Þrúðvangr - 'Fields of Power'

Also Known As: Þrúðheimr - "World of strength"
Nature: Pocket-dimension / ''Hidden Valley''
First Encountered: 4.7 "All the King's Mages and All the King's Men"

Description: A large valley nestled in between steep hills and sharp mountain peaks, its final borders marked by the dark and ominous storm clouds that are as much a permanent part of the landscape as the fields and the bedrock. The sky is said to have been ever-blue once, but now it is obscured by dark purple and gangrenous green clouds, the ambient light provided by whatever electrical discharge happens within that oppressive gas. The air is choked with a dark, nitric-green fog which severely impairs visibility and causes strong irritation and pain in the respiratory system of anyone breathing it unprotected, with exposure for any protracted period risks permanent damage to the throat and lungs, or even death from poisoning. One look at the valley itself indicates why: Most of it is submerged in a horrible murky liquid that stirs in the ever-present wind almost like an ocean in bad weather, though it's immediately apparent that this is far from potable water. It is Eitr, the viciously acidic venom that the worst monsters of Norse myth could produce, either sprayed from their mouth, injected through their fangs and claws, or serving as their very blood. The ever-present ''fog'' is in fact Eitr-vapor, its potency attenuated by the gaseous format but no less insidious. There is absolutely no vegetation here, though Þrúðvangr bears all the signs of having been a lush and fertile place once, and neither is there any wildlife. It has all been killed off by either the pollution, the Serpent, or both.

The ground can hardly be described as perfectly flat and even, so there are some places that are shallower than others, and a handful of patches not entirely covered by the foul liquid. If one has a keen eye and know where to look it's possible to spot what is most likely the ruined remains of a village or small town, where stables, barns, pantries and homes must have once been built. Little remains now beyond corroded foundations and scattered stonework showing where there used to be a wall or room. From the realm's entrance there runs a winding gravel path down to this ocean of poison, yet on the far distant side it continues by climbing up the opposing hillside in the form of a more proper road clad in cobblestone. It leads to the very top of the tallest of the hills where a gigantic mansion-like castle eventually becomes visible through the smoky air. This is the heart of the realm, the central seat of power from which it was originally governed: Bilskirnir, hall of Thor.

Info: This place is not only a vast pocket of isolated space but an entire geographical region somehow severed from the surrounding terrain and transformed into a separately contained dimension, yet which supposedly had both sun, moon, day, night and proper weather, which the ruins of an agricultural settlement would indicate. To say that it's heavily warded would be an understatement, as a millennium or more of Seers and Order mages have failed to force entry or even to find this place without knowing beforehand where it was, to the point where it also blocks teleportation and similar spatial magics between different locations within the realm itself.

According to the Valkyrie Þrúðvangr used to be a lush and peaceful community, a paradise of homes and families and farmland, until Ragnarokk and the arrival of the Serpent. Those few who survived that cataclysm fled wherever they could, and the only thing we know of their ultimate fates is that some of them eventually arrived in the countryside near Trondheim and there founded what would in time become Smistad Gård ("because of the ancient protections still remaining in that place"), becoming the ancestors of Andrea Holm.

Notable Features

  • Bifrost: The rainbow-bridge that allows access
  • Bilskirnir: The final sanctum of Thor and his household
  • Midgarðsormen: The serpentine behemoth which is both prisoner and destroyer of this realm
  • The Mjöllner Array: Magical construction found atop the central tower of Bilskirnir
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