Cryonax

Cryonax

Game background
Title(s)	Prince of Evil Cold Creatures, Bringer of Endless Winter, the Bleak Monarch
Home plane	Paraelemental Plane of Ice
Power level	Archomental
Alignment	Neutral evil
Portfolio	Ice, cold creatures
Domains	Evil, Cold
Superior	Elder Elemental Eye
Design details

Cryonax is a wicked archomental, the Prince of Evil Cold Creatures, in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. His symbol is either a blue-white circle within a square or a silver snowflake.

Publication history

Cryonax first appeared with the elemental princes of evil in the original first edition Fiend Folio (1981), created by Lewis Pulsipher.^[1]

Cryonax appeared with the evil archomentals in the second edition book Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix III (1998).^[2]

Cryonax appeared with the evil archomentals in the third edition in Dragon #347 (September 2006).^[3]

Description

Cryonax somewhat resembles a yeti with tentacles instead of arms. He stands fifteen feet in height and weighs 2,800 pounds. He is surrounded by an aura of terrible cold.

Relationships

Cryonax seems to believe that he is an offspring of the entity known as the Elder Elemental Eye, though this may be a lie concocted by Tharizdun in order to manipulate him.

Cryonax also secretly seeks to free the imprisoned archdevil Levistus.

Cryonax is opposed on his own plane by Albrathanilar, a female great wyrm white dragon who is also a potent and cunning wizard. Cryonax and Albrathanilar dispatch spies and saboteurs against one another as they prepare for their ultimate battle. Cryonax is also resisted by other isolated groups on his plane, including the immoths and certain tribes of ice paraelementals.

Cryonax is served by an army of ice mephits, ice paraelementals, chraals, frost salamanders, frost worms, yeti, and shivhads.

Realm

Cryonax dwells on the Paralemental Plane of Ice in a realm called the Chiseled Estate. This massive edifice of ice, quartz, and glass extends a mile into the Precipice that separates the Plane of Ice from the Elemental Plane of Air, and it extends at least four miles into the icy, solid heart of the plane. In a palace in the deepest chamber of the estate, Cryonax plots with the coven of mortal wizards and priests that he has enslaved. The palace is even colder than most other parts of the plane.

Dogma

Cryonax's goals are to, first, bring the whole of the Paraelemental Plane of Ice under his rule; second, to transform the para-plane into a true elemental plane, freezing the neighboring planes of Air and Water and beyond. Finally, he hopes to freeze the entire multiverse and brought under his dominion.

Worshipers

Cryonax's cult is mostly made up of frost giants, malasyneps, evil arctic druids, and other spellcasters who specialize in magic relating to cold. Yeti worship Cryonax as a god, as do a race of arctic hobgoblins known as amitoks.

Relics

Cryonax has fashioned a potent artifact known as the Tear of Winter, created from the essence of a winter goddess who birthed an abomination, and he seeks to use it to command the abomination, an icy creature known as a xixecal, as the vangard in his army.

History

When the obyriths first ventured into the Inner Planes in the Age Before Ages, Cryonax was already there, and defiantly hostile to them. Because of this hostility, it's possible that Cryonax allied himself with the Wind Dukes of Aaqa during the Law-Chaos Wars.

References

1. ^ Turnbull, Don, ed. Fiend Folio (TSR, 1981)
2. ^ Cook, Monte. Monstrous Compendium Planescape Compendium III (TSR, 1998)
3. ^ Jansing, Eric, and Kevin Baase. "Princes of Elemental Evil: The Archomentals." Dragon #347 (Paizo Publishing, 2006)

Additional reading

• Cook, Monte, and William W. Connors. The Inner Planes. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1998.

• Grubb, Jeff. Manual of the Planes. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1987.

• Jansing, Eric, and Kevin Baase. "Princes of Elemental Good: The Archomentals, Part II." Dragon #353. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2007.

• Stark, Ed, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona. Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2006.