MotM: Ise.

New month, so a new moon!  This time we explore Ise, a
world of all things, Dohwar!  This moon is rather
light-hearted, of course, but it was a blast to write.
 I can already imagine devious DM's involving their
PCs in the various nefarious schemes of the dohwar
"apprentices"... :D

Enjoy!

Adam

Ise
Small (D) Irregular Water (Ice)
Climate: Cold
Orbital Position: Outer Lunar
Day Length: 48 hours
Year Length: 56 days
Native Races: Dohwar, snow elves, arctic and glacier
dwarves, tundra halflings, uldra

The moon before you is a blue-white moon broken by
bits of gray.  It vaguely resembles a white potato
rather than a more common sphere.  

As a whole, Ise is essentially a very large,
frozen-over asteroid that is just over 2,000 miles
along its major axis and 1,600 miles along its minor
axis.  In most spots, mile-thick glaciers cover the
land.  Internal volcanic activity does create some
warm spots, ranging from small springs and ice-capped
lakes to chilly open seas.

Ise is a relatively remote moon in the system it
occupies.  It is a brutally cold place, where
temperatures stay well below freezing even on “warm”
sunny days!  These conditions have discouraged
exploration by all but the hardiest explorers. 
Ill-prepared ships can freeze in Ise’s air, leading to
disastrous crashes.

Ise is most assuredly a dohwar world.  To the dohwar,
Ise is a winter paradise well-suited to their needs. 
It is one of the largest known gatherings of their
kind anywhere in the Known Spheres.  On many star
charts, its location is marked with the note “Stay
Away!!!” as many captains would rather face the fury
of a rampaging radiant dragon than an entire moon of
squawking, haggling, obnoxious penguins!

Landmarks
Bleakgale Islands: This spit of an island cluster sits
in the middle of the largest, ice-free sea.  Deep
volcanic activity keeps the islands relatively warm. 
Those same deep-earth thermals fuel fierce gales and
winds.  The islands are mostly rocky, with only a few
patches of thin soil.  Despite the harsh conditions,
the islands an ideal dohwar mating grounds.  Every
season, dohwar couples travel to the islands to mate
and hatch their chicks.  The dohwar family remains for
about two years before returning home.

Ozune Glacier: This mighty glacier sits in a bowl
valley with no exit, leaving it static and unchanging.
 Ice taken from this glacier melts very slowly, taking
five times longer than standard ice to melt.  This
property is lost after the ice melts and is not
regained if the water is refrozen.  The ice is
therefore very valuable.  The dohwar ship huge blocks
of ice carved from the glacier’s surface, leaving huge
holes.  Some dohwar warn that holes in the Ozune will
cause a cataclysmic collapse of the glacier and
destroy their way of life.

Mammoth Meadows: This rare, lush valley was formed by
volcanic vents eons ago, and remains warm to this day.
 The grasses grow rapidly, enough to feed several
herds of wholly mammoths.  The mammoths were imported
by several families of frost giants, who live in
nearby icy castles.  The mammoths are the primary food
source for these giants, who often work for the dohwar
as laborers.  The pay is good, and the giants have
shifted towards a neutral alignment.  

Native Creatures
Ise is a brutally cold place, where only creatures’
typically native to arctic climates can survive.  Many
of the animals on Ise are related to avians in some
manner even though they fill roles typically held by
other creatures.

The seas are home to a number of fish, both familiar
and bizarre.  These are preyed up by various Avincea,
which are whale-like animals descended from birds
rather than mammals.  There are numerous species of
Avincea, ranging from the size and abilities of a
common dolphin to that of a killer whale.  Like
whales, the Avinceas are air breathers, use
echo-location to find their prey, and can swim with
frightening speed.  Warm, heat-trapping feathers
protect Avinceas from the bitter cold of the seas.

The ice fields and glaciers are the haunt of
penguin-bears, a variation of the more common
owl-bear, an unholy cross of the leopard seal and the
bulette known as leopettes, snow sphinxes, and packs
of roc-wolves, a dangerous predator that is part wolf,
part emu.  The mountains are the domain of savage yeti
with penguin-like features who are expert hunters and
trappers of anyone that dares enter their territories.
 

By far the most feared predators are the dracorocs, a
bizarre hybrid of white dragons and gigantic rocs. 
These beasts nest in cliffs, using their claws to
hollow out a depression in the cliff face.  Nests are
made of the bones creatures they eat and shed
feathers.  Ships as large as squidships are known to
have been attacked and torn to pieces by these
enormous bird-dragons seeking an easy meal and
treasure to hoard.

