TEXT: Having been unable to threaten, bribe, cajole, or 
  brainwash Wiggy into writing a Making of Hellfrost 
  download, something we know you’ve been after, we 
  decided to play on his willingness to answer fan ques-
  tions instead. Fans were invited to ask TAG’s lead author 
  questions about the design of his popular fantasy setting. 
  Their questions and Wiggy’s answers are now presented 
  for your enjoyment. The questioners forum name is in-
  cluded after the question.
  • What was the first spark of inspiration for Hellfrost 
  as a whole? [Amaril]
  There wasn’t really one definitive spark, so this will 
  be a rather long answer, I’m afraid
  The very first spark was undoubtedly my personal 
  love of winter. A lot of my games back in the day involved 
  winter as a backdrop. Winter brought up thoughts of 
  isolation, of communities cut off from the outside world 
  and at the mercy of vile beasts and marauding raiders. 
  I’d always wanted a wintry setting, but no one ever wrote 
  one for me.
  Many moons ago Dave Blewer and I began work on 
  a setting idea called Hall of Valhalla. It never techni-
  cally existed, and it no longer exists, so beans can be 
  spilled. The plan was you’d make Viking characters and 
  then be killed in the first encounter. Loki had escaped 
  his imprisonment and Ragnarok was looming, so Odin 
  sends you back to Earth as undead with a range of cool 
  powers to foil Loki’s plot. That project died a rapid death 
  (I think Solomon Kane landed on my desk), but the idea 
  of a wintry fantasy setting never went away. (A lot of the 
  character generation material and bestiary, the parts I 
  always write first, ended up in the Hellfrost books and 
  freebies.)
  Then Hellfrost came unbidden into my mind, though 
  not the version you know today. In its original form Hell-
  frost was a single-story Plot Point campaign. Trying to 
  think how to write the Plot Point caused the project to 
  stall and other things came along to hamper progress.
  Then the gods of gaming answered my call and de-
  livered unto me the D&D tome Frostburn. That’s what 
  ignited the final spark, the one that set me on the frantic 
  path to creating an open world you could explore end-
  lessly, with the encroaching winter becoming the back-
  drop rather than the sole focus.
  • How old is Hellfrost [Sadric]
  At the time of writing this the Hellfrost name is about 
  five years old. The core manuscript in the books is about 
  four years old now, though some parts are much newer.
  • What were your “sources” for Hellfrost, despite 
  your own imagination? [Enno]
  Quite a few sources played their part, though the 
  most used one is probably The 13th Warrior (and the 
  book, Eaters of the Dead). The old crone from The Vi-
  kings (reused in the aforementioned movie) became my 
  template for a typical seer of the Norns.
  Other sources of inspiration included The Lord of the 
  Rings movies and books, The Real Middle Earth by Brian 
  Bates (explores Anglo-Saxon religion and superstition), 
  the Oxford Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, the 
  Saga of Grettir the Strong, and about a dozen books on 
  the Vikings that are now well-thumbed. In terms of RPGs, 
  WotC’s Frostburn, the DMGR Vikings book, RuneQuest 
  Vikings, and The Northern Reaches D&D Gazetteer were 
  all helpful in one way or another.
  • Are there any other (fantasy) settings you gave a 
  cameo or a tip to the hat in your world? [Enno]
  Not intentionally. There are some sly nods to friends 
  and former colleagues, though. There’s a reference to 
  PEG hidden away in the Gazetteer. Not the easiest refer-
  ence to find, but obvious once you know it exists. Piotr 
  also makes an appearance as a barbarian king, and one 
  of Ron Blessing’s old characters lurks around, when his 
  one good arm allows.
  • Did you reuse older material of yourself, which 
  never got published in the other works of yours? [Enno]
  Origins Of a WOrld
  
  
  HEllfrOsT: PlaYEr’s gUidE
  
  The only unpublished material was from Hall of Val-
  halla, which is mentioned above. That was mainly the 
  kinship rules, which appeared as a free supplement for 
  Hellfrost, a few Edges and Hindrances (again, mainly 
  familial ones), and the bestiary section, which had stats 
  for huscarls and so on.
  • What was the inspiration and objective of Hell-
  frost’s cosmology? [Amaril]
  Keeping it simple was the core objective.
  The Viking world offered some inspiration, though 
  the Hellfrost cosmology has a more Christian feel. For 
  example, the Viking Hel wasn’t a place where evil souls 
  went, but rather a general afterlife for the masses. Chosen 
  heroes went to Valhalla or Fólkvangr, instead. Hellfrost 
  offers a more traditional Christian view that the Abyss 
  awaits the damned while those who lead good lives get 
  to spend eternity somewhere more pleasant.
