Snow Realm

The Snow Realm is the northwestern quadrant of the re-established land of Hyrule and the second region explored by Link in Spirit Tracks. As its name implies, it is a region of intense blizzards that is covered in much ice and snow, is home to the Anouki tribe, and is the location of the Snow Temple, one of the four special temples scattered across Hyrule that power the Tower of Spirits. Link comes to this region after obtaining the Snow Rail Map in the second section of the Tower of Spirits and restoring enough of the lost Spirit Tracks to reach the Snow Sanctuary and meet with the Lokomo known as Gage.

Spirit Tracks

A century after the kingdom of Hyrule was re-established in a new land found by the Hero of Winds, Tetra and her pirates, the kingdom's chancellor, Cole, sets into motion a plot to remove the Spirit Tracks and release the Demon King Malladus from his prison deep underground. To this end, Cole curses the four temples that power the Tower of Spirits in order to de-energize the tower and cause the tracks to disappear, thereby allowing Malladus to escape. One of these four temples, the Snow Temple, resides in the northwestern corner of Hyrule in the region known as the Snow Realm and is cursed with the beast known as Fraaz in order to disrupt the energy flowing from the temple to the Tower of Spirits. With this, the temple's energy beacon was deactivated, weakening the Tower of Spirits and causing the Spirit Tracks all across the Snow Realm to vanish while blizzards began to surround the temple, a result of the darkness that had taken root there.

A short time after these events, Cole revealed his true intentions to the land's monarch, Princess Zelda, as well as her accomplices, a recently-named Royal Engineer named Link and his mentor Alfonzo, before separating her spirit from her body and stealing her physical body to use as a host for the Demon King's spirit. This sets into motion a quest to restore the Spirit Tracks and ascend the Tower of Spirits to retrieve Zelda's body before Malladus can take possession of it. After cleansing the Forest Temple of the evil power of Stagnox, Link retrieves the Snow Rail Map from the Tower of Spirits and sets out to explore the Snow Realm. He finds that the entire region is covered in ice and snow and is infested with snowmen-like enemies that harass passersby on train. Link visits the Anouki tribe in their village and helps to pair up the village's residents to confront the problems facing the village with the sudden disappearance of the Spirit Tracks and the change of atmosphere surrounding the Snow Temple. Link helps the villagers and is able to learn from them how to reach the Snow Sanctuary, where he meets with the Lokomo known as Steem, who uses his own special instrument alongside the Spirit Flute to fully restore the Spirit Tracks of the Snow Realm.

After learning the only path open to the Snow Temple, Link journeys there through the immense blizzards surrounding it using the Spirit Train and enters the structure to see what is disrupting the energy flow from the temple to the Tower of Spirits. Inside, he is faced with multiple puzzles involving Icy Fire, regular fire, bells, and more. He also faces multiple ice-related enemies such as Ice Keese and Ice Chu-Chus. After recovering the temple's treasure, the Boomerang, he went on to the temple's energy chamber, where he found the goblin-like Master of Icy Fire, Fraaz. After battling the beast in a difficult battle, the young hero ultimately triumphed, recovering the temple's Force Gem from amongst the beast's remains and restoring it to its proper place within the chamber, which reactivated the temple's energy source and recharged power to the Tower of Spirits through the Spirit Tracks, thus diffusing the strange blizzards in the region and completing Link's mission to the Snow Realm.

Link would continue to visit the Snow Realm at multiple points throughout his remaining adventure to save Hyrule, especially when he had need of the Bridge Fixer's services in order to reach the Ocean Realm soon afterward.