Beli-vuskha

     It is said that beli-vuskhas are no more than the fantasies of lonely shardokans. Staying alone for many years, hunting, cutting ice or looking for veins of ore can make someone imagine many things to stop the silence.

     This has a kernel of truth, if one thinks of the most popular story to explain their existence: that even before the empire came to be, one or more isolated mountain dwarfs carved ice women which gained life thanks to Corallin's powerful benevolence. They were cold to the touch, but that wasn't a problem for a race that can survive a snowstorm with nothing more than a loin-cloth. The new couples became families united into a new clan, called Katusha.

     the clan prospered for hundreds of years, although it became clear that the descendants of shardokans and beli-vuskhas can only be beli-vuskhas. Even after burying the bodies of their loved ones, the immortal matriarchs kept living with their daughters in a citadel called "Katusha". The beli-vuskhas must remain in the highest mountains to escape from melting. And while many fear the cold and possible hunger during the winter, these ladies love the opportunity to go to the lower lands and talk with their inhabitants, to relieve the loneliness and even find love. In the case of danger, they can cause hypothermia with a touch, shoot ice projectiles and winds strong enough to raise someone off the ground.

 

     Another tale told among the shardokan is about the beli-vuskha Katusha Aniyu. This snow adventuress can be distinguished by her plae skin, sapphire colored eyes and wavy hair blue like the sea. She's always dressed in a thick bear skin with colorful beads. Fragments of eternal ice on the inside allow Aniyu to travel beyond her sisters. Her goal is to acquire a fortune and buy so much eternal ice that she and her sisters may live anywhere they want.