Chapter Summaries

After Winter's Claw captured Nuskar Pass and killed Bukala, Ashe planned to counter Sejuani's rapid advance by evacuating settlements and cutting off the invaders' supplies. Sejuani pressed west despite the supply problem, intending to use Sylas's impersonation ability to lure Avarosan defenders into battle.

• Ashe learned that Sejuani had taken Nuskar Pass and was nearing Eyamaka, then summoned the Icebloods and sent messengers to spread the warning.
• Ashe considered the risks of confronting Winter's Claw directly and formed a plan to evacuate settlements, remove supplies, and retake Nuskar Pass to trap the invading army.
• Udyr warned Sejuani that the treacherous pass prevented Winter's Claw from moving its spoils and supplies west.
• Sejuani ordered the wounded and newly accepted cubs to escort the loot back to the Sanjigra Plains while she continued her campaign against Avarosa.
• Udyr learned that Sylas had impersonated an allied Warmother and deceived Bukala into welcoming Winter's Claw, allowing the ambush at Nuskar Pass.
• Sejuani planned to keep marching west and use Sylas to pose as reinforcements or refugees, drawing Avarosans out to fight.

Sejuani led the Winter's Claw in a surprise assault on Frostport while Ashe harried their march, and Sylas helped spread the false claim that Ashe was dead. The Winter's Claw seized part of the battlements, but Ashe returned with a magic arrow as the battle reached its turning point.

• Sejuani rejected Udyr's advice to retreat and pressed the Winter's Claw toward Frostport while Ashe's elite Iceblood squad harassed them and disrupted their supplies.
• Sejuani feasted her troops, then marched through the night to reach Frostport before Ashe could return.
• At dawn, Sylas shot an arrow into Frostport's battlements, where ice spread across the wall, while Winter's Claw warriors shouted that Ashe was dead.
• Sejuani led repeated assaults against Frostport, and the defenders struggled to hold the walls without Ashe and their elite warriors.
• Sejuani exploited a wavering section of the northern wall and captured a foothold, but Ashe returned with a crystalline magic arrow that burst over the battlements.

Sejuani’s failed assault on Frostport forced her to burn the Avarosans’ tents and food stores before withdrawing, while Ashe kept her people from pursuing the raiders and urged them to learn from the battle. Sejuani led the starving Winter’s Claw north to ally with the Ursine and raid the Frozen Plains, while Tryndamere survived his tribe’s destruction and set out to find Avarosa.

• Sejuani ordered Winter’s Claw warriors to set Frostport’s tents and storehouses on fire, then withdrew to meet Ashe’s returning forces.
• Ashe returned to Frostport, forbade her warriors from pursuing the raiders, and urged them to preserve their lives and prepare to defend the town better.
• Sejuani rejected Udyr’s safer retreat plan and chose to lead the starving Winter’s Claw north across the Frozen Plains, seeking an alliance with the Ursine.
• Udyr endured the Old Gods’ will, and the Winter’s Claw recruited Lost Ones before raiding the Frozen Plains and returning with enough supplies.
• Tryndamere survived the destruction of his tribe and began seeking refuge with the Avarosans.

After the Avarosa–Winter's Claw war ended, Grandma Ling told Lux that Ashe wanted to trade Freljordian goods for Demacian grain. Lux agreed to consider trade after spring, and Karya proposed resuming construction while scouting Freljord from the air.

• Avarosa and Winter's Claw declared victory despite suffering heavy losses, and both sides began tending to the damage after their war ended.
• Grandma Ling told Lux that Freljord's forces had not been preparing to attack Demacia and that Ashe's Avarosans wanted to trade furs and other goods for grain and supplies.
• Grandma Ling described Ashe as an exceptional leader who had organized farming, fishing, herding, and construction in the Avarosan tribe.
• Lux told Grandma Ling she would consider Northern Trade after spring, once the frontier was calmer and Demacia had goods to exchange.
• Lux consulted Karya, who advised her to keep trade under consideration and begin gathering information about Freljord in preparation for future talks.
• Karya proposed resuming work and scouting Freljord by flying there.

