Society

There are eight major land masses in the Northern hemisphere and most are in the temperate region. The high gravity and geologic activity limits the size of the mountains on these islands but ensures that very little of the landscape of the ‘Home Isles’ is truly flat. The persistent tempestuous climate and the volcanic activity also ensure that there is an overabundance of caves both large and small. Typical weather patterns in the Northern isles consist of periods of calm weather that may last a fortnight followed by a few days to a week of violent storms with heavy downpours. It is not unusual for the first storm after a long calm period in summer to set fire to the dried-out vegetation. This is known as a Byrjunarstormur.

Three species of hominid inhabit Svartalfheim. There are Dwarves, Skógurlifa and various spirit beings known collectively as Álfurapa. Álfurapa have no common form and can be creatures akin to the lorelei, aeriel, troll or lampad depending upon their elemental allegiance.

Interspersed amongst the dwarf society are members of other races; these may be long-term or short-term residents from other worlds in the old Norse dimensions. They are invariably involved in trade, crime or, even worse politics.

The level of technology on Svartalfheim is equivalent to the early industrial revolution on earth. The natural volcanism means that fossil fuels are underdeveloped and, although steam engines exist, there are no established railways. However, at the time that this story is set developments in semaphore systems were starting to make communications between cities reasonably fast. Since much of the background to the action concerns the development of electrical energy then common English terms are used rather than creating a new specific terminology to smooth the flow of the narrative.

Travel between islands is by ship.(approx 300miles per diem for a fast vessel) This is facilitated by the binary nature of the system's sun. It creates uneven warming at the equator with the consequence that the equivalent of the westerlies and the trade winds that exist on earth are joined by extra contra-rotating prevailing winds. It is believed that this phenomenon is one of the reasons that the original settlers chose Svartalfheim as their home. Maritime journeys between the island systems in the northern hemisphere use the prevailing winds to their advantage; to travel east to west ships head south and to head west to east they head north. The islands are between three hundred to fifteen hundred miles apart giving an average journey time between them of between several days and three weeks.