Embers are the key to the Deep North. You can only gather them once Fader is dead, and they craft the two tools the biome demands. Ember Charges break petrified Gammeltrolls for their ore, and the Snow Shovel clears the snow so you can build on the ground there. Embers weigh half a unit and stack to 50.
Embers come from an Eternal Pyre, a structure you build at your base. It needs a Stonecutter nearby. It works like a Wisp Fountain, with one important difference: it works in daylight too. Every five seconds it has an even chance of drawing in an ember spirit, up to three at once, and you pick each spirit for one ember.
The flow is steady but slow, so build the pyre early, before your first trip north, and let it fill while you do other things.
Fader is the gate. It is the seventh boss, a charred skeletal dragon that you summon with three bells at the coliseum altar in the Ashlands. Each bell is made from three Bell Fragments taken from the Charred Fortresses. The Vegvisir that marks the altar sits in the central tower of a fortress.
Notes
A living Gammeltroll's punch also breaks statues, so you can get a little Petrified Tissue before your first ember, though not reliably.
Embers Crafting Recipes
Most embers go into Ember Charges: one ember and two Seal Pelts make ten at a level 1 Workbench. The Snow Shovel needs two embers, plus five Finewood and four Flametal, at a level 3 Black Forge.
An Ember Charge bursts for 140 blunt, 100 chop and 50 pickaxe across three metres. Its tool tier is high enough for anything in the game, so charges also fell trees and mine rock quickly. The shovel's primary attack clears a two-metre circle of snow for 5 stamina, and its secondary clears a three-metre circle all around you for 20. It levels the Farming skill and also sweeps away the snow that builds up on roofs and walls. Upgrading it to quality 3 takes only Finewood and Flametal, so you need the embers just once.
