Nivak, Lady of the Glimmering Snow (Nee-vauk)

Summary

Adapted to both cold and danger, the urzmatak are a race of urni who've long lived upon Fauverngarz. For Nivak, life was ever a struggle and a constant journey, scouring the lands for food, safety, and sucor. Her great tribe ever migrated between the heartlands of Fauverngarz and Votyoger's southern reaches. Be it freezing winters or blistering summers, their way was that of family, and they braved Veltrona's unforgiving wildernesses together. A tradition she saw tested time and again as blood spilled upon fresh snows, and screams were lost to howling winds.   By the age of an elder, the constant struggle had borne a terrible weight down upon her. Those she sought guidance from eventually faded away, and now youngsters looked toward her in turn, but Nivak had few answers to give. Worse, the lands of Fauverngarz were changing–imperceptibly to most, but clearly to her. Try as she might to convince her fellows that they too must change, her voice fell on deaf ears. So she continued, struggling alongside them as hope drained away.   It would be on the slopes of a small mountain, ambushed by raiders, that everything changed. The urzmatak have always focused on avoiding confrontation and escape, a natural defense the hallucinogenic scale-flakes upon their wings enabled. While the flakes warded off animals, people could easily resist its effects. Caught off guard, Nivak and her tribe splintered apart, scattering for their lives. Cornered during her escape, only quick thinking and clever illusions with her scale-flakes gave Nivak a chance to slip away.   By the time the scattered survivors gathered again, a third of their number had been lost. Among them were Iilava and her husband, Nivak's close confidants and dearest friends. It fell to her to foster their only young son, Uduak, and once again many eyes turned toward her for guidance. But, in her heart, she could no longer trust her ancestor's ways.   Months later, in the hot summer of the heartlands, Nivak issued her declaration: she would migrate no more. Never again would she entrust their lives to the whims of the lands, or fortune that so often scorned them. She set gaze upon a familiar set of abandoned ruins, something the tribe ever used as a landmark in their trek. With work, it might become a city that the urzmatak could call their own. A place where they wouldn't have to live in fear of what laid beyond their camp's fire light.   By the end of an intense, fear-filled debate, another third of the tribe sided with Nivak. The migratory nomads did what they could to help: spotty repairs, stocked freezers, rudimentary defenses, and more. When winter's harsh cold crept upon them, the nomads left, and neither side was sure if they'd see the other again. They were all, to the very end, family, even with their different beliefs. For Nivak, and those who stayed, their first winter brought the harshest trials.   Yet, she was a child of Fauverngarz.   Nivak refused to surrender, filled with a sense of purpose her life ever lacked. She strode into harsh blizzards to hunt prey, gather vital fire wood, and fend off unspeakable dangers. Aching, starving, and her wings and skin splitting from frostbite, she pressed on with uncompromising determination. When summer swept away the harshest colds, many had yet survived thanks to her efforts. Soon, their nomadic tribe returned with friends in tow, all of them surprised that Nivak and her fellows were still alive.   Such is what marked the founding of Polkua, the first urzmatak city upon Fauverngarz.   Word spread quickly, both among the urzmatak and those who did business with them. A city offered lucrative opportunities, and its vast needs meant jobs had to be filled. Nivak, the presumed leader of Polkua at that point, found herself busy keeping on top of everything. Slowly but surely, old problems traded places with newer ones.   Scarce food became plentiful, but distribution and guarding it became complex. Living spaces became regimented, and property began mattering more and more. People grew distant even as they lived beside one another, and outsiders further complicated matters. Whether for politics or as a potential conquest, all sorts of eyes settled upon Polkua. As ever before, people turned to Nivak for guidance, and she took the burdens of leadership upon herself.   Her second great trial came from the south, by way of the dreaded raider, Mehyrakkin. A native of Karg and infamous for her long reaching raiding parties, Mehyrakkin caught wind of Polkua's emergence. A city or not, the urzmatak were notorious for their weakness, if they could be caught. By the time Nivak learned of Mehyrakkin's approach, the raider was only two weeks away from Polkua proper.   Fearing all they made would become undone, Nivak selected her most trustworthy friends to head up Polkua's defenses. She herself would go, against their advisement, to confront Mehyrakkin directly. They feared she would haplessly throw her life away, but Nivak had not been idle in her days in Polkua. She'd trained beneath different martial warriors, adventurers, former military leaders, and whoever else had come to her city. For whatever she lacked as an accomplished fighter, Nivak made up for with inventive cleverness and dutiful study.   