The Little Sister

Nyrian stretches across a vast area roughly 650 kilometers long and 400 kilometers wide. Yet only a small portion of it is inhabited: the Nyrian Plain, a core region about 60 by 120 kilometers in size, enclosed by the two mighty ice walls Yodunskuld and Ismurna. Beyond these borders lies a vast, uninhabited icy landscape—a realm of cold and storm, roughly ten times larger than the plain itself. It is surrounded by the arctic island zone, whose jagged waters partially freeze during especially cold periods. While no continuous ice sheet forms, isolated frozen sections do appear. In areas where the sea remains in constant motion due to the tides of the two moons, however, such ice fields do not exist—and this applies to most of the zone.   Far out, in the midst of this wild island zone, lies a massive iceberg that the Frost People call the Little Sister. It rises like a white colossus from the sea, a solitary sentinel far from the main plain, and has stood unmoved in its place for millennia. Measuring over 140 kilometers in length and about 80 kilometers at its widest point, it is extraordinary even by arctic standards. It likely broke off from Nyrian many thousands of years ago and drifted away before running aground on a shoal or an underwater mountain. Its ice cliffs rise 20 meters above the water’s surface, suggesting it extends more than 150 meters deep beneath the waves.   Since the arrival of the Frost People after the Great Exodus over two thousand years ago, it has changed very little. The cold of the arctic zone prevents any significant melting, allowing the colossus to remain largely intact. Depending on the season, it grows or shrinks slightly, but these changes are barely noticeable.   From a distance, its surface appears flat, but in reality it is gently undulating and crisscrossed by deep fissures. In some places, the ancient ice glows with a bluish hue, as if it held the frozen heart of a long-forgotten age. Here, in this remote and difficult-to-access environment, lies another breeding ground of the Snovingars—a clear sign that the Little Sister once belonged to the Nyrian Plain.