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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Irrisen—Land of Eternal Winter (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Irrisen—Land of Eternal Winter (PFRPG)
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Far to the north lies a realm that the seasons never touch, where snow lies heavy on the ground all year and winter never releases its icy grip. A country ruled by White Witches with hearts as cold as the north wind—the daughters of the Queen of Witches herself, Baba Yaga—and supported on the backs of a conquered, enslaved people. A place where frost giants and hateful fey are respected citizens, and winter wolves stalk the streets in human form. This is the nation of Irrisen, a land cloaked in unceasing winter for 1,400 years.

Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter presents a comprehensive overview of this frigid kingdom, where the imperious control of the ruling class stifles the residents just as strongly as the harsh, never-ending winter.

Inside this book, you'll find:

  • A detailed exploration of the nation of Irrisen, from the icy fey stronghold of Feyfrost to the frozen forest of Hoarwood, including an extensive timeline of Irrisen's history and notes on traditional Irriseni holidays.
  • Detailed maps of Irrisen's six provinces and half a dozen of its most important towns and cities, from Queen Elvanna's capital of Whitethrone to the industrial town of Morozny.
  • Complete stat blocks for each of Irrisen's provinces and their capitals, detailing major settlements and notable denizens.
  • Numerous sites and events where adventure can be found, as well as hazards and afflictions that threaten visitors to these snowy lands.
  • A bestiary of new monsters and NPCs from Irrisen, such as Baba Yaga's Three Riders, the boreal creature template, and sample winter witches.

Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game setting.

By Mike Shel

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-486-3

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

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Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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Super . . . COOL!

5/5 —

The subtitle to this book in Pathfinder's Campaign Setting line immediately sums up the essence of Irrisen: it's a place of perpetual winter. Cursed by the witch Baba Yaga, Irrisen is a foreboding land ruled by witch-queens placed upon the throne by Baba Yaga herself and even the cities are full of dangerous, intelligent monsters like winter wolves, frost giants, ice trolls, and more. The peasantry are governed with strict rules and prohibited from leaving Irrisen for more inviting places, and even merchants and adventurers who travel to Irrisen from elsewhere do so at their own risk. Irrisen isn't an easy place to live, because if the weather doesn't kill you the inhabitants very well might. Although released to support the Reign of Winter adventure path (which takes place in Irrisen), this book works very well as a standalone source-book for GMs wanting to set other campaigns in the nation. The inside front cover of this 64-page book features a map of Irrisen, showing how it's been divided into six different provinces, each ruled by a different winter witch Jadwiga (descendant of Baba Yaga and of Irrisen's first queen).

The first six pages of the book give an introduction to Irrisen and a history of its centuries-long rule by the winter witches. Unlike some histories of fictional lands, this one is quite interesting and has on-going resonance for the "present day" state of the setting.

Next, the bulk of the book is devoted to a full summary of each of the six provinces, including their ruler, major cities, and other locations of note. Each province receive six pages of coverage, and includes a map of the province, a map of the province's capital, and a picture of a notable NPC. I won't go through the six provinces as they all share a common overall theme, but I will say I very much appreciated that a lot of work was put into making the descriptions full of adventuring hooks for a GM to exploit. Sometimes even the best GMs need inspiration, and it's much more interesting to read a source-book like this if its relevance to actual game-play is clear from the outset.

After the provinces, a six-page "Plots and Perils" section provides more detail on some particular places for adventure and potential storylines to involve the PCs. Using any of these would still require a lot of work by a GM, but there's enough to plant the seeds for several adventures. There's also a few new afflictions (curses and diseases) and some supernatural weather hazards.

Last, there's an extensive bestiary that includes random encounter tables for each of the provinces. I like random encounter tables, but what's missing from these is how often an encounter should take place. In addition, the vast range of CRs on the very same table (one table ranges from CR 2 to CR 17) are such that actually randomly rolling up encounters is likely to result in something either laughably easy or an instant TPK. This reduces the usefulness of the tables substantially, though they can still serve as a list of possible threats for a GM to pick from. The rest of the bestiary is quite solid. One of the really interesting features of Irrisen is that every century, Baba Yaga returns to take the current queen with her and installs a new queen on the throne; this occurrence is presaged by the appearance of the Three Riders, who pass judgment on Irrisen's inhabitants, from the lowliest peasants to the most wealthy winter witch. Each of the Three Riders receives a full page entry. After this, a new template ("Boreal") is created to make it easy to add winter flavour to any ordinary monster, and example stat-blocks of Boreal wolves, Boreal manticores, and Boreal annis hags are provided. Other new monsters include the guardians of Irrisen's borders (Sentinel Huts and Guardian Dolls), a dragon called a Khala, a giant called a Ved, and NPC stat blocks for a standard winter witch baroness and a winter witch "Cold Sister" (the land's inquisitors). Of the campaign setting books I've read so far, this one has by far the best and most useful bestiary.

