The Winter Islands

The Winter Islands are a bizarre oddity, even among the dark and twisted nature of the eight realms. 

These hidden lands have been cut off from the main realms in the physical sense, surrounded on all sides by the vast black ocean. Many ships, crafts, winged beasts and crazy contraptions have all ventured out in an attempt to chart the surrounding body of water, yet all that pass from view of the distant horizon never make their destinations and the only ones to have returned are the ones that return in pieces, washed up along the shores or smashed against the rocks.

It is widely believed that these winter lands are located in some dead space between Ghyran and Ghur- possible in the in-between- The space that exists between two connected realms gates. The only challenge to this theory is the heavenly bodies that hang in the night sky- Even on the worst of nights, the satellites can be seen by all, and at least one moon is clearly visible and occupied; with strange green lights emanating throughout the long, cold nights. The freeguild astronomers that take watch of the heavens have little knowledge of the horrors that await them, should their gaze venture to the wrong side of that moon. But after years of study, those lights continue to glow brighter and maybe even nearer…

Three colossal islands make up the largest land masses of the winter islands, though many other much smaller islands lay dotted around each of the main islands.  

The center island, named Gorgades, is the largest of the three and the most populated. At almost three times the size of the world that was, even the most well-travelled of its inhabitants never live to see more than a fraction of it. The landscape was once lush and green but is now mostly hard and frozen, the aftereffects of the great calamity that not long befell the realm. It was here where the remnants of both the dwarven and human refugees of the old world found themselves after stepping into the great machine and avoiding the fate of their brethren.

The histories of the Islands can be unreliable, at best. Much has been lost to time and even more has been lost to the will of chaos. What follows is a brief history of the winter islands: From the end times of the-world-that-was, too the more recent rise of civilisations and their coming wars. The reopening of the realm gates has again connected The Winter Islands to the eight realms, but along with them, old grudges return, ancient enemies once again clash and not everyone is so eager to meet their so-called god …


Histories of The Winter Islands
 
The Old World:

The Great Machine: 

Very little on the great machine was ever recorded.  The only surviving record of it in any dwarven manuscript was a single entry in the book of grudges; along the name of the runesmith who was charged with activating it during the end times. Most of the remaining accounts of the great machine have all been passed down through the dwarf clans, but they are nothing more than forge-side stories.

 It was said that the great machine was a gigantic block of smooth obsidian, shaped as if it was a great doorway, but as if it had been permanently sealed shut. There were no visible operational means, yet at the slightest touch, the machine would be as if it had come alive, the turning of huge cogs could be heard far deeper inside than the visible size of the machine would have suggested, and the smooth surface of the stone would begin to shimmer. From the center outward, an aethereal green-blue glow would slowly spread, creeping like some great cold flame.  It was believed to be one of many artefacts confiscated by the Dwarves of the Krag mountains, taken from their chaos brethren during the long and almost ceaseless war between them.

The great machine was finally put to use during the end times, at the very end of the world that was. With the Kingdom of the Krag mountains facing annihilation, the machine was activated, with the stone surface melting away into a great portal, and the dwarves, along with the few human settlements whose alliance had still held in these final days, stepped through this portal and found themselves standing in a great cannon, surrounded by the lush and untouched landscapes of what was to be later known as the winter islands.

 It is now widely believed that it was early form of realm gate, though how it was possible to activate and use from the old world is still lost on the greatest minds of today. Some theorise that is wasn’t a realm gate, but rather a corrupted portal, tainted with the magics of chaos, that allowed those escaping to cross through the realm of chaos and had flung them into this new world, where as others believe that the realm gate is yet to be created, it’s appearance in the old world an anomaly of time.

 
The Age of Myth:

The Druchii Civil War 








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The Rise of the Dead 
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A New Machine
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An Empire Returned
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The Old Enemy
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City of the Damned
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The Aftermath
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The Men of God
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The New Age