Prince of Frost

The Prince of Frost is a powerful archfey of the Feywild. His domain is a land of endless winter, and all who are wise fear to cross him. Few venture there, and fewer still dare to approach his lair, the Fortress of Frozen Tears. Though he inspires little love, even from his followers in the Winter Court, most denizens of the Feywild know to respect his power.

History
It is said that, once, the Prince of Frost was not as cruel as he is now. Over a thousand years ago - so they say - he was the consort of the Queen of Winter, whom he loved with all his heart. In those times, the Winter Court was not as hostile against the Summer Court; though they had little love for each other, they were each largely content to ignore the other so long as their boundaries were respected. During this time, a fomorian invasion caused the two queens to ally with each other to fight them back. Indeed, as the battle went on and they worked more closely together, many eladrin came to believe that a lasting relationship between the two courts might be possible.

Those hopes were dashed, however, when the fomorian king launched an assault on the Winter Court's capital. The Summer Queen promised to send an army to aid her ally, and was true to her word. However, when she arrived, she found the Prince of Frost cradling his queen's body in his arms - she had been wounded in battle, and it is said that she died mere minutes before the Summer Queen arrived.

The Prince blamed the Summer Queen for the death of his beloved, claiming that she deliberately delayed her forces in an attempt to let the fomorians dispose of her rival. He forever banished all members of the Summer Court from his realms, and ruled that any who strayed within his borders would be killed on sight. The Queen of Winter had never been an overly kind ruler, but the Prince of Frost was merciless and cruel. It is said - though never within the lands of the Winter Court - that when his queen was killed, his heart froze to ice within his chest.

Though he never made any direct moves against the Summer Court, most considered it to be only a matter of time before he attempted to bring endless winter to Senaliesse.

It thus came as no surprise when, in the year 2959, it was discovered that he was attempting to free the primordial Cryonax. Upon making this discovery, the Summer Queen marshaled her forces and, with the help of the Challengers of the Unspeakable, laid siege to the Fortress of Frozen Tears. With the armies of the Summer Court keeping the Prince of Frost distracted, the Challengers snuck in through a hidden underground path, where they found and slew the Prince's daughter, Koliada. Using an illusion spell, they then disguised Chrip as Koliada and entered the Prince's audience chamber, whereupon "Koliada" announced that she was taking her father's crown. Enraged and her apparent betrayal, the Prince of Frost fought back savagely until he was at last brought to his knees by Kalth.

Still in the guise of Koliada, Chrip offered the Prince of Frost one last chance, to end his reign with dignity with a potion that would put him into an eternal sleep beside the preserved body of his beloved Queen of Winter. He replied thus:


 * Dignity? What dignity is there in being betrayed by one's own blood? I raised you, sheltered you, trained you, and this is how you repay me? I should have killed you just as I did your whore of a mother, you bitch!

Without another word, Chrip fired a bolt of ice straight into the Prince's heart; he died still believing his daughter had betrayed him.