Norrun
A firth capital built around the boats that bring northern settlements through winter.
Norrun faces the Firth of Perou at the western end of the march. Its streets climb in shallow steps so loaded sledges can reach the warehouses without unloading. Dock bells sound for arrivals in summer and for missing patrols in winter; residents can tell the difference from a single stroke.
Anja Rusk requisitioned the merchants' warm storehouses during the Norrun Ice Truce. The owners still seek payment, while the families sheltered there insist a rescue cannot become a debt. A drowned bell has begun ringing beneath the dock whenever a grain convoy leaves the south.
Anja governs through rescue obligations rather than parade orders.
A vast northern march holding the winter that other kingdoms chose not to endure.
Torren trains soldiers to cut sled runners before he lets them carry swords.
Kelda tends the foxglove garden and measures doses more carefully than her cousins measure political loyalties.
Ragna keeps the names of families supplied during every storm in a cloth ledger repaired with mismatched thread.
Halden lost three fingers opening a frozen shelter door and makes strangers examine the latch before entering his house.