To hear people talk about London, one will rapidly develop a sense of bewilderment.

Where our story takes place, an indeterminate distance to the north of London, people seldom venture very far south, and with little in the way of communication beyond word of mouth, the collective notion of London is the result of a very large game of Chinese Whispers with multiple branches.

Most people accept that London is now a large crater, but there are those who believe that this is a lie spread about by knowledgeable people to keep the riff-raff away from paradise, and some have even gone off in search of this Haven. Of the few who returned, none have been successful.

Among the people who accept London to be a crater, very few can agree on the why of it. Somebody believes pieces of the moon fell to Earth and crushed it, and another will tell you that London was somehow teleported, and is now situated North of Hell.

There are many more stories of London besides. At this stage they are almost certainly all wrong.