Winter-Spirits

Winter-spirits are creatures of ice created by Ashalla to create ice sculptures on the North Pole.

## Appearance

Winter-spirits are creatures made entirely of ice and snow. They have wings of feathery ice crystals with a wingspan of about one foot. Winter-spirits are very light-weight, making flight easy.

They have a body with an orb-like head, a thorax which stores excess ice, and an abdomen housing their gametes.

From the head are several spindly protrusions of clear ice. They are flexible and are used for vision, each one acting as an eye.

From the body extend several icicle-like legs. These limbs are used for walking, perching and manipulating ice.

Winter-spirits have no fixed number of limbs, although symmetry is common. On average, winter-spirits have two or four wings, six legs, and four eyes.

A small number of winter-spirits have colourful patterns painted onto them with photosynthetic algae, with colours such as green, gold and red. This sub-species was created by Chopstick Eyes.

## Physiology

### Ice Sculpting

Winter-spirits can manipulate ice, melting, moving and re-freezing it on touch. This allows them to shape ice into sculptures and structures. This process is slow, only moving a small volume of ice at a time, but all winter-spirits (with any hope of reproducing) are adept at using this ability to create intricate structures.

### Metabolism

As inorganic lifeforms which spend much of the year in a place devoid of life, winter-spirits are extremely limited in their potential energy sources. As such, Ashalla designed winter-spirits to function as heat engines, converting temperature differences between their environment and themselves into energy.

Winter-spirits are most active when in direct sunlight and the ambient temperature is below freezing. They absorb Heliopolis' warmth through their wings, and expel the heat into their environment, converting the flow of heat into movement. However, they can also function any time their body temperature differs from their environment's. During night time or when the weather is overcast, if the environment is below freezing then winter-spirits will continue to be active until their body temperature reaches equilibrium with their environment, at which point the winter-spirit goes dormant until the temperature changes or the sun comes out.

Winter-spirits can survive for a short period when ambient temperatures are above freezing. The heat flowing from their environment to them makes them very active, although it also causes them to slowly melt. Winter-spirits typically accumulate excess ice on their thorax like other animals accumulate fat. They do this by an application of their ice-sculpting ability to effectively 'drink' ice they are standing on. This excess ice melts first when the winter-spirits are in above-freezing temperatures. However, once this excess ice is gone, more melting can compromise the structural integrity of the winter-spirit and hinders its bodily functions, leading to death.

While winter-spirits typically use the environment and sun as their heat sources and sinks, warm-blooded creatures can also be a source of heat.

Those winter-spirits which host colourful algae require an additional intake of trace salts, which can be obtained by bathing in seawater. The algae otherwise survives by photosynthesis.

## Distribution

During the season of summer, winter-spirits live in the North Pole on the ice sheet.

During the season of winter, winter-spirits migrate south and can be found in the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere, wherever the weather is cold enough to be freezing for most of winter. This includes the mountains and northern parts of Kalgrun, Li's Island, and patches of Swahhitteh-Tendlepog.

## Behaviour

### Migration

During the season of winter, when Galbar is coldest, winter-spirits head south from the North Pole to other snow-covered lands. While in these lands, winter-spirits can be found investigating other lifeforms, creating simple ice sculptures and structures, sun-bathing on snow patches and fluttering about.

When winter draws to a close and the weather begins to warm, winter-spirits fly back to the North Pole in great flocks. There they create elaborate ice sculptures and breed.

Before migrating, winter-spirits fatten themselves on ice to ensure they can survive the journey without melting.

### Investigation and Inter-Species Interaction

Winter-spirits are curious creatures with a drive to investigate new things. Their multiple eyes with adjustable positions allows them to gain detailed visual information of their subjects. Winter-spirits often fly around creatures which come near so they can see them from multiple angles.

Such behaviour can be quite risky. Aggressive creatures may attack winter-spirits who wander too close, and because winter-spirits are fragile they are easily broken beyond repair and killed. However, because winter-spirits are harmless and have no nutritional value, most creatures pay no attention to winter-spirits.

The reason winter-spirits behave in this manner is to gain inspiration for their ice sculptures. Higher detail is a desirable trait in their sculptures, which requires in-depth study of potential subjects. Novel and exotic subjects are also desirable in their sculptures. As such, rare creatures or strange objects may be swarmed by winter-spirits attempting to study them.

### Sculpting and Breeding

Most creatures living in places where winter-spirits visit will have seen simple sculptures and structures created by the winter-spirits. These small sculptures are generally crude imitations of the surrounding flora and fauna (although the rare high-quality sculpture may be found), or structures which function as perches or shelters. Over winter, the winter-spirits sculpt either for pragmatic reasons or to practice their art.

However, the true masterpieces are only made over summer, when the winter-spirits have returned to the North Pole. On the ice sheet, each winter-spirit claims a small plot on which they make their sculpture, sometimes making use of existing ice formations to save some work. Over a long period the winter-spirit creates a sculpture. Typically, these sculptures are imitations of something the winter-spirit has seen on its migratory travels, although sometimes winter-spirits may be more creative, forming chimeric hybrids of things they have seen or experimenting with abstract forms which play with shapes and light.

When a winter-spirit finishes its sculpture, it investigates the sculptures of other winter-spirits. If a winter-spirit finds a sculpture which impresses it, it will locate the creator of that sculpture and bring it to its own sculpture. If that winter-spirit is impressed by the other's sculpture, then each winter-spirit extracts a droplet from the other winter-spirit's abdomen and they use that to sculpt a new winter-spirit. This process of sexual selection ensures that the most creative and skilled sculptors propagate, creating a new generation of skilled and creative winter-spirits to fill the North Pole with ice sculptures.

## References

1. ↑ Ashalla creates the winter-spirits. - https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4873171
2. ↑ Chopstick Eyes makes a few winter-spirits colourful with algae - https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4915443