At the same time, far away, cold winds were assaulting the world, and a murderous blizzard was raging across a desolate wasteland.
Far in the distance, the outskirts of a tall mountain chain were barely visible, rising above the horizon like a thin black line. They were shrouded in clouds of ash that rose from the depths of ancient volcanoes, their boundless heat keeping the blizzard at bay.
There were the lands west of Ravenheart, where lethal cold reigned.
On the very edge of the frigid wasteland, a chain of outposts had been built from ice, guarding the lands of the humans from the beings that dwelled in the snow. They had been home to transient garrisons of Awakened warriors and sheltered the scouts who would dive into the blizzards from time to time… but now, the ice strongholds stood empty and forlorn, dead silence shrouding their battlements.
