Northern Limit

Information sourced from various publications including 'The Frozen Kingdom', 'The Great Bondsbreaker', 'The Great Hunt, a History vol.4: Sea Giants', and 'To Tame the White Death'

Written by David_Ulph

Introduction

The Great Hunt at the start of the Third Era completely changed the face of the Mortal Realm as the Dragons hunted down and attempted to genocide Giant-Kin. In the northern regions of Wallatoria there used to live communities of Sea Giants, to which the White Dragon Weisslogia mercilessly hunted down. This culminated in a vast armada force leaving Grey Point to sail north into unknown waters for safety, while Fire Giants delayed the advancing Draconic Legion.

Some ships, believed to be at maximum one eighth of the prior Sea Giant population, escaped Grey Point and sailed north-west. At some point, one among their ranks found a magical Ring of Winter and created a new icy land on the water for themselves. This is known as the Northern Limit, a barrier to the west of the Copper Sea, and this Sea Giant - Viraxis - became the first of the new sub-race the survivors would become; Frost Giants.

— 'The Great Hunt, a History vol.4: Sea Giants'

The Northern Limit is the furthest reaches of mortal civilisation, located in between the Copper Sea and shores of Vallatorlan to the east, and the Storm Coast to the west. It is a frozen wasteland, magically trapped in a constant winter which gives the landmass a unique etherealness and chilling beauty through solitude. To be able to stand in a desert of pure snow, and see or hear nothing but yourself for miles. Despite it's unmatched beauty, though, the Northern Limit is one of the most dangerous regions of the Mortal Realm.

Areas

Foot of the Silver Mountains - Bheur Tundra

The Bastion-Settlements, while not invented by the Prince Conall were certainly perfected by him. The Silver Mountains are largely impassable, unless you have access to a remaining Mountain Dwarf Hall like the Grewfreesters or like Conall's Freestwin, passes through the mountain range. At the ends of these negotiable passes were built settlements for exploration into the Northern Limit and trade with the Frost Giants that lived there. Ysmgar Bastion is the greatest of these, lasting the erosion of time and constant winter, its high walls protecting the rugged frontiersmen to live out their solitary lives. No one rides out further than a day into the Limit for their own safety.

— 'The Great Bondsbreaker', a book detailing the life of the Demi-God Slanggar Bondsbreaker and their successor the High King Conall Bondsbreaker of United Vallatorlan

The Northern Limit is not entirely found on the northern waters, with the power of the Ring of Winter being felt on the northernmost points of land to the west of the Silver Mountains. The ice sheets out at sea has slowly spread further south the longer the Ring stays within the Northern Limit, and now the foot of the Silver Mountains are filled with icy steep climbs, dangerous predators, few resources and freezing temperatures.

Civilised settlements can only survive within the sheltered confines of Bastion-Settlements, high-walled fortresses usually now only frontier mining towns protected from the harsh natural conditions. Where life once stretched out to the coast when the Northern Limit was contained there, there lies only frozen ruins, nomadic wanderers and daring Frost Giant raiders and their forward camps.

While where the winters are dark and terrible, with the biting winds and stalking beasts of the cold night gnawing at the walls of the Bastion-Settlements, they are also beautiful without question. To sit with an Inspired Cocoa Mug atop the highest tower of Ysmgar Bastion and look out to the icy wastes. A subtle hint of snowflakes, gently fluttering to the soft carpet of untouched land. To look into that dark sky and see only the stars in between the fluttering greens and purples of the Northern Lights. Most importantly, to be behind the high walls of the Bastion while I see a lone Frost Giant be ambushed and butchered by a pack of Remorhazes in the far distance.

— 'To Tame the White Death', an autobiography written by the anonymous High Elven explorer "the Traveller"

While the winters long and have limited light throughout the day, the summers can be equally as long and will thaw out the surrounding lands into stagnant marshes until one travels further north to the coast. Due to it being such a dry climate as a result of the influences from the Ring of Winter, the sun is constant and at its peak is surprisingly warm and relentless compared to other areas as far north as the tundra. While it allows the frontiersmen of the Bastion-Settlements to breath, the land becomes swamped with Midges and Stirges who feast on anything and everything that dares travel the tundra.

Frozen Kingdom

Just off the true coast of the Mortal Realm and the Bheur Tundra is the floating icy territories of the Frost Giants and technically the heart of the Northern Limit. While explorers have documented many other designated regions of the Limit, few have trekked into the Frozen Kingdom and come back alive to report what they saw so the land is steeped in mystery and superstition.

A land where half the year is plunged into eternal darkness and biting blizzard, displaying the true nature of the Giant-kin as devil-worshipping necromancers of the anarchic Dark in opposition to our civilised justice and true order of life. Nothing good can survive such desolate lands, where the Frost King Golthorax has turned into pure crystalline ice in his corruption through the Ring of Winter.
It is the Ring's Kingdom, not the wearer, as it speaks and commands in its infernal tongue the slaves of the north. Slaves to the Great Hag Throff. And it does not only command the barbaric Frost Giants, it too commands the whims of surviving Ogres and Trolls who cannibalise one another in orgies of gore and survival. No hope can be granted to these northern beasts, and the mortals who live amongst their ranks. Turncoats and the insane, those are the only people who would dare live in the White Death. And that is without mentioning the accursed Yetis, whose presence on this Mortal Realm is an eternal blight.

