http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibelungs

Arguably another race? Prettier dwarves?

What follows is a series of excerpts from a game I'm making
This is a favorite subject of mine and has been for years, so if I say too much please forgive me. You touched a nerve.

Despite what you may have read elsewhere, the vikings did not share a common religion with a distinct pantheon of gods. There are 3 main religions of the north: The Cult of the Asir, The Cult of Thor, and the Cult of the Vanir. These 3 religions were separated by beliefs by social class and to some extent by geography. Each had it's own priests and religious rites.
Of course there was some overlapping because none of these cults denied what the other believed, and many people firmly believed in all 3. Though they might be especially devoted to just one.
In addition there are several minor local gods (or lesser spirits perhaps trolls or elves) that people believed in and might offer sacrifice. This wasn't always a sign of devotion. People might offer a sacrifice just in return for a favor. In some cases it might be seen more as a tax, exacted by threats of force. e.g. Sailors would often throw gold into the sea at the beginning of a journey so that the giant Agir would spare them. (I guess worshiping Thor wasn't always enough.)

The Cult of The Asir was popular with the ruling classes, and professional warriors. “War springs from the nobly born; famous pedigrees are the makers of War. For the perilous deeds which chiefs attempt are not to be done by the ventures of common men.”
Headed by Odin, their General, these were gods who ruled in heaven as their followers ruled on earth. They demanded obedience and sacrifice and they could be very cruel and arbitrary. They were gods of battle, justice, Marriage, & death. Their chief concern was putting off Ragnarok, the final battle between Valhalla and Hel that would lead to the end of the gods.
At death, followers of this cult were traditionally burned, so their souls would rise with the smoke to Valhalla.

The Cult of Thor was much more popular with the common people, Thor was a hero who protected humanity from giants and dragons. He had exciting and humorous adventures that people told and sang about.
The notion that Thor was the son of Odin is something that seems to have been made up by just one skald (Snorri Sturluson) writing after the worship of these gods had come to and end. It seems very unlikely that he was thought of that way by his worshipers. He didn't even hang out in Valhalla he had his own hall called Bilskirnir. He lives in Asgard and acts as the champion of the Asir, but he clearly stands apart from them and acts alone. Maybe he joined the Asir when he married Sif. That could make him Odin's son in law.
At death, followers of this cult were usually buried, in family mounds, where they continued life as normal so long as nothing disturbed them. (Undead might rise up if the mounds were disturbed)

The Cult of the Vanir Was widespread but had few people who were really devoted to it. Most people just joined in the spring time celebrations, including their famous horse fights and orgies. Basically they were Norse hippies, with drugs, arts & Crafts, love of nature & non violence. They even had mystic (and sometimes sinister) gurus.
There is evidence that in ancient times the Vanir were worshiped by the ruling class of Sweden who claimed to be descended from Freyr. Unfortunately this cult tended to sacrifice kings, when there were bad harvests, so the nobility moved away from them as quickly as they could.
At death, followers of this cult were usually set adrift in boats or buried in boats or boat shaped coffins, representing their journey to the next world.

That's right non-violent vikings.
Did I mention most people only followed the Vanir seasonally? Yeah, folks would go to their parties, trip out, and then go back to life as normal.
There's one important thing to remember: If you go to their party, don't take a weapon with you, because they'll demand you give it up, and they'll sacrifice it to their gods.
What happens if you resist? I mean they don't fight do they? Well, they are still vikings and if you break their rules they'll kill you. And since you're at their party you're probably outnumbered 1,000 to 1. So just leave your sword at home or kiss it good bye.

Tyr or Tiwaz (TĪ-Vots) is the real king of Valhalla. Older than Odin, it was Tyr who gave the laws and Tyr who is the final judge.
Odin is a god of war. He rules over the gods who are always at war with the giants and the trolls. However, he is a general, not a law giver or a judge. Those roles go to Tyr. (see Tyr)

The Vanir are an ancient family of elven nobility From Vanaheim (Also known as Alfheim). Elves live for centuries, but they're not immortal, so the ruling authority passed from Generation to generation. Their king and queen were sometimes a married pair of twins.

Loki is an androgynous and enigmatic character, a Giant and not a god (or maybe the god of the giants). He's the blood brother of Odin (NOT his son). In the past Loki was Odin's helper and companion, but over time they drifted apart, as Loki became darker and more depraved (or perhaps as Odin realized or could no longer conceal the depth of Loki's perversion). Sometimes it's said that Hoenir (Who's name means silence) accompanies Odin and Loki, on their adventures suggesting they have little to say to one another

My main source in the book Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H.R. Ellis Davidson.
I made a conscious decision to always ignore Snorri Sturluson when he conflicted with earlier sources and this made a big difference in my final view because Snorri is the primary source for most other people. But he wrote after the end of the viking age when the norse religions were no longer being taken seriously.

Haven't read anything from Davidson in a long time, and then it was from a library; I may have to pick that one up for my Kindle.

I would add to the discussion, but I know very little about Norse myth beyond what I have researched for Magnhild. So I'll stay out of this until it begins to directly affect her.

Also, and this is not to say that I don't love to see a community geek-out, but I have noticed a lack of participation in RP threads since this discussion thread started up. *shoves people back towards the RPs*

I'm also kind of waiting for the Villainess trio's base to be assaulted. Until I'm certain whether something is going to happen there, I'm holding off posting for them :P

I do have another character concept I could do things with elsewhere, though...

