Algoland Island

The island is run under direct rule from the Archduke of Estalia under an appointee called the Algo Seneschal, who tends to be the most capitalistic and hard-assed fisherman in the town, meaning it has been in the Farweave family for about four generations up to 1960 as far as we know. Farweave's House, the official Seneschal's residence, is a nice example of the well-built chaotic Plologue town building, in fact the best -- so random that it becomes an eye-opener (see below). The less said about Juffgusd Tower on the southern tip of the island the better. There might be a web page about this some day, but it won't be under the aegis of this one.

Algoland is a barren island off the west coast of Estalia but it is very important for the climate of that country as its 2000-foot-high ridges mitigate the effect of the North Atlantic westerly gales. It forms the western rim of what must have been a gigantic meteoric or asteroidal impact crater in ancient times (maybe this is the one that wiped out the dinosaurs), and is now the 'prow' of Almondsey as it drifts toward Iceland and is being subsumed into the Atlantic Rift. And in fact that has already happened because, except unreliably, no word or sight of Almondsey has been seen since 1969. Those with belief in mysticism think the place has just been 'hidden' from the modern world environment, which apparently many of the most powerful wizards of Lotta had been attempting since World War One. In any case it is slander to blame the disappearance on the Norwegians. Fort Groff was built by the same architect who did Forts Lingus and Lotus on Sargon Island in West Estalia, but it only has two bastions as it is just protecting the bay in front of Plologue, the only town on the island. Only reason it was built was to keep Norway from annexing the island (but they did that in effect for over 100 years basing major whaling operations here, all for the benefit of the local population, which has been decimated by emigration since the end of whaling). The town itself is very well built in flagstones (which lie around the island just for the picking up) mortared with clam and mussel shells that make a concrete-hard cement. Unfortunately, there is no sign of any aesthetic or architectural design -- the place is higglety-pigglety and has no main sewers and still stinks of fish because that industry continues although the town is no longer a (legal) way-station for Norwegian whalers before whaling was banned. (We all know the Norwegians still cheat about that, as do the Japanese -- fried whale blubber must be an irresistable breakfast delicacy for folks who don't have ready red meat.)

Castle Logr