Black bergs

The ice bergs farmed from the Sea of Black Ice by the icerunners guild and sold to the markets at the Gleaming City are known as Black Bergs.
The ice itself is clear, often disconcertingly so when a mass of berg is calved from the face of the iceflows. The surface of the ice will often be churned up snow and sleet, like a white frosting, but less than a metre into this skin, the ice will be revealed as so pure and transparent, that when carved off it can appear nearly invisible. The bergs will often contain networks of captured gases that spread out through the ice like veins. Within these networks will live tiny communities of cold-adapted and bioluminescent lichens and other tiny animals that feed upon them.
The name 'back bergs' refers to the deep blue colour that they appear when light is filtered through the depths of the mass. The purest of bergs will appear to fade into a deep blue-black at their centre, but threaded through with the phosporescent network of lichen that it can appear as if a universe of stars swirls within their depths.
The frozen water of the bergs, and the lichen threaded through them, is said to have magical healing powers, and is a source of sustenance for the clans of shadowkin who hunt across the iceflows.

A lucrative and dangerous trade

More lucrative still, is the sale of pure bergs and blocks of black ice to the rich and powerful in the Gleaming City deep within the burning wastes of sunside.
The Lords of Fire prize the ice, and will pay handsomely in crystaline uhd for any berg that survives the long treck still intact. A fashion of the city is to have artists carve huge and gracious statues from the ice to adorn the foyers of their apartments. A melting extravagence that brings admirers and adultation to the Lord or beaurocrat who can afford it.
The Icerunners Guild has developed the techniques for calving off massive black bergs and transporting them to the Gleaming City in the thier Icebreaker ships. The ice is kept safe from melting within the confines of the Icebreaker's hull as it makes the long and perilous journey.
The dangers are singificant, mostly when seeking the bergs themselves. the physical dangers of separating a berg from the iceflow has seen many an icebreaker be destroyed, and crew crushed beneath the falling bergs. And then there are the dangers of the Frostbacks who defend their territory within the Sea where the Icerunners gather the bergs.

Related Locations

• Sea of Black Ice

Related Species

• Shadowkin

Related Professions

• Breakers