Frozen South

Don't worry about freezing to death, the South isn't as merciful as its northern cousin.
~ Pahw, Sleigh-Leader

Encompassing nearly the entirety of Cenorad's southern polar region, the aptly named "Frozen South" is a frigid wasteland consisting of little more than endless plains of snow, frozen mountain ranges, and titanic glaciers.
While this description sounds quite similar to the cold regions of the North, the Frozen South possesses a certain peculiarity that clearly separates it from other more ordinary ice deserts, for while the ice-covered soils of the Frozen South are no more than regular dirt and rock the skies above the glaciers are anything but normal.
Wrapped in perpetual twilight, the heavens above the icy waste are home to a balefull spectacle of dancing lights known as the Aurora raptorus ("Predatory/Uplifting Aurora"), whose celestial lights are responsible for a plethora of supernatural phenomena, which allow the Frozen South to claim the title as one of the most eldritch locations in the entire world.

Geography

Ice that boils, mountains that wander and light which devours the day.
Sounds like a cozy place don't you think?

While there exists no clear definition as to which regions are considered part of the Frozen South, the region is most commonly defined as the frozen landmass located south-east of the White Ocean and whose northern boundary is formed by a labyrinthine network of fjords known as the Scratched Valleys. Towards the south and the west, the region is confined by a group of vast glaciers known as the Boling Glaciers. The eastern boundaries of the Frozen South have never been properly explored, due to the fact that lights of the Aurora shine with an intolerable intensity in these regions.
The central heartland of the Frozen South is made up of a group of vast iced-over plains, which are referred to as the "Four Sisters of Solitude" or the "Four Lightlands". While these icy wastelands share much of their frosty appearance, each of the four Sisters possesses her own unique mixture of marvels and dangers that enable the attentive traveler to quite easily tell them apart.

Haras

Also known as the "Barren Sister" the waste of Haras is the largest of the Four Sisters and primarily characterized by its rocky soil. Despite possessing the second highest mean temperatures and the least hostile climate of all four Lightlands, the entire region is completely devoid of any forms of floral lifeforms with even the mutated plants created by the Aurora actively avoiding Hara's cursed soil.
While any attempts at growing plants within Haras have rather unsurprisingly failed without exception, experiments performed outside of the region have paradoxically shown that soil taken from Haras is actually able to notable increase the yield of several types of crops, which has lead to the establishment of a small but highly profitable Yinmoujia trading company called Shali-Gao that specializes in the harvest and distribution of Haras' "Starlight Soil".

Hakeber

Known as the "Fallacious Sister" the Lightland of Hakeber is a maze of water-filled caverns, sinkholes, and underground lakes of ultracool liquids, which are often hidden beneath several layers of bluish ice and bone-white snow. Given that it is incredibly hard to gauge the thickness and weight carrying capacity of these layers, even experienced traveler are a constant riks of suddenly breaking through the ice and plunging into the icy waters of the caverns below.
While traversing such a treacherous terrain would already be incredibly difficult during a clear day, Hakeber is frequently plagued by powerful hailstorms and blizzards, which reduce visibility to an arm's length and additionally stress the already frail ice cover of the region. To make matters worse these storms frequently appear out of the blue, which reduces a traveler's warning time to a handful of minutes.

Hael

Commonly referred to as the "Verdant Sister", the land of Hael is rather strange and atypical desert, for it is home to a vast forests of strange floral lifeforms, whose commonly quite colorful shapes grant the region an incredibly lively appearance, which stands in sharp contrast to the hostile appearance of Hael's sisters.
The reason for this verdant nature is the presence of several active volcanos, flame geysers and geothermal vents throughout the entire region, which supply Hael's flora not only with nutritional ashes and liquid freshwater but also provide a certain amount of natural light untainted by the eldritch influence of the Aurora.

Leh'car

Located in the south-eastern parts of the Frozen South the "Dancing Sister" of Leh'car is the region most heavily affected by the light of the Aurora, with the very soil of the region being forced to mimic the maddening dance of the glowing lights by continually shifting and twisting its appearances, thereby creating a nightmarish, three-dimensional shadow of the Aurora's true appearance.
In order to comply with this tectonic mimicry, whole stretches of land suddenly turn into clouds of glowing fog and glistening fumes, only for them almost immediately revert back into impossible twisted and usually grotesque blocks of solid material. Given the fact that anything caught within such a transformation event is promptly integrated into the newly manifested matter blocks, it is no wonder that large parts of Leh'car remain completely unexplored as few are willing to risk their physical integrity for a task that will likely reveal only more horror.