I totally agree, OOC information and collaboration generates better RP, we need to find a way to present things, piece, lego blocks of stories or to say hey, I wanna do that? Which I don't think has ever been rebuked before, but I welcome the conversations. It takes information to build something new, ya know? :) And your imput is absolutely welcome! I can't deny a bit of writers block as well, though not with regard to this, more with everything 'professional' >.< stalled between drafts.

So, the primary connection between the Nine Worlds is often depicted as a tree. Where a "branch" touches a "world", there's a portal, with varying degrees of difficulty in moving across the boundary, so folks can move from one realm to another that way. Other overlaps may make other portals possible. And some (possibly artificial?) portals might be tunable, like Bifrost in the Thor movies.

The Barrier against the Bugs that's been giving Jutan Frost trouble may be affecting the whole Tree, or just Midgard. And maybe some beings can get through it without causing so much as a ripple...

Meanwhile, there is still the question of Kami's origins... and those lizards.

That's enough for tonight, for me, I think, there's a Brian Setzer Orchestra concert going on on another computer...

The Laserta? Ohhh yeah... They're in the Circle of Violence for a reason, and the aliens are a thing I'm using a lot, though they're really just kind of something generic, lizard demons and aliens, the aliens are worse than the demons... NanoBreaker is one such character related to them, they're barred from being in the realm of violence by Kami's request to Chiron, who's probably on Hel's good side. Kujo's vying for his place and a fight can decide that, could be problematic as part of the world balance story...

Kami's origin was kinda wish-washed by me wasn't it? I couldn't decide, but honestly some nearly even amalgamation of Black/Dark elf and Dwarf seems like her fit. Crafters, elvish heritage and short stature, also explains her less dramatically pointed ears.

The Machina Mana is in a sense an artificial branch to the world tree, somewhere close to midgard, since it relies on concepts, psychic energy and electronically coded information to take form and exist respectively. Laserta use that stuff to do what Kami does, manifest something form 'nothing' or from pure potential of higher dimensions, dangerous magic for anybody, especially a kid. She'll be more careful, had plans to weaken or articulate that spell, just not use it for a long time and change it... :Shrug:

What happens on the trail? Family was never very clear, close to her brother, mother, never wrote anything mentioning her father, so there we go, dwelf.

Edit: Had a thought concerning the Laserta 'demons' and the Laserta aliens, under the idea of Norse Mythology, the entire race of Laserta would be considered "Sick" since arguably they're infected by technology and their driving reason for fighting isn't noble or glorious, it's just to get more resources, to build more nanites and ships, and produce more Laserta and sometimes pick up genes that are useful from various species.

Any Laserta in the afterlife would be in their base state, though likely aware of this. Could be a cool source of information about them through unconventional means. Though they also have connection to the Machina Mana, that's largely because it's a source of energy that registers electronically but is entirely unknown, they want to use it like everything else, some how or another. I think they may have also encountered it in the past but don't have any now and are thus very weak in comparison to what they could be. Likely badly.

Another reason why I thought it would be interesting for it to link to norse mythology, atleast largely, was because the idea of how to code Machina Mana was in a binary parallel to the run scripts. Sort of use a process of analogues to try and do this, basically it goes like this:

Tree runes, I believe they're called, work by having hatch marks on one side of a line, up to three on the left and eight on the right, this denotes the rune you're using. If you do the same thing to the binary and say that the digits are the activated runes, the first eight bits for the first aett, second for the second and so on. Putting multiple digits active in the same 24 bits will result in a rune bind.

What Technosis did: He was kind of dumb with this... He knew there was a pattern to what he was reading, and knew there was binary, but he didn't know it was an analogue to runes. So he just pieced down the smallest segment he could get to react and started coding in that. He hasn't learned much and uses very simple things right now, and does not realize he's technically doing magic. The Chains were an accident, and the turrets were very complicated... I imagine he stumbled on some rune bind or series of binds that ended up making something he could use and direct as a weapon. He was probably very lucky in his experimentation. Mjolnir might have been a bad set of binary runes to throw out.

Though since it's got packets from almost all over the spectrum of human knowledge things from the Machina Mana may be warped versions of things from myths of elsewhere. I still think a large degree of regional deities with access to different connections than others. Essentially though there were portals or access points to connect and converse, others were in control? Or something... I dunno, the multiverse is huge...

Yes, that's a big problem. There are thankfully several runes that have some mention of time, including them allows delaying the effect. The rune users is kind of a new thing, and sadly Kami's very unskilled, thankfully avenue is opening for that. ^.^

Her enchantments are probably very clumsy. I'm not sure how she's undoing and redoing it, maybe just conjuring from the same spot the thing under the new perameters? Since we mentioned she would be taking things if she conjured, she can conjure from a specific place. Materials willing, if not fizzle

It's like changing something mid teleport o.o It's the same thing, but blank. Which means she can redo them more efficiently and undo problems like the one she had today, which is kind of like running over your memory space, except mana is your memory, or your personal reserves. Kinda how I'm RPing her improvement through enhancements or whatever.

Afterthought: Are you familiar with the Elfhome books Foradain? Have I asked this before O.o

Agreed. If Ragnarok had already happened, we've got too many survivors for the prophecies to have been accurate.

Don't feel too bad Rotten Luck. Ragnarock already happened in my game. Only the descendants of the Norse Gods appear in the modern world.
But I set the time around the end of the viking age. I also have a really modified time line that compresses all of the major events of the age to just a 27 year period and syncs it up with King Arthur's reign. So there's that too.