Alright, so I'm still fairly new to the forum, but I've so far read through the whole thread. Took me some time.
Anyway, while wondering about the state of the rest of the world, and one of the things most prominent in my mind stuck out a bit, so I deicided to see what you guys think.
So I of course thought of my very own interpretation of a survivor community, and what I first imagined has been talked about a bit already, but it seemed more like a scratch on the surface of what I invented:
While looking at possible survivor communities, a lot of people mentioned shintoism emerging again, and that this could be used in creating wards from trolls.
From chapter 1 i am assuming that the ancient deities now worshipped are actually able to provide help against the trolls:
http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=84 here vellamo seems to be protecting the boat.
Now of course, in other countries other gods are worshipped.
Particularly interesting are the celtic gods.
We've already established that due to trolls, beasts, giants and the general population los from the rash any normal communit on the mainland would be very much ducked.
But what if there was a surviving community that was protected by their own deities?
I'm thinking of a community, maybe in Germany or France, falling back to worshipping the celtic gods, as the norwegians worship norse gods and the finnish their own. Only that we know from history, that celtic people occassionally were a pretty bloody bunch on the whole.
What if, due to a coincidence or purely because sometimes the worst possible people are the survivors, someone discovered that the spilling of blood pleased the gods, as it is the strongest sacrifice?
So, as the world around them plunged into chaos, a community managed to survive, because in a certain area, the gods are strong enough to protect the land from trolls and the like, thus making it possible to survive and even farm too a certain degree?
Now, i'm not entirely sure about France, but since I'm from Germany, I thought about possible places.
First thought was of course the alps, but due to Bavaria being the most catholic federal country we have, I've ruled that area out. Which leaves:
The Black Forest. The surrounding area is pretty densely populated, but the forest itself would be pretty good to sustain a larger community, as it provides wood for building and making fires, animals to hunt, as far as the protection stretches, and also makes a decent area to shelter in in general.
The New Federal Countries. Not too populated, with some extensive farming land, maybe even stretching into Bohemia.
Anywhere where there's a large moor. Because a lot of people sacrificed by the celts to their gods were found in bogs or turf, so settling where the old rituals could be made in the most realistic way people could think of would made sense. Land surrounding a moor usually is also rich enough to farm on it.
So, it's at the moment mostly a thought I'm toying with, but imagining a community that uses basically blood magic and relies on the old celtic gods to keep the monsters at bay is indeed pretty metal. Of course, that protection would be the only thing keeping the community alive in that place.
So have fun with this one