Jotunheim Part I

Jotunheim

The Land of the Giants was parceled out to Jotunkind when the first Aesir divided up the worlds. It is a land that is both forbidding and exhilarating, beautiful and dangerous. As is appropriate for Giant-Home, everything grows larger there. Trees are enormous, forests thick and towering, animals immense and fierce. Journeyers travel there for a variety of reasons, some useful and some foolish. Jotunheim was created to be a new homeland for the Jotnar, a place where fire-giants and frost-giants could come together. Both the Aesir and the Jotnar take credit for creating it, but it is clear that the early Jotnar designed and colonized it themselves. After some time, the Jotnar colonists seem to have evolved and acclimated themselves to the terrain, and the varying genetic strands of Jotunheim giants are different from either frost-thurse or fire-etin. As the Jotnar are shapechangers, it is not surprising that they could adapt so easily and produce adapted offspring.
Time and Seasons:
The day in Jotunheim is a little shorter than the day in Midgard, and sunset and sunrise happen more quickly. First the sky is light, and then the sun sinks abruptly beyond the horizon. The time of year when Jotunheim spins closest to our world is the fall equinox. Storms rage over Jotunheim on a regular basis; there is a great deal of rainfall, especially in the spring. While they are not usually as severe as the terrible storms of Niflheim, the place is infamous for its dramatic lightning, which nearly always sets some part of the forests afire. Between storms, the sky lightens and is fairly bright, but the thick forests block out a good deal of the light. The high mountains also block the horizon, so unless you are flying, Jotunheim can seem like one of the darkest worlds of all. This is one reason why mountaintop fortresses are prized; they get more light than anywhere else.

Geography:

Imagine mountains the size of the Himalayas covered up to the treeline with trees the size of sequoias, and you get a good idea of what much of Jotunheim is like. There are warmer sections that could almost be called rain forest or jungle, and colder sections where snow falls for half the year. There are cities carved out of the greenery, and roads that run in a complicated network under the giant branches, and the occasional upland meadow, but most of Jotunheim is under thick primeval forest.
There are three major mountain chains in Jotunheim; one lies along the western coast, one (the famous Nidfjoll Mountains where Sindri, the dwarf-built Ragnarok-shelter, lies deep beneath) grows on the eastern side and turns northward through snow and ice nearly as cold as Niflheim, and one splits the world down the middle and stabs south like an arrow. The famous Iron Wood lies in the southernmost area of Jotunheim; there the trees are shorter and more twisted, with larger gaps between them. The clearings in the Iron Wood are the only parts of Jotunheim that could be termed lowland meadows, but no farming is done there due to the Iron Wood's overwhelming emanations of strange energy. The southeastern area of Jotunheim is hot and steamy, with rain forests and multiple small rivers.
The largest river in Jotunheim is the Elivagar, which is really a narrow stretch of salt-water ocean. It is the water/world barrier between the southernmost border of Jotunheim and the northern border of Midgard. The Big Snake lies offshore here, just out of sight. The north border of Jotunheim is the great Thund Thvitr, the second-largest river and the line between Jotunheim and Asgard. It is riddled with small fortresses and guard settlements, watching the Cold War line between the two worlds. Another famous river is the Slith, which has iron-grey waters that float with razor-sharp knives. It is the southern border of the Iron Wood, and the knives are a protection enchantment by the local inhabitants.
In the northwest corner, near to the Thund Thvitr, is the forest of Galgvid. The inhabitants in this area generally consist of Eggther the harper and his permanent guard encampment, set to watch the Asgard border for signs of invasion and/or weakness. Eggther is a cheery sort for an etin, and will gladly take in folk to his table, so long as they are not directly allied with the Aesir and they can sing new songs for him to learn. Eggther is the keeper of Volund's sword of revenge, but like the keepers of the other magic swords in the Nine Worlds, asking to see it is not only rude but fatally ill-advised. His assistant is Fjalar (not to be confused with the famous duergar of the same name), a giant whose favorite form is that of an enormous rooster. If there is an invasion, Fjalar's crow will be the battle cry.
Off the coast of the western sea, the coastline dissolves into a myriad of small islands, each of which is owned by a particular etin. These giants tend to have close relations with Aegir, and do a good deal of fishing (which is a harder act in Jotunheim than in other places, as the fishes tend to be huge and toothed). Furthest out lies the island of Allgron, a midway-trading-point between Vanaheim and Jotunheim. It is owned by the rich giant Fjolvar, who is famous for his enormous brothel of females from all parts of the Nine Worlds - etin-women, duergar-women, Vanir-women, mortal women from Midgard, and the occasional hapless Alfar-maiden. So far he has no Aesir employees, but he is always looking for talent.


Suported by RavenKaldera