Frostfair

Frostveil’s surface has begun to settle: the sudden cold pockets have weakened, the worst winds have lifted, and stretches of snowfield previously crossed only by prepared expedition groups are becoming suitable for longer stays. Belowground, pressure shifts have opened seasonal routes through the ice. Aboveground, residents are clearing entrances, marking safe paths, and bringing their businesses into the daylight.

The change is part of a rare natural cycle within Frostveil’s immense ice network. As accumulated energy disperses, unusual winter weather spreads across New Ognos. Snow falls in places that seldom see it, frost takes unfamiliar forms, and regional conditions produce phenomena that researchers are still trying to explain. Cold-adapted creatures are emerging along newly accessible migration routes, some accompanied by young that have never experienced the surface. Others arrive alone, gather near settlements, or appear in snowbanks far from any known nesting ground. Frostveil’s residents have established a nursery to shelter the young while their migration patterns are studied. Frostfair has grown around these efforts: an aboveground winter gathering with warm food, markets, skating paths, shared accommodations, and a nursery full of increasingly curious creatures.

Visit Frostveil, meet the snow beasts, explore the winter conditions across New Ognos, and enjoy the surface while the season lasts!

Out of Character

Duration

• Frostfair runs from November 8th to February 6th.
• The Winter Exchange remains open through February 13th.

Getting Started

Visit the Frostfair hub to explore the festival, play trivia, create ghost stories, and collect rewards. Trivia, ghost stories, the Winter Gift Shop, gifts, and Mystery Parcels can be used through your player account without registering a character.

Register up to three characters for automated exploration, reputation progression, and character-specific seasonal badges. Each registered character has their own Winter Passport.

The Passport & Rewards section on the main Frostfair page brings together your balances, character passports, badges, story achievements, and reward delivery status.

Exploration tickets and parcel openings accumulate during the event, allowing you to participate when you have time.

Frostfair Currency

Earn 1 Snowflake (❄️) for every 500 eligible words recorded through the usual wordclaim process. Spend Snowflakes in the Winter Exchange. Seasonal badges and other event rewards may also award Snowflakes, items, or Talents.

Frostfair Tickets are earned separately through trivia and ghost-story activities and spent in the Winter Gift Shop.

Combine Snowflakes

Combine collected Snowflakes to receive randomized rewards. This operates similarly to a Mystery Lotto! The more Snowflakes you combine, the more valuable/unique the prize pull.

• Combine 2 ❄️ for a ✨ Frost Sprite.
• Combine 4 ❄️ for a 👸🏻 Snow Maiden.
• Combine 6 ❄️ for a 🧝🏻‍♂️ Jack Frost.
• Combine 10 ❄️ for a 🌨️ Old Man Winter.

Festival Themes

Frost, snow, ice, long nights, solstice, return of the light, hearth, firelight, evergreens, gifts, generosity, naughty or nice, mischief, feasting, togetherness, stillness, wonder, wishes, Yule, Midwinter, winter.

In Character

Above the Ice

Frostveil’s surface remains cold, but marked festival areas are suitable for ordinary winter travel with appropriate clothing.

Residents are making the most of the change. Shops bring their stock upstairs, families share meals beneath the open sky, and visitors arrive to see a part of Frostveil that was previously difficult to reach.

The mid-ice settlements remain active. Descent points connect the festival to established homes, storage, services, and shelter below.

Beyond the maintained areas, Frostveil still has sinkholes, ice vents, predators, and unstable routes. The seasonal change makes exploration possible in more places, though it does not make the entire territory safe.

The Upper Commons

The Upper Commons is Frostfair’s central gathering place.

Marked paths connect market stalls, accommodations, nursery enclosures, geothermal facilities, and descent houses. Staff maintain the main routes, post weather notices, and direct visitors toward suitable shelter when conditions change.

The Winter Exchange

The seasonal market sells winter clothing, provisions, equipment, unusual seasonal goods, and supplies for travelers.

Visiting merchants bring products from across New Ognos. Food stalls serve hot meals and drinks, while outfitters rent sleds, skates, and cold-weather gear.

The Thawhouse

A geothermal bathhouse with communal pools, private soaking rooms, changing facilities, and an adjoining inn.

Visitors use it to warm up after excursions, meet friends, recover from travel, or spend a quiet evening away from the market.