Resources and Trade
To most travelers, Ise is just one ice-ball with very
little worth stopping for trade.  The dohwar know
different.  Fish, shellfish, and crustaceans thrive in
the icy seas.  Using rugged fishing ships, vast nets,
and swift dohwar swimmers, fishermen haul in enormous
catches destined for ports on nearby planets, once
properly gutted and packed in ice.  The fishing
industry on Ise provides the dohwar with one a vital
source of wealth.  The ice of the Ozune Glacier, which
has special properties that allow it to retain its
cold longer than typical, is another important export.
 One more important export is dohwar feathers, which
they shed naturally every few months.  The feathers
command a high price in non-dohwar quarters for the
warmth they provide.

In exchange for their exported food, ice, and
feathers, the dohwar buy just about anything.  They
are avid junk collectors, buying broken or worn down
tools and devices for rock-bottom prices, then
refurbish it and resell it for a profit.  Refurbishing
and turning trash into treasure are what dohwar excel
at.  

Guide to Groundlings
Ise is home to a great multitude of dohwar.  Over the
generations the moon has attracted dohwar from all
across the Known Spheres, finding it an ideal paradise
to retire, raise chicks, or otherwise conduct business
with their kind.  It is famous as a safe haven for all
dohwar, a refuge for when business deals sour and a
dohwar down on his luck needs a place to rebuild his
fortunes.  Many dohwar cartels and corporations locate
their headquarters here.

Given the vast numbers of dohwar, several sub-races,
native solely to Ise, have arisen.  These include the
giant dohwar, the dohwar fairy, and regal dohwar.  The
giant dohwar are considered a “throwback”, being
larger and stronger than a typical dohwar (about 5’
tall) but less intelligent.  Giant dohwars are often
“hired muscle”, usually as guards or laborers much as
half-orcs or half-ogres in human communities.  Dohwar
fairies are the smallest of the dohwar sub-races,
averaging only 1’ 6” tall.  Their size makes them
excellent spies and scouts for their larger cousins. 
The last sub-race is the regal dohwar, who are
slightly smaller and lighter than normal dohwar and
have brightly colored feathers trimming their heads. 
Regal dohwar are naturally inclined towards sorcery
and wizardry.  Other dohwar hold them in awe, a
position not unlike the relationship between humans
and elves.

The typical dohwar is a low-level bureaucrat for a
corporation, a fisher bird, or a public-projects
artisan.  These are hard-working birds, staying at the
job for long hours before heading home.  They dwell in
cozy one or two room igloos or low-rent apartments. 
It will include a down feather nest, an area to
prepare and serve meals, and whatever meager
possessions the dohwar might have collected over the
years.  As dohwar are notorious pack-rats, their
dwellings overflow with bits of junk and look quite
cluttered.  A dohwar is more than willing to part with
any of its possessions, for the right price, of
course.

Higher rank bureaucrats and successful salesmen have
larger, more spacious dwellings.  Some will have a
separate storage area to stow their “collectables”,
keeping their living quarters more orderly.  Their
quarters will be illuminated by oil lanterns and lamps
enchanted with continual flame.  The most successful
dohwar live in lavish, multi-room penthouses with
private galleries and drawing rooms which proudly
displays the choicest pieces of the dohwar’s
“collection”.  Everything, of course, has a price.

At the head of dohwar society is Amperor Triumph. 
This is more a position now than a name, one somewhat
akin to the head of a very large guild or king. 
Unlike with other races, the position is not gained
through inheritance, but through a complex ritual
process that takes years to complete.  When the
current Amperor Triumph takes office, he will choose
several apprentices.  Every year, he assigns various
tasks for these apprentices to undertake.  Tasks
invariably involve making money, and very often draw
in down-on-their-luck adventurers.  How well these
apprentices do on these tasks determines if they
remain in the Amperor’s employment for another year. 
Eventually, after many rounds of tasks, the least
talented dohwar are weeded out, leaving one last
apprentice to take over when the current Amperor
retires.  The rituals are always elaborate affairs
which conclude when the Amperor coldly dismisses an
apprentice that disappoints him.  The words “You’re
Fired!” have ruined many would-be apprentices.

A surprising number of demi-humans, particularly those
adapted to living in the arctic, have settled on Ise. 
During the dohwars’s mass migration to Ise, a number
of these arctic-dwellers tagged along for the ride. 
Particularly, this included snow elves, arctic and
glacier dwarves, uldra, and tundra halflings as well
as the occasional neanderthal clan and even a few
frost giant families.  Their small enclaves are all
but lost in a sea of dohwar settlements.  Most were
likely employees or indentured servants, as no one
else could conceive of a reason why these races would
choose to settle on a moon so thickly inhabited by the
obnoxious dohwar.  For the most part, they are paid
employees of the dohwar and follow whatever laws the
dohwar have set.  They are fairly independent, as
their communities and enclaves have their own rulers
and elders, as the birds let their non-dohwar attend
to their own affairs.

