Through the act of submerging a simple iron "skeleton" into a large vat of water, the cryomancers of the far-northern realms then use magic rituals to freeze the water, and enchant the resulting ice with protective enchantments, whilst imbuing a mote of elemental earth into the frame to give it animation. When the slab of ice fractures, and the animated golem breaks out, it emerges covered in layers of hardened ice, wielding a shield and lance made entirely out of the same element.