The artwork in Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter is uniformly excellent. Although I think I would have preferred to see more variation from province to province, I could definitely imagine setting an entire campaign in Irrisen and using this book as my primary resource for dozens of sessions of adventure. When your players have had it too easy for too long, send their characters to Irrisen--that should shake things up!

In Soviet Russia, Hut Dances You!

5/5 —

So, this book is 1 page cover, 1 page credits... hell, I'll never be an Endzeitgeist :/

OK so here it is, the campaign setting sourcebook on the "Grimm Fairy Tale Russia with Witches, Dancing Huts and a Truckload of Fey" region of Irrisen. (Incidentally, if you're looking for the less magical analogue of medieval Slavic lands, you should be looking for Brevoy. Now shoo, before the Witch sees you.)

Campaign setting books from Paizo are usually of the stellar writing quality (seriously, I'm hard pressed to find one I didn't enjoy) occasionally marred by some oddities such as cartography or lack of statblocks.

The writer here is Mike Shel who did prove his chops with Isles of the Shackles, which was unlucky enough to suffer a letdown or two in the maps department.

Fortunately, this one doesn't. There's plentiful of excellent cartography, both regional and city level. We also get a complete gazetteer of Irrisien, city statblocks, plot hooks and new monsters. The writing is vivid and captures the Icy Realm of Dark Fey feel perfectly. There are oodles of adventure ideas and intriguing locales which coupled with a solid amount of cold hard maps and statblocks makes this book a joy for any GM. Some of the slavic names can be real tongue twisters for our dear Anglo-Saxon readers but I'm sure they can deal with names such as "Chrzaszcz" (just kidding, this one doesn't turn up. But I wish it would).

The layout is nicely ... blue. I really like the shade. It would perhaps make me feel chilly if it wasn't for -15 Celcius we have over here as I write these words so I think it's time to quit while I'm ahead and my fingers aren't frozen yet. Hey, where' my vodka bottle?

Great book, you won't be disappointed! Five frozen fingers of approval from a Slav here.

Excellent book!

5/5 —

Read my full review on my blog.

Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter is a fabulous book, jam-packed with information that will bring alive any campaign set in the region. Even campaigns set near Irrisen will benefit heavily from the information in this book as the White Witches provide great villains for games set in the Linnorm Kingdoms or the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. It’s full of endless fascinating characters, plots, and locations that I’m dying to use in some future campaign set in and around Irrisen. I highly recommend it.

Perfect Companion...

5/5 —

for The Land of the Linnorm Kings book as well as a must have for The Witchwar Legacy and Reign of Winter AP.

This is the kind of book as a GM and gaming fanatic that I purchase! It is full of so much cool information about the Witches and the Northlands! Great job Paizo!

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Mechalibur wrote:
Sounds like The Wormwood Mutiny...

Or Kingmaker.

Ruyan.
Grand Lodge
Rob McCreary wrote:
There are no new spells in this book. However, there are some specific Irriseni cold spells in Inner Sea Magic and some new cold spells (and a new winter oracle mystery!) in People of the North.

I'm so happy to hear this! Oracle is one of my favorite all time classes!

Wow, nice. And congrats to Mike on being in the freelancing RPG industry finally. Contributor indeed. I missed TotIM. Will have to take a look at it.

Spoiler:
I bought a Dungeon lot of of you on ebay in the olden days and still have the signed Mud Sorcerer's Tomb Issue and another rejected adventure outline. Small world...
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I like Freiya's outfit on the cover.

Awwww yeah, I made another cover!

*sniff*
It's so lonely in the land of alternate base classes...

Reiko: How do you know you aren't in any of the covers so far? You wouldn't be able to be seen.
Feiya wrote:
Awwww yeah, I made another cover!

You need to be on more covers. Provided that winter wolf doesn't have dinner, that is.

The Exchange

Witchtacular!
Cheapy wrote:
Reiko: How do you know you aren't in any of the covers so far? You wouldn't be able to be seen.

I can see her.

Kajehase wrote:
Cheapy wrote:
Reiko: How do you know you aren't in any of the covers so far? You wouldn't be able to be seen.
I can see her.

