NOTTHOLMAR
Contents
A CONSTELLATION OF DARK WORLDS
SVARTALFHEIM
The svartalfar, twisted parodies of the alfar, shun light and the surface. Svartalfheim consists entirely of tunnels and caverns. The roots of Yggdrasil run through the earth surrounding the realm and can be used to reach Svartalfheim, as can various portals and gates constructed by the svartalfar (including portals to the Primal Cavern). Powerful svartalfar warriors guard these entrances using weapons that can harm even Gods. The greatest svartalfar lords and ladies certainly devised routes into and out of Svartalfheim known only to themselves, but these routes are just as certainly guarded by devious traps, terrible beasts and dire curses.
Svartalfheim is a terra incognita — technically part of the World, but set apart from mortal knowledge. This mythic realm intersects Midgard anywhere the svartalfar choose, though the nexus always involves a tunnel or cavern far underground. The svartalfar traditionally entered the mortal World only in Northern Europe. Of late, though, the svartalfar open portals anywhere around the World a lord sees opportunities to gain power, curry favor with the Titans or simply indulge sadistic whims.
As perfected titanspawn of their prototype dwarf cousins, the svartalfar fill their realm with wondrous artifice. Svartalfar cities consist of large caverns where great halls and dwellings are carved from the rock walls or seemingly shaped from clusters of immense stalagmites. Their dwellings often feature high ceilings and large spaces. Seemingly impossible wonders, such as vast automated sculptures and gardens of edible gold and gems, showcase their greatness and power. Extensive mines and quarries supply raw materials for their wondrous items. When the svartalfar bother to supply light, it is always pale and cold, coming from either huge, glowing jewels or thin air. Much of the menial work is done by magic or clockwork servants crafted by the svartalfar. They keep slaves and captives as a show of power and cruelty rather than any real need for their labor, as there is little the svartalfar cannot achieve on their own.
The center of the realm holds the palace of King Fafnir. The palace puts even the most impressive lesser svartalfar’s home to shame. Anyone who wants to meet Fafnir on his home territory must meet him here. Though he is devious and cruel, Fafnir receives guests with opulent hospitality. Like most of his kind, he makes bargains and trades, but only when he assumes he will benefit the most—and usually as a means to lead his supplicant to destruction through a curse of treachery. Cabals of Fafnir’s subjects regularly scheme to overthrow their king, but Fafnir’s power and cunning usually results in these would-be conspirators turning against each other long before they present any danger to his rule.
NIDAVELLIR
The terra incognita of the dwarves likewise exists entirely underground and indeed, intersects so extensively with Svartalfheim that they are effectively one realm. The dwarves try to close tunnels between their territories and those of the svartalfar, though, since the svartalfar take particular pleasure in capturing and breaking dwarves as slaves.
While the svartalfar obey a single king, the dwarves have no such central authority. Each community might follow its own king or jarl, and recently founded communities often eschew aristocracy for elected mayors or informal councils of elders. The few dwarves who achieved great power among their kind, such as the legendary Andvari, were generally tyrants and Titan-followers, so the dwarves as a whole don’t care much for centralized power.
Nidavellir is best known for intersecting the mortal World in Northern Europe, where the dwarves made secret entrances into many mines. The mortal miners heard the rapping of the dwarves’ picks and knew to leave those sections of the mine strictly alone. Dwarves explored widely in search of ores and gems, however, so places all around the World have tales about little men who guard and mine the earth’s treasures. Nidavellir now reaches from the Mesabi Range of Minnesota to the diamond pipes of South Africa.
The dwarves eschew the grandiose and rococo illusions of the svartalfar. Their subterranean communities are plain, functional but comfortable. Nevertheless, their magical artifice often equals that of their svartalfar kin, and the greatest wonder-smiths of their kind can still produce relics of stunning power—which they readily deploy if they face attack from titanspawn or Gods.
MYRKHEIM
GRAFHYSI
FANGELSI
