Muspelheim 1st Part

Muspellheim is the Land of Fire. It is one of the first two primal worlds created in a vortex around the World Tree, and the collision between Muspellheim and Niflheim - fire and water, fire and ice, heat and cold - created the energy that formed the basis for the other seven worlds.

Time and Seasons:

There is no day or night in Muspellheim that the average traveler can understand. The Sun and Moon are entirely occluded by smoke, but the light of the fires creates a constant orangey-red sky, rather. The inhabitants actually do have a way of telling time and season, but they don't explain that to outsiders. To the traveler, there may as well be no time or season. Muspellheim spins closest to our world, ironically, at the winter solstice.

Geography:

To say that Muspellheim is the Burning Land is quite literal. A good percentage of it is molten lava rock, and much of the rest is constantly aflame. Attempting to fly over it from most of its borders is nearly impossible, due to the smoke and fumes and long distances where you don't dare land anywhere. The general opinion is that unless you are a fire-etin, Muspellheim is uninhabited and uninhabitable, and no one can journey there anyway.

There is, however, a small portion of the Fiery Realm - perhaps less than a twentieth - where human beings can walk around, with caution. It is the small part of Muspellheim that is coastline; there are beaches of black sand and lava rocks, and bubbling hot springs, and holes in the earth where small fires spring up. Here the fire-etins keep their homes - huts made of shiny black rocks piled and melted together - and they use their human forms here. They are perfectly capable of traveling anywhere else in their world in fiery form, and indeed fire-giants all seem to be more comfortable in fire-form than flesh-form.

The beaches of the Land of Fire are all a long way from any solid border (such as the Myrkwood or the mountainous gates of Svartalfheim), which provides a natural barrier for overflying enemies and spies. Having to cross hundreds of miles of choking smoke, leaping flame, toxic fumes, and devastating heat generally discourages even the most sturdy of flyers. Should anyone make it to the coastal area and actually give in to the temptation to land, they will find that it is well guarded. This is the area of Surt's court, and nothing breathes along that narrow stretch of black beach that he doesn't know about. Generally the fire-giants will be surrounding you and demanding to know your business within minutes, and if they don't like your answer, they will eat you. In other words, don't go there without an appointment with Surt or Sinmora.

The two largest and most impressive structures in the coastal area of Muspellheim - in fact, in all of Muspellheim - are Surt's manor and Naglfari. Surt's manor is carved entirely out of a single giant piece of black volcanic glass the size of several city blocks. It is round, with jutting projections like an iron crown, each of them a chimney over a hearth the size of my living room, belching white smoke. There have only been two such structures made, and his manor is the larger one. The smaller one is another giant piece of black volcanic glass, this one with a spiral series of vaulted chambers cut into it, and it is an underground part of Elvidnir, Hel's palace in Helheim, given as tribute by Surt to his godson's daughter.

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