Realm Overview – Frostwoods

Loki’s Realm of eternal winter, Frostwoods, is a Realm of cruel ice, biting cold, and deadly beasts. The Children of Loki battle for survival against the unforgiving elements and sinister monsters alike, while the Frost Dwarves and Half-Jotun pursue their selfish goals.

Loki’s Realm

As a Realm built by the god of trickery, Frostwoods is both malicious and unpredictable. The weather is deadly to the unprepared and often feels as though it is intentionally making things harder for unfortunate travellers. It is common to begin your journey with clear skies, only for your vision to be obscured by heavy snowfall soon after.

The most populated race in Frostwoods is tieflings. Namely, the Children of Loki variety. Despite their similar appearance to common portrayals of the god, they are offered no bias or protection from the Realm’s cruelties. It could even be said that they are at a disadvantage compared to the hardy Frost Dwarves and powerful Half-Jotun.

Frostwoods earned its name due to its two most prominent and distinct features. An expansive coniferous forest of evergreen pines and a year-round winter of snow and ice. Travel within the realm is slow and dangerous as mortals struggle to wade through chest-high snow, which the Realm’s beasts and monsters are perfectly suited to.

Personality Traits

Loki is secretive yet vain. He wants to be worshipped by all yet remain obscure and unpredictable. As the god of trickery, his mind is sharp and he is always multiple steps ahead of his rivals.

When designing his Realm, he devised the perfect environment to nurture powerful mortals yet give them ample reason to want to conquer the other Realms. This has led to the armies of Frostwoods being some of the most active in the Game of Gods. The powerful monster and Giants that stalk his realm keep it safe from assaults by other realms and also encourage his own people to seek an easier life in these neighbouring Realms. The Hammerlands has proven to be a particularly tempting target for his armies, having held off several attempted invasions since the gateways opened.

Loki’s Representative

While many gods have created living beings to represent them in the Game of Gods, Loki was too prideful to entrust another to enact his will. Instead, he built a golden crown through which he can whisper to whomever the strongest mortal in his Realm is. The gods agreed to not directly influence the Game of Gods, but being a masterful trickster, he has bypassed this ruling, unbeknownst to the other gods.

The Kingsworn Crown is an item that gives its wearer the undeniable right to rule Asgard, and by proxy, the entire Frostwoods. Through this crown, its wearer is granted unchallengeable power, yet the crown also allows Loki to push and influence the mortal. Currently, the Kingsworn Crown sits atop the head of a Giant known as Lopt.

Lopt rose to power in the year 899 and has remained the king of Frostwoods ever since. Many have challenged him, yet the crown has allowed him to surpass mortal limitations and has granted him magical prowess and fearsome physical strength beyond what would be otherwise achievable. He has amassed a huge army and holds the Realm under an iron fist. Plans to siege the Hammerlands are underway, though it is unlikely he will risk personally leaving Frostwoods while the crown remains his.

Mapping Out The Realm

Frostwoods is a Realm of snow and woodlands. The majority of the landscape is dense forests of tall conifer trees. The canopy reaches heights of up to 60 feet, yet much of the undergrowth and shrubbery is buried beneath a thick layer of snow. The trees are tall, yet thin. They block little of the snowfall from reaching the ground. The exception to this is the White Glebe. A large chunk of land where all vegetation fails to grow.

There are two individual mountain ranges within Frostwoods. The northern range, Monarch’s Wall, is the larger of the two and is generally considered to be more ‘civilised’. This is partly due to it being home to Snowpeak, the Frost Dwarven capital, and the trade routes it protects. More accurately, however, it is due to the influx of bestial creatures that reside in the southern range, Howling Peaks. It is well known that Howling Peaks houses the trapped titan Fenrir, a monstrous wolf-like creature of immense size and power. Many of the evil beasts that make this landscape their home, such as the race of Fenfir, are created by Fenrir himself.

Of the handful of notable lakes and rivers within Frostwoods, they all remain lightly frozen over the majority of the time. The ice across these life-giving sources of water is typically unpredictable in regard to its thickness and strength. One area might be easily cracked open to reach the water beneath while a seemingly similar spot might require significant effort to break. This makes travelling across these areas doubly dangerous as it is near impossible to predict if the ice can support your weight.

