Because the sound of church bells and festivals is mentioned, it has to be somewhere near a small town or village. Longyearbyen is the northernmost actual town in the world (there are settlements even further north, but they are military, mining or research bases), providing maximum sunless days while not completely cut off from civilization.
I found this fact particularly intriguing:
“Longyearbyen experiences polar night from 27 October to 15 February (111 days)… However, due to shading from mountains, the sun is not visible in Longyearbyen until around 8 March.”
That’s almost an extra month, bringing us to 132 Sunless Days!
Surely the Masters had my mansion built in the shadiest place possible, near the mountains on the outskirts of town.
I started researching to find how the Masters might have acquired a parcel of land in that area, and unfortunately we’re gonna need some of Treachery of Calendars to make this work. According to Wikipedia, the town was only founded in 1903, and the first church was built in 1921.
On the plus side, the Master’s involvement in the area isn’t a stretch at all. It started as the company town for a coal mine, meaning Mr Fires is doubly-interested. And it was founded by an American, so a remote power with controlling influence is well established.
So uh… the power vacuum of London’s translation, plus behind-the-scenes work from Fires, led to an acceleration of yank industrial imperialism, pushing forward the founding of the town by a few years?
… and don’t forget what the player character as a wealthy railway magnate (etc.) could do to accelerate the growth of the town! Fund a few nice homes for the miners, schools, libraries… (of course, you’ll want a little share of the mines’ profits in return; charity is such a dirty word )
