Iyraclea

"The Ice Queen built her palace in the Great Glacier after the fashion of lost Jhothûn and long sought its secrets, styling herself its new Empress."

- A giant legend.

Iyraclea, or simply the Ice Queen, was a female human cleric, divine disciple, and hierophant of Auril the Frostmaiden living within the Great Glacier. Ancient and mighty, she was the self-proclaimed Ice Queen of the glacier. She was the Chosen of Auril by 1373 DR.

History
Formerly of Halruaa, Iyraclea settled in the Great Glacier some time before the 6th century DR, proclaiming herself to be the most powerful cleric of Auril even then and styling herself "the Ice Queen". In time, she constructed an ice castle and assembled a monstrous army, including some ice devils.

Eventually, out of Myth Ondath, a city renowned for peace and harmony between races, came explorers who provoked the rage of the Ice Queen. She sent her armies against the pacifist city countless times, but the magical defenses of the mythal always turned aside her spells. Seeking a way to bypass these wards, she learned of a powerful artifact from another plane. Apparently with the assistance of Auril herself, Iyraclea stole the Gatekeeper's Crystal from the hands of the Gatekeeper in the Outlands.

In Eleint of the Year of Burning Skies, 632 DR, she sent an army commanded by the lich Vrandak the Burnished, her greatest general, to lay siege to Myth Ondath for one final assault. She also raised great winter storms that lashed the city throughout the year, in an attack called the Ice Queen's Winter. Auril, pleased, granted her more powerful cold magic and Iyraclea's might became known far and wide. The Great Glacier itself began to swell.

In the Year of Chasms, 633 DR, after an 11-month-long siege, Iyraclea sent Vrandak to sneak into the city. Using two pieces of the Gatekeeper's Crystal, Vrandak nullified the Eldathyn priests' power to turn undead as well as all necromantic magic for 50 miles (80 kilometers). Together, Iyraclea and Vrandak used the whole Gatekeeper's Crystal to destroy the city of Myth Ondath, including its mythal. However, the power of the artifact was too great and Iyraclea's army and her general Vrandak also vanished during the destruction, and the pieces of the Gatekeeper's Crystal were scattered and lost.

In the Year of Rogue Dragons, 1373 DR, Sammaster, master of the Cult of the Dragon, who had triggered a premature Rage of Dragons that year, proposed an alliance to Iyraclea, and she agreed. Sammaster sent to her the white dragon dracolich Zethrindor and a host of dragons. Zethrindor helped Iyraclea to conquer all the Great Glacier and afterward they marched over Sossal. The conquest of the druidic nation proceeded well until Brimstone approached Zethrindor, whispering that Iyraclea plotted to betray Sammaster with power hidden in ruins in the Novularond Mountains. Soon, the white dracolich went to the ruins hoping to achieve that power for himself. Iyraclea also discovered that information and marched to the same location. Dorn Graybrook's adventuring party arrived at the ruins, and a terrible three-sided-battle broke out. Zethrindor killed the Ice Witch during the fighting.

After Iyraclea's death, Auril elevated her to become one of her exarchs and set her to work foiling the plots of Akadi's spies within the Land Under Eternal Ice.

Personality
Iyraclea was almost the personification of the goddess Auril's cold fury.

Description
Iyraclea had long golden-hued hair. Her eyes had the color of moonlit snow; Elminster considered her one of only six women he'd known to have eyes of this hue. Her skin bore gray and white sigils of Auril's holy symbol.

Activities
Iyraclea was the ruler of the Great Glacier. Serving Auril's demands, she made ceaseless assaults on the land of Sossal.

Around 1372 DR, Iyraclea was known for her habit of using magic to kidnap healthy young wizards from Sossal, Damara, and Vaasa, for an unknown but no doubt evil purpose. Some wondered if she stole their life essences to extend her own unnatural lifespan, while others feared she was building an army of mages, who served her through loyalty or some form of coercion. Others dreaded that she was harnessing their magical power to extend the Great Glacier into the Cold Lands once more.

Iyraclea was very interested in discovering the lost giant civilization of Jhothûn, which was thought to be buried somewhere below the Great Glacier. One of her gelugon servants, Tosvin, had actually discovered a portal leading to one of the cities of Jhothûn, but he kept his discovery from her.

Abilities
As a high-ranking cleric, she wielded great divine magic, commanding the domains of Air, Storm, and Water. She created a few mighty spells of her own: cold claws, ice fist, and icerazor.

She once used a miracle to make herself utterly immune to the effects of cold.

As a divine disciple of Auril, she was resistant to divine magic and the magic of outsider creatures; she could communicate telepathically with all outsiders that either served her goddess or were neutral evil, to a distance of 60 feet (18 meters); and could grant the use of her spells to her servants. Furthermore, she had transcended her natural form to become an outsider, a creature of the divine, herself, becoming resistant to fire and electricity, able to ward herself with protection from good, and highly influential with fellow followers of Auril.

As a hierophant, her spells were more powerful, her negative energy spells were more potent against neutral good beings, and her arm's-reach spells could hit foes up to 30 feet (9 meters) away. Furthermore, she could cast cone of cold and ice storm innately, a few times a day.

She was somehow unnaturally long-lived.

In addition to her skills as a priestess, spell-wielder, and a ruler, she was also a capable warrior, an expert in wilderness lore and a survival, and a crafter of magical weapons and armors.

Possessions
Iyraclea bore a staff of frost, though it lacked the wall of frost power. She went into battle wielding a +3 icy burst battleaxe, +5 mighty icy burst composite shortbow with +5 arrows, carrying +5 moderate fortification large steel shield, and wearing +5 fire resistance full plate. She also wore a ring of evasion and a ring of freedom of movement, an amulet of natural armor +3, a cloak of resistance +2, and a periapt of wisdom +6. She also owned and made use of a rod of absorption, a rod of flame extinguishing, and a minor circlet of blasting.

Base
Iyraclea dwelt in or beneath a castle of sculpted ice lying somewhere in the northernmost part Great Glacier, but few ever saw it and lived to speak of it.

Relations
The Ice Queen was served by a number of ice devils, or gelugons, known as the "Icy Claws of Iyraclea".

Elminster once knew Iyraclea. He considered her as one candidate for Augury 14 of the Caleph Auguries, telling of a woman with eyes of moonlit snow, whose anger would cause pain to the land, but he doubted she would destroy the Realms.

Appearances

 * The Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy
 * The Ruin