User:GoldenYak/Frostholt

Related to the Emerald Dream Expansion Concept

The frigid wilds of Frostholt dominate the northren regions of the Dream. Icy mountain peaks soar overhead, while evergreen forests stretch far and wide, and the sky is shrouded in dense fog and stormy skies. The touch of the Nightmare has found little purchase in these harsh lands, but the frozen realm still holds many dangers, and many secrets...

History
Frostholt is an echo of Azeroth's northren regions, and travelers familiar with the savage lands of Northrend may recognize distant mist-shrouded peaks that match the mountains of Wintergrasp. But while Northrend was nearly scythed clean of life by the Scourge, in Frosthold life prevails in spite of the harsh climate, for as a realm of the Emerald Dream life and nature are in their ascendancy.

Long ago, when the Titans still held watch over the world, Eonar and her servants conducted many experiments with different lifeforms as they sought to weave the living biosphere that would nurture and protect the development of Azeroth's worldsoul. Many experiments in the Dream proved successful and were brought to Azeroth proper by Eonar's servants so they might grow and proliferate across the world.

However, not all of Eonar's creations were suited to being introduced to Azeroth's ecosystem. Eonar produced several races whose adaptability and drive proved too aggressive to risk introducing them to Azeroth. Eonar, ever the champion of life, was loathe to simply exterminate her creations and instead placed them in deep slumber, storing them beneath Frosthold in numerous stasis-crypts, hoping that a purpose for them might be found in another age.

For untold millennia, these rejected races have slept in the depths of the Dream, undisturbed. Until the coming of the Nightmare.

Geography
As its name would suggest, Frostholt is a cold land of mountains and forests. Evergreen trees cover every snow-dusted hill, great frozen peaks tower overhead beneath storm-grey skies, and frozen rivers run like veins throughout the land. Forever locked in winter, Frostholt is a place where the struggle for survival is fiercer than any other realm in the Emerald Dream.

As the Nightmare has poured its corruption into the Dream, Frostholt became wracked with tremors and earthquakes. Great chasms have split open in the ice, exposing the deeper regions of the realm, frozen caves and dark tunnels that reach down into unknown depths that even the most ardent defenders of the Dream have never explored. Newly arrived adventurers have sent reports of Titan structures hidden beneath the surface that have been exposed by the recent tectonic activity.

Dungeons and Raids
- Umbra'Gan, the Dark City - One of the fortresses of the Deviaan Host, hidden beneath the ice of Frostholt. The Nightmare flows through the lower reaches of the city, but the Deviaan and their Diraz allies remain largely immune, and are even conducting experiments in utilizing the power of the Nightmare for their own ambitions.

- Hollow'Gan - Hollow'gan is the capitol of the Deviaan. Once the Titan city where the creators of the Deviaan sealed their imperfect children, it has become a bastion of hatred and darkness. Every day, more and more of the Titans rejected creations awaken and join the ranks of the Deviaan Host, forming an army that will crush the free people of the Emerald Dream under the hell of the Deviaan warmaster, Kor'rok the Slave-Maker.

Worldboss - Bulgrim, Fist of the Slave-Maker
Bulgrim, Fist of the Slave-Maker, is a brutal Deviaan warlord, son and champion of the Deviaan warmaster Kor'rok. Bulgrim rides astride a mighty Deviaan warbeast and commands a great host of warriors, who have emerged from Titan ruins that the Deviaan have captured. Bulgrim's ranks swell with newly awakened Deviaan warriors by the day, and it's only a matter of time before he begins a campaign of conquest and destruction.

The Deviaan Rise
As the heroes arrive in Frostholt, they find the Dreamguard encampment in the southern regions of the realm under attack by the Unwaking's mortal members, the Order of Thorns. These servants of the Nightmare have bolstered their ranks with enslaved frost giants and ice elementals. Despite being pressed by the Order of Thorns, the Guard is holding firm, having shaped a stronghold of frost and ice to secure their position. Suddenly, the earth underfoot trembles and shakes. Towers and walls of shaped ice crumble, as the battlefield beyond splits apart and great chasms yawn in the frozen earth. Erupting from the cavernous depths are an army of Deviaan warriors, a brutish race long sealed away in the depths of the Dream that have only recently been released. An enemy to all who dwell on the surface, the Deviaan attack the Unwaking and Dreamguard alike. The Dreamguard are nearly overwhelmed, when the spirits of Frostholt manifest themselves as a fierce wind that drive away the stormy skies overhead, allowing sunlight to reach the battlefield. The Deviaan, sensitive to the rays of sunlight due to their subterranean nature, retreat from the sunlit battlefield and escape back underground.

The spirits of Frostholt reveal themselves in the form of the Whitechill Wisplings, spirits of departed night elves who have become one with the Emerald Dream. The Spirits of Whitechill have long preserved the balance of nature in Frostholt, and have been sorely pressed with the arrival of the Nightmare's forces and the newly awakened Deviaan. They seek to ally with the mortal defenders of the Dream and guide them in their efforts to save Frostholt from evil.

Secrets of the Titans
The heroes are directed by the Spirits of Whitechill to find the source of the Deviaan uprising. Searching through the burrowed tunnels and torn chasms of the Deviaan host, the heroes discover a massive sinkhole in the region that has exposed a sprawling Titan complex, hidden beneath Frostholt's frozen surface. Hordes of brutal Deviaan soldiers have already fortified the area, and are breaking into the sealed chambers of the Titan structure to reveal more Deviaan locked inside. Even deeper, below the Titan structure, the corruption of the Nightmare flows like dark liquid in the depths, bubbling up from below to spread its corruption. Despite the massive presence of the Nightmare, the Deviaan themselves seem immune to its corruption, attacking any manifestations of it that attempt to encroach upon their holdings.

