The Pale Hand

Coming of the Endless Ice

THE PALE HAND
The strange, grim people known as the Hyperboreans are rarely encountered in this day. Once they dwelled in the isles of the utter north, lands legendary for their fantastic beasts and eerie wonders. Long ago the polar ice swallowed Hyperborea and destroyed the mysterious Hyperborean civilization, or so the sages and storytellers of Thule believe. But one last evil remnant of the ancient Hyperborean civilization lingers still: the secret brotherhood known as the Pale Hand.
The Pale Hand is a circle of evil warlocks devoted to the powers of ice, darkness, and destruction.
Formerly the high lords and princes of their people, the brothers of the Pale Hand chose to ally themselves with the Great Doom, the malevolent polar spirit that threatened their lands. With their dark rites and sinister spells they hastened the coming of the ice - and now that Hyperborea and Nimoth have fallen to the endless winter, the Pale Hand warlocks chant new spells in their frozen castles to bring the same terrible doom down upon the continent of Thule.

PRINCES OF THE PALE HAND
The Pale Hand is believed to number only a dozen or so members, who take the title “prince.” Each is a sorcerer of greater or lesser power, sworn to serve their joint purpose of bringing endless winter down upon Thule—and after that, all of the Earth. The Pale Hand princes in turn rule over their own strongholds. Some are the masters of their ancestral keeps, and command loyal households of kin and servants. Others rule over only slaves and monsters, or even dwell alone in the icy desolation. The princes rarely gather, and ignore each other for the most part. There is little point in jockeying for favor or position when each prince reigns over a waste of ice as vast as a kingdom. A prince’s primary aspiration is to be the last survivor at the end of all things, and so each pursues the Pale Hand agenda in his or her own way.
The Ur-Prince, or leader, of the Pale Hand is said to be a gaunt and hateful man named Khuuth dra Mauv. Ur-Prince Khuuth is rumoured to be centuries old, and to reign over a frigid castle where he is served by a host of demonic spirits. He rules over the others only by virtue of his royal bloodline, and the other princes give him only perfunctory obedience - Hyperboreans respect ancient forms, and from time to time they expect Ur-Prince Khuuth to summon them to renew their oaths of fealty.
However, the Pale Hand prince most often seen in Thule is actually a princess, the sardonic Ydril ze Omun. Princess Ydril visits the northerly ports from time to time in a white trireme whose rowers are never seen, trading rare jewels seen nowhere else in Thule for Thulean artifacts or odd mystic reagents, such as the feathers of an archaeopteryx or the fangs of a giant viper. While Ydril is the only member of the Pale Hand to travel openly in Thule, her colleagues are thought to command agents or spies (often supernatural) to study developments and search out opportunities.

Ydril ze Omun, Princess of the Pale Hand

PALE HAND PLOTS
Most sinister organizations in Thule desire power and dominion—their goal is to bring Thule under their sway and rule it, openly or in secret. The goal of the Pale Hand, on the other hand, is destruction. The princes pursue this goal through direct magical attack, using their powers to send harsh winters, blight summers with unseasonable frost, or lure monsters of the icy wastes to plague the land. Cities such as Beothoe and Hurhun were weakened before their falls by Pale Hand efforts; today, Akal-Amo, Droum, and Nim are coming under Pale Hand attack, although few but Master Rho of Dawnspire, and perhaps the Black Circle of Thran, yet realize the icy hand at the throat of Thule's great cities. The Pale Hand warlocks also despise Atlantean science, seeing it as a tool that might be turned against their cold theurgy, and do what they can to locate and destroy Atlantean lore.

PALE HAND REAVERS
Standing almost seven feet tall, this tall, thin human warrior
is strikingly pale, with whitish-blond hair and eyes
of light blue. He wears fantastically baroque armor, and
wields a sword in one hand and a wand in the other.

Crylor dra Ignith, Reaver Commander of the Pale Hand

Reavers are the footsoldiers and elite bodyguards of the Pale Hand. They are few in number, and unless guarding their Prince it is rare for more than one or two Reavers to be in the same place at the same time. A Pale Hand Reaver engaged in a mission of importance in the warm lands typically relies on hired help - for example berserkers, veterans, or gladiators paid well for their loyalty.

Fire Fills the Sky as the Gods of Thule Battle Against the Great Doom