Mod Kulden

The Dominion of Mod Kulden is a harsh land best for known for its bitterly cold climate, its mechanical engineering, and the inhospitable terrain which both protects and provides for the northern kingdom. Of the three kingdoms, Mod Kulden has the least access to arable land. Aside from some southwestern mountain valleys amenable to farming, it relies upon sea trade and good relations with the pirates of the Bay of Ash in order to import food from distant foreign ports. Fortunately for the Queen of Mod Kulden, however, the mountains of the north yield a bounty of other resources with which to trade.

The capital of Den Hoje Faestning is a mountain fastness occupied only once during the kingdom's centuries of history. The kingdom's outer borders are no less formidable, with mountain passes the only way of entry for a marching army. As a consequence of this isolation and the need to innovate in order to mine more profitably, Mod Kulden's airship infrastructure is the best on the continent, all built rapidly within the last half century. Its people are also progressive, insofar as women have more rights than in other kingdoms, but the overall culture still greatly values strength and feats of glory. That said, however, the kingdom still relies upon a slave economy and its mining operations require vast amounts of labour serving in often deadly conditions.

The southern border of Mod Kulden comes nearest the Ringward at the town of Den Floderband. Alongside the towers Krad and Værn, the Ringward keep was once part of a series of Mod Kulden defenses before it was sold in the post-war negotiations decades ago. To the west lies the Shadowlands, a long and wild valley between two great mountain ranges where monsters and dragons still reside. Far to the east is the fortress city of Den Far Elskar, where the easiest overland route into the kingdom will inevitably come up against the challenge of besieging its walls in a country gripped in something that, to southerners, at least, would feel like eternal winter. Everywhere in the kingdom, whether in the mountains or upon the permanently frozen ice plain in the far north, skiing and skating and other uniquely wintry sports are popular. Mules are more common than horses.

The Queen of Mod Kulden is a pregnant woman who shows no signs of slowing down, neither from her condition nor from the untimely death of her husband at very nearly the same time as the death of the ruler of Capala Calor. Rumours continue to swirl that the two deaths were somehow connected and not as accidental as they have been purported to be.