When travelling in an area of frozen water such as a lake or river, you can roll on the below chart to determine hard thick the ice is and how much force is required to break it:

D4	Thickness Of Ice	DC To Move Across Thin Ice
1	Brittle: The ice requires a DC 8 strength check to break and cannot support the weight of a size small or larger creature.	DC = 16 + 2 for each size level the character is above tiny.
2	Thin: The ice require a DC 13 strength check to break and cannot support the weight of a size medium or larger creature.	DC = 14 + 2 for each size level the character is above small.
3	Reasonable: The ice require a DC 17 strength check to break and cannot support the weight of a size large or larger creature.	DC = 12 + 2 for each size level the character is above medium.
4	Thick: The ice require a DC 22 strength check to break and cannot support the weight of a size huge or larger creature.	DC = 10 + 2 for each size level the character is above large.

A player character can attempt to cross a weak area of ice by making dexterity checks every minute of travel (or every 10 minutes if the area they are crossing is vast). The DC for this check varies depending on the size of the creature and the thickness of the ice. You can use the above chart to determine this DC.

If a character does fall through the ice, they must succeed a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of their next round (or for 1 minute if they are not currently in combat).

Asgard

Due to the nature of its creation, the city is protected against damage. The gold is unnaturally durable and if a wall or street did happen to receive a dent or crack, it will slowly reform over the following hours. Homes vary in size, allowing races of all sizes to find residency within the city.

Currently, the city is home to 6000 giants and over 14,000 tieflings, with a handful of various other races too. The standing ruler of Frostwoods and wearer of the Kingsworn Crown is an unnaturally humungous Frost Giant named Lopt. He resides in a grand, luxurious citadel within the highest tier of the city, surrounded by his army of giants and monstrous war-beasts.

A Cheat’s Gambit

While all the Realms have been built by a god’s hands, Asgard is unique due to being the only liveable city built as part of the Realms’ creation, instead of being crafted by mortal hands. Because of this advantage, the city holds many magical properties. Feats of magic and enchantment that are beyond what mortals can achieve. Many of the gods involved in the Game of Gods feel that Loki cheated by creating this city, yet the lateness of its discovery has meant nothing can be done to amend the situation. It has, however, painted the city as an important target in the minds of the White Realm gods and their representatives.

Locations of Importance

Giant’s Barracks: Each ruler of Frostwoods assigns the tiers of Asgard to different purposes. While the second highest tier was historically used as a noble district, housing the richest and most powerful citizens of the Realm, Geld has reassigned it to his army’s barracks. More focused on maintaining rule than ruling well, he keeps his army close and most of the large, luxurious homes now house rowdy giants and messy beasts of war.

By positioning the army so high in the city, it has made them slow to respond to any potential sieges to the city, however, Geld’s priority is not to protect the people living in the city but to protect his position as ruler. As such, he’s willing to lose the easily defendable walls to avoid having any potential threats exist between him and his army.

The effects of having a sizeable army of giants living in these once-stunning streets are not unnoticeable. While the city can repair damage to itself, it can do little about the filth that has built up. Having his hand-built city treated with such disregard does little to impress Loki and while no one among the living are aware, he still holds some semblance of control of this site of power within his Realm. Should the Giants continue does this path, they may find the city itself eject them from its streets.

The Tricksters Cathedral: To pass from the 2nd tier of the city to the 3rd, you must pass through The Tricksters Cathedral. This immensely large building acts as both the gateway between these tiers of the city and also as a place of worship for the supporters of Loki. The towering golden structure is visually reminiscent of the Kingsworn Crown, encompassing several sharp spires and unnaturally large gems. A perceptive individual might note that strangely, worshipers conduct their prayers at the entrance, not within. And those that do enter, seem intentful and purposeful.

Despite the crowded streets and regular foot traffic, an individual that enters the cathedral will always find the interior completely empty and visually unique. As the God of Trickery, Loki couldn’t allow people to pass through his place of worship, unimpeded. Upon entering the cathedral, a person is exposed to a very personal trial of character. One where the answer is not to prove yourself worthy but to prove your greed and deceptiveness. Each trial is unique and heavily influenced by the person’s past. Pulling on the threads of their goals and desires. The trial will tempt them by making situations where they could gain what they want in a best-case scenario. To pass the trial, however, they must find a way to take more. To increase their gains at the expense of others.

