Snordlings are a small folk inhabiting snowdrifted islands to the north of the Libre Sea. Few people ever saw them outside the ice archipelago and even fewer know what their baby-snordlings look like, with their faces hidden from strangers behind wooden masks carved from the sacred tree. They are well known for being a mysterious tribe, but, as it often happens, it is not power, but infinite grief that mysteries conceal.
At the heart of their legends lies a horrible disaster that turned the flourishing archipelago into a pile of snowy islands hundreds of years ago. Up till today, it is kept secret, that the tragedy was caused by knowledge that did not belong to snordlings. Losing their battle against the barbarian sun worshippers, the icy mages resorted to an old manuscript stolen from the Library of Dragons of the Golden Lands ages ago. The magic it released changed the archipelago forever causing an ice storm that lasted for hundreds of days and nights. It did kill their enemies, but it also destroyed the green jungle and slayed almost everything alive.
The victory was theirs, but they were about to learn the high price paid for it. The rest of the legends tell of eternal famine and long cold nights without a sliver of light. Deprived of warmth and food, their tribes were close to extinction and would have died out completely just like barbarians, if not for the icy mages themselves.
Only few of them survived the ice storm. The power of the dragon manuscript, that had plunged the islands into eternal cold, demanded a terrible price – not only did it destroy the artifact itself, but it also took the lives of almost all snordling magicians. Their wisdom was lost forever, and those who survived became outcasts, despised by their people. instead of being praised. They were accused of bringing upon long years of suffering and hunger. Only their strong spirit did not let them abandon their magic.
Instead of trying to defeat the cold, they turned it into their friend.
The hungry years were finally over, once the outcasts came back to the villages of snordlings and taught the folk how to use the magic of cold for creation. They showed the villagers how to build houses using the icy magic, how to fish in ice covered lakes and how to grow ground trees in snowdrifted gardens. Their new knowledge brought the small folk of snordlings back to life, but it did not brake the seal of rejection the mages endured – there were cursed with isolation forever.
Now, hundreds of years later, the icy mages of the snordling tribes are still the same lonesome outcasts bearing the burden of their power that once had almost destroyed the world as they knew it. Only the most skilled mages can join their order, and those who can master the memory of the old mistake that had almost killed their people, are rewarded with the mage's staff.
Waldo was one of those solitary mages. He grew up with legends and decided to devote his whole life to mending what his ancestors had once done. He spent years travelling around the archipelago, helping those in need and spreading his knowledge until he found himself in a port town teemed with rumours about a discovery made on a continent far away from here.
The Golden Lands were rumored to have opened once again for heroes who were ready to fight for treasures and wisdom of the Dragons.
The little mage spent a sleepless night pondering on the matter, recalling the texts of old legends, and in the morning he left the archipelago with the first ship heading for the continent. He was the first icy mage in years to leave the archipelago and to step onto the streets of human cities.
It took him some time to earn the respect of heroes of other races, but Waldo made them see what a strong spirit lived inside his tiny body. Those in doubt were finally convinced by the large ice boulders falling from the sky. The wise icy mage took his special place among heroes of the Golden Lands. No one could ever accuse him of being greedy or selfish. Most heroes think Waldo is looking for something special in the Dragon Ruins, something only he needs, but no one knows what it is for sure.
For the icy mage himself cannot say what shape the lost knowledge may acquire – it may be an artifact, a manuscript, or a book. But this knowledge only can become the key to creation that will bring back Spring to the archipelago of snordlings.