The Frozen North

*"Are you ready? What do you mean what for? Anything. Are you vigilant? Are you poised? Can you dynamically adapt? Make no mistake, this land will eat you up if you don't."*

## Of the Frozen North

Motion, flexibility and change are musts in this land. The Frozen North is an ever shifting enigma of cold expanses and rushing waves. To trust what is around you could bring everything you hold for granted to ruin. Nothing is sacred, everyone is governed by a countless number of shadow societies, and any person you meet could be a secret member to dozens. Keep a stoic face in this land and realize that you are your only true asset. Promises can be as sure as ice or as graspable as vapor depending on how it benefits the speaker.

## Geography and lifestyle

The Frozen North is etymologically speaking about as correct as the landscape itself. While half of the year you would be correct in thinking that the ice covers the landscape for miles in each direction kilometers deep, during the other half however, you could be only slightly more incorrect.

During the Freezing Season, a period of one hundred and fifty days, the expanse of the 'Frozen North' between the Paleo Ocean and the Neo Sea is a thick slab of ice larger than any on Paracelsus. At this time, almost all communities live beneath the surface very deep down at a perfect elevation where ice caverns naturally form as proximity to the planet's warm center is reached. In these gigantic cave systems, communities of thousands take up residence and within days, an economy is moving fluidly and before weeks have passed, entire systems of infrastructure are established.

Once the Freezing Season gives way to the Dry Spell, another one hundred and fifty day period, thermal vents deep below the ice caverns purge their built up pressure and turn the entire Frozen north to fresh water as it mixes with both the sea and ocean it borders. The few populations able to reside on the frigid surface will usually head to bordering mountains during this time while the under-dwelling have resorted to much more drastic measures. Mortals here have learned to harness the power of these volcanic vents, raising leviathan air ships that utilize the gasses and raise thousands of beings to the surface. As fast as the caverns that served as protection to a nation turn to a method of extinction, those inhabiting use the source of the threat as their savior, boosting skyward to safety. Once here, supplies gathered can last years despite the ability to acquire more is ever present.

## Government and culture

The land of the Frozen North has no government as anyone able to take a pole position in public eye is quickly dispatched. With this the case, it is much safer for those deciding to hold influence to conduct business as much as they can entirely in shadows. With political decisions made not by a single group let alone many, every area of national change is conducted by individuals with desires and power who have dominion over others. Every decision and resulting command is handed down through ranks as bribes are paid and backs are rubbed across many overlapping and intertwining societies. The impact you may have on your community or even your nation's people is directly tied to the influence you are able to enact. Every person in the Frozen North has a part to play in this grand machine of handshakes and agreements and it is one's drive that sets the powerful apart from the serving.

This very culture breeds a very shark eat whale society. While being powerful has its benefits, getting sloppy with hiding your ties and confidants will have you killed. On the other hand, if you can't garner enough influence or protection leading a humble life, you will likely also find yourself a casualty in some big player's game, squashed as insignificantly as a snow mite. It is as such the reason that all are ever on edge and alert to any change or clue around them. Any hint of another's intention could mean the difference between life and death while any financial or political opportunity identified can raise your status tenfold.

This is seen as a beneficial culture by all involved understanding it as necessary evil that purges weakness from their nation's population.

Those outside of this rat race are regarded when necessary as 'Numbers'. Existing as mercenaries, exiles or other, these people are not kept track of by the empires under ice and over clouds and their names don't tend to fall in any records. These small villages are often left to their devices, considered irrelevant by those the Numbers term 'Wolves.' Typically bands of Frost Orcs, Rime Goblins or Tritons able to withstand the nature's harsh climate by natural ability, these races are only on occasion employed for various tasks for little benefit, usually under duress.

A person of Frozen North Hailitage is often cunning,
flexible and of powerful ambition. It is with their unrelenting resolve that
they are able to bypass obstacles like water, break down barriers like ice and
get away with it all like mist.