The Open Table

Long communal tables provide a place to eat, rest, and meet other attendees.

Meals are served throughout the day. Spare blankets and sheltered seating are available, and visitors do not need to make a purchase to stay.

The Snow Nursery

The nursery shelters young snow beasts in enclosures suited to their needs.

Some require deep snow for burrowing, others prefer suspended snowfall or quiet nesting spaces. Staff supervise introductions, answer questions, and help carers learn what their beasts enjoy.

The young are curious about visitors. They are also learning abilities that occasionally complicate feeding time.

The Iceworks

An area for skating, snow construction, ice carving, and winter games.

Visitors can work on small sculptures, contribute to larger projects, build temporary shelters, or watch increasingly elaborate creations take shape.

The Descent Houses

Staffed access points connect the surface festival with the mid-ice below.

They serve as meeting places, information stations, and dependable shelter. Weather notices and route updates are displayed at their entrances.

Winter Across New Ognos

The cycle affects more than Frostveil.

Different regions experience unusual snowfall, frost, and temporary changes to familiar terrain. Conditions vary by territory, and further phenomena may appear as the season develops.

• Northwest — Aurora Snow: Luminous flakes fall beneath bright winter skies. Accumulated snow retains its colors after the aurora has faded.
• Northeast — Suspended Snow: Clusters of snow hang among branches and above sheltered ground, descending when disturbed.
• Southeast — Seafoam Flurries: Snow forms above breaking waves and drifts inland, leaving branching ice formations along sheltered shores.
• Southwest — Glassfall: Transparent flakes accumulate into thin sheets that preserve impressions of passing creatures, objects, and travelers.

Local communities are adapting in their own ways. Some establish winter markets or viewing points; others need help maintaining roads, protecting supplies, or understanding unfamiliar conditions.

Prompts & Hooks

• Bring your shop, workshop, or household aboveground and discover what needs changing.
• Share a meal at the Open Table with someone you have never met.
• A nursery snow beast learns something useful, then starts applying it at inconvenient times.
• Borrow a sled and find that controlling it is considerably harder than expected.
• Visit the Thawhouse after an outing and encounter someone you hoped to avoid.
• Help clear a path between a surface entrance and the festival.
• Build an ice sculpture with a partner who has very different ideas about the finished piece.
• Follow unusual tracks through a region affected by supernatural snow.
• Collect observations for the nursery while traveling elsewhere on New Ognos.
• A young snow beast repeatedly approaches the same descent point. Investigate what has caught its attention.
• Spend an evening watching the auroras from a sheltered surface camp.
• Help someone prepare for their first experience of substantial snowfall.
• Discover that a nursery beast has begun responding to distant calls beneath the ice.
• Prepare for the returning migration and help nursery staff ready the young for their journey.
• Your idea here!

The Returning Migration

As the winter cycle approaches its end, the snow beasts begin responding to changes beneath Frostveil.

Adults gather near seasonal routes. Young beasts become more attentive to distant sounds and vibrations. Nursery staff begin preparing those returning to the wild.

Characters may help observe the migration, identify suitable routes, escort groups, prepare supplies, or investigate discoveries exposed by the shifting ice.

IC Event Notes

Head to the Events Board and create a new thread with [Frostfair] in the subject line. Each pair or group should start a separate thread to keep board formatting consistent.

Set the Primary Location to Frostveil for festival threads. Winter-related threads elsewhere should use their actual location.

Automated outings can inspire your writing, but do not require an IC thread. To earn reputation for an eligible post, submit its direct link through Share a Winter Story on the Frostfair hub. Claim applicable writing badges separately through Passport & Rewards, and continue using the usual wordclaim process for Snowflake earnings.

Winter Reputation

Each registered character can earn three types of reputation:

Reputation	Examples
Nice	Generosity, helping others, sharing warmth, or making someone's winter easier.
Naughty	Mischief, pranks, playful trouble, or taking a less considerate approach.
Wonder	Curiosity, discovery, unusual experiences, and appreciation of the season's mysteries.

These are separate totals. Earning one does not subtract from another, and your character can develop all three.

Share a Winter Story

Use Share a Winter Story on the hub to claim reputation for an IC post:

1. Select the registered character who participated.
2. Paste the direct post URL.
3. Choose the reputation that fits what happened.
4. Add an optional explanation and submit.

