones give off an icy blue glow.

It was discovered at the time of the RP that plugging fire chi can instantly reverse the decay in all freeze victims, but with the downside of ice powers being removed if Ice Hunters were to do this. Because of this discovery, the tribes of Chima theorized that they could use a Great Illumination to reverse all of the Ice Hunters' decay and strip them of their ice powers en mass, though that has yet to be proven possible.

## History

The Arctic was not always blanketed in snow, and likely initially had the same environment as its eastern neighbor, the Northern Outland Mountains, as evidenced by the many mountains scattered throughout the Arctic, the Ice Mountains that lead directly and abruptly into the Northern Outland Mountains, and the multitude of deep crevices in various points beneath the surface, implying gaps between smaller mountains and foothills that were filled and covered by many layers of snow.

### Beginning of an Eternal Winter

Around one million years before the events of the Roleplay, immediately after the Dragons created the Phoenix, then-primitive beings who embodied the element of fire itself, the entire region to the direct north of inland Chima (where the Phoenix were located) was covered in a perpetual blanket of snow by nature itself, creating an Elemental Balance between fire and ice; mostly warm weather in the south (the exception being the tall and ice-capped Iron Mountains), and mostly cold weather in the north (the exception being the shorter and desert-like Northern Outland Mountains).

After the First Great Illumination in 1,000 BR that brought about evolution through chi and the advent of sapience for most of the world's species, there were likely many curious explorers who ventured into the Arctic, developing cold-weather gear to do so; however, none of these explorers had yet been Phoenix, or users of fire chi.

### The First Disruption

In the year 824 BR, the phoenix Faerin led a rogue faction that broke off from the Phoenix Tribe proper, taking four of the nine Fire Wing Harnesses with them, and venturing into the Arctic. Allying with the Eagle Tribe and the Peacock Tribe Remnant to form the Avian Triumvirate, Faerin and her Phoenix built their headquarters, The Purple City, on the northwest shore. Earthquakes and other natural disasters increased on the continent immediately after this, and the Leopards, meeting in a valley that lay perfectly on the north-south border, correlated this phenomenon with the Phoenix species' first venture into the Arctic, discovering the existence of the Elemental Balance.

The Leopard King met with Faerin and urged her to relocate, believing that the imbalance would eventually rip apart the continent, but she refused to leave without tangible evidence. As the earthquakes and storms worsened, the Leopards and their allies were left with no choice but to forcefully drive Faerin's Phoenix out of the Arctic, beginning the Avian Triumvirate—Mammalian Confederation War. The Mammalian Confederation forces needed to wear cold weather gear when entering the Arctic during this time in order to not be frozen, but the Avian Triumvirate forces didn't, thanks to the natural heat emanating from Phoenix' bodies.

#### Results Concerning the Arctic

This conflict lasted through the year 819 BR, and ended with the Leopards successfully bombing and destroying The Purple City, eliminating the presence of Phoenix in the north and restoring the Elemental Balance. Faerin and some of her Phoenix managed to escape on an airship, but soon crashed in the northwest ice caps, being frozen instead of killed, due to their ship's engine being compromised. The saboteur, Galvanor, was ironically also frozen after getting caught in the crossfire during the final battle in the coastal city, and falling beneath the Arctic waters. One of The Purple City's buildings, a prison, survived the bombardment due to being on the outskirts of the city, and the Leopards later used it for their own prisoners. Following the war, the Leopards relocated to the Valley of Balance, where they built their own city and took up the duty of maintaining the Elemental Balance, careful to never take fire chi into northern half of the valley after earning its usage from the Phoenix in 196 BR.

