It is the Year of the Wolf, in the Cycle of the Eagle. To the Wen, all is as it should be. To the Ayomme, there is much to decide. No one knows what will come but this is the time.

Image changed to a JPG file by "Tamahome," thank you

Welcome to the Ice River Valley.

This map centers on Hengst’s Landing on the shores of Glacier Lake at the head of navigation of the mighty Ice River. At times, it is also called Ice Town, although the locals find that appelation depressing. It's official name is Three Rivers but that is only used on maps made by the Imperial Cartographers. It is here that the river boats unload cargo that goes by mule train and wagons to Minehead at the glacier, one hundred miles farther north and much higher in the mountains. Loads from Minehead transfer here to the ships, boats and barges that take them three hundred miles down the Ice to the cities of the Yu Valley. The Ice River continues going north and, in fact, originates in the same glacier that is a backdrop to Minehead. However, only a canoe or some other small shallow draft vessel could go north of here. There are two little towns on the caravan trail toward Minehead. They are called First Night and High Pass. The climate here is harsh. One can make a crop of barley or millet in the vicinity of the Lake and below with decent reliability. Up around Minehead, it is tough to grow potatos.

The winter runs for four months, called Frost, Cold, Frozen and Dead in the Ayomme (pronounced Ah-YO-me, with a strong accent on the second syllable) language. In the winter, travel becomes nearly impossible except for the hunters who keep dog teams. The winter storms cover the houses with snow and ice and people die of the cold, even right in the towns. The river does not freeze reliably enough for land-type travel but becomes impassible for boats. The first part of spring is beautiful on land. The red deer start up from the lowlands into the mountains and every predator, especially man, seeks to fatten up on that bounty. The river takes longer to recover from Winter and this month, called Tumble, is one of huge volumes of water and ice fragments in the river. During the next month, Return, the river becomes navigable, flowers and blossoms increase, the red deer drop their fawns, etc. It is the usual nature-film spring. The foot-long blue trout have their annual journey north of the lake to breed in the mountain shallows. Fishermen have their busiest season as the biggest crop of these mountains is brought in. Summer starts with the next month, Bug. The season is more pleasant than the name would indicate. Bug is usually pretty soft and could easily be grouped with spring rather than summer. Scorch is, mercifully, the only real hot month and is fairly short. The first month of fall is Yellow, for the first trees changing. It is a often a pleasant season and many harvests come due. Storm is the next month of autumn and is not so good, however travel is still quite common. Quiet is the next month of autumn and often lives up to its name. However, when there IS a storm during Quiet, it is usually a killer. Activity during Quiet is rather intense because the next month, the last one of autumn, is Wind and it is not pretty. If the trees aren’t bare by the beginning of this month, Wind takes care of that. Travel and other activities don’t really slow down during Wind and sometimes continue a week or two into Frost. This campaign is starting in the third week of Return. Normal activities have had a bit under a month to resume except that the river boats have only been active for a week. It was a milder winter than some. Almost no one in Hengst’s Landing iteslf died directly from the cold.

The people of this valley are Ayomme mountaineers with a few people of Wen stock. The Ayomme have lived in this and adjacent valleys for many years. At one time, they occupied the Yu valley, the lowlands to the south and some of the people there are of full or partial Ayomme descent. However, the language and culture of the Ayomme has retracted to these few square miles. The Ayomme were traditionally ruled by a loose council of Elders, both men and women. In war or some other terrible emergency, the Elders would choose a leader who could make quick decisions in their name. The Elders would retain the right to direct long-term policy. Their deities seem to be similarly organized with no over-all father figure. However, there is a tradition that the War God, Datch, a woman, has taken control in emergencies and given back the staff of leadership peacefully. On the other hand, there is another tale in which an earlier War God, Sadoorn, had to be tricked into giving back the rod and was then imprisoned by the Gods who had tricked him. There is a trickle of opinion in various circles that releasing Sadoorn, while dangerous and perhaps inadvisable would give the Ayomme a needed advantage in the strggle with the Wen. The Council of Elders system ended when the Ayomme holdings in the lowlands were absorbed into the Second Wen Empire; that was four hundred years ago. It took another fifty years for the Wen to take the highlands. There have been three uprisings. The first. Two hundred eighty years ago, was massive and, at first, successful. It coincided with the transition struggles that led to the Third Wen Empire. However, the new Emperor went back immediately on his promise to respect Ayomme independence. The second Ayomme uprising coincided with the last great Ythri attack on the Empire, two hundred years ago. The revolt failed and the allies were split, apparently for good. The last insurrection, one hundred fifty years ago, was the result of the death struggles of the Third Empire. Seeing this as the end of the Wen, the Ayonne in the Ice Valley rose. However, they got no support from the more populace areas where the former Ayomme had become loyal Imperial citizens and the Empire took back control with apparent ease. Those Ayomme who still govern themselves in small matters, under the direction of the Empire, still use a system of a committee to settle policy and an individual leader to handle emergencies. The Ayomme are ethnically very distinctive. They are large, about as large as the people of Western Europe today, and they have brown, red or dark blond hair and blue, grey or green eyes. They have have moderately pigmented skin but are often deeply tanned. None of these traits are universal among them but a crowd of Ayomme would be easy to tell from a crowd of any of the other peoples in the Empire.