If a person fails this trial, they will find leaving The Tricksters Cathedral difficult, as the only option becomes to fight their way back towards the entrance and be denied passage deeper into the city.

The Royal Citadel: Upon the highest tier of the city, the Royal Citadel casts an imposing shadow across the city. This immense fortress of gold remains the most well-defended location in Frostwoods, and arguably all of Veneon. Unscalable walls of smooth gold and a heavily guarded, gated staircase prevent approach from the ground, while a magic, protective dome blocks assault from the sky. Four enormous golden statues are enchanted to defend the Citadel at all costs and will magically activate upon the current ruler’s orders. These golems, along side a veritable army of war machines, make The Royal Citadel of Asgard an almost impossible task to assault.

Snowpeak

Unlike many Dwarven cities, Snowpeak is not built under the rocky ground of the mountain, instead, they mined the stone and brought it to the surface to construct large, sturdy buildings. Often wider than they are tall, the buildings of Snowpeak are flat, single-story constructions of carved and chiselled stone. Meaningful runes and engraved artwork cover much of the city like angular graffiti. This odd layout of buildings and the nature of the sloped terrain of the mountain has resulted in the city appearing much like large steps from a distance.

The population of Snowpeak currently includes 11,000 Dwarves (Frost Elves) and several other races that have chosen to endure the hard life in the mountains for the reward of exclusive knowledge and tools.

King Atop the Mountain

While the Kingsworn Crown and the god-given right to rule sits with Lopt, Snowpeak has a king of its own. Helshi Stridecastle, 3rd of his name, is the appointed ruler of the Dwarves (Frost Elves) and Snowpeak. As the youngest member of the Stridecastle family, Helshi is yet to achieve many great feats during his rule, yet control over the familiey’s greatest masterpiece, the legendary Walking Fortress has secured and retained his rule.

The Walking Fortress is a highly defendable building capable of raising itself from the ground on 6 immense mechanical legs and stomping across the landscape. Due to its size, this travel is often highly destructive to the landscape it navigates across, crushing trees and buildings, and churning up the earth beneath its legs. The Walking Fortress has remained stationary at Snowpeak for over a decade, yet it is believed Helshi is looking for any excuse to activate this feature.

His father, the former ruler, is still alive, however, he is rarely seen and keeps to his chambers within the castle. Rumour tells that he saw a terrible vision of the future and remains sealed away with his research notes, trying to learn all he can of this unwanted future.

The Art of War

Unlike the Dark Elf Dwarves of Nidavellir, the Frost Elf Dwarves have abandoned artistic efforts such as sculptures and paintings and instead focus their efforts entirely on the tools of battle. Increasingly deadly weapons and war machines flow out of Snowpeak, creating a highly profitable site of trade and war profiteering. Warriors and warlords from all across the Black Realms travel to Snowpeak in hopes of securing a contract with a skilled Dwarven craftsman.

If the party arrive in Snowpeak in search of powerful weapons or armour, they can pay a hefty price in exchange for some powerful magic items. These prices are significantly higher than those of Nidavellir, however, the items are significantly more dangerous, as is the journey to Snowpeak:

Magic Items	Price
Common Magic Items	100gp
Uncommon Magic Items	700gp
Rare Magic Items	2500gp
Very Rare Magic Items	10,000gp
Legendary Magic Items	100,000gp
Custom Magic Item	On demand
Dwarven War Machine	Varies: Click Here

Locations of Importance

The Smoking Tower: As a society of creators and scientists, it has always been understood that people needed an area to work on their projects, lest their homes become exposed to dangerous and hazardous situations. Similar to how some cultures have public libraries, The Smoking Tower is an enormous tower that is open to the public and provides a safe space to work on private projects. Constructed from rough stone and reinforced with metal beams, the building is a dominant aspect of the skyline.

