Real World Inspiration: City of Nilmgard
Some famous rock formations inspire a fantasy city
Hi everyone, and welcome to the latest issue of Lazy Wolves, the newsletter for Lazy Wolf Studios and the Thrones & Bones games for Tales of the Valiant and Dungeons & Dragons.
Recently, I’ve been going through the Norrøngard Campaign Setting and talking about the real world inspiration behind some of the fantastic locations.
Today, we’re going to look at the city of Nilmgard.
Nilmgard is a city of 1,500 folks. Let me say right off, I realize this is small for a city by TTRPG standard definitions, and that’s true with all Norrøngard cities. Most of them would be classified as towns elsewhere, but as the largest and most important settlements in Norrøngard, they get a pass.
So, Nilmgard is relatively isolated from the rest of the country, as it’s on the southernmost tip of the land and cut off from same by the Svartálfaheim Mountains. This was an advantageous location in the days of raiding and pillaging, but now that that has (ostensibly) stopped, and the larger city of Bense has become the doorway to trading with Norrøngard, Nilmgard is mostly on its own.
From the description in the Norrøngard Campaign Setting:
“Assailed by storms and cold winds, and clinging to the foothills of the Svartálfaheim Mountains, the folk of Nilmgard are a hard, self reliant people even by Norrønir standards. Often feeling as though they contend with everything the gods can throw at them, a list which includes a host of monsters that occasionally wander down from the mountains to beset the town, the typical Nilmir seems forged from an alloy equal partspride and resentment.
“The people of Nilmgard fish enormous quantities of herring and cod, and they tend to favor goats and musk oxen over other livestock such as pigs and cattle.The latter is a clear concession to their rocky environment which favors surefooted animals. In truth, the town is split between a fishing village built on broad piers that extend over the water outward from a thin strip of stony beach and a farming community clinging to narrow ledges and small plateaus that range from seven hundred to nine hundred feet above the waves. These farms are so precariously positioned that parents are said to tie ropes to their young children when they play outdoors to keep them falling to their deaths.”
Nilmgard’s location was modeled on some of the small settlements I saw while sailing in the fjords in Norway. You would have these steep walls rising out of the water, with a small flat plane just above the water level, and then some other areas, little more than ledges, going up the hill. So the bulk of the city of Nilmgard is set at the water’s edge, and then it goes up the hill. It even has farmland on the side of the slope—anywhere there is a brief patch of level ground to take advantage of.
Here’s a photo I took in the Geiranger fjord. You can see the roots of Nilmgard here!
Nilmgard also has two unusual features that add to the landscape.
Above the city is the Jǫtunnhol (this translates as the "Giant’s Hole”, so no smirking!). It’s a huge hole in a granite mountain that affords access to an otherwise inaccessible valley in the mountains. The valley is home to the Wyrdwood, a dangerous magic forest, and a training ground for Svartálfar operatives. Nilmgardians do not willingly go into this valley, and in fact, they have to be alert for things that may come out.
The legend behind the Jǫtunnhol is that an adventurous young shield maiden once stole a frost giant’s bag of silver. He chased her and tossed a spear at her, but the gods were impressed with her bravery, so they dropped a rock in his way. The spear tore through the rock, but its trajectory was ruined and it fell in the sea. If you look at the map of Nilmgard, you can see the spearhead just under the water to the south of the city!
The Jǫtunnhol is inspired by Torghatten, a rock formation on the island of Torget in Norway. Torghatten has a similar legend about a troll, a beautiful maiden, and the troll king’s hat. Here is a picture of Torghatten:
The other interesting feature with a real world inspiration is the jarl of Nilmgard’s longhouse. Rather than be down below in the city, Ranundr the Red’s longhouse is built on a tongue of rock that juts out of the mountainside. This is ironic and kind of sad, because he’s a former fisherman who fought off a Svartálfar attack and was made jarl, but he’d much rather be on the sea way down below.
You might recognize the real world inspiration for this one. It’s the Trolltunga (the “troll tongue”), a famous rock formation in Vestlandcounty, Norway.
If you want to know more about Nilmgard and maybe take your players there yourself, there is more in the campaign setting, but also in another book. Sagas of Norrøngard has an adventure called “From Svartálfaheim, With Love.” The adventure begins in the city and involves a journey into the Wyrdwood and then into the caverns of the Svartálfar. It also has a battlemap of the exterior and interior of the jarl’s longhouse included in the book. I’m very proud of it, and I’m guessing you can spot the inspiration for that title as well!
That’s it for now. Let me know if you are enjoining these peaks behind the curtain and would like me to do more.
Be healthy!
I did like this deep dive. Thanks, Lou!