### The Unwilling Colonists

In the year 163 BR, the Sabertooth Tigers, after almost wiping out the Lions, were exiled into the Arctic by the Phoenix using an incomplete Great Illumination. All of them were cursed by being unable to cross back into the south, and were frozen on top of that. Their allies, the Mammoths, were given a less harsh punishment due to mostly not being involved in the war (aside from Maulryene, Malgus, and any other magic-capable Mammoths, who were able to easily break the curse confining the tribes to the Arctic, and thus were frozen deep underground); they were able to roam the region freely, but had still been transformed into the "ice zombie" states that one would normally have after being frozen in the Arctic. In addition, the Mammoths gained mysterious powers over ice, including the uncontrollable ability to spread snow wherever they went if they were to somehow cross into the south, as if this was "destined". These powers also spread to the other beings in the Arctic at the time: the Sabertooths, Mammoth Mages, and Galvanor, though they remained trapped in their prisons of ice. The majority of the Mammoths, led in the meanwhile by Princess Maulisa, tried to find their frozen witch Queen in order to break the confinement curse and free the Sabertooths. They got to work mapping out the snowy wasteland, and building their new HQ, The Frozen Tusk, in the northwest.

A couple of years later, Senix, who'd managed to escape the fate of the other Sabertooths by virtue of being underground at the time of the Illumination, trained himself in magic and traveled to the Arctic to lift the curse, only to be transformed upon entering the region, spotted, and defeated by Leopard scouts. The Leopards locked Senix in Hunter Prison with a device inhibiting his magic powers and a rotating guard to keep constant watch over him. He was later freed, however, at the time of the Roleplay, when an earthquake caused by the imbalance of nature as a result of the Bats draining Cavora damaged the prison and broke him from his shackles.

### Later Arrivals

The Leopard King and self-trained wizard Leodus ended up incidentally absorbing some of the energy from the Great Illumination, essentially granting him a single-use ability to re-enact the the curse performed on the Mammoths. He was determined to only use this power as a last resort, and did so in 122 BR, at the end of the Icebear—Leopard War; Leodus exiled the Icebears and Vultures to the Arctic, confining them to that region and irrevocably granting them the same decayed states and ice powers as the Mammoths. Once there, Vamprah and Icestrike met Maulisa and got to work building their own headquarters', The Four Talon Towers and Icestrike's Ultimate Glacier. Trapped in an almost immortal state in which they couldn't age and could only die from wounds in battle, the Ice Tribes were left to roam the Arctic for well over a century, during which the Vultures and Icebears ended up fighting each other for territory, but reconciling, and the Mammoths continued to search for the Mages, but couldn't yet pinpoint their location in the massive region.

### The Breaking of the Curse

At the time of the Roleplay, directly following the first Chima Civil War, and during the Bat—Raven War, the MMSC crashed in the Arctic just north of the Iron Mountains, and was partially frozen as a result (though the Ravens and Bats who'd been fighting within the sealed structure were protected from being frozen themselves). It was soon recovered and flown out of the Arctic, however, by Bat King Bliston. Some time afterward, during the late stages of the Chima Alliance—Crawler Empire War in the south (and almost immediately after Senix's escape from Hunter Prison), a joint search party led by Maulisa and Vamprah finally found, dug out, and revived the Mages. Maulryene and Malgus immediately lifted the confinement curse, allowing the Ice Tribes to cross back over into the south and east, while Sabradia freed the rest of the Sabertooths. The four tribes allied to form the new Ice Hunters, and began their vengeance-driven invasion of southern Chima, as the Sabertooths converted their former prison of ice into a new HQ, Saber Mountain.

Events taking place in the Arctic following this include the Ice Hunters' attack on the Valley of Balance, the Brotherhood of Vultures moving into the northern half of the valley after allying with the Leopards, Bliston's campaign to free Dr. Benjamin and others from Saber Mountain, Spider Queen Severix Rax's attempt to colonize the Arctic and her untimely death, Saban's capture by Sabradia due to his "purification" through fire chi, his subsequent rescue by Senix, and, most notably, Malgus' "resurrection" of both The Purple City and Galvanor.

