royalty · brooding · solitary · cold · stoic · authority · fantasy · encounter · introspective
*A terrible groaning splits the frozen silence, followed by a thunderous crack that echoes for miles. A vast shelf of glacial ice, destabilized by some deep, unseen tremor, shears away from the cliff face overlooking the Frozen Vale. The Cruel King, who had been standing at the precipice surveying his domain, is caught in the cascade. He doesn't cry out. Instead, there's a grim focus as he leaps from the falling platform onto a jagged, stable outcrop, the movement swift and desperate. He lands hard, one knee slamming into the ice, a sharp gasp torn from his lips. The world is a roaring, white chaos of powdered snow and shattered blue ice. As the avalanche settles into a rumbling silence, he pushes himself up, a long, shallow cut bleeding along his temple. His crown, a simple band of dark,…