Karya sent Eno and Group 11 to Freljord to gather intelligence while leaving Luxanna in charge and assigning her to assess how Northern Trade could affect Freljord City and her cause. Luxanna began investigating the fur trade, and her questions left Sambor wondering whether she planned to undermine the Hunter's Guild.

• Karya sent Eno and the Frost Mages of Group 11 to Freljord aboard the Yiva, while Luxanna resumed construction work and took charge of the camp.
• Karya assigned Luxanna to predict how trade with Freljord would affect Freljord City and her cause, leaving her nervous but eager to prove herself.
• Luxanna discussed her approach with Sona and began breaking her investigation into specific questions about the fur market and its possible fluctuations.
• Luxanna visited Sambor's merchant house and questioned him about the fur trade, including its products, distribution, competition, and procurement.
• Sambor struggled to answer Luxanna's detailed questions and suspected she intended to damage the Hunter's Guild by disrupting its fur trade.

Sambor mistook Luxanna’s questions about Freljord’s fur trade for a plan to undermine the Hunter’s Guild, but became less certain after learning the guildmaster had gone north under orders signed by both Luxanna and the Third Legion’s general. At Granny Nadin’s gathering with Grandma Ling, he heard that spring trade with the Freljordians might bring new goods and routes, leaving him confused about the plans being made.

• Sambor concluded that Luxanna’s detailed questions about furs might be a move against the Hunter’s Guild and tried to warn her off targeting its hunters.
• Luxanna explained that she wanted to understand the fur market and help hunters, then left the Chamber of Commerce after questioning Sambor about trade and fur quality.
• Sambor went to the Hunter’s Guild and learned its guildmaster had taken falcon trainers north on an order signed by both the Third Legion’s general and Luxanna.
• Unsure whether Luxanna intended to target the guild, Sambor went to the Herbalists’ Guild to consult Granny Nadin and met Grandma Ling.
• Grandma Ling asked Sambor about the effects of increased fur and unusual ores, then discussed possible spring trade with Freljordians and Eno’s investigation with Granny Nadin.

Lux visited a Freljordian hunter’s home to learn how local families processed furs, discovering that a magical mineral wash gave the pelts their distinctive sheen. After seeing how hunters’ families supplied the fur trade, she considered expanding their work into making garments for Demacian customers.

• Grandma Ling hinted to Granny Nadin that Lux intended to build up Freljord and asked her to help when the Hextech users’ identities were revealed.
• Lux visited the Hunter’s Guild and asked a hunter to show her his family’s fur-processing work.
• The hunter’s wife demonstrated mineral washing, and Lux used her magical sight to discover that the black ore released Shadow Energy into the pelts.
• Lux learned how hunter families divided their work through the seasons and ate cured sausages and barley gruel with the family.
• The hunter demonstrated how to prepare a rabbit pelt, and Lux spent the night at his home before returning to camp with a rabbit-fur scarf.
• Lux concluded that Freljord could expand beyond selling raw furs by making garments for Demacian customers, and she considered asking Demacian artists to design styles for nobles.

Lux developed plans to improve Freljord’s fur industry while Karya led Yin Nuo and Group 11 north to gather information. In Borealis Port, Yin Nuo’s group drew wary attention after she traded a bundle of Ice Troll fangs for salted fish.

• Lux used what she had learned in Zaun and Shurima to consider separating fur processing from hunting and applying magic to the final stage.
• Karya took supplies north with Yin Nuo, while the ice mages of Group 11 began learning Freljordian during their journey.
• After seven days, the group reached Borealis Port with nearly everyone able to communicate in Freljordian, allowing their intelligence gathering to begin.
• Yin Nuo entered a busy tavern, where her silver hair and light clothing silenced the patrons.
• Yin Nuo traded a bundle of Ice Troll fangs for salted fish and ordered clear liquor for the group, prompting the tavern owner to reveal the fangs’ impressive number and making the patrons wary.