Each accepted submission awards 2–5 points in the selected reputation. The same post cannot be claimed again for that character, but can be used for other characters if multiple registered characters participated.

Exploration choices also award reputation. Each decision contributes to the reputation associated with that action, so one outing can earn more than one type.

Explore Frostfair

Choose a registered character and a destination to begin an automated outing. Each outing contains two or three connected decisions, with later developments following your choices.

• Starting an outing uses one exploration ticket for the entire outing.
• All registered characters share your account's ticket allowance.
• Tickets become available in weekly allotments, and unused tickets accumulate until the event ends.
• The exploration page shows your available tickets and the next allotment.
• Your unfinished outing is saved if you leave. Complete it before beginning another.
• Every decision awards reputation immediately. Completing an outing can also reveal discoveries or award a find.
• Automated outings do not require an accompanying IC post.

Choose the actions that suit your character. You can help someone at one stage, investigate something curious at the next, and cause a little trouble before heading home.

Destinations

Destination	What Awaits
Frostveil — Upper Commons	Festival encounters among the market stalls, gathering places, Iceworks, and Snow Nursery.
Northwest — Aurora Snow	Luminous snowfall that retains its colors after the aurora fades.
Northeast — Suspended Snow	Snow hanging among branches and above sheltered ground, waiting to be disturbed.
Southeast — Seafoam Flurries	Snow forming above breaking waves and branching ice along the shore.
Southwest — Glassfall	Transparent flakes forming sheets that preserve impressions of passing creatures and objects.

Your Winter Passport

Each registered character's passport records their completed explorations, regional discoveries, and snow-beast encounters. Explore the four regional destinations to discover their winter phenomena, and keep an eye out for all six snow-beast species.

Passport discoveries come from the automated outings. Ordinary IC posts can earn reputation through Share a Winter Story, but their recorded locations do not automatically add passport discoveries.

Snow Beasts

Snow beasts appear in Frostfair encounters and can be recorded in your character's field notes. Nursery staff also care for young beasts at the festival, providing opportunities for IC visits, assistance, and mishaps.

Species	Appearance & Natural Capability
Rimehorn	A woolly, six-legged beast with translucent horns containing drifting snowflakes. Branching frost from its horns creates small shelters and windbreaks.
Snowmorrow	A plump, wingless dragon with velvet fur, crystalline back plates, and a curled tail. Its snow breath can be compacted into objects or loosened into powder.
Flurryfin	A hovering, plush-furred creature with four flowing fins and a fan-shaped tail. It swims through snowfall and carries small objects within its surrounding flurry.
Glasstuft	A long-eared beast with translucent limbs, fluffy shoulder tufts, and a glowing crystal in its clear belly. It temporarily makes ice transparent.
Driftskip	A fluffy creature with large hind feet, cheek frills, and three ribbonlike tails. It enters one snowbank and emerges from another nearby.
Hushcoat	A broad-faced beast with a shaggy silver-white mantle and luminous markings. It softens nearby noise and vibration.

Encountering a species adds a field record.

The Winter Wish Tree

Visit the Winter Wish Tree to leave wishes, send gifts or tricks, contribute Mystery Parcels, and view your deliveries.

Leave a Wish

Select a registered character and write their seasonal wish. You can display the wish anonymously or identify the character. Wishes remain available for other players to browse, and you can withdraw your own wish.

To help with another player's wish, choose Offer help with this wish and submit an owned item or Talent, a custom gift, or a custom trick for Support review.

Send a Gift or Trick

Choose whether to send as your player account or a character, then select a player or character recipient. You can keep your identity anonymous to the recipient or reveal who sent it.

Choose from:

• A random seasonal gift or trick: A random prize drawn from the matching seasonal pool for your chosen recipient.
• An existing item or Talent: Search your possessions and choose the item or Talent you want to give.
• A custom gift or trick: Describe your proposed contribution for Support approval.

Submitting an owned possession does not immediately transfer it; Support will approve transfers in bulk.

Catalog prizes and custom contributions also go through Support before delivery. Check Your deliveries, Your contributions, and Passport & Rewards for updates.

Mystery Parcels

Choose one of three wrapped parcels to reveal a surprise. You may receive it as your player account or one of your characters.