The Wen are the people of the cities and the plains of the vast Wen Empire. They have been a dominant people for close to one thousand years, under four different Empires. Since taking over this area, they have nearly eliminated the Ayomme as a separate people in the lowlands. However, in this valley, they allow quite a bit of what they refer to as Ayomme nostalgia. The Wen have a great deal more of material culture and the arts than the Ayomme. Their favorite art forms are the heroic mural of an ancestral figure and the ode to a recently dead person. They also love music and have a strong taste for Ayomme song. In fact, one way of an Ayomme mountaineer “making it” in the larger society is to become a touring singer. The Wen gods are distant figures and only one is ever really worshiped. Wen philosophers often debate the merits of pure monotheism but tradition maintains the existence of other deities although only High Kaaaph is worshiped actively. There may be mystery cults dedicated to one or more of the other Wen Gods but if we knew it would not be a mystery. The Wen have a caste system that counts all foreigners as low caste. They have no scope for women to live active lives in their culture. The high-caste women are spoiled pets, the low-caste women are often treated like work animals. The Empire does not enforce the system among non-Wen. However, the good opinion of Wen officials and other Wen of power makes aping them very popular. In the lowlands, Wen society is dominated by the Imperial Bureaucracies who rule in the name of the Court. In remote areas, noble families have retained power as well as wealth and the Kaydones Duke rules this valley through his own Bureaucracy. The Kaydones are a good deal more “hands on” than the Imperial Family. Physically, The Wen vary quite a bit but are generally a good deal smaller than the Ayomme. They are naturally pale of complexion but they almost invariably have very dark hair and eyes. It is a sign of low caste to be tanned. There are plenty of Wen in this area who are descended from Ayomme ancestors, perhaps nearly pure. They are legally Wen and have a caste with which to identify and rights in law that are lacking for a cultural Ayomme. There are a few humans in the valley who fit into none of these groups. They are from other parts of the Empire and they are neither numerous or of any position of importance. A few exceptional individuals will be introduced during the course of play. The Gruen are one group that might become more important in the course of a campaign. They are the people who were brought in to work the mines that make this valley so important. Their own mountain home has been part of the Wen Empire since its beginnings, almost a millenia ago. They have their own arragnement with the Empire, called the Gru Compact, that allows them NOT to assimilate and not to be involved with the caste system. They spend little time with non-Gru. At MineHead, the single Gruen frequent their own brothels, although the girls are slaves from all over the Empire. The Gruen do drink in the ordinary taverns and are generally polite but not very outgoing drinking companions. All of them speak passable Trade Wen. No one has ever heard any of them speak Ayomme. They will gladly join in any song at a tavern, lending a hauntingly melodic bass. They will not sing their OWN songs in public. They enjoy Ayomme music very much and often praise it. No one the characters have ever met has ever heard more than a few words in their language. That Gruen women work in the mines is speculated. That there are women and children in the MineHead Gruen community is not doubted. However, they are never seen outside their compound. They are sqaut and powerful folk. They have squarish heads and faces with grey or blue eyes. Their hair is rarely blond, more often brown. They tend to go grey very early. They dress in earth tones and few seem eager to attract anyone’s attention. In game terms, they are clearly halfway between Dwarves and Humans in their attributes and very much like Dwarves in some aspects of their culture. However, there are no Dwarves in this world or in its mythology and the Gruen are considered merely an odd ethnic group by those who think of them at all.

