Ice Age

An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Individual pulses of cold climate are termed "glacial periods" (or, alternatively, "glacials", "glaciations", "glacial stages", "stadials", "stades", or colloquially, "ice ages"), and intermittent warm periods are called "interglacials" or "interstadials".

In common usage, "Ice Age" most commonly refers to the Pleistocene Epoch, a period of repeated glaciations, which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago. The Last Glacial Period, as it name implies, was the most recent glaciation, c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago. This was the first such natural phenomenon since the evolution of humans.

Ice Age in "Global Warming"

At the end of the Ice Age, a group of shamans researched the matter of global warming and concluded that it was caused by the demons at the heart of fire. The shamans resolved to get fire-making outlawed and to punish its practitioners.

Ice Age in "The Mrem Go West"

The end of the Ice Age caused a cultural upheaval for the world's two sentient species, as the mammalian Mrem were forced out of their now-submerging polar homeland, to the warmer climate inhabited by the reptilian Liskash.

Ice Age in "The Sea Mother's Gift"

In 1160 BC, the effects of a volcanic eruption in Iceland caused something like an ice age in many northern European communities, including the Orkney Islands.