Frozen (lore)

This article is about the group in lore. For other uses, see Frozen.

“

They're not dead. One day, long after you've lived and died, they'll thaw. And I'll be there to lead them. Until then, their sacrifice will help unchain Jormag.

— Ryland Steelcatcher in Dragon Response Mission: Lake Doric

The Frozen are individuals frozen in the Elder Dragon Jormag's corrupted ice by the Sons of Svanir and Frost Legion shamans under the command of Ryland Steelcatcher in 1333 and 1334 AE. The Frozen cannot be burned by destroyers and are connected to Jormag to help empower the Ice Dragon.

According to Jormag and Ryland, the Frozen will eventually thaw out, alive, in the decades to come, though they are unsure how the Frozen will be affected by this. The Spirits of the Wild, however, claim that the agonized cries of the Frozen echo in their minds. It is left ambiguous as to whether the Frozen will be corrupted into minions, but those trapped in the ice do not appear to be altered. They have not been observed to be corrupted from the dead.

History

Following Jormag's awakening and Primordus's subsequent stirring in 1333 AE, Jormag and their new champion Ryland Steelcatcher began thinking of ways for Jormag to become more powerful than Primordus whose destroyer minions were wreaking havoc across Tyria.

With help from the asura Taimi and Gorrik as well as the Arcane Council of Rata Sum, Ryland identified and measured Jormag's cumulative power versus Primordus. Due to the Fire Dragon's newfound power of creating a feedback loop to increase his power the more his destroyers burned, Primordus was growing stronger than Jormag. The Arcane Council considered boosting the Ice Dragon's power to level the field again, and Ryland agreed with their sentiment. After learning that Primordus would not be waking yet, Ryland decided to start experimenting although he chose not to tell his asuran allies what he intended to do.

Ryland sent a sizable force consisting of Frost Legion, Sons of Svanir, and icebrood to Lake Doric which the destroyers were believed to be targeting next. Wanting to boost Jormag and prevent Primordus from gaining power via destruction, the icebrood attacked their Krytan allies who thought that the icebrood had come to assist them against the destroyers. The shamans began herding people to freeze them via elaborate rituals which had a limited reach. Although the Krytans and their allies were able to repel the icebrood and kill Bors of the Ice Gavel, a shaman leading the attackers, they were unable to thaw those who had already been Frozen. Ryland arrived on the scene to explain that the attack had been deliberate to protect people from destroyers and that they would thaw in the decades to come to a new world where Ryland would lead them.

With the first test being a success, Ryland and the icebrood targeted Snowden Drifts next, freezing local denizens and attacking the kodan settlement of Song of Final Exile to further empower Jormag while Ryland tried to force the resisting Owl to submit to the Ice Dragon. Although Ryland was thwarted, many people were nevertheless Frozen. Under Ryland's orders, the icebrood continued attacking other locations such as the Dominion of Winds in Caledon Forest and the Citadel of Flame in Fireheart Rise with similar goals in mind. Asuran research revealed that every location where the Frozen had appeared had a powerful ley line beneath it. Meanwhile, the Spirits of the Wild claimed to hear the echoes of the Frozen's agonized cries in their minds, prompting them to take action against Jormag by helping Primordus awaken and directing him to target Jormag.

Upon realizing that Jormag was drawing on the magic of the ley lines and using the Frozen and a bonded champion like Ryland as a conduit, the Elder Dragon Aurene and the Pact Commander set up a trap at Anvil Rock in 1334 AE. The plan was to draw both Elder Dragons there so their connection to their special champions and the magic of the ley lines could be severed and thus force the two rival dragons to clash and destroy one another. To accomplish this, Aurene's allied army destroyed the ley line siphons in the area while weakening the two dragons' clashing champions.

After Jormag and Primordus's demise in the clash, the Frozen began thawing although the Durmand Priory speculated that it would be a lengthy process. When asked about the phenomenon, Gorrik admitted that some of the Frozen might never recover as there was no way to know the fate of all the Frozen until enough time had passed.

Gallery

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  A Frozen asura.

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  A Frozen charr.

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  A Frozen human.

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  A Frozen norn.

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  A Frozen sylvari.

Notes

• The visual effects on the ice is the same ice used when Jormag uses Frozen Wave at the end of One Charr, One Dragon, One Champion, which is notably different from ice used by Jormag's minions elsewhere in the game.
• In Frozen Out, Rox suffered a similar effect when she was frozen solid by the Champion Ice Beast's attack while the Pact Commander managed to unfreeze thanks to the protection provided by the Thaw Elixir. Thawing after the champion's demise, Rox likened the experience to having a vivid dream without even realizing that she had been frozen for the entire length of the battle.