Burning Ice

Know one quite believes it exists until they see it for themselves, and I do not blame them, for I was the same way once. When Aurora first told me of the phenomenon I felt certain it must be a metaphor for something else, primitive people unable to understand what they were seeing. Having lived through it myself, I now know just how wrong I was. Burning ice is not only very real, it is ten times more terrifying than I ever would have imagined. I have seen it once. I pray to all that is divine that I never see it again.

Winston Alpon, explorer

Manifestation

It usually begins in a small area, with the ice becoming cracked and a dim light shining through. This is unlikely to be noticed, especially during the day, until green and blue flames begin shooting out of the cracks. The flames burn hotter than regular fire and are particularly dangerous, and remain localized for only a short period of time. Burning ice can easily be seen from miles around as green blue flames flare high into the sky, illuminating the land for miles around the affected area. The flames climb so high that they can be seen for miles around, and the ice glows so brightly it lights up the area is if it were daylight.
As the flames burn higher and higher, the heat begins to eat away at the edges of the cracks, and they begin to enlarge rapidly, sending the flames shooting out in a line across the ice field. These spidering walls of flames races quickly across the plain, cutting off much chance of escape. Those caught inside the area are in for a long and terrifying night as the flames continuously cut new patterns across the ice, leaving no area safe. The heat from the flames is nearly unbearable, and large fissures begin to open up in the earth as the ice continues to melt. If you are lucky enough that the flames do not kill you, the giant crack in the earth that just appeared at your feet is likely to do so. And if you survive the fall, you are likely to be buried under molten slabs of ice as they slide off the walls above your head. It is one of the most terrifying experiences a mortal in the frozen wastes is likely to experience.
Burning ice typically only lasts one day and through the night before the flames begin to subside, but it has been known to last longer and, on at least one recorded occasion, it lasted for three days and nights. Its effects are felt even longer. Livestock and wild beasts have fled the area, leaving it barren. It is permeated with meandering spiderweb like fissures that divide the land and remain relatively unstable and prone to avalanches for several days thereafter. Such fissures begin to be slowly covered up with the passing days, leaving them covered with a thin sheet of ice that may give way without warning, plunging unsuspecting travelers into their abyss. Burning ice leaves the land empty and more deadly than ever before, and it is a long time before these effects begin to disappear. Animals for the most part stay away until the ice is safe to walk on, and that can take weeks or months as the ice remains warmed by whatever phenomenon caused the disaster for quite some time. Not enough to melt it, but just enough to keep it from building up well. These areas are referred to as Fire Fields by the native Walara so long as these effects last.
The large, spiderwebbing caverns and fields of cracks will remain even after they are successfully covered by the ice, and the Walara refer to these as Flame Tunnels. Sometimes access to these caverns is uncovered, and intrepid explorers or hunters will make their way into them for a ways, but the fear that the flames will return, or are still wandering the tunnels is enough to keep most away from the area for good.

Localization

Burning ice is a phenomenon native to the Frozen Wastes. It is not seen further south than Snowden, and has not been seen across the Grinding Ice.

Type

Natural