Ice Cap

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North of Cinazan is the glacial region Ice Cap. It is an unnatural land of blue ice, snow, and towering glaciers. The ice and snow pact is anywhere from a couple feet deep to five hundred feet deep near the center. This icy inner part of Ice Cap is called Haerrek. It is an area between the surface and the Underdark region beneath it.

Seasonal warming results in the Ice Cap Melt. The waters flowing south form Ice Cap joins with numerous streams and rivulets which end up draining into the Core Sea or flooding the great rivers of eastern Brucrumus - the river Rute, the Dargirth and the river Tulerran.

Frequently, the lower elevations of Ice Cap become blanketed in a deep fog called the Breath of Bjalprek. Some of these fog banks are perpetual. Those at Belras Foroderch say the permanent nature of these areas is magical, just another side effect of being near a Cube of Arcane.

The Breath of Bjalprek is deep in some areas of Glarvard, and in others it is eternal, the rays of Merioss and Khâls Forge have never been able to burn off Bjalprek's last breath.

- Fridrip Arkon, Thraedli seer - "Breath of Bjalprek"

The weather of Ice Cap is unpredictable. Whiteout conditions can happen very rapidly and temperatures can plunge deep into freezing. The blue ice of the region takes three to four times longer to melt than normal ice. This makes this blue ice, or Cap Shards, a luxury good in areas near the Ice Cap. In northeastern Cinazan, Cap Shards are shipped down the Rute and taken to Nibar-Pharân where it ends up as ice cubes in some rich merchant's dinner or the drink of high-ranking clergy of Set. Another resource of the region is Lapis Ice. This extremely hard ice has been used as a component for making magic items.

During the Horgon Era, much of the region was under the yoke of Gadstill Dynasty and Saer Erkjorg. These two Titan Empires were rivals in this region during much of that era They like the rest of the Titan Empires held sway over the smaller peoples of the region by conquest and fear. In the First Epoch, these giant nations were either destroyed or broken-up by their foes.

Ice Cap has a seven month winter and a summer that lasts several weeks at best. The unusual weather of this vast cold region in an otherwise temperate latitude is attributed to its closeness to the Cube of Arcane. The blue ice of the glacier is unnatural and a result of magical emanations from the Cube. When this ice melts, it turns the waters around it a deep blue. This blue coloring often only fades out many miles downstream.

In the eastern part of Ice Cap is a dark valley named Gunmar. This valley is dry, desolate, dark, and shadowy. The perpetual darkness and shadows are because above it is a floating island of rock called Krarkauk. This floating island is so large that rain, snow, and sunshine never reach some parts of the land beneath it.

The dwellers of the land subsist on elk and caribou, or each other. Winter wolves, yeti, frost giants, white dragons and remorhaz are the some of the more fearsome monsters of Ice Cap, but they are not the baddest. That probably falls to the winterwights of Frosvirk or the tayellah that roam the valley of Dunzakh.

Many clans of dwarves dwell in the windswept highlands of Ice Cap. The dwarves frequently do battle with each other over the limited food, yet vast mineral resources. Some of the dwarven clans are Azwyr Amoruk. The ancestors of these dwarves were from the Ice Wastes of the Abyss.

The Underdark region beneath Ice Cap is called Badmaer.

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