Storybook - Frozen in Time
To the west of Beluslan lies a frozen city, once known as Kurngalfberg the Golden. In the days before the Cataclysm, it was a hub of learning, trade and culture exceeding all other cities of Atreia in prosperity.
Kurngalfberg was not the first city to occupy the land. It was founded on the ruins of a Balaur city reduced to rubble during a violent clash between the Balaur and the Twelve Empyrean Lords.
Even in its ruined state, the site drew settlers. Under the Lords' protection, newly ascended Daevas drew on an extraordinarily powerful flow of Aether, devising sophisticated devices to build a city more splendid than any ever seen before.
Constructed mainly from sandstone, the "Golden city" originally took it's name from that material, but it came to mean much more.
Sorcerers built mighty towers stretching high into the sky from which to conduct their arcane studies and experiments. Daevas of Construction carved dwellings into the rocky mountainside, erected enormous walls to repel enemies, and set magnificent floating gardens and temples to wander the air.
What had been a silent ruin now was rich with life.
Many legendary phenomena are associated with Kurngalfberg's Aetheric current. Magical experiments and items infused with Aether recorded abnormally high rates of success.
Most striking of all, records kept over several years confirmed that children born in Kurngalfberg were more likely to ascend as Daevas. At first, the citizens believed they were simply lucky, or blessed--they soon realised that this was not mere chance.
Esekiel, the city's priest, secretly hired scholars to find the true source of this power. There are many rumours about what they discovered, but nothing is known for certain. The research vanished in the destruction of Kurngalfberg.
The height of Kurngalfberg's glory was also the end of the Millennium War. The Twelve Empyrean Lords' attempt to make peace with the Balaur, now known as the disaster called the Cataclysm.
Attacked in the place designated for the peace conference, the Balaur Lords bellowed that they were trapped, and those waiting outside the Aetheric Field charged the Tower of Aion.
The outer hordes trampled through many Human cities and temples on their way to the Tower. Both their occupants and many legions of Daevas tried in vain to slow their onslaught.
Kurngalfberg the Golden was far from the path of the Balaur hordes. The citizens, safe behind their great walls, sighed in relief.
As if in mockery of their optimism, an immense blue dragon came winging towards Kurngalfberg from out of the east. History records its name as Ereshkigal.
The dragon flew over the city, its words reverberating across the sky--"You have dared to touch it. I shall never forgive you." His next breath brought howling gales, swirling wintry flakes, and lacerating shards of ice.
The terrified citizens watched the storm wrought by the breath of Ereshkigal descend. The snow fell so thick and fast that the city and its occupants alike were entombed.
When those few Daevas who survived the Tower's destruction returned, Kurngalfberg was nothing but ice under a permanent snowstorm.
The breath of Ereshkigal hovered over the city as a never-ending testament to his mysterious wrath.
Today, Kurngalfberg the Frozen is the coldest place in all Beluslan. No scholar can say why Ereshkigal cursed the city.
From the dragon's words, we might guess that a powerful artefact lay beneath the city which the Dragon Lord wished to keep undiscovered. This would account for the unusually strong Aetheric flow.
Some even theorize that he punished Kurngalfberg because Esekiel was on the verge of claiming the artefact's power for himself.
Many treasure hunters and archaeologists have set out for Beluslan, fired by dreams of unearthing Esekiel's documents and the dread artefact.
All of their dreams have come to nothing. Far from digging up treasure, they have not chipped so much as a small hole in the ice.
Even Daevas of Flame cannot turn aside the ice, though they continue to try. With every passing day, Kurngalfberg recedes even further into oblivion.
