The Valikan Clans

Far to the north, at the frozen edge of the continent, lies Grarjord, the homeland of the Valikan. Each day, the hardy folk who dwell there face the dangers of the elements, the harshness of their faiths, and numerous wars fought in the name of their beliefs. Life is short among the Great Clans.

LANDSCAPE

The six clans of the Valikan subsist in one of the harshest regions in the world. The southernmost part of Grarjord is still temperate, holding vast pine forests bounded by snow-covered mountains. Beyond the forests stretches the tundra known as the Pale March. Minor tribes survive here, hunting reindeer and other wild game.
At the northern edge of the Pale March lies a restless ice sea where dwell leviathans and other deadly creatures. Further northeast, closest to the North Pole, is Volgen, a frozen land where originates a strange and deadly phenomenon known as coldfire. In recent years, the coldfire crisis has connected Volgen to the mainland via an icy land bridge.

HISTORY OF THE VALIKAN

The clans maintain their history mostly through oral tradition, but in the Era of Expansion skalds made an effort to collect it all into a single work called the Lord Edda. This manuscript lists the history, poetry, and legends of the Valikan.

The Primordial Land

According to legend, in the early days of the world mortals could not survive in the northern lands as they were occupied by elementals with godlike power. The domains of fire, water, air, and earth shifted the region so much that it was in a constant state of flux.
Chief of the elementals was Gormadraug, the Great Prismatic Wyrm, a serpent of colossal size, strength, and powers beyond any other primordial. All the other elementals bowed to it as their prince. Where Gormadraug walked, coldfire erupted, consuming all living things.

The Tale of Kentigern

It came to pass that a hero rose up to be a champion of mortals. Kentigern of the Wastes, seeking an end to the nomadic lifestyle of his tribe, headed north with six companions: the sorceress Rune, Sýr the Seven-Bladed, Völgr Clad-in-Iron, Limgri Lightbringer, Morgöng Shadestrider, and Mithra of the Silver Harp.
The Seven Heroes travelled into the northlands, seeking to tame the region for settlement. After numerous battles against a horde of elementals, they faced off against the Great Wyrm Gormadraug itself.

The Great Wyrm promptly swallowed them all. But even in the belly of the beast, all was not lost. The Seven discovered that Gormadraug’s heart was close to its stomach. While Mithra played her harp to lull the Wyrm to sleep, Sýr, Völgr, and Kentigern drove their blades into the monster’s heart. Thus was Gormadraug defeated.

With the blessings of their ancestors, the heroesused the monster’s body to form new lands. Its flesh became the land, its spine the mountains, its scales gems and precious metals, and its blood the frost-covered sea.
Thus was the North tamed. The ice receded from the land, and animals and vegetation grew among the snow. Before long, the mortal races emigrated to Grarjord and founded their own tribes. Six clans arose, each one taking on the name of one of the legendary heroes that killed the Great Wyrm.
Yet the legends also state that Gormadraug was not truly defeated—that it is merely sleeping, and the day will come when it will rise again with its elemental brethren to consume the world.

Thorgard's Saga

One of the many notable heroes in the Lord Edda is Thorgard, a figure of such epic tales that some believe he is an amalgamation of various chieftains and heroes throughout Valikan oral history.
A thousand years since the fall of the Great Wyrm, the various Valikan clans were at each other’s throats over territory and resources. Split by numerous petty wars, the Northerners were easy pickings for colonisers from the southern empires.
The half-orc hero Thorgard is said to have originated from Clan Völgr on the island of Holgar. Seeing the chaos and suffering brought about by Valikan disunity, he sought the help of a hag who could see into the future. The hag told him that he could unite the clans by taking on the role of their war chief and leading them on a campaign against the foreign invaders. The hag advised Thorgard to tell the clans that he was the reincarnation of Kentigern, First Hero of the North. To help with the tale, he needed to find an artifact similar to Kentigern’s legendary weapon Bane-Slayer, a magical double-bladed sword—one blade covered in frost, the other in flames. Thorgard went on a quest for such a weapon and did manage to find it. What he did not realise for some time was that he had discovered Kentigern’s real weapon, the Bane-Slayer. Thus the legend of Thorgard began with a self-fulfilling prophecy.
With the weapon in hand, he travelled throughout Grarjord, facing each clan and bringing them into his steadily growing army. Some leaders he convinced through diplomacy, others through acts of service. With his mortal enemy, the Sarvif of the Sýr Clan, he fought a duel to the death that lasted three days and nights. With that victory, all six clans united under Thorgard’s banner, their swords and axes sharpened, and their longships lining each harbor.
With his army, Thorgard moved against the foreign invaders. He raided their coastal settlements and drew out their armies into the field. A great battle was fought in the tundra, and within a season, the foreigners were driven south, their colonies abandoned. The North was free once more.

His victory complete, Thorgard decided to expand the borders of the Valikan. He took a fleet of longboats and headed west to look for more lands to conquer. He was not heard from since.

The Schism

A hundred years of peace between the Clans followed Thorgard’s ill-fated expedition. But in time, cracks formed in the Clans’ unity.
In the western island of Holgar, an order of druids known as the Prismatic Circle arose. Their tenets held that only war and bloodshed could keep the world safe from the reawakening of the Gormadraug. Several clans followed their teachings, banding together to form the province of Thrull.
In the east, another province arose in opposition to the Prismatic Circle: Kandar. The Kandarians accepted races and creeds from other empires and tried to dispel old superstitions about the Great Wyrm. They have advocated for peace and trade instead of the old Valikan ways of war and raiding.
The two sides soon came to blows over their beliefs, and thus began the Thrull-Kandar War.

The Coldfire Crisis

Some one hundred fifty years after Thorgard’s disappearance, coldfire reappeared once more in Grarjord. This strange and deadly phenomenon resembles bluish flames that burns on ice, snow, vegetation, and animals. Any liquid or living material it comes into contact with burns like oil. Water cannot douse it and only the hottest flames can put it out.
Coldfire swept across the peninsular of Volgen, turning it into a wasteland of ice spires. In just a handful of years, it created a new glacier that reached all the way to the tundra. Now it threatens all life on Grarjord.
The Order of Kentigern, a group of monks sworn to uphold the tenets of the First Hero, have set up a fortress at the mouth of the ice bridge, working constantly to stop the spread of coldfire.
Unfortunately, recent years have seen coldfire spontaneously erupt in several locations around Grarjord. No one knows why this is happening, but all who live there fear it will spell the end for all Grarjord.