Within its thick walls, the centre of the tower is a seemingly endless spiral staircase which wraps around a pulley-system lift. Around the outer wall of the tower lay hundreds of contained rooms. Each floor houses four rooms, each stocked with generic yet high-quality tools and workspaces, and a lock that is only accessed from within unless you have a magnetic staff key. On every 10th floor, the hireable spaces give way to a circular market space where merchants or contractors sell materials, niche tools, chemicals/components or other assets needed for experimentation. The bottom floor of the tower is a large, luxurious lobby space where customers can relax, eat and drink, and is also the space where rooms are hired for an affordable price.

The tower is named due to each room having a small window located against the ceiling. Due to the nature of the projects that are worked on in these spaces, the majority of these windows pour with plumes of smoke, causing the upper levels of the building to become entirely obscured.

While The Smoking Tower is intended for public use, it is owned and managed by an organisation called The Skapara Institution. This mysterious group seems outwardly altruistic, yet their mysterious nature and the lack of information about their members or goals have often created distrust.

Land’s-Core Mine: The Land’s-Core Mine is an enormous pit in the centre of Snowpeak. This quarry and stone mine was begun at the founding of the city to provide the materials for the population’s homes and has been continued ever since. If someone were to fall into the mine, they would likely be falling for nearly 10 minutes before impacting the bottom, provided they didn’t hit the wide ramp-like stairs that wrap around the outer walls. Originally the mine was intended to only extract stone for building purposes, yet they have since hit many veins of ore that have led to dozens of offshoots being created in the depths of the Realm.

Creator’s Cavern: While the smaller scale projects are kept to The Smoking Tower, builds that require a large amount of space are housed in the Creator’s Cavern. This vast natural cave system was discovered shortly after the Dwarves settled upon the mountain and originally houses a plethora of subterranean monsters. They have since been slain and the deepest caverns were sealed off.

As a location dedicated to some of the most dangerous constructs that Dwarven minds can conceive, the Creator’s Cavern is a complex series of wide tunnels and tall chambers of burned walls and thick smog. Many sections of the cave have been assigned to testing new creations which results in a regular chorus of echoing blasts heard throughout.

While this section of the city is not owned by The Skapara Institution, they do unofficially oversee and regulate the Creator’s Cavern. Some citizens are frustrated by this overreach of power by the company, yet most remain glad of the maintenance they provide to the space.

The Entombed Beasts Den

Many hidden entrances to the ramshackle city known as The Entombed Beasts Den are scattered around the base on the mountain range. Often obscured or buried, these doorways are deceptively difficult to find and the only reliable method of searching is to secretly follow a Fenfir’s path, for all Fenfir are blessed with a subconscious knowledge of where these entrances are.

Within the mountain’s roots, the jagged stone and sharp crystals have been hammered away to create a precarious network of thin stone, pathways and platforms. These walkways facilitate travel across the sparse city and surround the immense, dormant form of the Titan, Fenrir.

Fenrir – The Trapped Titan

While the Fenris-wolf lays unmoving within its magical prison, its mind is active and calculating. It magically reaches out across the Realm, warping wolf pups into its devoted Fenfir and burning a task into its mind.

Fenrir’s creation is a bitter tale of miscalculation during a Realms creation. As a being hand-crafted by Loki, it is as old and eternal as Frostwoods themselves. Loki had originally intended for Fenrir to be the ruler and power behind his Realm and so, he poured as much power and war-lust into the beast as he dared. This choice proved unwise, however, as Fenrir was now strong enough and so driven by bloodlust that his will rivalled that of the god, and all control was lost.

Fenrir stained the snow red with the blood of the Realm and Frostwoods teetered on the edge of internal destruction before the Gateways had even opened. In the year 273, the mortal races of Frostwoods banded together in a single act of unity and imprisoned Fenrir, locking him behind an arcane jail and building a literal mountain around his body.

Those that aided in his defeat are now long dead and the Realm has grown lax in their watch of the Entombed Beast. For nearly 1000 years, Fenrir has worked towards his release, and the spells holding him are beginning to fray.

Locations of Importance

While the city does allow for simple residency, its true purpose is the release of Fenrir. As such, it lacks many of the facilities a typical city would have. You’ll find no inns nor taverns. No government nor garrison. No shops nor guilds. What you will find is an army of dangerous, dedicated beast-folk, carving away the earth to create a strange lattice of stone and crystal bridges, and the inconceivably large form of Fenrir the Wolf.