As the heroes investigate nearby Titan facilities, they discover the slaughtered remains of members of the Order of Thorns. As the heroes explore, they discover that the Unwaking were themselves responsible for unleashing the Deviaan - in their efforts to call up the Nightmare to corrupt the region, the Order of Thorns disabled the stasis-crypts that had once sealed the Deviaan in eternal slumber. The Deviaan themselves proved highly resistant to the Nightmare, refusing to submit to the Unwaking and instead chose to follow their own agenda. Led by their brutal warmaster Kor'rok the Slave-Maker, a force of Deviaan break open a highly secured Titan stasis-crypt, unleashing yet another imprisoned race - the Diraz. Kor'rok promises the hideous fiends vengeance upon the Titans who rejected them while threatening the Diraz with extinction unless they serve him - the Diraz immediately join the efforts of the Deviaan, bolstering the rising horde of monsters and making them even more dangerous. Capable of merging with the shadows and moving unseen, the vicious Diraz aid the Deviaan as spies, assassins, and magic-users.

Corruption of Frostholt
While much of the Nightmare's forces have been slaughtered by the awakening Deviaan, the Order of Thorns refuse to withdraw from the region. In the west, some of the remaining Unwaking forces have turned their corruptive powers upon Frostholt's wildlife and natural spirits. The beasts of Frostholt have been filled with the Nightmare's corruption, turning them into mutated abominations, while frost nymphs and elementals have been driven to madness and are on a rampage. Native tribes of furbolg and wolvar are being menaced by the Nightmare, and the Spirits of Whitechill guide the heroes to rally these native races to aid in the defense of the realm.

Far to the north at Dreadfrost Pinnacle, the last of the Unwaking are leading their corrupted thralls in a final offensive against the Deviaan. The Order of Thorns have enslaved mighty ice giants to their cause and are leading them on the Deviaan's encampments. The Deviaan unleash their most powerful war-breeds, the Grotesk and the Lammasu, these mutate creatures smashing aside the Nightmare's forces. The heroes of Azeroth must rally all of their allies in a final effort to break the Deviaan horde's advance, lest the awakened horrors sweep out of Frostholt and overrun the Emerald Dream.

The Darkness Below
The heroes and their allies manage to hold fast against the Deviaan offensive and secure the territory around Dreadfrost Pinnacle. However, the Deviaan forces defeated represent only the first wave of such horrors, with many more armies of the vicious fiends still awakening deep beneath the surface. In the chasms and canyons surrounding Dreadfrost Pinnacle are tunnels leading to more Titan structures that the Deviaan have claimed as their strongholds. Foremost is Umbra'Gan, the Dark City, where the Deviaan's primary ally the Diraz hold full sway. Even deeper lies the Deviaan's greatest bastion, Hollow'Gan, where the Kor'rok the Slave-Maker holds court.

Nightmare Incursion
While the Nightmare's hold on the Frostholt is weaker than in other realms due to the presence of the Deviaan, during a Nightmare Incursion the deep pools of corruption beneath the surface of the land will bubble to the surface, spilling forth a tide of Nightmare-spawned eldritch fiends. The Dreamguard and the Spirits of Whitechill will require heavy reinforcement as their strongholds will come under direct assault.

Questlines

 *  The Unwaking in Frostholt - The Order of Thorns seek to spread the Nightmare's corruption to all the living creatures of Frostholt in an effort to build an army to combat the rising Deviaan horde. Living manifestations of the Nightmare are appearing in great numbers to aid them, threatening the free people of the Dream. Furbolg, strigoi, shayetar, wild creatures, and even elemental spirits are not safe from their depredations.
 *  Shivergnaw Kobold - A verminous threat almost beneath the notice of the greater powers in Frostholt, the Shivergnaw Kobold are nevertheless not to be underestimate. Larger and hardier than other kobold breeds, Shivergnaw have been driven from their dens by the earthquakes and rising Deviaan, and are beginning to encroach upon the territory of others with hostile intent.
 *  Deviaan Uprising - Throughout Frostholt, the Deviaan are on the rise. Snowfields and forest hills are split apart as jagged chasms open in the earth, disgorging the Deviaan hordes and their monstrous allies and warbeasts. No corner of Frostholt is safe from this rising threat.
 *  Stormscream Shayetar - The shayetar of the Stormscream flock inhabit the highest peaks and cliffs of Frostholt. Driven to madness by the many enemies assaulting their home, the shayetar broke no trespass, even by those who would defend their very lives. If the Stormscream cannot be convinced of the heros noble intentions, they must be removed as a threat.
 *  Frostflayer Magnataur - One of the few tribes in Frostholt that have resisted both the Deviaan horde and enslavement by the Order of Thorns, the magnataur of the Frostflayer tribe rule the western peaks. Scorning the puny races of the Order of Thorns, the Frostflayer have begun to draw upon the dark power of the Nightmare in the ambition of using its power for their own ends.
 *  Coldstone Giants and Elementals - Frostholt throngs with elemental beings, nature spirits of water, ice, and air, and mighty giants of frost and stone. Some have resisted the corruption of the Nightmare. Others have not...

X.1 - The Dark Ancients
When the Nightmare unleashes its Dark Ancients upon the Emerald Dream, the peaks of Frostholt shudder under the footfalls of the titanic Chaug'Noh, the Mammoth God. With a sweep of her mighty trunk she can uproot entire groves of evergreen trees, and with a trumpeting bellow she can cause the living to drop dead from sheer terror. In her wake come the mugon, mammoth-like abominations spawned from the Dark Ancient's power. Like their hideous mother-creature, they desire to see every living thing trampled beneath their thunderous feet.

Chaug'Noh will spawn as a world-boss and her presence will greatly increase the power of the Nightmare and its servants during a Nightmare Incursion.