The Heart of Winter

The heart is a huge crystalline structure located at or near the northern pole of Tirestir. The structure is the size of a large castle and floating feet above the ground, it possesses large crystalline protrusions so that the structure itself resembles a snowflake. It slowly pulsates with foreign magic, each pulse expelling fast amounts of chill outwards. It is said no mortal has ever made a journey to the Heart and lived, as the closer you draw to it the colder it becomes until your blood freezes in your veins and your skin and muscle become hard as rock. Thousands of icy humanoid statue ring the heart, a monument to those who failed to claim its power.
The origins of the heart are unknown, some say it is the chrysalis of some unborn god of winter, other say it is a portal to the elemental plane of ice, other still say it is a sentient entity that is actively trying to freeze all of Tirestir in eternal winter. Despite these descriptions of the Heart of Winter its existence is debated even among the magically gifted peoples of Aurbus and Vershen. Many believe that if it does exist, any who can reach the Heart can claim incredibly power, the source of this assumption seems to have no basis in literature or history, but is a strangely widely held belief by those who have heard of The Heart of Winter.