The Hoar Frost Clan is an off-shoot of the Toomaran Plainsmen that raises minotaur lizards for their own use in the mountains, as well as for 'their' dragon to eat. They live in a small valley of black basalt, with small ponds and green grass year round – partially because the dragon is a druid, and partially because of the geothermal vents below the valley. Numbering nearly 2,500 strong, the Hoar Frost Clan follows the advice and wisdom of its Circle of Druids, revering the dragon as a friend and the ultimate leader of the clan.
Tangala'asaleph, or 'Tangala' to the clan, is a very old white dragon, and a druid. Two hundred years old when the Storm Wars ended, and the Karatikan Alliance fell apart, he has withdrawn from the outside world to preserve his life, and 'the old ways' of the druidic alliance. Mentoring the druids of the clan, and using his considerable power to defend them, Tangala has formed a fiercely loyal relationship with the Hoar Frost Clan. He would do anything to protect them, just as he knows they would fight the Inquisition and its crusaders to the last child to protect him.
The clan supports nearly two-hundred fighters and close to forty tamed minotaur lizards. Light archers and light swordsmen, they prefer their druidic talents to open fighting when they are forced to deal with bandits, the Empire of Vridara, Inquisitors, or the like. They have their own blacksmithy, several tanneries, a small market, an apothecary, a beastiary, a mining family, and a few merchant families that provide luxuries and foreign trade. The majority of the clan are goat and sheep ranchers or farmers, although many tend to the herd of minotaur lizards.
Although the Hoar Frost Clan is very secretive about the location of its valley – and Tangala the dragon – they are willing to deal with mages, outlaws, and others in the mountains, and sometimes beyond. Speaking their own tongue and a smattering of the Common trade tongue, the clan's merchants can be found throughout the lands of the Amarans, the Vridaran Empire, and the Toomaran Plainsmen, yet they call none of them 'friend' or 'family'.
The clan has dug into the sides of the valley, and protected the entrance to Tangala's lair, such that it cannot be discerned from the air, or directly from peaks overlooking the valley. Tangala'asaleph only comes out at night, and usually then only with a heavy fog in the valley to mask his presence. The eldest druid, Wooden Door, leads the clan when Tangala is resting or away.