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Origins

  • In the beginning...

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    There was only Muspelheimr, realm of primordial fire and light, and Niflheimr , realm of primordial mist and darkness. The Void, called Ginnungagap, separated them.

    In the realm of Niflheimr, only a few spirits roamed the frozen expanse before the thawing-out of the progenitor god, Ymir, and Audhumbla, the cosmic cow. One of those spirits was the jotunnhundar, arising from Hvergelmir, the spring in Niflheimr.

    Enormous, winged, wolf-like creatures, they flourished in their new home, even when Ymir was thawed from his icy prison and then slain by Adhumbla's children (Buri, progenitor of the Aesir, Njordr, progenitor of the Vanir, and Bjartr, progenitor of the Alfar). Before his death, however, he birthed the jotnar/jotunns.

    After this, the three sons of Adhumbla used Ymir's body to create the rest of the worlds in the Northern Heavens: and each took a realm for themselves: Buri settled on Asgard, Njordr on Vanaheim, and Bjartr on Alfheim. They settled on these worlds and went on to give rise to the rest of their races.

    Meanwhile, in Muspelheim, from the bubbling depths of fiery volcanos, arose the monstrous spirits called eldhundar.

    In due time, the jotnar races of Niflheim (the Hrimjotnar) and Muspelheim (the Eldjotnar), allied together despite their differences in what is called the Røkksþing Alliance of the Utangard Worlds. Muspelheim, Niflheim, along with Jötunheim and Svartálfheim, waged an unending war on the Iðavöll Alliance of the Inanngard Worlds: Alfheim, Asgard, and Vanaheim.

    All this strife had many layers, but the most important objective, at least for the dark elves of Svartálfheim, if not the entire Røkksþing Alliance, was to steal Alfheim's Light Force.

    Every year, the Eldjotnar and their Eldhundar companions play a rousing competitive game of Knattleikr against the Hrimjotnar and Jotunnhundar to see just who is the strongest and most worthy of taking the Light Force for their race. Occasional serious fights break out, and many families from one realm feud with the other, but in the end, they are still much better than the Innangard races, of course.