Oh! That’s a relief.
Thanks for telling me.
Please make one at this point im desperate
If other people ask I probably will. In the mean time, the option to DM me for clues is still open.
Yup already send pm
Seen and answered!
First of all, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed this HG. I particularly enjoyed how the domain you choose for your god both really changed the “flavor” of your MC and how each of the domains provided you with special abilities for your MC and how this in turn provided different options for your MCs in certain situations, which in turn increased the replay value. With different stats to choose to strengthen or ignore, it meant that I could choose between many different builds for my MC, which increased the replay value even further.
And as someone who have always been really interested in the Norse mythology and myths( and the Greek ones and many others as well), it’s fun to read and play an IF about them and particularly to get the opportunities to change the outcomes of them). It was also interesting to see the interpretations in this HG of the characters of those myths and in some instances also the myths themselves and though the characters were not as deep as what is currently the trend, they were still full of personality, whether that personality hewed closely to their personality in the old myths or was interpreted a bit differently.
One thing, though, that I think would be nice, would have been if you included explanation about what the different stats were used for. While the combat and magic stats seemed kind of intuitive and self-explanatory, it wasn’t always easy to figure out which of the options given that depended on your diplomacy stat and which of them depended on your charm stat. I certainly wasn’t sure about that in my first playthrough, but if I did(from my second playthrough or so) understand it correctly, trying to convince another character of something uses charm(unless it’s dependent on the relationship stat of that character), while trying to calm a character uses diplomacy. Is that a correct interpretation? If so, there still seem to be a few situations where that wasn’t the case, although it may then have had to do with that character’s relationship stat.
Just to jump in the discussion about whether things were predetermined or not in Norse mythology: I think it’s important to keep in mind several things. Firstly that myths are less of monolithic, so to speak, than they often are thought to be, with myths not infrequently disagreeing with one or another or at least offering different interpretations of a particular character or event, such as the different stories of how Aphrodite was born in Greek mythology. Sometimes there may also be myths and other important knnowledge lost, including myths and knowledge that may have provided us with a different picture. Treating Norse myths as monolithic in that way and claiming they only can be told a certain way, as @Herdy seems to do when it comes to Ragnarok and some other myths, seems to me to be a mistake.
Secondly, we view the myths through lenses that have much to do with our own culture and minds, which won’t always align with how the myths were originally intended or viewed by the people telling them or hearing them then.
This is closely connected to my third point, about prophecy. Prophecies can be interpreted both as being about an unchangeable future, that you can do nothing about or as something that can be changed, kind of like warning of what will happen if you don’t do things differently and do we really know whether and, if so, to what extent the Norse people considered the future or, at least prophesised futures, to be unavoidable?
If I understood things correctly, then the Aesir bound Fenris, because he was prophecised to be a threat to them at Ragnarok and if so, this shows that the gods themselves thought that there were ways to avoid that. Of course, in the end that doesn’t help them, if the prophecy turns true(but that isn’t necessarily so easy to know, since unlike the other myths, that IIRC are told as if they’ve already happened, while Ragnarok is told like something that’s going to happen, but hasn’t already happened) but then again, an alternative interpretation, like in this HG, is that this is because they created a self fulfilling prophecy.
The point is, anyway, that Ragnarok, the way it is described in the myths, ends up the way it does in that prophecy, because of certain actions taken by the gods and other important characters before then. I’m not sure about the chronology of those events leading to the events of Ragnarok being the way they are prophesised to be, but if even some of them took place before the gods first learned those prophesies, then certainly the Ragnarok prophecy is more like a description of what will happen because of certain choices made earlier.. And this HG then gives you the chance to explore to what would happen if some of those choices weren’t made and other, better choices were made instead.
And, importantly, the MC is a god not mentioned in the old myths, so this HG can be seen as a somewhat alternative mythology HG, the way there are COGs and (I guess) HGs that are alternative history COGs and HGs, where there is a god that wasn’t a part of the old myths, allowing us to explore what could happen if such a god took part in those myths, including how those myths, including Ragnarok, could change, if that god took part in them. Those myths, including Ragnarok, being how they are, have a lot to do with the gods and other characters in them and how they acted, but if you are changing that cast of characters to include another important character taking place in various important events, the story is no longer the same as the story leading to Ragnarok in old myths, which means that the story, including Ragnarok, can change. And that means that even if the point of Ragnarok ending the way it does in the old myths being predetermined is correct, it’s ultimately not relevant, since introducing another central character means changing the story, including what is predetermined.
Thank you!
I see what you mean about the Charm vs Diplomacy, and I will add something to make it clearer.
In general, Charm is your likability, and affects how people react to you. If you are saying, “Please…” that’s probably Charm.