  Certain aspects were also borrowed from other my-
  thologies. Scaetha’s Hall and the whole judging of souls, 
  for instance, actually stems from my days as an Egyptol-
  ogy student. The auction for unclaimed souls was added 
  to account for those the gods didn’t want, but who 
  weren’t necessarily damned automatically.
  • Frostborn are an interesting concept. Were they 
  your solution to the ubiquitous desire for a frost-themed 
  template for all races (i.e. - frost elves, frost dwarves, 
  frost humans, frost engro, etc.)? [Amaril]
  In a word, no. There are frost dwarves yet no “nor-
  mal” dwarves, and taiga elves already exist as a unique 
  race, so it wasn’t intended to be a catchall wintry race. 
  Their existence came later in the development phase and 
  tied in to the overarching history that was developing.
  • Why Engros instead of Half-folk? [Amaril]
  I know it’s just another way of describing halflings 
  (aka Hobbits), but calling someone a “half-race” or “half-
  person” seems a bit rude. Someone did comment that the 
  name engro reminded them of an impolite ethnic term, 
  but there is no racial connotation behind the name. I just 
  chalk that one up to cultural differences.
  As an aside, I did originally use Old English names for 
  elves and dwarves, but I swapped them back to avoid too 
  much confusion through overuse of the old language.
  Insider Information: Jym Ivens, the engro pictured 
  on page 112 of the Gazetteer, is actually based loosely 
  on Jimbo from the TAG forums. Jimbo does own a fish-
  ing tackle shop, though to the best of my knowledge he 
  was never a tomb raider in his youth. The peg-leg engro 
  is also based on a friend of mine. At the time of writ-
  ing he’d broken his leg quite badly, so the decision was 
  taken to immortalize him.
  • How did you determine the Hellfrost pantheon? 
  [Amaril]
  Wikipedia provided suitable lists of Germanic deities. 
  Some of the pantheon corresponds almost exactly to 
  their mythical counterparts, such as Eostre and Thunor, 
  while others (such as Vali) received a change of aspect 
  while keeping the name. Picking the number of deities 
  wasn’t really a conscious choice—the list just ended 
  when there were enough gods.
  Of course, it since transpires there are 24 greater gods 
  and 24 runes in the Elder Futhark (the Viking alphabet). 
  Strangely that went totally unnoticed until I started 
  thinking using the runes and how to use them in the 
  setting, so I guess the Norns had plans.
  • You once stated on the forums that psionics didn’t 
  have a place in Hellfrost, but you included a sidebar for 
  psionics associated with a puppeteer. Was that simply 
  for the sake of story as an exception to the rule or did 
  you have a change of heart? [Amaril]
  There’s definitely no change of heart. I’m not a fan of 
  settings (regardless of system) where every rules (Arcane 
  Backgrounds in this instance) is included purely because 
  it’s part of the core rules. If it definitely fits your vision 
  of the world then of course it should be included. Oth-
  erwise, stand by your convictions and don’t be afraid to 
  exclude something. Psionics in the hands of heroes just 
  doesn’t suit Hellfrost as written.
  Being a sensible chap I wrote Hellfrost to include a 
  lot of potential hooks should it prove popular enough 
  to warrant expansions. Even if TAG didn’t expand the 
  setting, the hooks exist for GMs to use and abuse as they 
  wished. The Puppeteers and their psionic powers is one 
  such hook.
  • It seems we have a co-author in Hellfrost. The fa-
  mous Snowy (see credits). Who is Snowy? [Kaltorak]
  Snowy is a reclusive Armenian goatherd I adopted 
  through the “Adopt an Armenian Goatherd Scheme.” 
  Naturally his name was changed to protect his identity, 
  as he didn’t want gamers turning up at his hut asking for 
  his autograph. His English isn’t very good and he can’t 
  type, but he had some interesting ideas.
  • Did you intend to have a world which followed 
  something approaching an apocalypse? Is it just to have 
  prior-history plot threads or what was behind the long 
  history? [Shadd4d]
  Hellfrost sits somewhere between a previous apoca-
  lypse (the Liche-Priest and the Blizzard War coming 
  close together) and an impending fate. The freezing of 
  the world has some strong ties to the Viking notion of 
  Fimbulvintr, an age of wolves when brother will fight 
  brother, but it isn’t an imminent disaster about to engulf 
  the world.
  To some degree it does exist to provide prior-history 
  plot threads, but there’s also the option for future plot 
  threads and expansion built in. Only the north may be 
  actually ice bound, but the effect of the Hellfrost is felt 
  across the globe.
  • How did you go from having a nice list of places to 
  arranging them on the map? What sort of inspirations 
  and general cartography did you use/access in order 
  
  
  POsT aPOcalYPTic HandbOOk
  to come up with the shape and countries of Rassilon? 