— 'The Frozen Kingdom', a collection of information about this region of the Northern Limit, where fact and superstition mix to the point no one can discern one from the other

Ice Shelves - Viraxis' Fields

The majority of the Northern Limit is found on blistering ice shelves that freeze the northern waters of the Mortal Realm. The eastern sections of the Northern Limit is the most recorded and best understood part of these ice shelves, as they look out to the Copper Sea and Copper Graveyard and different paths have been found through to link the Holy See Territories to the Storm Coast and further to Alca.

The Viraxis' Fields as they are known are full of diverse and unique wildlife adapted to the conditions brought about by the Ring of Winter. Where Snowlbears hunt Seals on the edges, while Sperm Whales are hunted by Orca. Though nomadic tribes of barbarians pushed into the Northern Limit for various reasons have also been found with crude settlements across the Fields.

Tribes of Druids mix with un-clanned Orcs and Orogs, and remnant outcasts of Goliaths from the Frozen Kingdom who have been afflicted by a Werebear or thought to have been. This mixing pot of "barbaric tribes" have been recorded threats all throughout the Third and Fourth Eras by both the Empire of Midland and Holy See. During the summer, these barbarians travel north to live on the ice sheets for their own safety from mainlanders who drive them away, though during winter will migrate again south into usually the Storm Coast for greener lands. In rare years where there is a warmer summer the Bheur Tundra will be a more fertile land and the tribes will settle there, pushing against the influence of and coming to blows with the Bastion-Settlements.

The Northern Limit is known to be a desolate desert of pure uncorrupted ice and blizzard, with nothing to be seen except the gorgeous views at sunrise and to witness a pod of whales or two. Though in the following expedition report conducted by [redacted], you will see that only after a month of exploring the Limit our team came across a total of four ruins of Eldervair. The ruins seem to be attracted to the Limit for some reason, judging by the extremely high amounts of artefacts one can find in such a short space of time. I highly recommend the Institute provides more resources to this sector, maybe even a forward operating base? For ease of access, of course.

— Prelude to Expedition #4/003-01 attached on to the published document of I.L.D.E.K.

The Hunting Grounds

While the eastern ice sheets are more documented, the western sheets are shrouded in a mysterious blizzard both physical and metaphorical. After the Great Hunt passed, most of the Dragons went into their own personal seclusion. This was not the case for Weisslogia, who continued on Her own hunt against the Frost Giants and their Ring of Winter with her rage and loyal legions of White Kobolds. The Hunting Grounds are believed to be Weisslogia's personal realm, where she wars with the Frozen Kingdom every Long Winter.

The Great White Dragon lives in a hollowed out iceberg that drifts through the Northen Limit with hordes of zealous Kobolds ready to jump out and partake in the Great Hunt which is holy to them now. This iceberg is called Hivernal, and was hollowed out by two enslaved Frost Giants who were allowed to live if they granted Weisslogia eternal servitude. Inside Hivernal is the ruins of a Sea Giant city, strewn with bodies of Giants that the Kobolds live in and heat up for food, and a giant roughshod effigy to Weisslogia has been erected from the rubble. The walls have a treasure hoard frozen inside of them, which Weisslogia surrounds herself by in her throne of ice. Truly She is the Draconic Goddess of Conquest and the Hunt.

— 'The Frozen Kingdom'

Prompts Advent Calendar #28

WorldEmber Article #30

Type

Desert, Ice

Parent Location

(Arguably the Copper Sea,) Mortal Realm

Alternative Names

The Far North, Giantlands, the White Death

---

For a More Detailed Overview of the Great Hunt and it's Affect on Sea Giants:

Dangers

The beauty of the Northern Limit is best felt in paintings rather than actually visiting the land for it is often referred that the beauty hides a deadly kiss. The worst part of the Northern Limit isn't the wildlife or the barbarians, but the warped nature of the land itself. "Put silk on an antler, and it will be beautiful".

The Ring of Winter causes the temperature to drop to near freezing at almost all points in the year, with many areas being barren wastelands where no food can grow now rain fall for fresh water. Blizzards sweep through the region as if they were alive and hungry, while even the relatively safer Bastion-Settlements of the tundra are susceptible to avalanches from the Silver Mountain peaks.

Fauna

The wildlife of the Northern Limit is varied due to its immense size. On the mainland tundra, Winter Hares, Lemmings, Woolly Mammoths and Reindeer are preyed on by Snowy Owls, Crag Cats, Winter Foxes and Winter Wolves. In the Bastion-Settlements, herds of Muskoxen are tended to while Pygmy Snowlbears find shelter within the walls.

Further into the ice sheets, Sea Eagles fly ahead over Polar Bears and Snowy Owlbears that hunt the edges for Walruses and Seals. Sperm Whales and other northern marine life can be found in commonly throughout the Northern Limit, though the gargantuan predatory insects known as the Remorhaz are unique to these areas.

'Fibber's Fallacy'

It is a common brag of nobility of the Holy See Territories to claim to have dared and faced the horrors of the Northern Limit at dinner parties, though this is almost always a bending of the truth. Ysmgar Bastion features an inn called the 'Fibber's Fallacy' designed specifically for noble tourism, where someone will travel to the Bastion during the summer and stay in the luxuriously comfortable inn for a week or so then return past the Silver Mountains to relay great tales they heard locals say and claim them to be their own adventures.

Related Articles

---