The White Glebe

Jack’s Vigil is a town that has dedicated itself to culling the monsters of the Glebe and preventing them from escaping into the greater Realm. As the town’s name suggests, the warriors of Jack’s Vigil, known as the Knights of the Antler, make effective use of giant Jackalope mounts. Incredibly fast and able to negate the snow’s slowing effects, these antlered rabbits have allowed the knights to hunt the monsters on an equal footing.

Due to the importance of their task and the limited resources of the area, the local towns and settlements send regular supply runs to the town, providing them with food, tools and weapons.

Knights of the Antler

The Knights of the Antler is the name commonly given to the warriors of Jack’s Vigil. Many of these fighters are volunteers, often the survivors of monster attacks that recognise the importance of the task. On rare occasions, the standing king – Lopt, will send criminals to Jack’s Vigil as a purposefully harsh opportunity to redeem themselves for their crimes. The captains of the Knights of the Antler are given instructions on how many patrols to send the criminals on (often enough that survival is unlikely) and the resources to hold them securely.

Free Locations

Alongside these main locations, there are many smaller settlements that you are free to use as needed. You can populate these villages and towns with friends or foes in order to craft the story you want.

As it stands, the current territories have the following additional free locations:

Territory	Local & Amount
Frostwoods	Town / 3
Frostwoods	Village / 6

Realm Gateways

As a central square on the board, Frostwoods has four gateways to other realms. Currently, three of those are open.

Northern Gateway: Unknown

The way is shut.

Eastern Gateway: The Floodplains

Every 10 days, an inconsistent area in the Eastern woodlands rains, when it would typically snow. If someone were to stand in this snow and pray for rain, they’ll be magically teleported to The Floodplains.

Southern Gateway: Hammerlands

Loki’s rivalry with Thor resulted in him making it unusually easy to travel to The Hammerlands. Anyone with enough magical skill can kill a living creature and draw a specific magic circle in its blood. Doing so will create a short-term portal to The Hammerlands.

Western Gateway: Sun-stained Desert

While wandering the Western forest, a person may come across a circle of small stones, each marked with the rune of the sun. Should a person push over one of these stones, they’ll be ignited by burning sunlight and blinded. As their sight returns, they find themselves in the Sun-stained Desert.

Adventure Hooks

There is plenty of adventure to be had in the Frostwoods, whether you’re just passing through or basing your campaign here. Here are a few adventure ideas to inspire you or get you started.

Unwilling Service

As criminals to the Realm, Lopt has sent you to earn your freedom at The White Glebe. What should have been a suicidal death against the monsters of the glebe, turns into a battle for the Realm itself.

The Final Howl

Rumours of Fenrir’s impending release have been growing and as the mountain cracks and falls, only suffering and blood can await Frostwoods as the angry beast seeks revenge.

Defiance

A small farming village has attracted the ire of a cruel Frost Giant. With no one strong enough to stand against it alone, a small group of heroes attempts to use traps and careful planning to bring down something beyond their strength.

The Great Freezing

The nights have been getting steadily colder and even the creatures built for surviving in the snow have begun succumbing to the frozen nights. Something must be causing this change and if nothing is done, the entire Realm will freeze over and die.

The Showdown of Kings

When the owner of the Kingsworn Crown and the ruler atop the Monarch’s Wall clash in a dispute of sovereignty, the march of the giants shall shake the earth and the smoke of Dwarven war machines will dull the sun. Choose a side or fall beneath either.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading! the Frostwoods was actually the second Realm I began working on and will be the first to host a campaign, so it’s a surprise even to me that I’ve only just gotten around to releasing this Realm Overview! Hopefully, you enjoy the lore and can see how you’d run a campaign in this Realm! I’m not sure which Realm I’ll work on next! I’m thinking maybe Bloodflow… That would be some fun, edgy nonsense! I will probably spend some time adding other gameplay features for a while first though. So expect mounts, monsters and magic items coming your way!

Thank you for reading and may your next session be filled with glory!