Frostlands of Khelek

The area between the Chill Steppe and the Ruins of the Merfolk Empire is called the **Frostlands of Khelek**, so named after the ancient kingdom there that died entirely once the climate became colder. Some of the souls of the dead (mostly priests or the particularly devout, whoever the spirit directly knew of) have been absorbed by the ice spirit Ulek-mol, so they may attempt to claim new followers by force and ascend to godhood by absorbing hundreds of thousands of souls.

**Ulek-mol** can summon some of the souls to fight, but if they die they are freed and lost to Ulek-Mol forever.

## The Legend

No scholars have currently found any records of the founding of the **Kingdom of the Khelek**, for it is older than many other nations and cultures.

The first (and pretty much only) information that has been found about them is an immense, carving into a cliffside made somewhere around 10,000 years ago that may have told the entire story of the Khelek. However, it has been worn away by the ages and the frost, and little remains.

### Beginnings

The earliest intact information in the carving tells of the **King** **Neheket**, seventh king of the Khelek, and how he built a great dam to cease the flooding of the river. The eighth king was Releven, who led a great army across the steppe and to the western mountains. There, he found the snow, and Ulek-Mol. The creature spoke to him of his people, of their prosperity, and how only he could lead them.

He accepted this gift of demigodhood and became the champion of Ulek-Mol. He taught the teachings of subservience to the heavens, and constructed great monuments, creating eternal cold in these sacred sites. His soul would be the first to be devoured by Ulek-Mol.

### Strife

The twelfth king was Helek "the mad", who saught to construct a great bridge across the Leviathan Gulf to reach where he believed the heavens fly high in the sky atop the clouds that cast storms upon the Sea of Bile. His generals and diplomats and governors and family died with him in his folley.

But some yet survived, a last beacon of hope. His nephew, Thelen, sought to rebuild the kingdom with the governor Ralek. This would be no easy task, for there were many soldiers with no one to command them, and many people with no one to guide them. The priests saw the kingdoms weakness clearly.

The priests taught that limitless zeal was the only solution to the corruption and weakness that plagued the Khelek for many years before they struck. In one decisive move, fanatics purged the capital city of all life, creating the shard of arcane ice that can still be seen at the site to this very day. They established an even more inequitable caste system, to ensure a theocratic government across the whole nation.

What magics they worked and what happened in those times is not known, perhaps lost, perhaps destroyed with intention. It is known however, that a great ritual failed, rendering the lang uninhabitable and shattering their false god. Where even one of the other fragments hides is still unknown.

## History

The Kingdom of Khelek is believed to be one of the oldest nations, with some of its earliest ruins believed to be over 10,000 years old. Like other nations in those now forgotten times, it developed slowly, and was largely isolated from the other bronze age civilizations scattered across the world. No one remembers anymore why their civilization collapsed, but according to legend, it may have involved an attempt to either summon or create an entity known as Ulek-Mol.

The legends state that the eighth king of Khelek discovered Ulek-Mol in what likely is now the Dren’Ul Peaks. This king was granted lichdom in return for constructing a number of ritual sites that weakened the fabric of reality and allowed some of Ulek-Mol’s unnatural cold to seep into the region. Several generations later, the priesthood of Ulek-Mol, perhaps led by this same lich, performed a ritual that plunged the area into unnatural cold, and wiped out the Khelek civilization.

However, the tales of Khelek are mostly considered to be legend, though some identifiable ruins remain from that time.

The time period during which this area was inhabited by the Merfolk Empire is better understood. It is believed that the divine will of Uun suppressed the unnatural cold of the Frostlands, allowing the Solara kingdom to settle the surrounding region, though even they avoided certain parts of what was once Khelek.

Solara lasted for several millennia before Uun turned his back on his worshippers and cursed them all in unique ways. The kingdom of Solara was cursed with unnatural cold, and the spirits of the dead were trapped forever in agonizing chill.

It is unknown whether Uun’s curse on Solara was in some way linked to or inspired by the much older ritual that brought down the Kingdom of Khelek. However, it is believed that with Uun’s departure, Ulek-Mol began to roam the region once more, looking for souls to absorb...

## Government

The Frostlands don’t have any real government to speak of, it is a cursed land, home only to ghosts and demons, and travelled only by the desperate, ignorant, or greatly skilled.

It is said some of the creatures of this realm serve Ulek-Mol and actively hunt down living beings in order to attempt to bind more souls to his will. Most ghosts (those created by Uun) simply torment the living out of spite though.

## Economy

Solara once traded with neighboring nations, and perhaps Khelek did as well, but these days nothing lives in the Frostlands.

## Foreign Relations

The Frostlands are avoided by any with a shred of common sense. The Brown Wizards, Seagard, and assorted scavengers living in the ruins of the Merfolk Empire avoid travelling there at all. The nomads of the Chill Steppe and the pilgrims of the Chill Temple will sometimes send their most capable war parties to scout out the region. Most of the victims of the Frostlands are from Anchovia though, who are desperate enough to sometimes scavenge, hunt, or hide along the edges of this cursed region.

## Geography

The Frostlands are unnaturally cold, even colder than the Chill Steppe and the Frozen Lake, likely as a result of Uun’s curse combining with Ulek-Mol’s demonic taint.

Most of the land is rocky barren hills covered in snow and ice, though around the edges there are some hardy forests and moorlands.

## Demographics

Most of the inhabitants are ghosts of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Solara, cursed by Uun to wander the region in a never ending search for warmth.

Some of the ghosts and a few stranger creatures date back to the Kingdom of Khelek. Some of them are bound to the will of Ulek-Mol and seek to gather souls to fuel his power. Luckily they can’t seem to use ghosts for this purpose, and must instead hope they stumble upon living trespassers before Uun’s ghosts drive them off.

## Religion

The closest thing to a religion in the modern Frostlands is the ice spirit known as **Ulek-Mol** and the creatures bound to his will. To the few scholars who are aware of his existence, he is generally categorized as a demon, though not much is known about him.

## Military

The ghosts created by Uun are disorganized, spiteful things driven only by a need to torment the living to distract themselves from their own miseries. They are essentially indestructible, but can be driven away by certain types of magic. And although they rarely intend to kill, their unnaturally cold and soul-fraying presence can make spending too much time near them lethal.

The ghosts and demons bound to Ulek-Mol operate with greater purpose. They seek to corner and immobilize their victims for long enough to harvest their souls for Ulek-Mol. The demons are diverse and strange creatures, but the ghosts often strongly resemble those created by Uun, to the point that only those with strong arcane ability can sense the subtle touch of demon that marks the ghosts of Ulek-Mol.