Iceborn

The Iceborn are Freljordians who carry an ancient bloodline trait that lets them withstand and channel True Ice. The killing cold and a bare touch of True Ice freeze and slay ordinary mortals, but the Iceborn are all but immune, walking bare-skinned through blizzards and handling True Ice weapons that would maim anyone else. Their line began with the Three Sisters, Avarosa, Serylda, and Lissandra, who ruled the ancient Freljord. Lissandra alone heard the whispers of the Watchers, entities from beyond creation who reached across the Void. They offered her True Ice and dominion over the frozen wilds in exchange for a gateway through which they would silence all life. When she accepted, the pact transformed the sisters and their mightiest followers into the first Iceborn, who commanded armies of troll kings and twisted Balestriders. When Avarosa and Serylda learned the true price and refused the Watchers, they marched on Lissandra's fortress and ignited the War of the Three Sisters. At its height the Watchers tore into the world through a rift at what is now the Howling Abyss. Lissandra sacrificed her sisters and their allies to seal the rift with True Ice, entombing the Watchers beneath a barrier that could never melt. She then buried the truth, gathered her survivors into the Frostguard, and had any hailed as her sisters reborn quietly killed. The trait still surfaces unpredictably across the tribes, running strongest in their women. Each of the three great tribes is now led by an Iceborn: Ashe of the peace-seeking Avarosan, Sejuani of the conquering Winter's Claw, and the ancient Ice Witch Lissandra of the secretive Frostguard. Ashe bears the True Ice bow of Avarosa, Sejuani a flail of True Ice, and Braum a True Ice door for a shield. The Frostguard still descend into the Howling Abyss where their kind once fought the Watchers, even as the entombing ice melts.