#sso lore

[sso-maev]

PUTTING JORVIK ON THE MAP: SIZE AND LOCATION

WHERE IS JORVIK?

Finding Jorvik’s exact location is actually pretty easy.

”Jorvik, located somewhere between Norway, Iceland, and the British Isles, of which it was once part, is a nexus of worlds.” - Jorvik Calling, Prologue.

This is still a pretty large area, but one that’s significantly narrowed down by reading Four Stories from Jorvik. Anne’s segment Midnight Sun establishes that Jorvik is at the very least partly above the arctic circle, to the point where Anne can see it while riding by Jorvik Stables in the middle of the night. This also puts Jorvik pretty close to the tectonic rift between the European and American continental plates, which handily explains why Jorvik is a volcanic Island.

HOW BIG IS JORVIK?

Jorvik’s size requires a bit more speculation, and I’m relying on two book sources.

1: Jorvik stables is a bus trip from Jorvik city.

Anne lives in Jorvik City but goes to school with the other soul riders in Jarlaheim, and has her horse at Jorvik stables. We know that she goes there by bus, so the distance between Jarlaheim and Jorvik City shouldn’t be too large; I’m capping the max length of the bus ride to about an hour.

2: Valedale is less than a day’s ride from the wineyard.

In The Legend Awakens, Elizabeth and the soul riders are heading to Pi’s Swamp and sleep over at the Wineyard. The soul riders wake up late and leave after having eaten breakfast and lunch. The sun is ”at its highest point in the sky” when they leave, so probably around 1-2PM. It’s twilight when they arrive, and the Baroness comments that they showed up in time for the evening feeding of the horses. Since the days are shorter in late October/early November, which is when this chapter takes place, we can guess that they arrived at around 5-6 PM.

Mapping out the most likely routes for these two trips, the route to the Wineyard is about a third of the bus route from Jorvik City to Jarlaheim. Additionally, the bus would drive on average ~70 km/h because of Jorvik’s smaller roads. The average walking speed of a horse is 6 km/h.

Now, the Valedale-Wineyard trip could take anywhere between 3-5 hours, but I’m inclined to believe that it’s on the lower end of that scale to keep Anne’s commute as short as possible. That leaves us with a 18 km long ride, and a 54 km long bus tour that takes 46 minutes. Pretty reasonable!

RESULTS

With these new measurements, we can figure out the actual distance between different places on Jorvik. Most importantly, we can measure the absolute width from Jorviks westernmost to easternmost point: 92 km, or ~57 miles!

Having figured out an estimate of the island’s size and location, we can now put Jorvik on the map!

[nancyfriendstream]

if you ever think you’re too much of a people pleaser, just remember your star stable character;

tended to an entire garden, with little to no reward

learnt to fish and then used said fishing skills to aid not one, not two but THREE fishermen for months on end

repaired a bridge just for the shits and gigs

took hundreds of pictures of a plushie in return for what… 10xp?

helped a creepy dude relocate his 100 spiders that hid all over jorvik

stopped g.e.d taking over moorland, from the kindness of our doormat heart

helped a jojo siwa lookalike save horse from yet another creepy guy

played hide and seek with TERRIFYING twins im sorry those quests were giving uncanny valley so bad

traversed alternate dimensions to save characters that have lowkey never done anything to help us

travelled to an oil rig to stop dark cores evil plans

blew up said oil rig !!! yay us !!!

all because we were asked to.

we are overworked and severely underpaid. lets hope in the next wednesday update our character learns the word ‘no.’

i thought we were meant to be here for one summer to ride a horse through fields of flowers and rainbows >.<

[miscreantsmadness]

SSO Lore overview

Hi,

I'm a sucker for SSO lore and some original sources kan be REALLY hard to find, so I thought I would compile everything I've found in this masterpost so that 1. I can find it easier myself and 2. I could share with all of you!

(please note that this post is a work in progress!!)