Yin Nuo and Team 11 reached Borealis Port, where Sea-Elephant Grandma mistook Yin Nuo for a powerful Iceblood and tried to recruit her. After learning Yin Nuo was a Demacian Spellcaster, she shared news about Avarosa and revealed her interest in whether Demacia would accept Freljordians.

• Patrons saw the lightly dressed Icefield Travelers and reported the group to Sea-Elephant Grandma, who went to meet them.
• Sea-Elephant Grandma offered Yin Nuo a place in the Sea-Elephant's Tusk, believing her to be an Iceblood headed for Avarosa.
• Yin Nuo handled Sea-Elephant Grandma's True Ice dagger and demonstrated her ice magic, revealing that she was a Spellcaster.
• Yin Nuo exposed Sea-Elephant Grandma's attempt to recruit her and asked about Avarosa, learning that Ashe was gathering people after a war with the Winter's Claw.
• Sea-Elephant Grandma asked whether Demacia would take in Freljordians and said she would rather join Demacia than wait for her tribe to find a new Warmother.

Yin Nuo agreed to welcome Sea-Elephant's Tusk into Demacia, and the tribe pledged allegiance in exchange for protection and a peaceful life as fishermen. The new partnership helped Yin Nuo's team begin gathering Freljordian intelligence and brought the Hextech mages and Diving Hunters together over a successful ice-fishing expedition.

• Sea-Elephant Grandma explained that Sea-Elephant's Tusk had no Iceblood Lineage heir and asked Yin Nuo to let the tribe join Demacia rather than be drawn into war.
• Yin Nuo promised to welcome and protect the tribe under Demacian law, and Sea-Elephant's Tusk agreed to move south when spring came.
• With Karya's guidance, Yin Nuo and the others began training to gather and analyze information from conversations with the tribe.
• Team 11's Hextech mages opened a large hole in the ice, earning the Diving Hunters' goodwill and allowing the tribe to fish near Borealis Port.
• The Diving Hunters caught a huge haul of migratory fish, then shared a feast with Yin Nuo and the Hextech mages, who recognized the fish as unusually nourishing.

Yin Nuo discussed Sea-Elephant's Tusk's future with Sea-Elephant Grandma and proposed turning Borealis Port into a permanent trade hub between Demacia and the Freljord. Sea-Elephant's Tusk agreed to join the Northern Cooperation Organization and planned a trade demonstration zone in the port.

• Demacian mages ate the winter fish without suffering the oily diarrhea that Sea-Elephant's Tusk's Diving Hunters expected.
• Sea-Elephant Grandma explained Sea-Elephant's Tusk's traditions and why her people wanted to preserve their ties to Borealis Port while avoiding the Freljord's wars.
• Yin Nuo proposed trade between Demacia and the Freljord, offering grain, liquor, tools, and household goods in exchange for local products.
• Yin Nuo promised Demacia would respect Sea-Elephant's Tusk's customs, allow its ice fishing in permitted waters, and use collected taxes to support the community.
• Sea-Elephant Grandma signed documents joining the Northern Cooperation Organization, and both sides planned a trade demonstration zone in Borealis Port.

Yin Nuo led the intelligence team through a blizzard and across Freljord’s frozen coast to Shattered Ice Port, where she met Avarosan guard captain Sazho. Sazho mistook Yin Nuo for an Iceblood heir summoned by the Three Sisters, leaving Yin Nuo and Karya wondering how Ashe’s title might constrain her.

