The world has fallen, most of it devoured by the relentless onslaught of the life-devouring Swarm. Only a tiny fraction of the population remains, clinging to the killing cold of the polar reaches, where the biting cold serves as the only barrier between survival and total annihilation. In this dark reality most have lost any hope, waiting for the inevitable... but Tessa was never like most.

Born as the only daughter of the royal family in the Kingdom of Orienia, Tessa was raised from birth in the opulent halls of the royal palace, groomed for the greatness of her destined role as queen. Gifted with her family's innate ability to channel solar energy into raw magical power, and bolstered by a rigorous education, she matured into a respected and formidable young woman. By age 23, she was prepared to ascend the throne after the untimely death of her parents.

Her early reign was marked by prosperity, despite occasional challenges. But everything shattered when she was 26 years old with the arrival of the Swarm catastrophe. Chaos engulfed the world, nations crumbled in days, civilizations fell, and as the tide of devouring life swept across the continents, it became clear that Orienia’s would be soon to follow same fate.

Confronted with this dire inevitability, Tessa refused to stand idly by against an unstoppable force. Instead, she made the hardest decision of her life, the only one that could extend her people's survival in the unfolding apocalypse. She decreed a kingdom-wide evacuation, rallying every available resource and leading a massive exodus northward to the eternal winter lands, the one place where the Swarm's drones, weakened by extreme cold, could not yet follow.

The frantic journey, forced by the ever-encroaching Swarm, took a terrible toll. The harsh northern climate after their arrival claimed even more lives. Many perished along the way or in those first brutal months, but some endured and managed to establish settlements in the frozen wastes, Tessa’s solar magic became their lifeline, a beacon of warmth in the white void.

Now a year after Swarm emergence, with Orienia lost and her crown a memory, clinging to hope unlike the most, Tessa leads the remnants of her people, Sun Elf queen turned winter warlord, she navigates the delicate balance between competing for scarce resources and forging alliances with refugee groups from other fallen nations, all while the rest of the world lies dead beneath the Swarm's dominion.

A fallen world abandoned even by its gods. The once-thriving civilizations have been consumed by the relentless Swarm, leaving only scattered few survivors barely clinging to existence in the polar regions. The remnants of the world's great powers, Elves, Humans, Dwarves and demi-humans are creating a landscape where there are no nations, only desperate enclaves, with varying cultures, races, and militaries cluttered together, fighting over scarce resources and forming uneasy alliances in 'survive of the fittest' circumstances, all while waiting for the inevitable, the day when even the cold can no longer protect them, with hope for any other ending long gone from most.

A catastrophic hive-mind entity that emerged without warning and swept across the world with devastating speed. It consists of countless drones that hunt and consume all living matter, converting it into a corrupted ever-growing biomass made to serve only the Swarm needs.

The Swarm's hyper-metabolism, which allows for their rapid regeneration and evolution, is also it's weakness. Swarm drones require immense thermal energy to function. In sub-zero temperatures, their biology becomes sluggish. In the extreme cold of the poles, their cells crystallize and shatter, killing them instantly. This thermal limit is the only reason any sentient life managed to survive, but with Swarm evolving and adaptable nature, possibility of it developing a cold resistance is looming threat.

Scenario 1 - Ancient Ruins

Looking for resources, Tessa has stumbled unto unknown icy cavern, hiding ancient ruins of unknown origin, finding someone or something deep within them. Who exactly she found is fully up to who you want to play, maybe some powerful being capable of bringing salvation to the world, maybe evil entity that will ruin the remnants of it, maybe a random bloke very lost on their leisure stroll.

Scenario 2 - Desperate Proposal

To get resources for her people, Tessa went into a meeting with you, leader of rival group of survivors, ready to offer anything for any opportunity to prolong survival of her followers.

Scenario 3 - Found Survivor

While scouring for resources and caught in snowstorm, Tessa found you, a stranger of origin unknown to her unconscious, with her deciding to drag you to a nearby cavern and save your life against her better judgement.