Full masterpost below the cut

SSO Instagram comics

SSO Official comics

SSO Main quests read-through (updated) (WIP)

Jorvegian history 101 (wip, not published yet))

SSO Main quests read-through (2020 edition) (what I started on the "old" quests, before Jorvik Riding Camp was introduced)

[corinne-eaglebridge-sso]

Please do not spoil it in the tags! Also, feel free to reblog so that this is more likely to meet non-sso people :D

[wildwoods-sworn]

Imprisoned by whom, Sive? Finish the damn sentence. Care to tell me who did the imprisoning if Rúnhammar was "the key"?

"For another millennium"? As in, she was already sealed for a millennium previously? Or maybe something closer to 900 years?

THEY. Could be multiple. Could be just two. A horse and rider. Morrigan and Gunnar.

[esmeralda-dragonstar]

An MCs Diary

November 20th 2024

The Baroness has been renovating the Silverglade Manor and the vineyards for weeks now. Today‘s the big day of the reveal and it feels like all of Jorvik is sizzling, there’s a common eclecticity in the air I haven’t seen for a long time, all eyes are on her.

Though it’s not only anticipation, a lot of voices have been critical as well. They are afraid of the changes, especially those who have been riding in the Jorvik Riding Centre for a long time, nostalgia has a grip on them which is understandable. Others have criticized how the Baroness is spending her royal money on this seemingly selfish project, renovating her own home instead of considering to help Jarlaheim which has basically been falling apart, having trouble to keep the historical buildings from crumbling. It’s not like the manor and it’s surroundings aren’t historical buildings which need renovation as well though, there’s been trouble with the plumbing for years now and the vine cellar has seen better days too.

Linda has been fearing for her beloved library but the Baroness promised that all she would do is improve it and make it more open. I wonder if our book worm will be happy with it, surely she’s already missing her old safe space.

Anyway, we can’t change Annabelle Silverglade‘s mind now so all there’s to do is to wait and see. And pick out an outfit of course. What should I wear? Something chique and lilac of course, I‘m thinking something rather plain. Wouldn’t wanna be the center of attention today.

[synamins-sso]

Something I've enjoyed in the recent quest lines + birthday guided tours

The depiction of Jon Jarl as a colonizer and not some brave adventurer is really refreshing. The fact that the Soul Riders (mainly Linda) say they don't want to visit Jon Jarl's grave and barely give him the time of day due to his nasty personality + past is such a mature angle for a kid's game to take on colonization. In the DV guided tour, the narrator describes the depletion of Kallter culture as they were pushed into a small corner of Jorvik by colonizers, which, again, is another amazingly mature worldbuilding tidbit that I appreciate being included. What I hope doesn't happen is the Kallters are never utilized again, because that is effectively reinforcing colonial ideals, and would therefore make even acknowledging the wrongness of colonization feel... backwards. What I hope DOES happen is the Kallters are brought back, not only to DV, but to the rest of Jorvik, and the culture is restored. This would be a wonderful way to teach players, young and old, to appreciate other cultures, especially native ones, and give them the space they need to heal from centuries of mistreatment.

This is another ranty post because I just have so many thoughts about this game, positive and negative. So, rant over!

[sso-brainrot]

SSO| The Story of Galloper Thompson

New Lore Video from the Druidic Archieves!!

'Gunner Thrymson, or as most know him, Galloper Thompson, has a very interesting background. He isn't a villain, but not a hero either, more a tormented spirit now stuck on Jorvik until he is set free. I wonder if the Vala will ever let him leave or if he will be a guide to the afterlife forever?'

[adelaide-swiftheart-sso]

In order for the Bureau of Jorvegian Wilderness and WIldlife (BJWW) to ensure optimal employee safety, each mounted officer is required to undergo extensive training in classical horsemanship, as well as 10 weeks of mandatory pack string education. On completion of their courses, the officers are each outfitted with two full sets of tack, one in the english style, one in the American western style. They are permitted the use of two BJWW horses, freeze branded on the left neck utilizing Alpha Angle Code.

