The Mammoth Steppes

Setting

In an alternate history on an Earth like world where the Pleistocene ice age never ended, humanity survives in scattered refugia across a world dominated by mammoth steppes and eternal winter. After nineteen millennia of unbroken cold, civilization has adapted to this harsh reality, with only the most culturally significant buildings constructed of stone, while common dwellings burrow into the earth for protection against the relentless winds.

The Story

Born beneath a rare celestial alignment, Diana Zoryanaya enters the world marked by her enhanced genetics — silver traceries beneath her skin that shift like liquid mercury, mapping destinies yet to come.

Her father Anton, a scholar consumed by ambition, sees only disappointment in a daughter rather than the heir he expected, and dismisses both mother and child. Recognising the danger his obsessions would pose, Diana's mother Marya flees with her infant into the frozen wilderness — a harrowing journey across the mammoth steppes, guided by dholes who sense something sacred in the child.

As Diana grows, her markings reveal themselves as living maps, channels for abilities that bridge the rational and the mystical. In a world where knowledge and power so easily corrupt, her greatest challenge may not be survival — it may be learning what she is for.

Themes

The novel explores the tension between knowledge pursued for its own sake and wisdom guided by compassion. It examines how power—whether scholarly, mystical, or political—can corrupt when divorced from ethical foundation, while celebrating the strength found in community, sacrifice, and harmony with the natural world.

At its heart, it is a story about chosen family, the price of protection, and the discovery that true leadership comes not from dominion but from service.

Set against the backdrop of humanity's adaptation to an ice age world, the story weaves together elements of coming-of-age narrative, mystical realism, and ecological fantasy, creating a tale where the fantastic emerges naturally from the intersection of ancient wisdom and human courage.