The Iceback Bear is the great bear of the White Beyond and the northern reaches of Skeldheim, a hunter of the ice edge that carries its own armor.
Appearance
An Iceback Bear is far larger than any brown bear, long-bodied and heavy-shouldered, with a broad head, a black nose and a dense, shaggy coat of yellow-white fur. From the nape of the neck down over the shoulders and along the spine, its hide grows into overlapping plates of gray, frost-crusted horn. They look like slabs of weathered ice or stone, ridged at the edges and scarred from old fights. Its paws are enormous, with long dark claws that grip bare ice. It moves slowly and without a sound, and when it rises onto its hind legs it stands twice the height of a man.
It is most often seen at night, walking the broken edge of a glacier high above the sea, where blue ice falls away in steps to dark water and drifting floes, snow lies on the coastal peaks, and the northern lights burn green under a bright moon.
Behaviour
Iceback Bears hunt seals along the ice edge and range far inland along the glaciers in winter. They live alone and avoid people unless they are starving. Skerry trolls are their rivals on the northern shores, and the two are said to give each other a wide berth.
Northerners watch the bears closely for one reason above all: an Iceback Bear leaves a glacier days before the ice begins to sing. When the bears walk off the ice, wise herders and hunters follow them.
Skeldr custom
Among the Skeldr, the shoulder plates of a bear that died naturally are prized above almost any other trophy. Fixed to the face of a shield, they are said to turn cold blades. Killing an Iceback Bear for its plates, however, is held to be shameful. A hall that hangs plates taken that way does not earn respect, only mocking verses, and skalds are glad to supply them.