Pictured- Ranger Swiftheart of Redwood Point scouting with her BJWW partners

[regancastlelion]

I'm rewriting the lore surrounding the soul riders powers purely because how does the sun equal to teleportation and the stars relate to healing??

like the lightning circle being able to summon lightning makes sense, and the moon circle getting prophecies and visions, sure. but not the other two.

and I'll be writing out what the MC/Reggie can do as the fifth rider. then write to her own profile of unrelated abilities.

[sso-maev]

Ok so remember this map?

A complete map of Jorvik, with a semi-accurate scale to measure any distance on the island. I’m really proud of it! There is, however, one glaring problem with this map.

WHY IS JORVIK CITY SO SMALL????

I’m sorry but Jorviks capital should not be smaller than middle-of-nowhere ranger town Dundull. The generally accepted minimum population requirements for a city are 50 000 residents. Following the canon map, Jorvik city would need to fit at least 50 000 people in what looks like 2,25 square miles. That would mean Jorvik city houses 22 222 people per square mile, making it the 24th most densely populated city in the WORLD.

Possible? Sure. Likely? Considering the clear inspiration from the way less dense Stockholm, the lack of giant apartment complexes or slum neigbourhoods, which would imply that people live closely together, I’m gonna have to say no.

So how big should Jorvik city be, if the map size is inaccurate? Kind of hard to tell since we can’t see places like Governors Fall or Aideens Plaza on the map.

But there is one place we CAN see.

And if we can use this map, we can measure how long it takes to cross it.

I am very normal about the horse game.

From the barracks to the pier, it takes 38 seconds to cross the map. On a similarly flat surface on Jorvik, we can measure how long Pier 13 actually is, giving us this comparison.

Now, I’m going to show two theories on how big Jorvik City is based on these measurements.

The first one is the most canon-compliant, but also the most ridiculous. By comparing pier 13 to the area outside jorvik stables, we know that pier 13 is ~1 km long. Yes, this is an absolutely massive pier don’t worry about it. Looking at the jorvik city map, we can see that this smaller pier is meant to be to represent Pier 13, and we can do the math from there. Jorvik gets an area of 340 square km, and if we use Stockholms population density as a guide, Jorvik City has about 1,8 million citizens. Cool! One problem though.

You can’t fit it on the map. A city this big would take up almost one fourth of Jorvik, and you’d need to redraw the entire map to make it fit.

So my other option shifts the canon a bit to make the maps fit together. If we go against canon and assume that Pier 13 is actually the larger pier, that downsizes Jorvik City to ~47,5 square kilometres, with a population of around 250 000. This makes Jorvik more comparable to a more densely populated Reykjavik; smaller in area but with double the amount of people. And while it still messes with the coastline a bit, it at least fits into Central Bay.

Personally I think both theories work, but for consistency’s sake, I’m leaning more towards the second theory.

[miscreantsmadness]

SSO Instagram comics

Hi,

As a sso lore sucker I've found it incredibly hard to find some of the original sources, even the instagram comics. I mean, they're all published and still available but you need to scroll soooo far back, especially for the older ones. And since they continue to post, you'll just have to scroll further with time.

Therefore I've set my sights on creating a library of all the sso instagram comics, and you can find links below the cut!

Not all the comics have actual names, not as far as I can tell at least, and in those cases I've just for this library/masterpost's sake created my own. Feel free to reach out if I've missed any official name.

Find all the comics below the cut!

(I will update this post as I upload more comics)

Warm wishes

Ranger days

Willow

Fripp

Pride

Mysterious star

10th Anniversary

Galloper Thompson

Winter Foxes

Equestrian Festival

Katja

Mischief

Beatrix

Morrigan

The Blizzard

[apples-stables]

Ya know sometimes I swear SSO forgets not everyone has read or consumed the other media they've made. But then OTHER times it's like they discredit it entirely. Like after reading the comic (which I just reblogged) Alex/Maya is SO MUCH COOLER??? And like they're just DEPRIVING PEOPLE OF THAT????

