Journey beyond the Great Escarpment to the frozen wastes of the Panak Desert. In this episode, we explore the land of eternal frost and the people who call it home—the Ice People. From their peat-brick ho-tii houses to their reliance on wizards (or makou) following the purge of their own shamans, discover how this unique culture survives where even the bravest travelers freeze. Buy Time of the Dragon: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/16960/time-of-the-dragon-2e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
In the far north of Taladas lies the Panak Desert, a land of biting winds and ice-crusted bogs where temperatures plunge to forty below, yet for the resilient Ice People, it is the only home they have ever known.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam, and today we are venturing into the Panak Desert—the northernmost, most inhospitable wasteland on the continent. I’d like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members and Patreon patrons, and invite you to consider becoming a member or patron — you can even pick up Dragonlance media or get $10 by signing up to StartPlaying.Games using my affiliate links. I’m referencing the Time of the Dragon boxed set for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below.
Discussion
Today we are discussing the treacherous Great Escarpment, the hardy wildlife that thrives in the extreme cold, and the fascinating culture of the Ice People who have traded their original shamans for a new class of wizard: the Makou. It is a world where magic is measured in ritual, hunting is a test of survival, and the very ground you walk on might be solid frost that hasn’t thawed in ten thousand years.
The Panak Desert is a misnomer; it is not sand, but a vast, eerie badland of gravel plains, frozen bogs, and coastal pack ice. The seasons here are binary: cold and not-cold. When the short summer hits, the land explodes with color as grasses, mosses, and scrub blossom in a desperate rush to survive before the arctic air returns. It is a land of massive temperature swings—hitting ninety degrees during a summer day before dropping to freezing at night, and plummeting to forty below in the winter.
The land is bisected by the Great Escarpment, a sandstone wall thrust up during the Cataclysm that rises up to three hundred feet. Crossing it is treacherous, filled with slides and porous stone. Above this wall lies the Upper Panak, a tundra of permafrost. The animals here are defined by their hardiness: bactrian camels and ponies in the south, while the north is dominated by the nasif—the reindeer husbanded by the Ice People—and the fearsome remorhaz, ice bears, and the rare, deadly white dragon.
But imagine the geography as an active antagonist. It is a nightmare for any traveler. The stone is crumbly and porous, the talus slopes at the base are loose and constantly prone to sliding, and in winter, ice expands into the cracks, causing the entire wall to groan and shift. If you are trying to reach the Upper Panak, you aren’t just trekking; you are fighting the earth itself for every foot of elevation.
The Ice People are a broad-built, resilient folk, easily identified by their flattened faces, pug noses, and coarse black hair, often greased with whale oil. Their clothing is pure function: seal-skin tunics, nasif-wool leggings, and fur-lined cassocks. They are master hunters and fishers, and they are incapable of farming—agriculture is entirely foreign to their way of life. Whether they are warriors or hunters, they are deeply tethered to the land. They are experts in arctic survival, sledge handling, and navigation, and those who work with animals are limited strictly to the dog and the nasif.
Consider their hunting. When they take to the water in oiled seal-skin canoes to harpoon a whale, it isn’t just a hunt—it’s a feat of extreme coordination. It requires multiple men, freezing water, and nerves of steel. They have no concept of agriculture; to them, the land is not something to be sown, but something to be harvested through the spear, the ax, and the whalebone bow. They are navigators, expert at reading the shifting ice and using sledges drawn by their nasif reindeer to cross miles of frozen waste.
The most haunting part of their history is the Great Purge. When the gods left during the Flight of the Gods and the shamans lost their power, the Ice People were not saddened—they were terrified. They believed a great evil had been committed, and they looked for a culprit. They settled on their own shamans. In a brief, brutal period, they systematically hunted down and destroyed their entire priesthood.
In that void stepped the Makou. The makou are more than just magic users; they are the tribal advisors, healers, and seers. However, they carry the weight of the old traditions. Their shamanistic trappings—the elaborate rituals and robes—actually make their magic slower and more cumbersome to cast than that of a standard wizard. They are uniquely tied to their culture; they cannot practice mining, blacksmithing, or herbalism, and their focus remains entirely on the preservation of the tribe. Even when they venture out into the world, they remain rooted in their history, often knowing ancient languages and songs that have been passed down for generations.
If you are planning on bringing the Ice People into your campaign, don’t treat them as ‘primitive savages.’ Treat them as masters of a hostile environment. Use the Makou as quest-givers who require strange, ritualistic components—not because the spell needs them, but because their culture demands it.
And for your players? Use the environment. If they are traveling through the Upper Panak, make the weather a main character. Throw in a sudden encounter with the Thanoi—the Walrus Men—who emerge from the polar ice like a nightmare. The Ice People are friendly and trusting, which makes the threat of a Thanoi raid feel even more jarring. They are a peaceful people living on the edge of the world; they don’t want to fight, but they have to, or they won’t exist at all. That is the perfect conflict for a group of heroes to walk into.
The Ice People are a testament to human adaptability, having purged their own history to preserve their future in the coldest environment on Krynn.
Outro
But that is all the time I have to talk about the Ice People of the Panak Desert. What do you think about the shift from shamanism to wizardry, and how would your players handle a culture that is as trusting and friendly as the Ice People, even in the middle of a frozen hellscape? Leave a comment below.
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One is one and all alone and evermore shall be so.
