Researching the North: Frozen Planet

Similarly to Planet Earth and Life Story, I also watched the entire series of Frozen Planet, which I watched more for inspiration about places and locations to include in the northern section of the world.

Frozen Forests

I found this idea something that would be great to be in our world; forests that are completely covered in snow, to the extent that they look like giant snow sculptures. This would be a great place for a viking settlement providing detail in what can often be a huge empty icy wasteland in snowy environments.

Melt Water Lakes and Rivers

This I found a very cool idea also. On top of some ice glaciers, the ices melts forming huge lakes, where rivers form melting the softer and warmer parts of the glacier, which can make canyons in the ice, which find their way to the sea.

I liked the idea of these and maybe having villages on top of the glaciers, where sea creatures such as Killer Whales can swim up the rivers to meet with land characters and join the villiage society, where villiages can stretch above and below the surface.

Brinicle

New sea ice forming above the surface leaves behind brine that is so extremely salty, it sinks rapidly. As it sinks, the sea water around it freezes instantly and it forms a sheath of ice (brinicle) that grows downwards toward the sea floor. When it reaches the sea bed, it kills anything it touches.

I thought this could be a very interesting way for say Bolon the Ice King to fight underwater creatures or even  a way of him expanding his icy empire.