Named for the Norse land of the unworthy dead this normal mana reality suffered from a virulent strain of pneumonia that caused people that died of it to rise as living corpses.
When science failed to check the disease the natives turned to magic resalting in several disease free enclaves: Ceylon, Tibet, the Scottish Highlands, French Algeria, Leningrad, the Dakotas.
However the rest of the world fell to the Reichsgraf Orlok, a mighty nosferatu vampire who can use his mesmeric powers to scan the globe, control the undead, and crush the skulls of his foes a continent away.
However even Orlok can't see everywhere at once and the disease mutated creating beings immune to Orlok's powers. In Japan a gaki lord talks openly of setting himself up as Emperor in the East. In California the disease cross-mutated with undead rabies viruses resulting in wolfmen.
Even Orlok’s fellow vampires are not eager to die again for him; some seek greener pastures in Engstrom.
Notes[]
- Part of the Nine Worlds
- It is possible Reichsgraf Orlok named himself after the vampire in the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu or that this is some form of myth parallel where Count Orlok really existed.
- Its gate to Engstrom opens up in the City of the Dead in western Cairo. Since the entire necropolis (several square miles of connected cemeteries, mosques, and slums) is now normal-mana, British officials can use magical means (and a lot of silver bullets) to patrol it – but something determined always gets through.
- The disease, pneumonia thanatosis, dies in air or saliva in a low-mana environment and on Engstrom the disease can only be spread through blood contact.
References[]
- GURPS Infinite Worlds: Lost Worlds
- GURPS WWII: Weird War II