Ard Ghel (Elder Speech for Great Glacier)[1] is the world's northern polar ice cap.
Overview
Both polar ice caps of the planet cover larger surface than those of Old Earth.[2] Ard Ghel surrounds the North Pole and borders Far North's tundras and northernmost mountain chains in the south; venturing from the Pole into another direction would perhaps lead one into foreign lands unknown to the Nordlings, albeit even the Aen Ghele who inhabit the Glacier do not tend to travel that far.
The ice sheet is up to three miles thick in its maximum. It is not static -- due to the ongoing glaciation, some of its streams advance southwards as fast as half a mile per year.[1] According to research conducted independently by both Avallac'h and Nimue verch Wledyr ap Gwyn, the entire civilization of the northern hemisphere is eventually doomed to extinction, covered beneath the spreading glacier by the 46th century AR.[3][4]
Ard Ghel is primarily a frigid wasteland, only sparsely dotted with occasional nunataks and crevasses within the ice. Even the ice giants fear to venture into the heart of the glacier, preferring to keep solid ground beneath their feet; the undisputed rulers here are the white dragons, whose frost breath makes the heaviest snows of Yamurlak seem like a warm blanket in comparison. They hunt animals and snow monsters on the glacier and in the surrounding mountains and the tundram yet they do not hesitate to prey upon the supplies stockpilled by the Aen Ghele (or upon the Aen Ghele themselves).
Underneath this snowy dome, one can find a web of glacier caves that surround heat-giving geysers and volcanoes, water reservoirs with a thriving biosphere, and deposits of rare metals and gemstones rivaling in size those of Kovir and Poviss.[1]
Notes
- The name Ard Ghel first appears in the Aen Ghele resource for The Witcher Thursdays, albeit the ice caps are already mentioned without name in the novels and Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni.
References
| Northern Kingdoms |
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|---|---|
| Nilfgaardian Empire | |
| Eastern Lands | |
| Far South | |
| Western Continent | |
| Former Regions | |