• After a three-hour blizzard erased the coastline, Yin Nuo rejected calls to turn back and organized the team into two traveling shifts.
• Yin Nuo led the team north without rest, and they reached Shattered Ice Port after three more days.
• The port’s guards admitted the team after Yin Nuo showed them a treated walrus tusk from the Sea-Elephant's Tusk.
• Sazho introduced herself as the port’s guard captain and insisted that Yin Nuo had returned to Freljord in response to her Iceblood Lineage and the Three Sisters’ call.
• Yin Nuo told Sazho she wanted to meet Ashe, and Sazho accepted that Ashe would decide whether Yin Nuo was an heir of Avarosa.
• Karya told Yin Nuo that people had rallied around Ashe’s title, and Yin Nuo wondered whether the title might force Ashe to act against her wishes.

Yin Nuo’s intelligence team was ambushed by starving Ice sea worms while traveling toward Frostport, but they defeated one and escaped. Before nightfall, they encountered an armed group led by Ashe, who was surprised to hear Yin Nuo was looking for her.

• Yin Nuo left Shattered Ice Port with the intelligence team and headed north toward Frozen Tide Port.
• Starving Ice sea worms weakened the coastal ice and ambushed the team, but their first strike hit decoy blocks of ice.
• Yin Nuo used the Elemental Mages’ ice magic to raise a wall and form a golem, which beheaded one Ice sea worm while ice spikes finished it off.
• The remaining Ice sea worms dived underwater and began devouring their dead companion, so Yin Nuo canceled the team’s rest and ordered everyone to hurry toward Frostport.
• Yin Nuo’s group met an armed party led by Ashe, and Ashe asked if Yin Nuo was looking for her.

Yin Nuo met Ashe and joined the Avarosan warrior trial near Frozen Tide, where warriors would hunt Ice sea worms. After Ashe explained that the trial might help Yin Nuo find a Blood Pact, Yin Nuo realized Ashe herself was also seeking one.

• Yin Nuo introduced herself to Ashe as a Demacian envoy, then chose to accompany Ashe and the trial party while her less well companions went to Frostport.
• Yin Nuo told Ashe that her group had survived a surprise attack by a swarm of Ice sea worms, impressing Ashe with her strength.
• Ashe explained that warriors would compete to collect the most Ice sea worm heads, while attendants recorded each warrior's kills and fighting one another was forbidden.
• At the camp, Yin Nuo noticed the sleeping warrior Tryndamere and learned from Ashe that he sought revenge after the Winter's Claw raid devastated the Frozen Plains.
• Ashe suggested Yin Nuo might find a Blood Pact among the warriors, and Yin Nuo clarified that Demacians treated spouses as a personal matter.
• Yin Nuo asked whether Ashe was seeking a Blood Pact through the trial, and Ashe hesitantly nodded.

Ashe explained why she was recruiting experienced warriors and using the trial and marriage to persuade them to join Avarosa, while Yin Nuo recognized the burden behind her plan. After Ashe prepared for the competition, Yin Nuo pressed Karya about how well she understood Ashe, and Karya hinted that she had once pursued similar goals.

• Ashe reflected that the war had exposed Avarosa’s inability to rely on walls alone, and she concluded that the tribe needed an army trained by experienced warriors.
• Ashe explained that marriage could help persuade capable warriors to join Avarosa, though she felt reluctant about choosing a Blood Pact as part of her duty as Warmother.
• Ashe and Yin Nuo bonded over their conversation and anticipated successful negotiations between Demacia and Avarosa.
• Ashe began preparing for the competition while Yin Nuo left camp to speak privately with Karya.
• Yin Nuo questioned Karya about her insight into Ashe, and Karya said she might once have been like Ashe and advised starting with love if peace could not yet be achieved.

Ashe began the warrior trial to hunt Ice sea worms, and Tryndamere ignored the other contestants’ preparations to lure the creatures into attacking him. The Ice sea worms surfaced beneath the ice where Tryndamere had gone, leaving him and his trial assistant in danger.

