"Tall and fair and blue-eyed. Their god is Ymir, the frost giant, and each tribe has its own king. They are wayward and fierce. They fight all day and drink ale and roar their wild songs all night."
- The Phoenix on the Sword
After the Cataclysm destroyed the civilisations of the world, humanity again began its fight for dominance. A primitive people, only slightly more evolved than the Neanderthal, travelled north and fought the snow-apes. They drove these monsters north of the arctic circle to perish and occupied the cold northern lands as conquerors. Over the next several thousand years these snow-apes managed to evolve into gigantic blonde arctic savages and pushed back south. A thousand years later, they finally pushed the Hyborians south and established Nordheim. These barbarians split into two major groups based primarily on hair-colour. Those with red hair went west of the Blue Mountains and those with yellow hair went to the east of that range. The yellowhaired Aesir settled in the inland portion of Nordheim and called it Asgard. They are not Hyborian and their bloodline remain pure.
The Nordheimir are fierce warriors, proud and honourable. With white hot enthusiasm they pursue life, facing death fearlessly with a song on their lips. They are giant men who value honour, loyalty and reputation above all things, for their land is harsh. Even the women are strong, running households while the men war with each other across the icy plains and mountains. War is an essential ingredient in the life of the Nordheimir. War is their economy, social setting and religion. War measures courage, honour and manhood. Their entire culture is predicated on bloodshed and survival of the fittest.
Appearance and Esteem
Ferocity and courage are not the only measure of manhood among the Nordheimir. Self-esteem is also valued and to some degree self-esteem revolves around appearance. Using combs made from antlers, the Nordheimir groom themselves daily, braiding their hair, moustaches and beards. Many carry small tools to clean their fingernails and ears. The Nordheimir bathe at least once a week and use saunas for health.
Nordheimir Clothing
Male Costume
Nordheimir men wear trousers, tunics, coats and cloaks, usually made from hide, leather, worsted wool or linen. Most wool is dyed red, blue, brown or yellow, although some is not dyed at all if its natural colour is pleasing. Clothing among the tribes is invariably practical, with thick woolen tunics, cloaks and furs favoured for the protection they grant against the snow and ice. Many Nordheimer also wear ornaments and decoration – simple arm-rings made by the tribe’s smiths or items of antler or bone are favoured over the flimsy jewelry of more civilized lands. Wealthy Nordheimer may be somewhat more ostentatious, having gold coins sewn to their clothing to display their wealth and even the fact that they are not afraid of thieves.
Female Costume
A Nordheimir woman wears a full-length tunic of wool with an oval neckline and long sleeves. Over the tunic, she wears a wool apron-dress (tubular if Vanir, wrap-around if Aesir) suspended from the shoulders by a pair of oval tortoise brooches. Over this a long-sleeved coat pinned at the solar-plexus with another brooch is worn. A fabric belt is optional. Straps hang from the various brooches to hold personal items, such as tools, knives and combs. A Nordheimir woman also has knitted stockings and short boots. She may also include a cloak and a hood.
The Military of Nordheim
War is an essential component in the lives of the Nordheimir. War is their economy. War is their social setting. War is their religion. War measures courage. War measures honour. War measures manhood. This being the case, weapons are of prime importance to the Nordheimir. Their favoured weapons are the broadsword and the axe. Hunting and war spears are also commonly seen. Weapons are so important to the Nordheimir that they are almost always highly ornamented, etched with exotic designs or runic characters. The Nordheimir tend to prefer dragons or birds of prey in the complex ornamentation of their weapons. In addition, they also etch stylised nature designs into their armour, clothing and tools. The Nordheimir often wear leather helmets reinforced with pieces of metal, including a piece of iron or steel over the nose. These helms are often decorated, in addition to mere designwork, with horns to symbolise fierce power. Mail shirts and large shields are standard. The common shields seen among the Nordheimir are made of wood and covered in leather hide or bearskin. A round metal hump is place in the centre of the outer face of each shield to protect the hand holding the shield.
