Karffbadh

"The city of Karffbadh, seat of the Satrap of the Moving Ice, loyal servant of the Emperor of Jhothûn. May the qorrash smile upon it and nurture its mighty works, and keep the Satrap firm in loyalty. From thence shall the power of the Emperor extend to the west."

- An inscription at the portal to Karffbadh within the palace of the Emperors in Jhothûn.

Karffbadh was the capital of one of the satrapies of the ancient Jhothûn Empire of giants.

Geography
The city of Karffbadh once sat on the tip of a penisula extending west from what would later be called Icewind Dale.

Description
While once a great city, by 1372 DR, all that remained was a shrine of five green standing stones. These stones acted as a portal to Choshein, a sister city of the Empire, and to the capital of Jhothûn. Activating the portal required simply touching one of the stones. The default destination was Choshein, but one could travel to the city of Jhothûn by speaking its name. When activated, a web of green energy appeared among the stones, and persons could step into this web of energy to be transported to one of the other cities. When the destination was changed to Jhothûn, the web was purple in color. As late as 1372 DR, the portal was still functioning, yet its power was dangerously weak, and it could only be activated once a day. Sometimes, it flickered just as one was stepping into the energy web, which would cause the user to plummet into a sinkhole located in the middle of the stones.

Government
Karffbadh was once ruled by a satrap, who served the emperor of Jhothûn with the assistance of the princes of Jhothûn, who were each qorrashi advisers.

History
Karffbadh, along with Choshein, Gharreil, and Jhothûn, was one of the four major cities of the Jhothûn empire. It was the capital of the western province.

Inhabitants
The city was once populated by the ancestors of the frost giants, who, with the help of the qorrash, developed great magics, even shaping the weather to remain cold to their liking.

In 1372 DR, an evil orc druid, Thurghom, and his dire polar bear companion, Bahgkôm, guarded the portal, believing it to be a holy site.

Trivia
The image of the five standing stones, shown above, was originally released on January 31st, 2002, the last of a series of maps for an arctic region known as "The Farthest Reach" as part of the "Map-A-Week" feature on the Wizards of the Coast website.