A frontal assault? A poor tactic. Definitely not me.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4

I can't wait to read how Mike Shel puts the smack-down on this one!
DM wrote:
I like Freiya's outfit on the cover.

Looks like you had some encounters with winterwolfs before, eh?

Though PETA might not agree and rip it off.
Liberty's Edge

I got an email from Amazon with a Jluy date for this book. The PAizo site says January 30th. Anybody got a fer reals date?
szarkel wrote:
I got an email from Amazon with a Jluy date for this book. The PAizo site says January 30th. Anybody got a fer reals date?

Amazon is always off, and late.

Paizo is more accurate because they get the books first.
Scarab Sages
Reiko of White Wave wrote:
Kajehase wrote:
Cheapy wrote:
Reiko: How do you know you aren't in any of the covers so far? You wouldn't be able to be seen.
I can see her.
A frontal assault? A poor tactic. Definitely not me.

I think it's a brilliant tactic. After that first cover everybody believes you belong to a frontline class and nobody will expect you to sneak up behind gulp excuse me, I think I wrote too much...

Contributor

Hate to be a tease, but I think folks are going to be blown away by the artwork in this publication. The portraits especially are the finest stuff I've seen in Paizo's products, hands down. Hats off to the artist responsible; s/he captured concepts perfectly. Huzzah!

Has this product's description/info been updated yet?
Digital Products Assistant

The product description has been updated to reflect the finished product.

Thanks for the update.

I can't wait for this product! Fey...witches...whoo!
Contributor
Andru Watkins wrote:
I can't wait for this product! Fey...witches...whoo!

Witches? Damn! I knew I forgot to include something.

Which makes me sad...

I really like some of these new monsters...
Baba Yaga's three fey riders(black, red, white)
Guardian Doll(witch spy doll with a knife that paralyzes)
Khala(three headed, winged, snake-like dragon that breaths cold)
Ved(Giant with a wind based breath weapon)
Sentinel Huts(construct creatures that trap people and drive them mad)
Boreal creature temple(Annis Hag, Manticore, Wolf)
Liberty's Edge

Those all sound awesome, can't wait till I can download my PDF
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

So, it's a great book. I love it. I really do. There's gonna be a 5-star review.

But, dear beloved Paizo. When you copy-paste Polish words and names into Golarion, please double check the grammar. It costs nothing, and makes one vitriolic bag of teeth (and one red dragon, O HAI DREJK!) happy. You got Czarny Las right, but Nadzieja Lato should be Nadzieja Lata. Yes, I know, our grammar can give Japanese a run for its money in complexity and obscurity, but still... ;-)
Contributor
Gorbacz wrote:

So, it's a great book. I love it. I really do. There's gonna be a 5-star review.

But, dear beloved Paizo. When you copy-paste Polish words and names into Golarion, please double check the grammar. It costs nothing, and makes one vitriolic bag of teeth (and one red dragon, O HAI DREJK!) happy. You got Czarny Las right, but Nadzieja Lato should be Nadzieja Lata. Yes, I know, our grammar can give Japanese a run for its money in complexity and obscurity, but still... ;-)

My bad for employing Google Translate. It translates Nadzieja Lato as "Hope Summer," while Nadzieja Lata translates as "Hope Years."

Forgive me, Bag o' Teeth. Your English will always be better than my Polish. ; )
Scarab Sages
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:

So, it's a great book. I love it. I really do. There's gonna be a 5-star review.

But, dear beloved Paizo. When you copy-paste Polish words and names into Golarion, please double check the grammar. It costs nothing, and makes one vitriolic bag of teeth (and one red dragon, O HAI DREJK!) happy. You got Czarny Las right, but Nadzieja Lato should be Nadzieja Lata. Yes, I know, our grammar can give Japanese a run for its money in complexity and obscurity, but still... ;-)

Hah...now try being a German and read through a Warhammer Fantasy supplement...;-)

Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Mike Shel wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:

So, it's a great book. I love it. I really do. There's gonna be a 5-star review.

But, dear beloved Paizo. When you copy-paste Polish words and names into Golarion, please double check the grammar. It costs nothing, and makes one vitriolic bag of teeth (and one red dragon, O HAI DREJK!) happy. You got Czarny Las right, but Nadzieja Lato should be Nadzieja Lata. Yes, I know, our grammar can give Japanese a run for its money in complexity and obscurity, but still... ;-)

My bad for employing Google Translate. It translates Nadzieja Lato as "Hope Summer," while Nadzieja Lata translates as "Hope Years."

