Winter's Hall

Winter's Hall was the palace and realm of Auril Goddess of Winter.

Cosmology
In the Great Wheel cosmology, Winter's Hall was found on the layer of Pandesmos in the plane of Pandemonium. A branch of Yggdrasil, the World Ash, extended to the realm and was said to form the central supporting beam of the hall.

In the World Tree cosmology, her palace was located in Fury's Heart, across from the Towers of Ruin over the Land of the Hunt.

Between the aftermath of the Spellplague and the Second Sundering, as part of the World Axis cosmology, Auril's palace was said to hover over the Deep Wilds, bringing winter with it. The northernmost reaches of the Wilds were known as Tír fo Leth, the Frostfell, or the Land Under Eternal Ice&mdash;to distinguish them from the palace itself&mdash;and this region was fully under Auril's control.

Geography
The realm of Winter's Hall was a frigid tundra fraught with violent winter storms, with winds rarely slower than 30 miles per hour. Visibility was only a few feet, because of the extreme blizzard conditions. As one traveled deeper into the realm, it grew colder and colder until the land was covered in a vast sheet of ice. It was said that there was no colder place in the multiverse, and anyone not taking shelter would take extreme damage from the bitter cold.

Auril's palace itself was formed from wind walls and ice. It appeared like an inverted iceberg, hovering over the ground and surrounded in thick fog and freezing rain. Almost a mile in both diameter and height, it was the size of a small city. Huge crystalline extensions jutted out from the core of the fortress palace and were colored royal blue to sea green.

The bottom surface of the floating palace included a giant window of shaped wind to view the ground below. Also located here was a dock for flying vessels, such as astraljammers and airships.

The interior of the palace was a labyrinth of passageways. The Araamroth, or Promenade, was one of these, and it cut through the whole height of Winter's Hall, a latticework of pathways of crystal and support columns. The Promenade was lit by will-o'-wisp and other glowing creatures entrapped in ice globes. At the top of the Promenade was a dome of pure elemental ice. Auril could calm the winter storms surrounding the palace if she wanted the polar lights to be visible through the dome. At the base of the Promenade was a twin oscillating structure of chaos called the Abattoir, where bloody sacrifices were once performed in an attempt to trap Toril forever in darkness and ice.

Deep within Winter's Hall was the Lyceum of Frozen Shadow, or Amon Thyryr, Aurils's throne room. Auril's throne itself was carved from frozen blue fire. The throne room was carved from the beating heart of the primordial Durbaagal.

Rumors & Legends
Winter's Hall was rumored to be the true source of the Styx. According to the legend, a mix of melting snow, divine poison and the blood of a tortured deity flowed into Pandemonium and became infused with the plane's evil.

Inhabitants
Petitioners of Auril took on the forms of cold elemental spirits, which were immune to cold and electricity and resistant to fire and sonic damage. These beings could inflict cold on anyone they touched. Nearly 20,000 such damned spirits resided within the palace walls alone.

Other creatures of ice, such as cold element creatures and ice para-elementals, also dwelt throughout the realm, as did frost giants and an assortment of wolves, including winter wolves, normal wolves, worgs, and even werewolves. All canine monsters that entered the hall became charmed to obey its frost giant inhabitants and became servants of the frost giantess Ingrid the Serpent-Tongue. The pack of canines was led by White Fang, an albino yeth hound.

The Norse god Loki was said to sometimes make Winter's Hall his abode, as a place to hide away whenever he fell out of grace with the other Aesir. While there, he often held feasts for the frost giants in his wooden hall of rough timber.

Whenever he was away a cloud giant jarl by the name of Starkad the Gnawer would claim to be his proxy. Though many considered Ingrid to be the real power in the hall, as she led most of the Hall's hunts.