It is 3 o'clock past Midnight, on the Day of the Moon,
the 14th Day of the Month of the Sun, Year 317.
Chapter 3
The Races.
It is impossible to describe all the races that live in this world as new ones are constantly arriving in different places. But here is a selection of the oldest, the largest, and
the most powerful races. The largest race is the humans living in
Udgaard, Midgaard and everywhere else they can settle. Like everyone else in Valhalla they cannot die in battle, and therefore they are growing faster and faster as a race. The humans in Midgaard are ruled by a line of Kings going all the way back to the founder of Midgaard King Tron. The current king is King Welmar The Wise. The King rules over a large part of Valhalla, going all the way from the Haon-dor forest and Udgaard
in the west to the beginning of the mountains in the east. To the north the king controls the north road and the surrounding fields and marshes and to the south the border lies at the edge of the waters. He rules through The Holy Order of Odin, an ancient order dating back to King Cromwell, who have protected the kings of Midgaard as well as the city itself for more than 300 years. Even though both Midgaard and The Holy Order was founded by humans there are several dwarfs, elves and even a few halflings included. The elves of Valhalla although few in number, have had a great impact on the world as we know it now. As the first elves came to Valhalla, they were confused and surprised. Unlike the humans they had come without their patron gods.
The elves send out their greatest warriors to explore this strange world and if possible to make contact with other elves. They eventually found both, most importantly they made contact with the humans under King Tron and with the dwarfs under King Thorigorn. As the elves exchanged information with the humans they realized that they would not see their native world again, they therefore decided to settle and recreate their home-away-from-home. Huge towers were build impressing and inspiring the other races in Valhalla, who had never seen such towers. The elves became known among the races of good as bringers of wisdom and knowledge, and among the races of evil they were known as fierce and skilled warriors. However the elves were always few in number, and in Valhalla they were even fewer. The inability to die in battle was less of an advantage to the elves who reproduces much slower than humans. The Human race was growing so fast that the elves already before The Great War were discussing their options. After the war their number had decreased so drastically that the elves saw no
other choice than exile, they left suddenly to a place unknown to others than themselves, leaving only a few to watch over their towers and the treasures within. The history of the dwarves in Valhalla is an unfortunate one. They came here with most of their underground fortress intact, they were like the elves robbed of their patron gods, but it didn't concern them much. Dwarves are a highly independent and head-strong lot, and they simply continued mining the rocks, and protecting their fortress. Soon however it became apparent that they would need food and water from an outside source. Expeditions were sent out to buy the necessities, but they got more than they bargained for.
At first it went well. The dwarf merchants made contacts with humans and a few halflings that were quite happy to trade food and animals for precious metals and steel tools. However they also made themselves known to the world, and the position of their fortress in the mountain regions made them an obvious target for armies that wanted to gain access to the plains on the other side. The dwarfs found it necessary to join in the alliance with the
humans and the elves, although all they really wanted was to get back below. Like the elves their main problem was that they apparently was marked as a dying race, in comparison to the humans who grew in number at an alarming rate. Fortunately they found King Tron to be a man who upheld the principles that the dwarves lived by, so respect and common understanding grew quickly between the races highly, independent and head-strong lot, and they simply
continued mining the rocks, and protecting their fortress.. It has even been heard from some dwrves (After several kegs of beer mind you) that if King Tron had been a few inches lower, he could almost have been a dwarf. The dwarfs still hold the main fortress of Kharosh-Naobir that
they came to Valhalla in, but most of the smaller outposts that were build since then are in enemy hands since the goblin wars starting in 51 AFM and the following Great War.
The dragons of Valhalla is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries in this world. They are very powerful and they are very few. This is rather normal as too many of such powerful beings would shake in the very balance of life. The strange part is that there doesn't seem to be any dragons of good in Valhalla. This is even more disruptive to the balance than anything else in this world, and it is a great wonder that the forces of evil have not prevailed already. Normally the dragons clad in metal-skin are the champions of good, helping the lesser races of good against their evil cousins. However the only such dragons that Scroogy have been able to find any records of is the silver dragon Apsu who is the husband of the evil Tiamat herself, and is generally not described as a being of good, and an old dragon in the deep forests who spend most of his time telling stories to bypassers. The question remains, and perhaps it is meant to be so in this world that is so different in every way.