The Boy of War, Part Two

A vast stretch of ice with fields of boundless snow that prevented harvest, buried behind walls of frost that blocked out even the clouds, enclosing the cold, bitter kingdom–this was Mettolum. 

["Apparently a long time ago, Mettolum was cursed by one of the gods, resulting in its infamous walls of ice that blocked out even the sun. I wasn't born in Mettolum, so the cold was too much for me to bear at times. The people of Mettolum are built tall and thick, with hair bodies that resist the endless winter.] 

The only natural gift that the region of unbearable frost had was its abundance of minerals to be mined, giving it capital in the way of forging steel. Even so, it was difficult for miners to transport the goods they unearthed, as the vast plains of frost were inhabited by cruel giants, bears that squashed cottages with their paws, among other vicious entities.