The Ice Court

The Ice Court is the arcane heart of Kislev and the true power behind its throne, for the Tzarina who rules the realm is first among the ice-witches and mightiest of them all. These sorceresses wield a form of magic found nowhere else in the world: the Lore of Ice, drawn not from the eight winds as the wizards of the Empire draw theirs, but from the frozen soul of the land itself. It is a cold and patient power, ill-suited to fire and fury, that freezes the blood in an enemy's veins, sheathes the ground in treacherous rime, and calls down blizzards to swallow whole armies. An ice-witch feels the coming of frost the way others feel the sun on their skin, and the older she grows the more the ice takes her, until her hair whitens, her breath frosts the air, and her heart beats as slow and cold as a glacier.

The witches are divided by temperament into two traditions (the merciless Ice Maidens who wield the killing cold, and the more nurturing frost-workers who guard and heal), but all answer in the end to the Tzarina. Their power holds Kislev's borders, enforces its harsh laws, and freezes its rivers into roads each winter. Without the Ice Court, the realm would have fallen to the north long ago; with it, even the servants of Chaos have learned to fear a Kislevite winter.