Fey Deity of cold, frost, and winter, Auril the Frostmaiden is worshipped in cold climes of Faerûn not so much out of devotion, but out of respect and plea for mercy in her harsh environment. However, she does command a following who call themselves the Children of Auril, which include winter-focused druids and their fearsome leader known as the White Inquisitor.
Everlasting Winter of the Frozenfar
These all gained prominence following her making of the Rime of the Frostmaiden, an Everlasting Winter she crafted through the extermination of daylight from the Frozenfar. This enchantment has denied the arrival of the seasons of Spring, Summer and Fall since the Year of the Warrior Princess, DR 1489. Her icy grip on the lands became so strong, even those dying in the clutches of exposure to the cold might rise as terrifying minions called Coldlight Walkers.
In these times, some learned scholars believe this avatar may well be Auril herself, studying her nightly passings in the northern skies, working her enchantments from the back of a great white bird (a Roc) called Iskra. They also believe to have discovered Auril's Abode to be a skull-shaped castle called Grimskalle, at the center of the snowflake-shaped Isle of Solstice, which floats in the Sea of Moving Ice.
Grimskalle has been the seat of Auril's Handmaiden, the Unknown Drottning Vassavicken, (queen, female Jarl). As the Chardalyn Syndicate heated up their attacks on followers of the Frostmaiden, Vassavicken joined the White Inquisitor in leading an armies of ice orcs, yeti, ice trolls, and Awakened beasts against these humanoid forces, led out of Targos. The Ten Towns of Icewind Dale have shouldered the horrific effects of all this, including sacrifices encouraged and even imposed by the White Inquisitor and Children of Auril, blizzards, coldlight walkers, and a devastating attack by a Chardalyn dragon (see Ten little Towns).
Motives & Methods
Daring to attempt to understand the minds of a deity, in pursuit of knowledge while also seeking to restore balance to the Frozenfar, a group was formed, calling themselves the Kalteswetteruntergrund. Their observations supply the observations already described. The remainder to follow are merely informed speculation, as this is the stuff of myth and legend and the ineffable (beyond words).
Though Auril's tale places her origin in the Feywild, her chosen immortal residence was a castle called Winter's Hall (sometimes visited by Norse deity Loki) which floated above the divine realm of the Land Under Eternal Ice in the Deep Wilds. Talos leads forces some call the the "Gods of Fury" - himself as storms, Auril as winter, and Umberlee as the sea.
The Kalteswetteruntergrund hypothesize that, known to bicker, a falling out between Auril and Talos has led to her being exiled to this material plane, where she seeks to re-create her divine realm upon Faerûn's Frozenfar. Each night for 1,024 nights she has written runes in the sky's aurora sealing these lands from sunlight, most likely in conjunction with the Goddess of Darkness, Shar. This potent magic sustains the winter and bars the intrusion of sunlight. Having completed these wards to her territory, she has begun the transformation of the lands into a divine realm upon, but apart from, Toril. (See also: Summer's Ice and Faerûn and Fury.)
Forms
Auril is known to take several forms in visions and now even, perhaps, in person.
- The Frostmaiden, perhaps her original in the fey realm, is a tall, lithe, devastatingly beautiful white-haired elf adorned in whites and blues of ice and snow.
- The Cold Crone appears as a seven-foot tall ram-horned, owl-faced, cloven-hooved, black-taloned nightmare wearing wolfskins.
- Icedawn, an impassive apparition, glides indistinctly and silently with the impression of an ornate crown and spurred armor of ice.
- The Brittle Maiden is a tall figure of fearsome feminine aspect, held within a thin cloak of mist. Eyes burn with a cold blue light and her body crackles as it moves, ice blades growing at odd angles and breaking.
- Winter's Womb appears as an enormous hovering faceted diamond, radiating intense cold and speaking with her divine voice.
The Frostmaiden:
See also: Faerûn and Fury (regarding the divine politics as seen by Carol Anne Montarthas)
(See also: wiki)