  [Shadd4d]
  Maps are something I absolutely love and totally hate 
  simultaneously. I love a good map; I’ll buy a book a book 
  just because it has one decent map in. Just looking at 
  a map, whether it’s of a world, a continent, or a single 
  village or dungeon, just gets the creative juices flowing. I 
  hate drawing maps, though. I’m just not good at it. Just 
  looking at other people’s work causes me to despair at 
  my meager attempts. Thankfully Justin managed to turn 
  a crappy line drawing into a work of art I’m extremely 
  proud of. In truth it’s now more his creation than mine.
  The continent has little in the way of geographic accu-
  racy—features were placed where I wanted them, not be-
  cause the laws of geography said they had to exist there. I 
  know that will offend some readers, but it’s always funny 
  to see fans who fail to question the existence of dragons 
  and magic and gods who grant miracles complain that a 
  fantasy world isn’t geographically accurate.
  As for the countries and their placement, they came 
  about organically. I wanted certain places, like an undead 
  realm and a land of wizards, but their placement was 
  more a matter of where they wanted to exist rather than a 
  truly conscious decision. Originally there was something 
  like five major lands, although the adventuring area was 
  much smaller then. As the setting switched to an open 
  one and the size of the continent grew, so other ideas 
  came into my head and, in one way or another, became 
  incorporated into the world. Since I vowed to make hon-
  est replies, places like the Barony of Cul and Heldalund, 
  as examples, came to the game very late and were added 
  to fill voids in the map.
  • What steps or considerations led you to leave 
  Hellfrost as a low tech setting as opposed to something 
  a la Evernight/WHFRP or something of that relatively 
  advanced tech level? Was that ever a question or did it 
  not fit your vision of Hellfrost? [Shadd4d]
  That was purely down to the Viking/Saxon feel already 
  entrenched in stone. Sure, Vikings with blackpowder 
  pistols can be cool, but it wasn’t how my vision for the 
  setting. Also, adding guns implies a technological level 
  equivalent to the Renaissance, so then you have to start 
  thinking about the printing press, early banking, and so 
  on, and where and if they might fit in. That would have 
  taken the game in a direction I didn’t want to go.
  • How satisfied are you with Hellfrost as it is avail-
  able to us, customers? Something vital missing/stories 
  untold or something? [Cursed]
  Very satisfied, to be honest. TAG managed to get Hell-
  frost out in its entirety, allowing you to see the northern 
  continent as I always wanted it to be seen.
  There’s nothing vital missing, though some stories 
  are left untold. What causes the Siphoning and how can 
  it be stopped? What lies at the heart of the Hellfrost? Is 
  the Liche-Priest going to return and when? The root of 
  these questions stems from my ideas, but those are the 
  epic stories you get to create. If I created the answers for 
  you you’d just be playing in my campaign, and where’s 
  the fun in that?
  Is Hellfrost complete? Well, yes and no. It is most 
  definitely a complete game, in that you have everything 
  you need to run an exciting campaign for many years. 
  But it’s also incomplete, and likely always will be, be-
  cause new ideas are always coming along.
  • What is the part/thing of Hellfrost you’re most 
  proud of? Thing(s) you would like to change? [Cursed]
  First off, I’m proud that you guys and gals are enjoy-
  ing it. With regard more specific things I think I’m most 
  pleased with the gods. Although the page count limited 
  what I could write, even with a smaller font we used to 
  cram more information per page, the details that were 
  included mean they aren’t just a list of faceless deities 
  who exist solely to hand out spells.
  Making changes is one of those things I’d always like 
  to do, not because anything is necessarily wrong, but be-
  cause, as I mentioned above, new ideas are continually 
  forming and evolving. The day I stop having new ideas is 
  basically the day I stop caring about the setting.
  • How do you feel about this baby of yours? Are you 
  done with it, or you think it’s just coming alive? (I mean, 
  you’re still in love with it, or is it a thing of yesterday, 
  most of the fire burned out?) [Cursed]
  Pride ranks high on the list. Pride in getting my dream 
  to you, pride in the way the artists brought the world 
  to life in images, pride that Rob did a stunning job on 
  the layout. There’s also excitement, though that’s always 
  tinged with a degree of fear when something is released. 
  Will the fans like it? Will they care enough to buy the 
  books and play in the world?
  Hellfrost is something everyone at TAG is still very 
  much in love with; that’s why TAG continues to put out 
  regular freebies that expand the game and give you new 
  options, and offers a wide choice of adventures. In the 
  very near future you’ll see a new range of e-book Hell-
  frost products designed to expand the setting without 
  taxing your wallet or printer.
  The fire is very much alight and burning brightly, Ke-
  naz be praised!
  © 2010 Triple Ace Games
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Triple Ace Games/Hellfrost/Free Downloads/Origins of a World.pdf