The Marching Mountains

The Marching Mountains are a "deracinated" mountain range, which partially separates the plains of Hael from the wastes of her larger Sister Haras. They received their name due to the fact that their peaks appear to gradually move towards the current location of anyone observing them, which can actually cause seasick-like nausea in some individuals.
Due to the simple fact that so far none ever reported reaching the mountains by simply starring at them, it is generally assumed that this perceived movement is an illusion created by the swirling lights of the Aurora. Yet many of the South's inhabitants nevertheless regard the mountains with a great deal of suspicion and actively avert their gaze from their snow-covered peaks.

Fauna & Flora

I want to sing with the trees, but the trees are hungry.
I want to fly like a bird, but the birds are ice.
~ Enlightened ramblings of a Starry-Priest

Despite being an icy desert shrouded in perpetual twilight, the Frozen South is home to a surprisingly large number of photosynthetic plants, which receive their nourishment from the eldritch lights of the Aurora and therefore have become irreversibly changed by it.
While the complete lists of changes brought on by the light of the Aurora are quite literally endless, due to each newly grown plant developing its own frequently unique features, the most common changes brought on by the Aurora include the transformation of leaves into prismatic crystals, the growth of sound-making trumpet-shaped fruits and the development of colorful plumage on the plant's bark.
In comparison to the South's Flora the animals which call this frosted wasteland home, are considerably more "mundane", due to the simple fact that most animals are able to limit their exposure to the Aurora's light by either creating extensive burrows within the frozen soil or inhabiting the frigid meltwater pools located beneath the glaciers' surface.
The few creatures which don't attempt to evade the lights in the skies very soon cease to be mundane animals and instead turn into something more, with the most mutated creatures even taking flight into the eldritch heavens.

Alternative Name(s)

Nightless Waste, Land of Light and Snow

Type

Desert, Ice

Related Ethnicities

• Hus'kyra

Rivers of Ice

The so-called "Cryoclastic Surges" are fast traveling streams of ultracold liquids that emerge within the Boiling Glaciers and flash freeze anything they come in contact with.
Given that a frightening number of surges travels at a speed of several dozen meters per second, most victims of a Surge never know what hit them.

Shock-frosted Village

Thought to be located at a safe distance from the outreaches of the Boling Glaciers the small trading post of I'iemop was completely destroyed by a Cryoclastic Surges, which preserved the last moments of the post's inhabitants with an outright uncanny richness of detail.

Celestial Cycles

Given that skies above the Frozen South are perpetually shrouded by the eldritch light of the Aurora, the inhabitants of the South have no use for the concepts of "Day" and "Night" and instead organize their activity around notable cyclic changes in the Auroras coloration and intensity, which are known as the "Heavenly Hours".
Despite their names, the duration of these hours can vary between a couple of minutes to several days, which makes phrases such as "See you tomorrow" or "In a few hours" considerably vaguer than in other regions of Cenorad.

Cover from the Light

Due to the detrimental effects both the ever-present cold and the light of the Aurora have on living creatures, it is no wonder that the poor souls which call the Frozen South home universally wear long thick clothes, which cover every inch of their body.
Because of this, the inhabitants of the South regard the act of "showing skin" or "sunbathing" as absolutely abhorrent which commonly causes a full-on mental break down once they leave their frigid homeland and encounter the in their eye wantonly negligent exposed inhabitants of the warmer regions.

When Day breaks

Hear the Trumpets proclaiming the dawn.

The so-called "Triumphant Dawn" is a strange and incredibly dangerous phenomenon which plagues the Frozen South once every three years.
During the event, which is heralded by the disharmonious blaring of unseen trumpets, the lights of the Aurora are pulled into a baleful maelstrom of eldritch energies and temporarily relinquish their domain over the heavens to an eldritch apparition known as the "Southern Sun", which bathes the entire region into a sickly golden light.
Everything living being which is not shielded from this light by at least a couple of meters of soil or stone is inevitably and irreversibly changed on a fundamental metaphysical level, which is of such an elementary wrongness, that all but the most insane and transformed cultist are unable to feel anything but sheer primal dread when gazing upon these changes.
The only beings who are able to safely gaze uppon this spectacle of uncanny light are the Celestial Children, which more than anything hammers home the point that in spite of their innocuous appearance these beings are so much more than mere mortal children.

Starry Wisdom

Tonight the Light is right and it shall grant us its might.

Similar to other places filled with eldritch and otherworldy phenomenons the Frozen South serves as a magnet for dozens of occult cults and groups, which come to this inhospitable region in order to gain power, wisdom or something else from the swirling lights of the Aurora.
In most cases, the so-called "Starrys" receive nothing by a couple of frost boils and the mockery of the local population.
Yet once in a while, a single cultist or even an entire cult gets lucky and manages to receive something far more...substantial.

The Sky Hungers

While the lights of the Aurora can lead to a vast array of mutagenic afflictions and supernatural diseases, none are as dreaded - or as revered- as the condition known as Rapture's Hook.