Inhospitality is not a strong enough word to describe the tundra. Between the blistering wind, the treacherous terrain, and, of course, the incomprehensible cold, it sounds more accurate to say that the tundra actually hates life. It doesn't, obviously, as nature holds no allegiances, but given that the result is the same (that is, a slow and agonizing death), it might as well be that way. It would seem obvious to any who saw it that nothing could survive there, and on the off-chance that it could, nothing in its right mind would want to.

Wights, however, have presided over this domain for centuries, and as a result many adventurers who by all logic should have succumbed to the cold, drawn to the tundra by their recklessness and unchecked machismo, have turned back up in their towns months later largely unharmed. Most of them report having been saved and cared for by frosted people of the snow, but until now no encounters have been had with the Wights outside of this rather dire context.

It's unfortunate that the first Wight we were able to actually document was so certifiably dead, but with their mastery of secrecy and stealth, it probably couldn't have happened any other way. We found him at the edge of the tundra, laying on his back with his arm rested atop his gut, still half ablaze. Despite having met a painful, fiery end, he looked peaceful. Several yards away from him was a lava pool, bubbling and spurting as though nothing of significance had happened.

Perhaps he was young (who knows what they look like when they're old) and flew too close to the sun, slipping just enough to dip his foot into the pool (it certainly could have spread from there, especially if he wasn't thinking straight enough to effectively put it out). Perhaps he had ventured out too far from his territory, and his nerves kept him from being as cautious as he should have been. Perhaps he was simply discontented with the way his life had shaped up, as are so many of our own. Whatever the case, it claimed his life, and in his smoldering state he was presented before us. Definitive proof of their existence.

A Wight, alight.