Thawlmar
A coastal settlement revered for its abundant fishing resources.
Thawlmar is a coastal fishing outpost established along a rare stretch of southern shoreline where geothermal activity prevents nearshore waters from freezing. Unlike most of the planet’s coastlines, where sea ice encroaches year-round, the water here remains cold but navigable during the warmer half of the cycle.
This accessibility has made Thawlmar a critical waypoint for fishing, hunting, and preservation efforts before the arrival of the Hard Time.
The settlement is anchored within a long coastal cliff where waves have carved a series of deep natural hollows and vertical fissures. Over time, the inhabitants have expanded these features into multi-tiered living spaces using harvested glacial ice, driftwood, and the bones of large sea creatures.
Each structure begins with the existing stone: ice blocks are carved off nearby floes, cut to size with flint saws, and mortared together with slush to form domes, storage nooks, and façade walls pressed tight into the cliff face. These are reinforced with bone trusses or timber frames where loads need to be carried across open spans. Some chambers are sealed off entirely and used as insulated smokehouses or storage vaults. Others are left open to the sea air, functioning as workspaces for gutting, salting, or skinning.
Above the caverns, timber scaffolding extends outward in layered platforms, lashed together with seal-hide cords and pinned into the ice-bound rock with frozen tendon bolts. These platforms support walkways, lookouts, and racks for drying skins, fish, and meat. Ramps and ladders connect the vertical levels, with certain paths chiselled directly into the cliff itself, smoothed by generations of foot traffic and frequent rebuilds after storms.
Every few cycles, the region is hit by severe weather events that batter the coast with ice surges, tidal waves, and freezing gales. Entire sections of Thawlmar are often sheared away. These events are not merely destructive; they also leave behind thick slabs of sea ice that can be reshaped into foundations for future use. The people who return to Thawlmar each warm season do so expecting to rebuild.
The result is a layered and transient village: half-grown from the planet, half-extruded from seasonal effort, and wholly impermanent by necessity.
Fishing in these waters is highly productive. During the viable months, communities harvest bonefish, tusk eels, reef-shredders, and hard-shelled crustaceans that thrive along the thermally influenced ridges. Larger sea mammals such as longseal and low-diving blubbers are also hunted for their dense fat, meat, and pelts. Salted and brined stores are packed into carved ice-cellars, and smoking is done in vented stone chambers away from structural ice to prevent melt damage.
Thawlmar is not continuously inhabited. Its population swells during the harvest season, when families and crews arrive from inland to fish, process, and store provisions. As the Hard Time approaches and the storms intensify, the settlement is abandoned. Only the icebound remnants remain, waiting to be re-inhabited and reshaped when the seas thaw again.
This accessibility has made Thawlmar a critical waypoint for fishing, hunting, and preservation efforts before the arrival of the Hard Time.
The settlement is anchored within a long coastal cliff where waves have carved a series of deep natural hollows and vertical fissures. Over time, the inhabitants have expanded these features into multi-tiered living spaces using harvested glacial ice, driftwood, and the bones of large sea creatures.
Each structure begins with the existing stone: ice blocks are carved off nearby floes, cut to size with flint saws, and mortared together with slush to form domes, storage nooks, and façade walls pressed tight into the cliff face. These are reinforced with bone trusses or timber frames where loads need to be carried across open spans. Some chambers are sealed off entirely and used as insulated smokehouses or storage vaults. Others are left open to the sea air, functioning as workspaces for gutting, salting, or skinning.
Above the caverns, timber scaffolding extends outward in layered platforms, lashed together with seal-hide cords and pinned into the ice-bound rock with frozen tendon bolts. These platforms support walkways, lookouts, and racks for drying skins, fish, and meat. Ramps and ladders connect the vertical levels, with certain paths chiselled directly into the cliff itself, smoothed by generations of foot traffic and frequent rebuilds after storms.
Every few cycles, the region is hit by severe weather events that batter the coast with ice surges, tidal waves, and freezing gales. Entire sections of Thawlmar are often sheared away. These events are not merely destructive; they also leave behind thick slabs of sea ice that can be reshaped into foundations for future use. The people who return to Thawlmar each warm season do so expecting to rebuild.
The result is a layered and transient village: half-grown from the planet, half-extruded from seasonal effort, and wholly impermanent by necessity.
Fishing in these waters is highly productive. During the viable months, communities harvest bonefish, tusk eels, reef-shredders, and hard-shelled crustaceans that thrive along the thermally influenced ridges. Larger sea mammals such as longseal and low-diving blubbers are also hunted for their dense fat, meat, and pelts. Salted and brined stores are packed into carved ice-cellars, and smoking is done in vented stone chambers away from structural ice to prevent melt damage.
Thawlmar is not continuously inhabited. Its population swells during the harvest season, when families and crews arrive from inland to fish, process, and store provisions. As the Hard Time approaches and the storms intensify, the settlement is abandoned. Only the icebound remnants remain, waiting to be re-inhabited and reshaped when the seas thaw again.
A seasonal cliffside settlement carved into sea-caves and rebuilt after each storm cycle, Thawlmar is known for its bone-and-ice structures, drying racks, and abundant coldwater fisheries.
Type
Village
