Eternal Winter

The Eternal Winter is a magical cataclysm affecting the Northern Realms of Aegeron. It started in A.I. 486 when (after an especially hard winter) spring never arrived. Instead the weather got progressively worse, paralyzing the Northern Realms and leading to a general famine as most crops and animals froze to death.

Of the Northern Realms the Kingdom of Groteron seem to be doing the best, they are getting by (mostly on aid from the Dominion), but raiders from the similarly famine stricken western parts of Nordterra have been terrorizing their borders. The situation in Dwarrowdale and the Reaton Republic are much more severe, their weakened economies (due to the expulsion of dwarves and nobility respectively) could not handle the food shortage. Stories are going around about vast caravans of refugees fleeing southward from Dwarrowdale. Meanwhile the Reatons have closed their border and prevent anyone from fleeing by force.

The situation is especially dire in the northern part of the Reaton Republic, within the Eldran Valley, around the city of Coppercrag. The Avalanche visited this region in A.I. 487 and found that the magical winter had made the valley uninhabitable (people outside cities froze to death within hours), the remaining survivors all huddled around the Flame Spire in Coppercrag, built by the genius inventor Jubilost Zottenropple.

But even such a wonder of technology could not keep the winter at bay as an extremely powerful magical storm was headed towards the Eldran Valley. The Avalanche managed to escape only hours before it covered the valley, freezing everything inside. Since then no one managed to enter the Eldran Valley and it is assumed all who remained perished.

Cause of the Cataclysm
The Avalanche learned from Imonora that the Eternal Winter was caused by a secret project of the Dwarven Dominion, which hoped to lift the Edict of Winter from the Frozen Valley, north of the Reaton Republic.

The Frozen Valley is the home of the dwarrows, an ancient race of dwarves who lived underground in isolation for millennia, until explorers stumbled upon them in the first century. Later the dwarves of the still young Imperium (before the time of the God-Emperor) rebelled and asked their long-lost kin for help. To prevent their aid the Emperor at the time had an Edict cast on the area, a powerful curse that froze the surface, trapping the dwarrows underground, hundreds of miles from their struggling kin.

Four centuries later the Dominion sought to end their imprisonment. With the help of mages from the Kingdom of Iregion they worked in secret to modify another Edict, one that would call down a firestorm, in the hope that the two curses would destroy each other. But Imonora realized that freeing the dwarrows would give an enormous advantage to the already powerful Dominion who will be emboldened to begin the conquest of their neighbors and even the whole continent. To prevent these wars, Imonora sought the help of the Golden League. Lucca Alvari, the head of the League's intelligence network, agreed to sabotage the project, but instead of destroying the research or stealing the Edict, Alvari had his men cast the half-ready spell, which amplified the original curse instead of negating it. This caused the Eternal Winter to spread to the Northern Realm, causing the deaths of tens of thousands.

The party convinced Imonora to give them the evidence she collected of Alvari's interference, in exchange for keeping her role secret. But later they broke their promise when they revealed everything to the Dominion, who then did everything in their power to punish those responsible and keep the truth buried.