Diplomacy is much more about skill, using words and layering together arguments. If you are debating or negotiating, that’s probably Diplomacy.
Still, much like how having a higher Magic or Strength can change how the same battle plays out, there are some situations where either Charm or Diplomacy will do, and it just changes how you do it.
But like I said, I’ll make that clearer.
You actually raised a very interesting point. A very common interpretation of Aesir’s actions was raging against destiny i.e. they knew that the destiny cannot be changed but they put their all to try to anyways. But things happen exactly as prophecised anyway.
That is a very moot point since the IF very clearly takes Neil Gaiman’s “NORSE MYTHOLOGY” as a primary source and a direct inspiration, maybe even only source. So, the IF clearly does not take multiple inspirations from different sources and times. Even if you pay attention to the Neil’s chapters and compare to the stories told in the IF, you will notice that the IF largely repeats the chronology of the stories even if they don’t have anything to do with the Ragnarok itself. Another thing that makes it abundantly clear is lack of any presence of Magni and Mundi, brothers that are very important to Ragnarok and the Norse Mythology in general but are absent in Neil Gaiman’s story collections and in this IF. So, this work had clearly picked which version of the story it would like to tell and thus this point is painfully moot since Neil Gaiman had thought that Ragnarok was inevitable as well.
In fact if we went into how the Norse myths had different interpretations, it would be a very lengthy discussion requiring the depth of knowledge of Norse myth that I lack. What I will tell is that there are two versions of Norse myths, one that I’m familiar with is post-christianisation Norse Myth; it is a version that had been recorded and documented by the priests to show the germanic people what their ancestors used to worship. A funny fact is that Norse Sagas have become very popular to the nobility of that era. One that I’m not familiar with is pre-christianisation, you need to be very in-depth with Norse Mythology to have an idea of how such myths looked like because you would need to understand runic writing and be familiar with all the proofs and discussions around it. One thing that I hope that pre-christianisation Norse Myths clear up is Loki’s domain.
The problem is that we kind of don’t have the pre-Christanity myths. It’s mostly a guessing game trying to work out what was there before.
As far as sources go, you are correct in one way: Neil Gaiman’s version was the first one I read when I first got into the Norse Myths, and therefore probably greatly influenced my understanding of them. However, it’s far from the only one. The source I was using most when writing this was Snorri’s Edda, which is post Christanisation, and is also kind of all over the place as far as a timeline goes. The timeline I used does have some similarities with Gaiman’s version, but they are shared with almost every modern retelling I have read. I think, although I haven’t actually checked, that it would be closest to the one in Joanne Harris’ The Gospel of Loki, which is a prequel to a fantasy series involving the Norse Gods.
On predetermination: Yes. I removed that. Or at least limited it a lot. There are a few nods to it, and if you play passively it pretty much follows the classical route. But you can’t make a choices game where you can’t change anything. That’s why I made the MC outside the traditional pantheon, with the idea that their actions can change things, much as the person above noted.
Still, I can appreciate that if you really like the myths in one form, you might not like seeing them changed in that way, and as such this game might not be for you.
That is the same thing for me! I feel like Neil Gaiman had been the introduction to Norse Myth for many people. I still have this book and the back of it looks scuffed, which is why I was hit with the strongest sense of deja vu when I habe read your IF. Btw, did you avoid the stuff with Magni and Modi because of how uncomfortable the topic of their creation is?
I don’t know what you mean, I’m afraid. Did that turn up in one of the ‘guide to writing sagas’ sections, because I’ll admit I skipped some of those.
I mostly left them out for a couple of reasons: I already had a lot of characters and I didn’t want to add too many extra, and I was already leaving out the battle with Hrungnir and the millstone, which is pretty much the only time I remember them doing anything.
In general, I didn’t steer away from uncomfortable topics, although I did consider leaving out how Sleipnir was born.
well, if I remember correctly the way Magni and Modi were created was because of how powerful Jormungandr, Fenrir, and Hela seemed to Odin and Odin ordered Thor to make more with Angrboda, while he was still married to Sif.
Huh. I don’t think I’ve heard that before. Although I think something I read might have mentioned something similar with a different giant, now you bring it up. Jarnsaxa or something? But I think that was as a comment in Loki’s flyting, so I didn’t pay much attention.
I don’t recommend taking me on my word since I don’t remember where I have heard/read that either. I might be very wrong about this.
To be fair, it sounds like something Odin would do in his desperate, doomed quest to try and stave off Ragnarok.
Not related to this, but as I can’t figure out direct messaging I thought I’d ask here. I’ve been driving myself insane trying to unlock the option to “Volunteer to do it myself” when trying to get Freya out of her wedding. I’ve tried as several types of gods while keeping my stats high and can’t figure it out?
that part involves your strength to be greater than 97