War stories, articles & game guides
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2026
Expeditions,
War Stories &
Culture
War stories, articles & game guides
Gamer
Tribute
2026
Expeditions,
War Stories &
Culture
“It’s become clear that the instability in the region has had an effect on its indigenous creatures. I’ve taken a particular interest in the Glacial Ancients and their recent adaptations. I suspect that their transformation into these ‘Magic-bound’ Ancients may hold clues to our predicament here. For my studies, I’ll need samples from both. Do hurry….
Visit each and return to me with their readings.”
-Archmage Berinand
Archmage Berinand in the Transitus Shield wants you to collect 3 Glacial Splinters and 3 Magic-Bound Splinters from the Ancients in Coldarra.
You will be able to choose one of these rewards:
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:
Quest Giver/Turn-in: Archmage Berinand at the Transitus Shield [33, 34]
Objective: Collect 3 Glacial Splinters from Glacial Ancients and 3 Magic-Bound Splinters from Magic-bound Ancients.
Quick Facts
Walkthrough
Both types of Ancients roam around the perimeter of The Nexus structure. They’re large, tree-like elemental creatures, easy to spot.
Glacial Ancients: Icy-white coloration. Some are neutral (yellow nameplates), some are hostile. Found throughout the Coldarra caldera surrounding the Nexus. Good cluster around [34, 26].
Magic-bound Ancients: Glowing with purple/arcane energy. All hostile. Found in the same general area as Glacial Ancients, often near the blue spire structures.
Circle the Nexus and kill three of each type. Both splinters have a 100% drop rate, so you need exactly six kills total.
Tips
Combo Questing
Complete these quests in a single circuit around the Nexus:
Story Context
Archmage Berinand (quest text): “It’s become clear that the instability in the region has had an effect on its indigenous creatures. I’ve taken a particular interest in the Glacial Ancients and their recent adaptations. I suspect that their transformation into these ‘Magic-bound’ Ancients may hold clues to our predicament here. For my studies, I’ll need samples from both. Do hurry….”
Completion: “Yes, yes. These shall do nicely. Thank you.”
Berinand is studying how Coldarra’s native creatures are being transformed by the arcane instability. The Glacial Ancients are indigenous to the region, but the massive influx of arcane energy from Malygos’s ley line redirection is causing them to mutate into Magic-bound Ancients.
By collecting samples from both stages, Berinand can analyze the metamorphosis.
Lore Note: Three Stages of Transformation
The follow-up quest Quickening reveals that this transformation has a third stage: inside The Nexus itself, where arcane exposure is most intense, the Ancients become Crystalline Protectors. Berinand’s completion text for Quickening suggests this transformation may not be natural at all, but deliberately manipulated.
Explore Borean Tundra’s hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Borean Tundra Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.
Vikstone's War Journal“It’s become clear that the instability in the region has had an effect on its indigenous creatures.” Berinand gestured toward the frozen hills. “I’ve taken a particular interest in the Glacial Ancients and their recent adaptations. I suspect that their transformation into these ‘Magic-bound’ Ancients may hold clues to our predicament here.”
He produced a sample case, lined with runes. “For my studies, I’ll need samples from both. Do hurry.”
The Glacial Ancients were old things, towering guardians of frost and root, slow and patient as glaciers. They fought like the land itself resisting, and when they fell, their splinters carried the clean cold of deep winter.
The Magic-bound Ancients were something else.
Same shape and size, but the Magic-bound ones moved like something was pulling their strings from the inside. I’d grown up in forests guarded by their kind. These weren’t guardians anymore.
Whatever Malygos was channeling through Coldarra, it was changing everything it touched.
I brought my mace down through bark that sparked and screamed. The splinters I gathered from the corrupted ones felt cold despite the magic burning through them, which had nothing to do with ice.
Berinand accepted both sets of samples. “Yes, yes. These shall do nicely.”
He was already lost in examination before I’d finished speaking. The before and the after, laid out on his table.
The transformation had a third stage he could not reach, because the last samples were inside the Nexus, which is where the Quickening happens.