[wildwoods-sworn]

Some highlights from SSO's 2018 Halloween dialogue because this deserves to be seen

(from what I can gather, in 2018 there was a party at Purple Pony at the mall and characters were chattable)

Avalon: For a while there, I ran a tabletop gaming campaign with Linda and a few of the younger Druids. Once we invited Fripp to join us. It was amusing at first, the care that he put into rolling his character. But once the adventure heated up, he became a little dictator, telling everyone in the party what to do. And somehow, he never made a bad dice roll, and all of my rolls were misses against him. It just wasn't fun anymore. We haven't played since.

Mary: If I'm completely honest, I don't really like ghost stories. No, I'm not a scared little lamb. Quite the contrary I just prefer slasher films. The gorier the better. // Favorite horror movie? Definitely Silence of the Lambs. (holy shit Mary)

Avalon: The last time I spoke with Anne von Blyssen, she asked to take my portrait. She’s so talented with the camera, you know. She has a real gift for capturing the soul of her subject. I tried play it cool, laugh it off, but really I was just scared of opening myself up… If she comes back… no, when she comes back… I’m going to pose for that portrait.

Avalon: I feel most at home when I'm surrounded by books. Yes, even comic books. Before joining the Keepers of Aideen, I was a librarian at Fort Maria up until… the incident. Perhaps once the Soul Riders are together again we can look into that matter. (the ~incident~ dates back to 2018!)

Emma: You want another story? You're saying the first one wasn't scary enough for you? There was once a family who lived in a nice farm in Epona, but what they didn't know about was… THE CURSE! (Dun dun dun!) That's right, first all the animals got sick. Then, the people got sick. Then, uh… demons appeared out of the night and stole their farm! The family had to walk hungry in the cold night and they only had themselves to blame… Oh no, this is too sad… Never mind, they lived happily ever after and everyone got kittens! (an early mention of Dew family lore. GED are demons alright)

Emma: Sorry, I don't know any more ghost stories. But a strange thing happened to me the other night… I was cleaning up the racetrack in the Goldenhills woods and it had gotten very late. Then suddenly, there was this loud noise of machinery followed by a bright light right behind me! At first I just thought it was old Jasper taking his tractor to Cape West, but when I turned around there was a beam of light shining out of the ground! and in front of this light, I think I saw a monster… I only glimpsed the shadow, but I'm sure it looked like a creature standing upright on goat legs! I started running and didn't stop until I reached the riding hall. (fridge doors + goatmen/caprans👀)

Rami: Have I thought about drawing comics? Ha ha, not really. I can't do sequential art, but I have so much respect for those who can. Do you know Marjane Satrapi? She's amazing! It was her art and story that gave me the courage to leave home and chase my dreams. (a real-life artist from Iran, she's really cool)

Rin: If I'm going to be perfectly honest, I don't much care for the whitewashing of colonialism found in so many Euro board games. Take Settlers of Jorvik. You get victory points for your Jarl by "discovering" resources on the island. What about the people who were here before the Vikings? What about the Kallter?

Syntax: I don't know if it counts a Halloween Story, but the last volume of the Beatrix Ryder novels, The Knacker's Hobble, gave me nightmares. Up until that volume, the Knacker had only come after horses, but when Callum was in horse form, and the Knacker stole his soul, it was crushing. (Beatrix Ryder lore goes deep)

[pandoriasmostwanted]

Jorvegian Pantheon?

Been thinking about this for like two days but what if Jorvik had more gods than just Aideen. Jorvik strikes me as a polytheistic nation and considering it's history, especially with the Romans and Vikings arriving, both famously polytheistic peoples. Of course Aideen is the main deity with how important she is to the country's history.

[esmeralda-dragonstar]

Esmeralda