Trade and Economy
War is not only their social and religious setting, war is also the basis of their economy. Annual raids is the cornerstone in their economy where they acquire precious metals, usually silver, used for trade. They pay for goods with coin or an appropriate weight in silver cut off from their jewellery. The Nordheimir rarely carry purses or sacks of coin because of the noise. It is easier and quieter to recast coins as a bracelet and then just slice off pieces as needed. The Nordheimir also engage in barter for trade goods. Of course, their preferred manner of acquiring necessities is to raid a rival for them.
The frigid northlands are not suited for agriculture and the Nordheimer do not practice anything beyond bare subsistence farming. The Aesir do not herd great herds of animals either. They hunt for their livelihood as befits a warrior race. Their wasteland realm is not as barren of life as one might suppose at first glance. The frozen mountains and icy plains support bear, mammoths, moose, reindeer and similar beasts of the wild. Wild fruits and berries supplement the Aesir diet. Dependent upon wildlife, Aesir villages, built using whatever materials are close at hand or can be readily raided, are usually erected near known animal trails and water.
Nordheimir Government
The Nordheimir villages are ruled by kings, who can be any warrior able to maintain a following, as chosen during the Thing (Vanir) or Althing (Aesir), which is the democratic body that deals with legislative or social issues. Any Nordheimir free man is a member of the Thing (or Althing) and can have his say and cast his vote. The Nordheimir see the Althing or Thing as a social setting for war, the arena in which most social combats are fought.
The Aesir and Vanir have many kings, for each village is like a kingdom unto itself. A king, to the Nordheimir, is any local warrior who can maintain a following, using both income and honour to hold on to that following. The king always leads his warriors into battle, which means that most Aesir kings die young but with barbaric honour and pride.
Major Geographical Features of Nordheim
The Nordheimir live among frozen tundra, frozen mountains and icy plains. Nordheim is a bleak and sombre land. Thin taiga swamps cover the southern borders but the vast majority of the nation is snow-covered tundra and icy mountainous crags. In Vanaheim, most Vanir live along the coast, where the living conditions are less severe. Here or along the border with Cimmeria they hunt marine mammals in kayaks. In Asgard, the Aesir live mostly in the southern reaches. Two of the defining pieces of geography in Nordheim are the Eiglophian mountains and the Snow Devil Glacier.
Blue Mountains – This range of rocky and frozen mountains forms the border between Asgard and Vanaheim. The mountains tower over ice plains and appear blue in the distance. It is said that Ymir walks abroad in these cold mountains.
Eiglophian Mountains – The Eiglophian Mountains are an incredible mountain range that separates Vanaheim, Asgard and Hyperborea from the southern kingdoms. Passes through this impressive range of rock and ice are usually blocked during the winter by weather conditions but otherwise afford traffic between the frozen north and the warm south. A small portion of this cold range passes through the northern reaches of the Border Kingdom. A tribe of Hyperboreans called the Verunians live in these mountains, fighting off attacks from degenerate cannibal creatures that also live in the higher peaks of the range. The highest and most formidable mountain in this black range is an ancient volcano with four extinct craters and black escarpments of obsidian and ancient lava.
Snow Devil Glacier (The River of Death Ice) – This is a titanic Eiglophian glacier that flows along the borders of Hyperborea, the Border Kingdom and Asgard. It is also known as the River of Death Ice. It can easily be seen from the top of a nameless pass that leads southward into the Border Kingdom from Asgard. This pass moves along the fringes of this glacier and is dangerous because of hidden crevasses, thin snow bridges and sudden avalanches. Small, gnarled trees litter the rocky slopes of the pass, living on the water and soil brought by the glacier. This glacier is a place of fear among the people who live in the north, even among those who have likely never seen it. Of course, it is not uncommon for entire parties of men to perish on the dangerous glacier. The glacier is home to the vampire ice worm of the north, variously called the remora or yakhmar, as well as tribes of hairy humanoids who are a few steps back on the evolutionary ladder.
Major Cities
The Aesir and Vanir do not build cities. There are an uncounted number of villages and towns, however. None are named in the Saga.
