Icy Ice

Well you see, there’s ice, and then there’s ~icy ice~. What makes this ice so icy? Let’s find out!

Geography and heat problem

Now first, a little lesson in the geography of our world. As you might have noticed, something isn’t quite right about it. West T@Ö#Å3 - one of the hottest regions in our world, is located right across the river from the Mountain region - the coldest one of our regions. Despite being right on the shore of this Icy River, which is a great source of cold water, the temperatures in summer can get quite brutal. In conditions like this, even the icy river water doesn’t stay cold for long, and even then it should not be wasted frivolously. The only way to combat this heat is ice. Not just any ice, but the iciest ice that can be found in our world. Lucky for West T@Ö#Ä3, Mountain region has plenty of ice - the iciest there is.

So, what is Icy ice?

Icy ice is the very specific kind of ice imported from the iciest ice desert of Mountain region. It can be found in the region called The freezer of the world, due to how cold it is. It has the lowest temperature in the world, recorded at -79°C and going only as high -73°C on average. Because of this, the ice imported from here is extremely icy and advertised as “ice that never melts”. It does melt tho, of course it does at some point, but still, it takes longer than for regular ice you get from just tossing some water in the freezer. This is what makes this kind of ice so popular, if not essential for surviving the hot summers in West T@Ö#Ä3.

Obtaining icy ice

If you’re paying attention you’ll notice that the temperatures in Freezer of the World are way too low for a mole person, or any of their subspecies to survive. Artificial People might be able to survive lower temperatures, but its not their problem to get ice for the silly fleshy moles. They could have made a lot of money with that, but it’s still risky even for them and not worth the trouble.

So, how to get the ice? People have been experimenting with all sorts of ways to get there and to stay there - wearing warm clothing, finding the least cold routes through the icy desert, constructing various devices that could provide enough heat for the trip, trying to train animals to go there and even trying to set a whole path there on fire. They didn’t have much success with any of these methods, but they learnt from their mistakes. They have built a few small, but entirely heated settlements next to the ice quarry that provides ice. The settlement is only operational for short amounts of time. The few houses there are heavily insulated and mainly use fire for heating. They are very small and only have the basic necessities one would need for their stay that wouldn’t be longer than a week, once every month. This time they work almost nonstop to get as much ice as they can. It’s a terrible way of life, but moles do love their ice.

Rarity and price

Because of all the trouble of getting this ice and inability to get enough of it to last whole regions for months, icy ice is considered to be a luxury good. It’s very rare, costs a lot of money, and usually isn’t sold freely in stores. You have to sign up for the wait list that could be months long, and only the richest can really afford it. It’s a specialty item that is almost mythical to those outside of the few regions that actually produce this ice. Some of it gets sold to fancy restaurants in these regions, so the tourists can experience this ice in unreasonably priced drinks served there.

However, despite not actually being “ice that never melts”, this ice is extremely cold and does take an exceptionally long time to melt, so if you do manage to get your hands on a block of it, it will last you a while.

Is all of it worth it? The trouble and the risk of getting it, the price, the rarity of it? To someone like you and me probably not, but the rich in almost every setting are known to be a little bit eccentric, often wanting things that don’t matter but cost a lot, just to be able to say that they owned or experienced them. I guess some things haven’t changed since pre-apocalyptic times.

Value

★★★★★

Rarity

very hard to get

Odor

none, look at the taste point

Taste

it tastes like ice; which is an upgrade from the regualr tap water here that probably just tastes like metal pipes and pool water

Color

none, look at the taste point

Boiling / Condensation Point

100°C

Melting / Freezing Point

0°C