Winter, the season that begins with the solstice and fades with the equinox, transforms the land with its icy grip. Depending on the region, it brings bitter cold, slush, sleet, hail, snow, and unrelenting ice. Tropical zones, blessed with warmth, rarely know such phenomena, but temperate, subarctic, and polar lands endure an entirely different tale. These regions can become desolate under thick blankets of snow, battered by blizzards, and isolated by frozen rivers and seas – natural lifelines for trade and travel that winter silences.
The duration of winter depends on the land’s climate, supernatural influences, or even magical interferences. Temperate regions face about three months of chill, while the arctic or subarctic zones can endure up to nine months of unyielding cold. Subtropical and tropical areas may escape winter entirely, basking in their perpetual warmth.
Winter and the Cycle of Life
Winter is often seen as a season of decay and dormancy. Many plants and animals retreat into suspended states, waiting for spring’s renewal to awaken the world once more. To those living in or traversing wintry realms, the hazards are many: bone-chilling temperatures, relentless snowstorms, blizzards, and unseen dangers lying beneath the snow’s icy veil. These lands are unforgiving, often remote, and demand resilience to survive.
The Polar Wastes
Polar regions, shaped by their proximity to the axis of the world, expand and contract with the seasons. These zones are defined by their treacherous terrain – floating glaciers, jagged mountains, frozen tundras, and ever-frozen landscapes. The seas surrounding them freeze into drifting sheets of ice, thick enough to endure the winter’s wrath yet fragile in its short-lived summer.
Within the heart of these icy domains lies the ice cap, a realm where temperatures never rise above freezing, blanketed by eternal frost. For a brief month each year, some parts of the polar regions thaw just enough to support meadows of hardy vegetation, offering sustenance for animals and explorers alike. Life here is sparse but remarkable, with walruses, seals, polar bears, and herds of caribou navigating this extreme environment.
Day and Night Eternal
In the polar regions, summer and winter bring their own extremes. The Everlasting Day of summer bathes the land in 24-hour sunlight, while the Eternal Twilight of winter casts it into unbroken darkness. The polar circle, an imaginary line, marks where these phenomena unfold, capturing the stark duality of light and shadow.
The Wrath of Magic and Nature
Powerful magic can twist winter’s natural fury into something even more devastating. The spell dire winter summons a blizzard of supernatural cold, blanketing an area in relentless snow and winds while dealing unprotected creatures deadly harm. Likewise, an ice age – whether natural or conjured by ancient spells – ushers in apocalyptic cold, spreading glaciers across once-temperate lands, obliterating vegetation, wildlife, and civilizations in its path.
An ice age transforms the world into an unrelenting frozen expanse. Only the hardiest creatures and most resourceful beings can hope to survive the prolonged freeze. Some, however, wield magic capable of bringing such devastation to life, creating glaciers that consume tropical and temperate zones alike.
Hidden Dangers Beneath the Ice
The labyrinths of snow and ice carved by natural forces or ancient magic hold perils for any who dare enter. Twisting tunnels and caverns lack the logic of design, confusing even the most seasoned travelers. Icy stalactites and stalagmites, frost-covered stone, and frozen waterways blend into a cold monotony, making it easy to lose one’s way.
These natural catacombs are far from lifeless. Collapsing ice, deadly falls, and unseen predators – both mundane and magical – lurk within. Primitive tribes, humanoid or monstrous, may shelter here, seeking reprieve from the endless cold. Occasionally, such natural caverns connect to ancient, worked structures, blending the untouched wilderness with the remnants of forgotten civilizations.
The Relentless Chill
Whether in the polar wastes or a snowbound valley, winter’s reach is unyielding. It shapes the land, challenges its inhabitants, and serves as a powerful reminder of the world’s extremes. In lands dominated by frost and ice, survival is not guaranteed -it is earned through ingenuity, strength, and sheer will.
The Abyss: Thanatos and the Ice Wastes
The 113th layer of the Abyss, Thanatos, is a desolate and frigid wasteland dominated by ice and despair. The air is thin, the cold biting, and the landscape teems with both undead and tanar’ri, drawn by the plane’s minor negative-dominant trait. At the heart of this frozen expanse lies Naratyr, a city hewn from the icy surface of a vast, frozen sea, its streets echoing with the quiet menace of the restless dead.
On the 23rd layer of the Abyss, the Ice Wastes stretch for miles under the rule of Kostchtchie, the demon prince of frost giants. This bitterly cold plane, carved from ice thousands of feet thick, is home to the fearsome giants who serve their master with unflinching loyalty. At its core stands the Glacier Citadel, a fortress embedded in ice and perched between two towering peaks. Within its frozen halls, Kostchtchie’s frost giant mages command magic as cold and brutal as the plane itself.
The Nine Hells: Stygia and Cania
In the Fifth Hell, Stygia, an unforgiving sea of jagged ice floes and drifting icebergs defines the landscape. The River Styx, a sliver of open water, snakes through this frozen expanse, though its course is fraught with peril. Icebergs, crashing floes, and fiendish sharks make travel treacherous. Overhead, bolts of lightning split the dark skies, endangering even the most seasoned fliers. At the center of this icy realm stands Tantlin, the City of Ice, built upon a vast ice floe. Within Tantlin’s harbor lies the frozen tomb of Levistus, Stygia’s ruler, encased in an enormous iceberg, eternally bound yet ominously present.
Further into Hell, the Eighth layer, Cania, is an icy domain where glaciers race across the land like living juggernauts. Their relentless collisions unleash avalanches of snow and ice, remaking the landscape with terrifying speed. Towering above the chaos is Mephistar, a citadel perched atop a colossal glacier that shifts and grinds at the whim of Mephistopheles, the archdevil ruler of Cania. The entire plane is a testament to his mastery of ice, magic, and calculated cruelty.
Elemental Planes of Ice and Cold
Even the Elemental Planes harbor icy realms where winter’s grip is absolute. In the Elemental Planes of Air and Water, vast regions of frozen expanse dominate the landscape. Endless storms of snow and ice rage, unleashing deadly phenomena such as rustsnow, death hail, and razor ice, which tear through both air and water with lethal precision.
