Rime

Rime is the area around a range of mountains and hills located near a polar coast. It is home to the Lkoa₂, who live in burrows on both sides of these hills.

Geography and Climate
In the winter, the coast freezes over into an ice field. In other seasons, it rains a lot on the side that faces away from the shore.



The range it is centered on is ⅕ of a Lake Baikal long (128 km). Rime has an area of about 10 Hong Kongs (11,300 km²).

Fauna
The coast, and the adjacent ice floes, are frequented by harbor and fur seals and polar bears. The forest is thick with mosquitos and botflies, as well as many mammals, including voles, shrews, moles, lemmings, squirrels, several species of hare, wolverines, red foxes, and grizzly bears. The small rodents migrate towards and away from the coast in roughly 3-year cycles. As they are the primary food source of the Lkoa₂, this necessitates that they migrate deeper into the forest every so often. However, seals serve as an alternative food source, especially in the winter; while Lkoa₂ cannot easily take down a seal, they can scavenge after polar bears, with which they are on good terms.

In addition to mammals, the top layer of soil also contains other burrowing animals, such as ants, beetles, and earthworms (including a giant species that grows up to a meter long). The lakes and rivers contain several species of salmonids, and a few smaller fish, in addition to many invertebrates, including leeches.

Flora
The flora of the forest include Siberian pine, birch, several species of moss and lichen, shelf fungi, various edible fungi (most of them plant-pathogenic, with most of their biomass underground; some of them bioluminescent), many ferns, slime molds, nettles, bushes of several different berries (e.g. cloudberries, raspberries, currants), and various smaller plants of the underbrush.