The Northern Stretches

"I hope this damn ice gets a move on - I'm freezing my ass off here!"

"Don't speak too soon, Learmund, lest the ice amend it's defiance of gravity and make a sudden change of direction..."
 * - Famed discorse between Learmund the Great (704PR-801PR) and Yavuln Farn (678PR-760PR) in "The Folly of Man: Adventures and Misadventues"

Ice Plains
The Ice plains are long stretches of sheet ice with incredible durability and unpredictable behaviours. It is thought that the sheets of ice were magically enhanced during the Period of Ruination in such a way that they frequently ascend or descend thousands of feet into the air and sea.

The odd nature of the Ice Plains have resulted into a constantly shifting landscape in which a straight path between two suspended ice-sheets might suddenly become a race to reach the next sheet of ice before the sheets separate.

Isolation
Due to the odd nature of the Ice Plains, The Northern Stretches are wholly separated from the rest of Varia for the majority of the time. Occasionally, an ice sheet on the south of the Northern Stretches will descend low enough for waiting travellers to "board it" and ride it up to the rest of the Ice Plains, though this only occurs for periods of hours over the space of weeks.

Getting There
For one to reach The Northern Stretches, a traveller must first cross either The Frozen Wastes or otherwise navigate across The Broken Spine. Following either instance, a traveller shall reach the ice-strewn White Sea, and be able to see the underbelly of The Northern Stretches.

A hopeful traveller must then wait, sometimes for periods of weeks at a time, for one of the great ice sheets to descend from the sky and crash into the White Sea. This can be incredibly dangerous for travellers unprepared for the sudden influx of icy water, and it is not uncommon for surprised travellers to be swept away beneath the icy waves or be crushed by ice burgs.

Those surviving travellers still wishing to ascend to The Northern Stretches must then wait - sometimes for days or weeks - for the descended ice sheet to rise out of the White Sea again. The ascent and descent of ice sheets is slow, and as such, a prepared traveller should have time to gather their belongings and make their way by foot to the ice sheet with little difficulty.

Crossing the Ice Plains
The ice plains which make up the Northern Stretches pose no small difficulty to unsuspecting travellers. As the land is entirely ice, and heavily sloped in some regions, travelling with conventional footwear is ill advised. Furthermore, the unpredictable ascents and descents of the ice plains mean that travellers should be equipped with some form of magical relocation ability, lest they find themselves descending into the White Sea unexpectedly.

Surviving
Surviving in the Northern Stretches is no easy matter. Perhaps the easiest method of survival is to enlist the help of a Northmen guide, though this is not a foolproof means of survival as even those long-term inhabitants of the Northern Stretches are not invincible to the unpredictable ways of the ice sheets.