Forgive me, Bag o' Teeth. Your English will always be better than my Polish. ; )

All is forgiven, but the next time you are any other Paizo writer/freelancer gets to tangle with Polish names: we're just a click away and always willing to help.

not sure if this is the most appropriate spot for posting this, but it says I have purchased this book on the 18th, but it still hasn't showed up on my downloads.

You should start a thread here: Customer Service

I think I figured it our already...It's purchased, but hasn't been shipped yet and so the order is pending
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
MMCJawa wrote:
not sure if this is the most appropriate spot for posting this, but it says I have purchased this book on the 18th, but it still hasn't showed up on my downloads.

Yeah it shows like that when the do the check to see if there is money in the card used to pay. You get access to the PDF's when the product actually ships.

Liberty's Edge

Quick browse through of the book, looks amazing. It has a great Slavic vibe to that I really dig.
Silver Crusade

Lots of great stuff popping out even at a glance.

Not an ideal location to grow up, apparently.

"Baptism by ice..." shudder

So I just got my download (YAY)

Anyway, only had time to breeze through the Bestiary, but where do the Ved come from. The Khala is from Bulgarian myth, but I am not having much luck identifying the origin of the Ved. Ved sounds like a name that should be something from folklore/myth.
Contributor
MMCJawa wrote:

So I just got my download (YAY)

Anyway, only had time to breeze through the Bestiary, but where do the Ved come from. The Khala is from Bulgarian myth, but I am not having much luck identifying the origin of the Ved. Ved sounds like a name that should be something from folklore/myth.

You're absolutely right. I found this doing research on general slavic folklore. The ved has its origins in northern Croatia...

Shadow Lodge

Anything for building a character? Or is it all info for the GM?

It's got lots of lovely fluffy bits for characters, but no crunch.

What is the full monster list in this book?

Black Rider(LN CR13 Fey)-all 3 riders are servents of Baba Yaga
Red Rider(LN CR12 Fey)
White Rider(LN CR11 Fey)
Boreal Creature Template with 3 examples
Annis Hag
Manticore
Wolf
Guardian Doll(NE CR3)-doll used as spy for witches
Khala-(CE CR17)-3 headed cold breathing serpentine dragon with wings.
Sentinel Hut(N CR8)-animated hut that drives mad those it captures.
Ved(NE CR5)-giant with wind based breath weapon.
2 sample witches

Maps in this book are beautiful pieces of art.
Sovereign Court
Gorbacz wrote:

So, it's a great book. I love it. I really do. There's gonna be a 5-star review.

But, dear beloved Paizo. When you copy-paste Polish words and names into Golarion, please double check the grammar. It costs nothing, and makes one vitriolic bag of teeth (and one red dragon, O HAI DREJK!) happy. You got Czarny Las right, but Nadzieja Lato should be Nadzieja Lata. Yes, I know, our grammar can give Japanese a run for its money in complexity and obscurity, but still... ;-)

You should see what they did to the blodeuwedd.

Putting a Welsh creature in 'open plains and prairies'!

We don't have any open plains and prairies anywhere in the entire country! It's like making merfolk protectors of the desert!

Well there is a nice flat expanse at millennium stadium!
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Robert Lazzaretti is credited with the cartography. These maps aren't just maps: they really are works of art. I mean seriously beautiful! He did a spectacular job and deserves applause.

Despite my love for all things north... ice, snow, etc... I didn't like this book as much as I did Linnorm Kings. That said, I would put it at number two on my favorites list....

I have a feeling if Mammoth Lords book comes out, it may place 3rd.

What I really want is a map showing the tundra between the Inner Sea region and the Crown of the Wold.
Mead Gregorisson wrote:
What I really want is a map showing the tundra between the Inner Sea region and the Crown of the Wold.

OK, what you do is, you take a blank piece of white paper...

...and you have your map!

Anyway, I recognize the three riders from some slavic story I heard once, but don't recall all the details... They represent different times of day, right?
Webstore Gninja Minion
The Golux wrote:
Anyway, I recognize the three riders from some slavic story I heard once, but don't recall all the details... They represent different times of day, right?

Yes.

Well, I know second place on my favorites isn't bad.. but I do want to point out my love for the cartography.
The Golux wrote:
Mead Gregorisson wrote:
What I really want is a map showing the tundra between the Inner Sea region and the Crown of the Wold.

OK, what you do is, you take a blank piece of white paper...

...and you have your map!

That'd be an ice-cap. Tundras are more like this, or this (during the summer, at least).

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