Expanding the Northern Reaches: Continuity Problems & Fixing Yggdrasil
by Marc SaindonThe Northern Reaches (Gaz7), p.65
The World Tree of Yggdrasil connects the various planes tied to norse mythology, although some continuity problems arise with some of the realms. For a quick overlook:
- Asgard: Outer Plane, home of the Aesirs. Can be taken as is, adding in subplanes for different immortals (e.g.: Thor's Hall, Valhalla), and adding in more immortals from Legends & Lore (2e) that are less known in Mystara because they're more active in Asgard.
- Vanaheim: Outer Plane, former home of the Vanir in the norse myth, home of Frey and Freyja in Gaz7. I'd leave it as an abandonned plane, filled with wild northern forests and ice age megafauna, like mammoths and sabertooth tigers. Huldra communities might live in concealed tree villages (treat the Hiddenfolk as Halflings, except they calf tails instead of hairy feet). Reclaiming Vanaheim could be a campaign.
- Muspelheim: written as an Outer Plane, but could be retconned as a part of the Elemental Plane of Fire. Maybe there's a "Fire Mystara" that let's you recycle the maps, with the "Fire Northern Reaches" being Muspelheim (surrounded by a sea of lava) and its next-door neighbor, the Efreeti Sultanate is the counterpart of Ylaruam (and home to the City of Brass)
Niflheim: written as an outer plane, but could be reworked as just the Ethereal Plane, and mist world where the dead and frost giants roam, while Helheim, the dead realm of Hel, is reworked as an outplane with close ties to the Ethereal, or as the Northern Reaches Shadowfell counterpart.
Alfheim: a continuity problem, as Alfheim is also a kingdom in Mystara, and the High Elves/Dark Elves conflict doesn't translate well. Instead, one option is to call the kingdom 'Canolbarth' instead of Alfheim and connect those elves to celtic culture (welsh instead of irish, for a change) and make the Yggdrasil Alfheim an outerplane overseen by Freyr, populated by more nordic 'Alfar' (Icevale Elves, which I previously suggested that a surviving community resides in the Northern Reaches) and Kogolor dwarves. and second option is to make Yggdrasil's Alfheim a part of the Feywild and give it a new name, like 'Lochlann' (placeholder name until something better comes up).
Or it could just teleport to the kingdom of Alfheim...
Svartalfheim: an Outer plane, which creates the continuity problem with the Dark Elves. One idea is to make them Rot Dwarves (norse myth "black elves" aren't TSR sexy drows at all). maybe it could be retconned as part hellish mechanical realm in the Shadowfell or as an aspect of the Elemental Earth Mystara's Northern Reaches counterpart, although Rot Dwarves not being numerous, it would be an empty realm populated mostly by constructs. Or it could just teleport to the Shadow Elves' City of Stars...
Jotunheim: outer plane, home of giants. taken as is, but could be further developped.
Swergheim: outer plane, home of the dwarves, also creates some continuity problems, as Rockhome serves a similar purpose, and in norse myth, black elves and dwarves are often lumped as the same thing. Maybe Svartalfheim and Swergheim are two sections of Earth Elemental Mystara, with the "dwarves" actually being Gnomes (maybe Deep Gnomes). Or it could just teleport to Rockhome...
Midgard: as is, with various branches of the Yggdrasil tree leading to alternate norse worlds, including those of FR, Greyhawk, and HR1 Vikings.
(art from: https://viking.style/how-was-yggdrasil-created/)