The languages a person in this valley are likely to know are fairly limited in number. The Ayomme have their own language. Ayomme also learn a language called Trade Wen if they have any ambition to speak of. There is no way to advance in life without learning this language of the Empire. Trade Wen is a large and flexible language which incorporates many local terms wherever it is spoken. The Wen almost never learn the Ayomme language, knowing that their subjects will learn theirs. Exceptional Wen who are either scholarly and study the Ayomme or are just very friendly to them will learn the local language. Ayomme who have been absorbed into Wen society and been granted caste status will not learn Ayomme and will avoid using it if they learned it earlier in life. High Wen is only used by a small minority in the Empire, the usual language being Trade Wen. It would be almost unknown for a Ayomme to learn it. One would expect about ten percent of the Wen one meets to speak it at all and most would avoid its formal and difficult tangle of words. On the other hand, it is the only tongue in which one can address an official or noble directly. If one does not speak it, it is expensive to hire an interpreter. The interpreters will only translate from Trade Wen to High Wen, not from Ayomme. There are other dialects of Wen, spoken in various parts of the Inner Empire, but they are irrelevant here. Old Wen, which is actually simpler than High Wen and more like Trade Wen, is a matter of study only. If a document turns up in Old Wen, a reader of Trade Wen is likely to be able to get the “gist” of it. A scholar would have a terrific advantage.

Non-Humans are not found in or near the town. In the northern mountains, there are Ythri of the FireHeart Clan. They have their holds and eyries in the woodland that borders the real mountains. It is said that a few Brunyad live among them in peace. It may be that a few Ayomme can still speak Y-kaa, from the days when men and Ythri were not foes. It is said that many Yth and Ya can speak at least some Ayomme. The Ythri were allies against the Wen invaders. Since then, they have apparently turned either hostile or indifferent to all humans. Beyond the mountains and glaciers to the east is rumored to be a kingdom of Giants with Brunyad to serve them. Their may not be such a kingdom but Giants and Brunyad do raid, on very rare occasion, in the eastern part of the valley. They kill people and break things and take off livestock and captives. There has been no such raid in five years. In the hills to the south there are a few Brunayd but not organized and these small bands have not attacked anyone that we know about in a long time. Nobody has made much of an effort to talk to Giants but some Brunyadu speak Ayomme and some peaceful contact has been made with small groups of Brun.

Much of the wildlife in the Valley would be at home in central or eastern Asia and some in North America. There are tigers, pumas, two sizes of bears, hyenas, wolves, dhole, boars, three sizes of deer, moose, bison on the grassland, wild cattle in the forests, mammoths, rhinos and others. None of these creatures lives on every possible spot on the map and no area has all the kinds. There are rumors of other, more terrible, creatures. Within the town, the chief wildlife problem is the raccoon. Stores of fish are an especial favorite of the ring tailed monsters and there are many stores of fish, smoked, dried, pickled, and fresh, in Hengst's Landing. Only the seasonal frozen fish escape their attentions. Large, aggressive terriers are kept by many people to keep the raccoons out of the food. No one even TRIES to keep them out of the trash. There are no mages THAT powerful in Icetown.

There are several Wen military units garrisoning the valley. A squadron of cavalry, the Second of the 35th Imperial Light Cavalry, consists mostly of Horse Nomads from the tamer tribes on the western frontier of the Empire. Their officers are all Soldier-Caste Wen and treat them very harshly. In return, they are as vicious as they can get away with in dealing with offenders or suspected offenders or anyone who crosses their path. A famous line infantry regiment, The 62nd Imperial Infantry of the Line, is stationed near Hengst’s Landing itself at this time. It is a long-service outfit from within the Inner Empire. The soldiers are Kum Dao from an area long held by the Empire. They are mostly Peasant Caste, officially assimilated but not very political. Their officers are Soldier Caste, both Wen and Kum Dao. They have been in the valley for a long time and have developed some friendly relationships with the locals. However, they are loyal to the Empire. The 61st Imperial Line Infantry is presently located up at MineHead. This unit consists of Peasant class enlisted men from the heart of the Empire, the Wen homeland and Soldier Caste officers. They are not as friendly to the locals as the 42nd tends to be but they are not particularly harsh, either. Lastly, the road to and from the mine and the two little towns along the way are patrolled by mounted units from the 16th Imperial Kodeln Foot. These men fight on foot but are mounted to travel the long road that they must patrol. They are Kodeln warriors from an area that was pacified six hundred years ago, after great difficulty. They are somewhat similar to the Ayomme in size and general coloring but are distinguished by darker hair. A large hooked nose is fairly common among the Kodeln. While such a nose is not unknown among the Ayomme, it has become a bone of contention between these soldiers and the locals. The soldiers in this regiment are all assimilated as Soldier Caste. Their officers are mostly Kodeln with a few of the higher ranks being Wen. They are fiercely loyal to their concept of the Empire and they have had bad relations, with many exceptions, with the Aymomme.