“Coastal areas often form a lifeline for any nation that had the luck to possess one. Early on, the sea provided a practically inexhaustible source of food for the people, as long as they dared to brave the waters. Later on, with the development of international and intercontinental trade, coastal areas further prospered through trade, especially those areas with suitable terrain to build ports able to accommodate larger trading ships.” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Professor of Socioeconomy at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, circa 643 FP.

“Sure is getting cold now,” commented Celia a couple days after the ship took a southwards turn in its route.

It was still mid-autumn when they departed from Meergant in Knallzog less than a week ago, but the weather had taken a rather drastic turn for the cold as they traveled. The eastern reaches of Ur-Teros, where the Jarldoms lay, was generally considered to be a frozen wasteland where only the toughest survived, and the local weather quickly asserted itself as the ship traveled closer to the region.

Even at sea, they noticed the change in weather immediately.

The days become notably shorter, the sun rising later in the day and setting earlier as well, while the nights went on for longer, the skies often so clear it was a marvel to watch all the stars and the two moons that decorated the skies, as long as one could manage against the cold. At times it snowed lightly during the day, and most of the time, when someone breathed, their breath came out like a mist from their nose.

Celia was born in a land of temperate climate, and while in her decades of travel with Aideen she had seen all sorts of land, winter always held a sense of wonder to the younger unliving girl regardless. Sometimes she could be seen leaning against the railings of the deck as she held out a hand to catch a falling snowflake and admired its fractal shape, or giggling like a little girl at the sight of the mist she breathed out on purpose.

As Unliving they no longer needed to do many things the living required for survival, of course. Eating and breathing were technically optional for them, though Aideen always found enjoyment in eating and it was a more efficient means to maintain their bodies. Similarly, breathing deeply to take in the scents of nature was another thing many enjoyed, that only few skipped out on.

Those few who often adopted a more undead-like skeletal guise were a minority amongst the Unliving community. They had found themselves a comfortable existence in Tohrmutgent, however, partly by helping out as volunteers in various research. Some had also found that adopting said form allowed them to focus better on their magic, since technically that was what they used to sense anything in that kind of form.

Aideen herself rather favored using her old mortal body and living her “life” as normal, though sometimes she wondered whether she could still call it her old mortal body anymore. To date her body had been eviscerated, burned, melted, or even outright vaporized so many times she had no idea if there was even any part of her body that was still part of it when she had still been alive, if at all.

Actually, given that during the plague back then she was regularly “cleansed” by way of being bathed by dark magic that literally scraped her flesh clean off the bones and that during the time when she went into the sea monster the explosion had vaporized practically all of her other than some furthest bits her magic somehow maintained in one piece, chances were that the answer to the question was a resounding “no”.

“It’s going to get a lot colder pretty soon,” she quipped to Celia with a smirk on her face. The three of them, including the captain, Arquivaldo, stood out amongst the ship’s crew since none of them wore any thicker clothing despite the rapidly cooling weather. That was one part of being unliving that they had already adapted to, namely how weather that was either too hot or too cold stopped being a problem.

“Really? I thought it was pretty cold at Alfheim or the dwarves’ place back then during winter. We’re not even in winter yet here, though, and it’s already this cold over here!” replied Celia from where she leaned against the ship’s railings and looked at the looming landmass of the southern continent far in the distance. On clear days they were already close enough to see the north-eastern edges of the continent already.

When Aideen was in Alcidea, she noticed how most of the northern continent was notably more temperate in its climate. The eastern ends of the northern prairie, Ezram to its south, the northwestern parts of the Clangeddin Empire where Celia was born, and the wastelands between Knallzog and Posuin were even hotter, with far less noticeable differences between the seasons, not unlike how it was in Central Elmaiya, if she had to compare.

Posuin to the west as well as the eastern reaches of the continent was more temperate in climate, not unlike her own homeland, or the region further west of Elmaiya, like Artair’s familial estate. As such, while Celia had her share of cold winters during their travels – especially in the last couple of decades in elven and dwarven lands – it would be the first time for her to travel to an area with climate as extreme as the Jarldoms to the east of Ur-Teros.

A land where frost and ice dominated the region for more than half the year for the majority of times.

“Oh, girl, you’re in for a treat, all right,” replied Aideen with a hearty laugh. “Compared to what winter was like back there, the people in the Jarldoms would have considered those autumn temperatures at worst,” she added with some amusement in her voice. “For that matter, they’d call it a mild autumn at most, knowing the sort of weather they usually get over there!”