A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London breathed in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that parched the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial waste had transformed London's lifeblood into a foul-smelling mire. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and

The year 845 AD. A chill wind whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent emanating from salt and fear. The Norsemen were upon us, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking plunder. Their longships, like wolves, sliced through the waters, their flags waving in the wind. A city once proud now trembled beneath the threat of Valhalla's embrac