Overview
The Sunder is the southern polar cap of Voxana. It is physically smaller than the Pale — roughly half the geographic extent — but significantly more dangerous. The ice is thicker, the winds are stronger, the cold is more extreme, and the storms surrounding it are the most violent on the planet. It sits atop a buried polar continent, elevating the ice sheet thousands of feet above sea level into thin, brutally cold air.
Dimensions
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Core ice sheet (permanent) | South of ~82°S; ~550 mi radius from pole |
| Seasonal maximum (winter) | Extends to ~68–72°S |
| Seasonal minimum (summer) | Retreats to ~80°S |
| Ice thickness (core) | 2–3+ miles (thicker than the Pale) |
| Ice plateau elevation (center) | ~10,000–12,000 ft above sea level |
| Total area (winter) | ~1,500,000–2,000,000 sq mi |
| Comparison to the Pale | ~50–60% of the Pale’s area; harsher conditions |
Physical Conditions
Continental Ice
Unlike the Pale, which sits over a mix of ocean and buried land, the Sunder sits entirely atop a subglacial continent. This elevates the ice sheet into a high-altitude plateau. The core temperature drops to −80°F to −100°F during winter — cold enough to crack metal and kill an unprotected person in minutes.
Katabatic Winds
The elevated ice plateau generates ferocious gravity-driven winds that pour off the ice sheet toward the coast in all directions. Sustained speeds of 80–120 mph are constant, with gusts significantly higher. These winds make surface travel effectively impossible and strip heat from anything exposed.
The Storm Collar
Where the Sunder’s cold air meets warmer ocean air, a permanent belt of violent cyclonic storms encircles the ice cap at roughly 65–70°S. This Storm Collar produces the most dangerous seas on the planet: enormous waves, constant gales, and near-zero visibility. There are no gaps, no calm passages. Any ship attempting to reach the Sunder must first survive the Collar.
Extreme Temperature
The interior of the Sunder is the coldest place on Voxana. Even magical cold protection operates at the edge of its limits in the core regions. The air is thin at 10,000+ feet, dehydrating and hypoxic. Extended surface survival without extraordinary means is not considered possible.
What Is Known
Even less than is known about the Pale. The Sunder is on the opposite side of the planet from the known world. Reaching it requires sailing south past the Golden Shores, through the Shimmering Gulf, past the Veiled Isles, across the equatorial ocean, and into the southern hemisphere — a voyage of several months with no safe harbors.
No deliberate expedition to the Sunder has ever been recorded. Sailors blown far south of the Shimmering Gulf have reported increasingly violent seas, dropping temperatures, and ice on the horizon. Miners on the southern Veiled Isles occasionally report seeing distant ice during winter, attributed to icebergs calving northward.
A single written account exists. In Eastharbor’s maritime archives, a logbook from a fishing vessel blown far south approximately 200 PS describes white cliffs of ice rising from the sea and winds that made the rigging scream. The vessel returned. The captain never sailed again.
The Name
The name “The Sunder” appears in a fragment of pre-Split text recovered from the Dwarfhold Ruins, written in Old Dwarvish, which references “the Sunder at the World’s Root.” The dwarvish word carries connotations of both “splitting apart” and “a wound that will not close.” Whether the name predates the Split or was applied after is unknown. The name is not widely used in the present day; most scholars refer to “the southern polar region” or simply “the far south.”