Glorium

Glorium is a city located in the Outlands. Its people are well known for loving battle. The city itself serves as a gate-town to the plane of Ysgard.

Glorium's nestled on the shore of a great fjord, with its back to the craggy peaks that lead to the Dwarven Mountain. All told, the burg's pretty small - just a collection of longhouses, smokehouses, workshops, and shipsheds of the 300 or so folks that live here. Glorium doesn't bother with walls or stockades, as nature forms a natural defense in the walls of the fjord. There's only one road out, a rough track that leads into the mountains. That trail crosses glaciers and skirts cliffs to get to a back door of the Dwarf realm, and it doesn't see much traffic. The only other way into Glorium is by sailing a ship up a little-known tributary of the River Oceanus.

Glorium's gate situation is a bit more unusual than most. First off, it's got two. The best known one leads out of town, near the mouth of the fiord. There, a berk'll find a big swirling maelstrom, an arch of sorts. To get to Ysgard, all a cutter's got to do is sail his ship right down its maw. Twice a day the Water-gate (as the locals call it) reverses itself and a cutter can then come through from the other side. Glorium's other gate is one of Yggdrasil's roots. This path's found in the mountains behind the town. There, a cutter'll find the arching gap of a cave mouth, and somewhere inside the cavern is one of Yggdrasil's planespanning roots. The problem is there's lots of side passages, some of which lead to unpleasant places.

Most sods in Glorium spend their lives fishing and hunting. Some farming gets thrown in, but it's not enough to stake a living on. They conduct only a little business with the Dwarf realm, mostly because the track leading to the mountains is too difficult to traverse and carry much in the way of trade. In general, the local petitioners are a proud lot, touchy about things like courtesy and respect. While they're not as battle-crazed as the bashers on Ysgard (their resurrection's not a possibility), they'll not eagerly turn the other cheek either. Most of the time in Glorium, a sod gets challenged to duel until first blood is drawn or unconsciousness occurs - it does make for lively visits.

Folks in Glorium know their town's drifting toward Ysgard as they pick up more and more of the habits of that plane. Still, knowing that doesn't seem to matter to them. In fact, Ysgard looks appealing to most of the Glorium petitioners.

Note: The city of Glorium originally appeared in the Planescape AD&D campaign setting from TSR. Its use here is for the purposes of providing context for the campaign only.