• Parcel openings are shared across your account and accumulate in weekly allotments.
• The Wish Tree displays how many openings you have available.
• Parcels can contain approved player contributions or prizes from the seasonal parcel catalog.
• You cannot draw your own contribution from the shared pool.
• Revealed prizes await Support delivery.

To contribute a parcel, choose Add a mystery parcel for someone to discover. Submit an owned item or Talent, a custom gift, or a custom trick. Support reviews the contribution before it enters the pool.

Achievement Badges

Badges track each registered character's seasonal participation. Each badge can be earned once per character, prizes are distributed by Support. Prizes can include Snowflakes, items, or Talents.

Automatically Earned Badges

Badge	Requirement
Kind Heart	Earn Nice reputation.
Mischief Maker	Earn Naughty reputation.
Winter's Wonder	Earn Wonder reputation.
A Little of Everything	Earn all three reputation types during the season.
A Different Kind of Day	Earn at least two reputation types within one outing.
Frequent Wanderer	Complete five outings with the character during the season.
Winter Regular	Complete ten outings with the character during the season.
Trailblazer	Discover all four regional winter phenomena.
Beast Friend	Encounter all six snow-beast species.
Gift Finder	Open a Mystery Parcel as the registered character.
Special Delivery	Successfully deliver an owned item or Talent as a gift from the character.
Wish Granted	Successfully deliver a contribution from the character to fulfill another character's wish.

For gift-related badges, select the registered character as the sender or parcel recipient. Player-account activity does not automatically count toward every registered character's badges. Special Delivery and Wish Granted require completed delivery, rather than submission alone.

Self-Claimed Badges

These badges recognize activities you write or create. On Passport & Rewards, find the badge beneath the appropriate character, describe what happened, and optionally include a supporting link. The badge is earned when you submit the claim; Support handles its prize separately.

Badge	Requirement
Handmade With Feeling	Make a seasonal gift, decoration, meal, or other offering IC or through the Crafting Mini-game.
Room at the Table	Include someone outside the character's usual circle in a seasonal activity.
A Tradition of Our Own	Create or share a family, cultural, or community seasonal tradition.
Warmth Where It Matters	Provide practical cold-weather aid, such as shelter, supplies, repairs, food, or clothing.
A Little Harmless Trouble	Play a harmless seasonal prank IC.
The Scenic Route	Write about a festival journey or destination beyond the generated encounter text.
Not How I Planned It	Write about a seasonal mishap, failed plan, or unexpected change of heart.
Passing It On	Teach someone a craft, recipe, game, or tradition during the festivities.

Frostfair Trivia

Answer multiple-choice questions about Kinship's characters, bonded partners, homes, deities, and star signs. Progress saves after each submitted answer, so you can leave and return whenever you like.

• A correct first guess earns 2 Frostfair Tickets, or 3 tickets for a harder question.
• After a wrong guess, a correct answer earns 1 ticket. You can keep trying until you find it.
• Skipping does not count as a guess. Return to skipped questions through the question list.
• Each completed question awards tickets once per player account.

Ghost Stories by the Fire

Create a story using one of the templates, write your own original story, or contribute a prompt for others to explore. Stories and prompts can be kept private or shared on the community story board. You can also read and explore other players' shared contributions.

Explore a Story ICly

Write an IC post exploring a saved or shared story or prompt, then submit the direct post link through that story's participation form. There is no additional word minimum, and you do not need to select or register a character to receive player-account achievement credit. Each story and each post can count once per player.

You may also claim the existing Share a Winter Story reputation reward for a registered character. This is optional and can be claimed through the story form or separately on the hub. An earlier reputation claim is recognized without awarding it a second time.

Winter Gift Shop

Spend Frostfair Tickets in the Winter Gift Shop. Its offerings include randomized prize tiers, coppers, Progression Points, pets or Companions, litter eggs or special character opportunities, equipment, and Talents. Some offerings are randomized, while others allow you to request specific details. Prizes use Frostfair themes.

Purchases belong to your player account and do not require a registered character. Add any preferences when ordering. Support prepares and delivers the reward, and declined orders receive a ticket refund. Copper and Progression Point rewards are also delivered by Support.

Check the shop's order history or the main page's Passport & Rewards section for delivery status. The Winter Exchange remains the shop for Snowflakes.