Jotunland

Jotunland, also called Jotunheim, is a wild, savage land at the far edge of the North Sea, home of the dreadful frost giants called the Jotun. Little is known of it beyond the legends of dwarves and Aesir and the tales of Hyperborea's barbarians, which describe a vast frozen waste under storm-dark skies where the sun rarely shines. Ages of freezing wind and snow have made the interior a nightmare of glacial peaks, twisted spires and crystalline plains, and seven great ice rivers, the Aurboda, Rokkr, Hoder, Mimir, Gulveig, Iarnvid and Hag, grind slowly to the sea. Dire wolves, snow leopards and worse prowl the ice; only the southern coast, with the Utgard forest, offers some shelter.

The blue-skinned Jotun are fierce and warlike. Dwarven legend makes them forefathers of every other giant race, including Fomorians, Aesir, Aegir and perhaps Cyclopses, and the Vanir even add ogres and trolls, a notion most civilized scholars reject; the Jotun themselves think their race close kin to the gods. They have two distinct cultures. The coastal tribes are more advanced, working metal crudely, raising great castles and forts, many built wholly of huge ice blocks, and building great wooden dragon-shaped ships that the Vanir have long imitated. For centuries they have raided across the North Sea from Hyperborea to the northern coasts of Alba, Iber, Mediterranea and even Jambu; they once reached Gava and Anostos, but bitter fights with the Fomorians and Aesir ended those voyages.

The coastal Jotun have sometimes wanted new lands but lack the organization for such campaigns and cannot bear any but the coldest climates for long. Still, raiding has made many rich, and some great war chiefs live like kings amid plunder, served by slaves of many races.

The interior Jotun are far more bestial. They know nothing of ships, forts or metal, live in caves, wear rough furs, use weapons of bone, stone and sinew, and often keep wolves or bears as pets. Having no fire, they eat only raw meat from what they kill. Dwarves and Aesir claim they turn cannibal when food runs short, though there is no evidence; either way they are thought exceptionally cruel and utterly fearless in battle.