Ikrusk

Connections

• Jhala lived in a village here (before it was destroyed by the Lord of Scales), where she and the other villagers survived freezing winters under the shadow of Mt. Tragedy by huddling around pools of the hellfire that rained eternally from its peak; a good summer was when the scorpion swarms thinned out the vampires; by day they tended livestock, by night they would drive back the haunted suits of armor that fell from the sky; all this hardship made them tough
• Sidra and her monster crew ruled the Seas of Thera from the ice floes of Ikrusk to the Atlantean Gate

Context

We get a lot of clues about Ikrusk from Jhala's lore. My main theory is that the area lies in northeastern Russia, on the Kanchatcan Penninsula. That place is frigid in the winter, and has lots of volcanoes (mountains that rain "hellfire" from their peaks). I thought of Russia because the name Ikrusk looks and sounds a lot like Irkutsk. However, the real-world Irkutsk lies just north of the Mongolian border. I mean, it's pretty far north, but there are no volcanoes there. We also know that Belzar is worshipped as a god near Ikrusk, as he is the Ikruskian god of death and volcanoes.
What other cold places might there be in the world that also has a volcano? There are a couple of volcanoes in Alaska, as well as Iceland. The Siberian region of Russia is still a viable candidate, especially since there is a very large area up there made of igneous rock.

But are there scorpions in those places? I've been able to find brief mentions of some scorpion species living in parts of Alaska and Russia, but there's no clear-cut evidence for any of this. In any case, they prefer dry, arid regions. Even if a place has really cold in the winter, scorpions would just hibernate until it gets warmer.

The mention of vampires gives another hint towards a Russian or Icelandic location, since they exist in Slavic folklore (although they are a bit different from most depictions and descriptions elsewhere). The mention of ice floes (sheets of floating ice) again supports Siberian or Icelandic locations.

Given all of this, plus the fact that Irkusk is never described as an island, I will stick to my theory that it is based somewhere in the Siberian region of northern Russia until proven otherwise.

...Actually, after doing some research into Ogedai, I can see that it may be possible that Ikrusk is actually in real-world Irkutsk, because Ogedai Khan was the second ruler of the Mongol Empire, after his father Genghis Khan.