History
The northern iceshelf has been around for a long time, but in recent ages since the crystals shattered, its rate of growth has seemed to exceeded the natural realm. Kaizei as it's generally referred to, is the coldest place in the world and generally inhospitable aside from the weather.
Environment
The beasts of the area are vicious, but valuable in their commodities.
Society
Most of those who choose to call this unforgiving realm "home" reside in a solitary fortress-kingdom, of which very little is known. What is known is that the people there believe the growth of the glacier to be a glorious (not to mention gradual) process, possibly even divine favor. Whether they are directly responsible for its recently exceptional growth spurt is uncertain, but people have been speculating as such.
Hunters and bandits are about the only other people you run in to, out here.
Kaizei Politics
Argaes influence in the area comes from Castle Frosthorn and are trade competitors with the Order of Ice, though Nivalis and Cacerzi are more influenced by Castle Frosthorn, while Porthos and Avalon are more friendly to the Sages of Kaizei and Order of Ice, native leading organizations. Both Porthos and Cacerzi hunt fluffies in Fluffy Valley and small battles between hunters in the area are known to strike out between the rival companies in Porthos and Cacerzi.
Nivalis
- Current snow village
- Continental
- Main economy: Mining
- Export: Fire crystals, Ore
- Import: Food
- Geological active region
Background
Nivalis is in a mountain region famous for its hot springs. The main economy of Nivalis is mining. The mountains around Nivalis are rich of fire crystals. The crystals cause a lot of vulcanic activity making mining dangerous, but the local miners have learned how to cope with this.
Nivalis exports fire crystals to all other dwellings on the continent. The crystals are used for heating. Although Nivalis is not dependent on fire crystals for heating because of the geothermal activity in the region it is a life-important good for the other villages on the continent. They used to sell their surplus and all metal ores they found while mining for fire crystals to other continents.
The pressure by Argaes to focus the fire crystal trade on them is leaving the village elders in a difficult situation. Should they make more business with Argaes and reduce the fire crystal supply of the other villages in the region or should they keep supplying the continent? Stopping fire crystal deliveries to their fellow countrymen might result in a lot of them freezing to death during the harsh Kaizai winter, but refusing to deal with Argaes might provoke their wraith and might lead to a military occupation of the village resulting in no fire crystals at all for the surrounding area.
Cacerzi
- Fishing village
- Harbor
- Export: Meat, Fish, Fur
- Import: Weapons, fire crystals
Background
Cacerzi is the main food source on the continent. It produces a lot of meat by hunting and fishing which is sold to the other villages. The furs are also a great source of income because they keep the people warm during the winter. But Cacerzi is in dire need of this income because it is dependent on fire crystals from Nivalis to survive the long, cold winter nights.
Castle Frostthorn
- Fortress City
- Build by Argaes to increase influence over the area
- Import: Fire crystals, Ore, Food
- Export: Weapons
Background
Castle Frostthorn is an expedition heavily financed by Argaes. The castle has been built to increase the influence over the area with the goal to make the import of fire crystals and ore from the area more economic and more reliable. The initial goal was to show military presence to discourage raids by bandits on traders and to improve the organisation of the mining economy and thus its productivity.
Unfortunately the Argaes authority underestimated the harsh conditions of the area and thus the costs and efficiency of the project. For that reason Frostthorn is in danger of becomming a big financial disaster. There is a big pressure on the advocats of the project in Argaes and on the local baron of Frostthorn to make the endeavour lucrative. This pressure has recently lead to more harsh treatment of the local residents of the continent bordering tyranny.
Gameplay
The only strangers welcome in Frostthorn are fire crystal traders. Only characters known to the castle or those who possess fire crystals and who claim that they want to sell them are left in. When a character does a quest for the baron of Frostthorn the guards will stop checking him and let him in even when he carries no fire crystals.
The furnance master in the basement administers a huge fire crystal furnance which heats the castle. He will buy fire crystals for an unusual high price, but the amount of fire crystals he buys per hour is limited.
The temple of the castle has a stone altair made from a soul menhir. It has the same function as a natural one.
The traders in the castle offer high quality weapons and armor - but only when the furnance master has fire crystals in stock.
The baron has a lot of errands to do for committed adventurers. Most are diplomatic missions to the other villages or gathering resources for the castle.
Porthos
Porthos has a number of portals set up by the sages of Kaizei and used by adventurers and merchants from Agraes and Tonori. These portals connect the isolated villages of Kaizei as well as offer quick travel for messengers to Agraes and Tonori. However, like most Astral based magic, the portals aren't perfect. They require regular maintenance on both sides of the portal or they fall into disrepair. Because the magic in them has so greatly weakened, currently they only allow travelers through with no items on them. Due to abuse, the banking system in Kaizei does not allow gold or items to transfer from non-Kaizei areas. However, throughout Kaizei, the banking system operates efficiently, though they need its customers to prove they are trustworthy in order to use their services.
Money itself is used less than hunted goods for exchange purposes. "Shops" tend to need the raw materials to make items, in addition to cash. Besides the gold bank and the item bank, there is a resources exchange where raw materials are bought and sold. Porthos is also home of a prominent fur merchant and cloth tailor. Porthos has one cave leading to Fluffy valley, where most of the fur hunters are stationed. The fur merchant and his company needs help in delivering messages, transporting furs and hunting fluffies for furs.
Beyond Fluffy Valley are the towns of Avalon, Nivalis, Cacerzi and Castle Frosthorn. To get to each location, a series of caves and outposts must be traveled through. Once a player arrives in the spot, they can fulfill a quest for the local sage to open their access to the Portals of Porthos to get around.
