Soreen the Frostfell
Once an outcast spirit of the cold, now the malevolent lord of a realm of winter unending...
Appearance
Soreen began existence as an elemental spirit of cold and winter, born to oversee the chill seasons during their proper time, and he resembles this origin to a large degree; his body is a thing of frigid wind and floating shards of ice and frost, corporeal in only the vaguest of senses, and lacking any real sense of a living thing that the mortal mind could fix upon. Yet, despite this essentially formlessness, his ascension as a Lord of a Nether Realm has worked a certain demonic cast to him. Several shards of ice seem to glow with an icy blue flame, each one serving as an eye, and his words, when he deigns to speak, carry with them the piteous moaning of the souls trapped in the unyielding ice of his realm. Perhaps the clearest sign, owever, lies in the fragments of bones suspended amid the ice and wind of his form, coated in frost as they tumble in a ceaseless macabre dance.
History/Background
Soreen originally comes from a world where the elemntal spirits are little more than extensions of nature's silent will, meant to enforce the natural balance and the flow of the seasons. Although intelligent, they are creatures of powerful instincts, driven to follow the cycles.
Soreen, however, was lacking some of these instinctive urges, or perhaps he was created with too strong a will and overcame them. Regardless, he saw beauty and perfection only in the cold winter, when ice and frost brought stillness and death to the land, and so he sought to encase all things in the grip of eternal winter. At first few noticed, assuming on some deep level that he was following a dictate of the force that had created him, but when the time for summer came, and the still silence of winter yet reigned where he dwelled, his fellow elementals became concerned.
The struggle that followed was short but bitter; the other elementals, even those of cold and ice like Soreen himself, banded against him and severed his hold over the lands he had frozen, and then cast him out from the world, barring the way to return against him as one who would pervert the way of things rather than uphold it.
Soreen found himself adrift between the myriad realms, an ourcast wanderer unwelcome in any realm where natural seasons held sway, and even less welcome in those realms which had a master to rule them. His wanderings were long, and his disgust at the warmth and quickness of the myriad realms only grew as he was driven from would-be homes time and again. Thus it was until he arrived in the Gloom, a small realm whose master had given in to apathy and despair.
Sensing a chance to finally bind a world to his ideals, the elemental swept across the realm, bringing the winds of winter across the murky, swampy waters as he went, and tore into the rotting palace where the Prince of this nether realm sat uncaring upon his throne, dead in mind and spirit.
The Prince's body soon joined his other parts as Soreen destroyed it, seizing from the bloody ruin the right of rule across the putrid realm. None contested him, for the demons of the realm had fallen even as their former master into apathy and despair, and the mortal souls were too cowed by the howling winds of ice and sleet that scourged the realm as the elemental ascended to a kind of foul divinity.
Since then, Soreen has worked with the endless patience of eternal winter to strengthen his hold over the realm and encourage it to grow, absorbing small cast-off fragments of other nether realms amid the endless wars among the true demon princes. For now, he remains a minor power at best, his only real rivals being a pair of other exiled elementals who fight with him over the cast-off scraps of the mightier realms.
Special Equipment
Soreen is too amorphous to really carry any equipment, but in a sense his realm, the Gloom, is his equipment. At will, the elemental lord can command the realm's weather and terrain to shift through the available gamut of winter-time conditions, and he can call upon the frost demons born of the Gloom's frigid wastes to come to his aid. Likewise, those souls who become ensnared by the realm fuel his power, slowly pushing him further from his elemental origin and closer to a truly demonic stature.
All forms of warmth and fire are diminished in his presence, an effect of the aura of power he radiates as the ruler of the Gloom. Likewise, things which cause cold conditions or extinguish open flame are amplified by this aura.
The realm also permits him to create avatars of himself; much weaker forms, hardly stronger than a frost demon, which he can dispatch to those who would venerate him or call on him to bring winter's bleak beauty into the mortal realms. He rarely leaves the Gloom himself, as doing so risks an usurpation by some other entity without having to slay him first.
Roleplaying Notes
Soreen is a cold, ruthless entity who has a single driving goal: the eventual consumption of the entire span of existence into his frigid realm, locking everything once and for all in the terrible beauty of a never-ending winter. To this end, he will gladly make deals with mortals who seek a pact with demonic powers, granting his cultists power over the cold and icy control over themselves, gradually draining away the warmth of their souls until they become little more than chill caricatures of themselves devoted to his vision.
He is something of an aesthete, however, and greatly appreciates the beauty that can be found in the winter's conditions. Great expanses of the Gloom are subject to his artistic whim, with forests of delicate frost rising up amid perfect stillness, and great sweeping sculptures of wind and ice playing eerie music in the cold desolation.
At the moment, his greatest hatred is reserved for his rivals, the other exiled elementals with whom he squabbles over the leavings of the mightier realms in an attempt to strengthen his own. Any who have dealings with the Lord of Dust or the Lady of Ash are certain to arouse his wrath, while those who offer a way to trump his foes may find themselves spared from the ice so long as they prove their worth.
Plot Hooks
-Soreen has fostered a cult amid a temperate land, and they have begun to use his magic to bring about an early and unusually harsh winter. The cult's efforts must be disrupted before the harvest is ruined, and then the cult itself must be rooted out before the self-styled lord of winter can gather enough servants to manifest an avatar or send forth a frost demon.
-One of the other elementals with whom Soreen battles has begun to cause trouble in the PC's home area; the frigid elemental offers to lend a hand, if the PCs are willing to serve the cause of Winter Eternal for a time...
-A sudden cold spell descends upon the area during the mid-autumn. Speculation arises as to the cause, and some suspect cultists of Soreen. Is it true that the elemental's followers are up to trouble? If not, how long will it be before some turn up to capitalize on nature's help?
-A cultist of Soreen who had information the party needed has died. They now must seek out his soul amid the icy wastes of the Gloom to find out what they need to know, and Soreen is rather irate about the intrusion...
Winter. The final frontier. For who truly knows, if spring will ever come.
This months quest revolves around the concept of winter, in all its hoary splendor. Cold, death, decay, and torpid hibernation. Snow, ice, and frost. These are the ubiquitous images of the long, bleak season.
We are looking for the finest examples of winter-themed submissions. The winners of this major quest, will become worthy recipients of frosty mugs and glasses, engraved with odes to victory, courtesy of Scrasamax! Good luck to all. Don your mittens!
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? Responses (6)
Another very interesting carecter *imagines him fighting a fire elemential*
Unless the fire elemental had some kind of near-divine power or was something like the 'father of flame', it wouldn't stand much of a chance, I expect - Soreen is essentially a near-divine entity as the ruler and master of his own plane.
Although... I should note that the 'Lady of Ash' is a kind of outcast fire elemental/spirit of relentless Summer, so a battle between those two could be very nasty.
Excellent! I had in mind an Icon of Evil Cold as well to support another sub I was working on. I won't bother with that for now, for this one covers that ground nicely!
Glad to be of service. Soreen was easier than the Glacier's Fist, since he doesn't 'belong' to the Kuramen cosmology.
I like the transition from elemental to demon, as well as Soreen's manic behavior. As a side effect, I would add that Gloom has had an effect on the ice lord also, making him at times apathetic and depressed, during which his ice art sculptures become grim a macabre. Later he is roused to a higher level of activity bordering on manic. I approve!
The Gloom is a weird place. It used to be a foul bog-like place ruled by pestilence and rot; not it's been wrapped in this unyielding winter. The interplay, though, is likely about as you suggest, since on a fairly fundamental level they're linked closely enough to be one and the same.