Ports of Call
Tharmroost (large city, 21,000): Located in the heart
of the Bleakgale Islands is this city for dohwar
families.  It is a marvel of dohwar engineering
skills, built from countless fieldstones and carved
into living rock.  Buildings are constructed much like
bunkers with 6’ high ceilings and rise three stories
or less.  Windows are small to let in some light but
keep the biting wind at bay.  The city is almost
exclusively dohwar families with eggs or chicks. 
Typically an expecting family will travel to the city
to rent an apartment for two years.  These apartments
range from one-room flats to elaborate, multi-room
penthouses for the very wealthiest of dohwar.

Triumph Towers (metropolis, 119,000): Rising from the
Fuming Glacier like some fairy tale palace is this
capital of dohwar commerce.  The entire city is made
from carved blocks of ice.  The poorest dwellings are
simple igloos at the city’s outskirts.  These are
overshadowed by magnificent towers of ice, some rising
as high as 300’ into the sky.  The gleaming city is a
wondrous sight during the day, and even more so at
night when it is illuminated by countless colorful
continual flame spells.  The city teems with dohwar
and a few of their employees of other races.  There is
a fully functional spelljammer dock at the foot of the
glacier, capable of servicing up to 12 uspos at once. 
Non-dohwar ships land here on occasion but not
frequently enough to justify building facilities to
accommodate them.  It is very rare for non-dohwar to
have cause to land here.

Point Ice (small city, 6,000): This small city is the
central gathering point for the non-dohwar races of
Ise, especially the snow elves.  The city is in fact a
small duchy under the rule of a snow elf duke, though
his rule is weak.  The real power is held by several
powerful families of uldra and arctic dwarves, who
support the elven duchy for the sake of keeping good
relations with the Elven Fleet.  The duchy is powerful
enough to own a single elven man-o-war, which is
obligated to patrol the space directly around Ise.  In
return, the Duke can request aide from the Elven Fleet
during times of peril.  Since the beginning of the
Second Unhuman Wars, city elders are fearful of an
attack by goblin-kin, and are in the market to buy
more ships to bolster their defenses.  The city is a
rough-and-tumble place, frequented by barbarians and
Vikings, although patrols of arctic dwarves keep the
worst lawlessness confined to only a few city blocks. 


History
This frozen iceball of a moon was first discovered
long ago by elven scouts.  Given the bitterly cold
weather, the elves departed after a brief survey,
never to return.  Ise would remain a footnote in a
captain’s journal for centuries.  Sometime in the
centuries leading up to the Unhuman Wars, the journal
was lost when the elven Man-O-War it was stored on was
overtaken by goblins.  From there, the journal passed
from hand to hand for over a century, until it finally
ended up in the possession of the dohwar merchant
Amperor Triumph.  After having the journal translated
from elven to dohwar, he discovered the initial elven
survey buried in the footnotes.  The description of
Ise intrigued the pioneering penguin.

Triumph was a crafty business-bird with an eye for
prime real-estate.  After extensive surveys, he
claimed Ise as his own, and over the next two decades,
sunk enough gold into the moon to turn it into a
dohwar paradise.  He built affordable condos,
apartments, and flats that attracted many
working-class dohwar, and elaborate penthouses and
palaces for those dohwar of finer tastes.  Within a
generation, Ise became a major homeworld for the
penguin-folk, much to the discomfort of every other
race in the Known Spheres.

The hostile environment and inaccessible resources
have done wonders for keeping would-be conquerors away
from this moon.  The neogi once attempted an assault
on Ise to capture as many tasty dohwar as possible. 
The effort ended in spectacular fashion when a freak
blizzard caused four deathspiders and two mindspiders
to wreck into a glacier.  The disaster nearly ruined
the Bloodspinneret neogi clan.  Of course, before the
storm had even lifted, the dohwar were busy ripping
the neogi ships apart for scrap and salvage.  

Satellites
The Lights: An ever-changing region that orbits not
far above Ise’s gravity, the Lights are an area of
brilliant, colorful light.  Day or night, the Lights
are bright enough to read by and provide light
equivalent to full moonlight.  The Lights are an area
where the Plane of Radiance and the Prime overlap. 
Entering the Lights has the same effect as entering
the Plane of Radiance.

Bibliography
Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space
Monstrous Compendium Appendix 9: Dohwar
Races of Faerun
Frostburn


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