A week's travel from Polkua, Nivak confronted Mehyrakkin and her raiders. The nebusah laughed boisterously at the sight of a lone urzmatak daring to defy her; even more so when she was ordered to leave. It would be when Mehyrakkin ordered Nivak slain that they all, for the first time, encountered the elder's terrifying potential. Striking with speed and precision, Nivak cut her way through the raiders, escaping into the surrounding woodlands. They chased, but soon she was nowhere to be found.   For Nivak hadn't simply chanced upon Mehyrakkin, she'd planned their meeting. By nightfall of that same day, an encroaching blizzard swept across the land. Cloaked under shadow and snow, Nivak harried the raiders. Her twin needle swords were tools of precision and utmost purpose, cutting vital arteries and lethally impaling organs as she sped by. The wounded survivors piled up, burdening Mehyrakkin and straining her supplies.   Nivak had no goal of a straight-forward confrontation; she would vivisect the raiders for every step they took toward Polkua.   A daunting prospect at the numbers she faced, but Nivak wasn't solely armed with just her swords. The glittering dust upon her wings ever danced in the air beside her, a deadly snowflake-like mist that clouded the mind and lulled one to slumber. In the midst of a blizzard, few even knew she approached; her scale-flakes corroding their senses just as she struck. A talent Nivak had honed and one all urzmatak possessed, but something she pushed to its utmost limits.   Mere days from Polkua, a quarter of the raiders laid slain or terribly wounded. As the blizzard cleared, Nivak's harrying continued, driving Mehyrakkin mad with rage. Her raiders, however, came to fear every snow mound and stiff breeze that blew by. They, people of frost and snow, were being bested on their own terms, and that rattled their morale. By the time the raiders reached Polkua's storm walls, their confidence had nearly shattered. The siege, if it could be called that, lasted only the afternoon. Mehyrakkin bitterly retreated, vowing vengeance as she fled.   Nivak, battered, bruised, and pushed beyond her own limits, limped home at long last. What few raiders Polkua captured spoke feverishly about her ferocious deeds and unrelenting lethality. It inspired many within the city, enamoring them with their otherwise reclusive 'leader'. Word spread like wildfire, and so Nivak's reputation swelled in size and reach. The many traders who came through soon carried these words themselves, spreading them along their routes. Such an accomplishment drew all kinds of attention, as much to Polkua as Nivak herself.   Among them all, however, a truly grand force would be the first to visit.   Some months later, Moratahn, Wytche-Queen of the Iron Woods, visited upon Polkua without warning. The city ground to a halt as Moratahn's heavy bootsteps sounded through the streets. It would be Nivak that she came to, and to her surprise, Moratahn extended an offer: her patronage, in return for certain services rendered. Polkua, as a new city, wasn't deeply mired in political factions or interests. In fact, its urzmatak people preferred neutrality and keeping to their own business.   That made them very useful to Moratahn, who needed a bulwark against the northwestern frontier that Polkua sat upon. In exchange for privileged access to the Iron Woods, Polkua would maintain its neutrality, and serve as a bastion against problems from Dorvar. Despite Moratahn's bristling personality, Nivak surmised it was a deal more of allies than subjugation. It seemed too good to be true, but Moratahn's reputation preceded her, and Nivak found little reason to object. Under the Wytche-Queen's banner, a rare enough thing in itself, many would think twice about attacking Polkua.   That, and Nivak struck up a surprising friendship with Moratahn. The two got on well, and the Wytche-Queen seemed to especially favor her company. Something that the following years would only reinforce, for Moratahn made it a habit of visiting Polkua routinely. In turn, all those across Fauverngarz eyed Polkua and Nivak. Many even ventured across the cold continent, seeking to do business or foster relations more directly.   From the sundering despair that almost destroyed her tribe, to the harrowing trials life demanded, Nivak carved Polkua from the veltron and snow. A feat in itself that seemed almost legendary to everyone else, and a source of hopeful inspiration to the urzmatak across the lands. Still, even with all that and more, no end of issues continue to challenge her and her city. Problems that might truly spell the end of the nascent dream she and her people were just only beginning to realize for themselves.   For Fauverngarz is ever unforgiving, and only those with the will to survive may succeed in its frozen lands.