 Why does the story take place somewhere cold?
But its outward perils could not compare with the Ryzgas themselves, who slept within, ready to wake and conquer.... While she waited he spun a dream, attaching it to the crags that loomed over the pass, and to the frozen ground underfoot. The light shone watery and dim from beneath the hoary back of the glacier, and as they came nearer they saw why: the cave entrance was sealed by a sheet of ice, a frozen waterfall that fell motionless from the rocks above. Var saw with some surprise that all the walls were sheathed in ice—warm to the touch, bound fast against melting by the Watcher's will. Behind them began a tinkling of falling water, thawed from the glacial ridges above to descend sheet-wise over the cave mouth, freezing as it fell into lengthening icicles. Hot food and drink were before them almost at once. Warming to the old man now, Var sketched his and Neena's history briefly. And before very long, I'm sure, I would have performed some deed which Groz would recognize as a worthy exploit, and would thus have healed the feud between our families. "But they were such a race as the world has not seen before or since. They ruled the Earth for four generations, and the Earth was too little for them. "Because of them we must build with dreams instead of iron, and our only fire is that of the Sun, and even now, two thousand years later, the Earth is still slowly recovering from the pangs and poison of that age. "In the last generation of their power the Ryzgas knew by their science that the race of man would endure them no longer. "From the memories that the old Watchers have left here, and from the memories of dead men that still echo in the air, I have gathered a picture of that world's end. Before them death waited around the citadel where the masters still fought. "Some of the Ryzgas took flight to the stars, and some perished on Earth. "I have told you the story you know, and have shown you a glimpse of the old time, because I must make sure that you do not approach the mountain in ignorance. Our world is unwise and sometimes evil, full of arrogance, folly, and passion that are in the nature of man. Yet it is a happy world, compared to that the Ryzgas made and will make again."
 The history of the area is such that warmth and resources have been taken from the land
 The history of the area is such that warmth and resources have been taken from the land  A volcano has blocked light from the region making everything cold  The mountains are the only place Var and Neena can hide  It isn't actually cold, because of the lava