• Lux and Yin Nuo learned that Karya’s influence in early Shurima had come from his face rather than his strength or magical talent.
• Ashe officially started the trial as the sun rose over the Dragonback Mountains.
• Tryndamere charged toward the frozen sea swells, determined to join a tribe strong enough to oppose Winter’s Claw and avenge his people.
• Tryndamere crossed the swells and led his frightened trial assistant deep into Ice sea worm territory.
• Tryndamere hammered on the ice to draw out the worms, and all five Ice sea worms attacked weakened patches from below.

Yin Nuo watched Freljord’s warriors tackle the trial and discovered that Tryndamere relied on brute strength and battle instinct to kill ice sea worms. Karya judged Tryndamere promising but driven by hatred and anger, leaving Yin Nuo suspecting that Karya’s critique carried a note of jealousy.

• Ashe showed Yin Nuo the warriors’ varied traps and explained how True Ice made an iron ingot trap effective against an ice sea worm.
• Yin Nuo marveled at the warriors’ physical prowess and resistance to magic, while Karya warned that bloodline power had limits and depended on its source.
• Yin Nuo and Karya searched behind an ice floe for Tryndamere and found him in the second round, killing ice sea worms with his greatsword.
• Yin Nuo praised Tryndamere’s combat technique, and Karya described him as an instinct-focused fighter with promise but little conviction.
• Karya said hatred and anger drove Tryndamere rather than a steadfast purpose, and Yin Nuo wondered if Karya’s criticism came from sour grapes.

Tryndamere won the warrior trial, while Ashe and Yin Nuo began negotiations over trade between Avarosa and Demacia. As the new intelligence team gathered and sifted through Avarosan stories, Yin Nuo proposed jointly minted gold coins, leaving Ashe to consider a plan that would incorporate True Ice.

• Tryndamere won the trial of warriors with twenty-three Ice sea worm heads.
• Ashe and Yin Nuo agreed to equal trade and began negotiations with four assistants each.
• Karya's intelligence teams gathered Avarosan stories and compared sources to sort reliable information from boastful claims.
• Yin Nuo used the intelligence team's findings to propose producing a currency for trade.
• Ashe rejected gold coins as unnecessary for Avarosa, and Yin Nuo suggested inlaying True Ice fragments in coins as a sign of cooperation.
• Ashe froze at Yin Nuo's proposal.

Yin Nuo persuaded Ashe to establish joint coinage for trade between Avarosa and Demacia, concealing Karya’s plan to use True Ice processing to train Hextech practitioners. After the trade pact was signed, Yin Nuo left Frostport with the ice mages while an intelligence team stayed behind.

• Yin Nuo explained that seasonal trade and Freljord’s limited gold reserves made joint currency useful, and proposed gold coins encased in True Ice.
• Ashe questioned Yin Nuo about the coins’ production and value, then accepted the plan despite suspecting it served Demacia’s interests.
• Karya intended to collect True Ice through the trade and use processing it as practical magic training for Hextech practitioners.
• Yin Nuo and Ashe finalized the first trade mission’s terms and signed the pact with blood on treated Enyuk hide.
• Yin Nuo declined Ashe’s invitation to the Blood Pact ceremony and departed with forty ice mages, leaving a seven-person intelligence team in Frostport.

Eno returned to Freljord with a trade agreement and an intelligence network, while Lux struggled to put her plans for the fur industry into practice. Karya helped her revise her approach around gradual reform and public works, leaving Lux ready to develop Freljord’s industries over time.

• Eno returned to Freljord with half of Group 11’s Ice Mages and a trade agreement that could allow Freljord’s first caravan to visit Frostport in spring.
• Lux told Karya that Freljord’s hunters resisted centralized fur processing and few Demacian artists wanted to move north for her fashion design center.
• Karya explained that Lux had not considered the needs and concerns of the people her plans would affect, and used the artificial lake project to illustrate how public benefits could earn trust.
• Karya advised Lux to prepare a fur-processing plant while importing fur, building public works, and training workers to ease hunters into factory production over two or three years.
• Lux proposed using Group 77 to help herb gatherers domesticate useful plants, and Karya praised her for understanding the value of gradual reform.