Grimsward
Also known as elven Grimsward, the western deeps
Hidden: contains spoilers for Book 1. Tick Book 1 in the spoiler bar to read it.
The elven realm of the far west, ruling the dwarves' native western deeps and a large human workforce. The Solastis court rose there before the Fall of Luna, and its host was most of the conquest army.
In the books
- [Book 1 spoiler]It lies "far to the west": "towering mountains and knife-edged valleys", where winter "rarely let go".
- [Book 1 spoiler]Its people are forged by rock and cold, with enemies pressing on their borders.
- [Book 1 spoiler]Eadric's sword was forged in "the deep fires of Grimsward's mines".
- [Book 1 spoiler]It still sends tribute and flies elven Luna's banners, bound by old pacts and shared blood. Its elves wear frost-pale armour.
Who lives hard and who lives easy
- [Book 1 spoiler]The Highlanders have the hardest life of any people. Their holds are higher and colder, with no lowland grain behind them. Their great size and strength come from that.
- [Book 1 spoiler]Grimsward's elves live easier than the Highlanders. They hold the sunny, sheltered terraces and the summer meadows. Grain comes up from the lowlands at the valley mouth, and the work is done by others.
- Grimsward's dwarves get their strength from the mines: generations of hewing, hauling and forging in the deeps. That is the source of "their exceptional strength" (dwarves). It is strength of labour, not of climate.
- Grimsward's humans are pressed labour on the shaded valley floor. They are hardy, as Book 1 says, but worn down rather than grown great.
Hidden: contains spoilers for Book 1. Tick Book 1 in the spoiler bar to read it.
See The history of Grimsward and its three peoples for the valley clans, the Levy and how the divide grew.
- Grimsward's humans are native to the land, not Highlanders. The Grimsward dwarves cremate their dead in the furnaces. The elves revere luminarite, but more quietly than Luna, because they never needed it to justify a conquest.
The city of Grimsward
Luna is the capital. The wider region that Luna rules has no name yet. Grimsward is a city and its western realm, not a capital.
The valley is a U-shaped trench about 10 km long. Its floor runs from 650 to 990 m, with cliff walls of 300-500 m and terraces above. It reads top to bottom, as the atlas describes:
| Level | Real ground | Grimsward |
|---|---|---|
| High west shelf | Mürren, about 1,650 m | The upper gate, the knight quarter and the exposed western fortifications |
| Sunny east terrace | Wengen, about 1,270 m, with summer meadows above | The elven high town: spacious houses, gardens and the old Solastis court seat |
| The cliff walls and falls | Staubbach, and the Trümmelbach falls that run inside the rock | Dwarven deep-gates, mine adits, the lifts and the Bellows shaft |
| The valley floor | The Lütschine river flats | Pressed-labour towns, foundries driven by the falls, the ore exchange and the ore rails |
| Under the floor | , | Great War shafts and the Deep Claim; a sealed local siege tunnel, not linked to the Great Cemetery |
| The valley mouth | Towards the Interlaken lakes | The road out to the grain lowlands, the lakes and the sea, and on to Luna |
- about 9,250 elves on the terrace;
- about 3,000 at the knights' shelf;
- about 20,000 dwarves in the deeps;
- about 30,000 pressed humans on the floor.
Open question: whether to keep the Solastis ancestral seat in the high town, and if so, what state it is in now.
- Grimsward's elven architecture is the older mountain parent of Luna's Gothic: Luna's pale Gothic is the lowland descendant of the high town's style.
See also
Last updated 2026-10-19