### The Fire—Ice Wars

Soon after the recently crowned King Malgus rebuilt The Purple City using a golden chi orb, to serve as a more substantial home and headquarters for the Mammoths, they were attacked by rival wizard Senix and a splinter faction of Icebears he commanded. Senix's forces were able to take control of the fledgling HQ and drive out the Mammoths, which prompted the then-neutral Galvanor to simply leave, and begin his fateful flight across the sea. Senix built up his army and The Purple City's defenses, intending to use it as a stronghold from which to launch an attack on the Phoenix Islands and rescue Fal'qar, only for a temporarily allied force of Mammoths, Tigers, and Forgotten to attack the city. They were successfully able to defeat and extract Senix, but just before The Purple City was once again bombed to destruction, this time by a group of extremist Scorpions wanting revenge on the Icebears. Senix was then rescued from the grasp of Malgus II and Titus by his surviving Icebears, while the Mammoths and Tigers were distracted by the sudden appearance of a "panther".

Events occurring in the Arctic during and after this include Malgus enlisting Lyrix to steal The Artifact from the Sabertooths, Lyrix's subsequent transformation into a White Lion and his temporary amnesia, the Sabertooths relocating the frozen King Crogar to a new stronghold, his ensuing rescue by Carina and a revitalized Crocodile Army, King Malgus II's capture of his own father and restored alliance with the Icebears and Sabertooths, Malgus the elder's resulting escape and defection to the Stinger Brotherhood, a brief battle between the Eagle Triumvirate and Sabertooths, and, most recently, the Sabertooths' rebuilding of their fleet at Fingir's Cove.

## Description

(Originally posted by JGREAD on "The Arctic North" topic.)

Above the northern Iron Mountains (which stretch across the top of the Rhino and Minor Tribes territories and The Grassy Plains), the land is covered by snow even at a lower altitude, and the weather is even colder than the snowcapped tops of the Iron Mountains. Very few inland animals have explored these northern Ice Regions, and warm clothes and gear [or fire chi] are required to do so to prevent being literally frozen solid. The only plant growing here is whiteplant, a colorless leaf that only grows in naturally cold environments. In the northwest of the region, the land turned to ice and broke into hundreds of small icecap islands on the West Sea. Meanwhile, the far east of the Arctic (above the Outland mountains on the rim of the Outlands) is filled with the Ice Mountains, where the Brotherhood of Vultures primarily dwells. Just as the Iron Mountains divide the Arctic from the southern inlands of Chima, the Ice Mountains divide the Arctic from the northeast region above the Outlands; the mysterious Northern Outland Mountains.

## Locations in the Arctic

### East and Mideast

* The Ice Mountains
* The Four Talon Towers (Mobile; Destroyed)
* Saber Mountain

### West, Northwest, and Midwest

* The Purple City (Destroyed, 819 BR; rebuilt and destroyed at time of RP)
* Hunter Prison (Abandoned)
* Icestrike's Ultimate Glacier (Mobile; Destroyed)
* Icebear shipyards (Destroyed)
* Fingir's Cove/Sabertooth shipyards
* The Frozen Tusk (Mobile)

### South

* Northern half of the Valley of Balance/The Golden City
* Northern half of the Elemental Rupture (Caved-in)
* Spider/Arachnid Alliance colony (Abandoned)

## Trivia

* The idea of a "north pole" for Chima was conceptualized by JGREAD long before the Ice Hunters' introduction into the Roleplay, to give them their own equivalent to inland Chima and the Outlands from which to base their operations, in addition to creating the Elemental Balance plot point, which gave a larger role to the Leopards than what they had in the Legends of Chima TV series, and made the Hunters' ice powers appear more "destined", rather than coincidental like in the series.
* The explanation given for the snowcapped Iron Mountains and desert-like Northern Outland Mountains is that there exists a "Yin-Yang" dynamic, in which the north has one area of warm weather, and the south has one area of cold weather, making them truly "balanced".

## References

1. ↑ Expedition of Exiles: A Chima Roleplay Tie-in Story
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Last Reincarnations: A Chima Roleplay Tie-in Story